Sweet Desire, Wicked Fate

by Wray Ardan

  “And aroused,” Tamara chimed in with a smirk.

  “Some plants even communicate with pheromones,” Violet added.

  Briz felt like a lab rat whose breeding habits were being analyzed. He massaged his temples to alleviate his headache and to hide his hot, flushed face.

  “This is from the bite, right?” Briz looked at Jaden sprawled on the ground, pulling her shirt down over her knees. “I mean, her sister can be pretty aggressive, too.”

  “I’m certain that this is because of Datura’s blood,” Violet said. “It is causing her to function on a base level. Primal. With the Professor, in the beginning some days were worse than others. It quickly—”

  “She wasn’t like this when I left yesterday,” Briz said, cutting Violet off. He didn’t want to hear the rest. He didn’t want to be told that Jaden would become a soulless Mal Rou. He looked at the triplets through slitted eyes. They resembled a row of weathered porcelain figurines on the couch. “Isn’t there anything you can give her?”

  “You mean besides you?” Tamara’s acerbic wit didn’t sit well with Briz.

  He felt frustration spreading through every muscle. Mental, emotional, and physical frustration. From now on, there was no need to try and recognize Tamara by the way her hair was stuck in a bun, her lack of a southern accent, or her preference for wearing plaid. He would know this triplet by her so-called humor.

  “Huh.” Olympe held her thumb against her chin, her bent index finger hovering over her lips as she observed Jaden. “We all thought what we were giving her was helping. She ain’t had any since last night. It seems she’ll have to be drinking it all the time. We’ll have to find a better way to balance her system.” She walked over to the bookshelves and pulled down two oversized, tattered volumes, which she wielded with ease. “I’ll see if I can find a better preparation to contain her.”

  Jaden climbed onto the chair and surprised everyone by saying, “You talk about me like I’m not even in the room.”

  They all stared at her. Briz hadn’t even considered that she might be following their conversation or grasping what they were talking about. Even two of the lily-white triplets looked stunned.

  Not Tamara, though.

  She marched over to Jaden. Small as the woman was, Tamara’s intimidating presence made her appear large as she loomed over the girl in the chair. “I’ll make a balm with licorice root. You can put it in your nose so you won’t breathe in his pheromones.”

  “I like the way he smells,” Jaden replied with childlike innocence.

  “Yes, honeychile, so do we—only we can control ourselves.” Tamara didn’t miss a beat. This time she spoke with a bit of a twang, chuckling at her own response. Following Olympe into the kitchen, Tamara added, “You being so intent on breeding with your boyfriend is just one of the issues we need to address.”

  Isadora and Violet gawked at Briz as if expecting him to respond. For a second he looked toward the front door, wanting to escape. But where would he go?

  “We all have a lot to talk about,” Isadora said. She shuffled over to the end table and gingerly picked Violet up and held her in her arms. “Let’s go to the kitchen and get started. We need to see what all we can do for your leg.” Isadora nudged Jaden. “Come on, child. You too.”

  Violet’s wooden demeanor softened. Her lips formed the suggestion of a smile. Relieved, Briz followed the others. Hurrying past Jaden, he stood on the far side of the kitchen next to the back door, keeping his distance from his sexually hyped-up girlfriend. Jaden lingered near the hallway, fidgeting. She was reminding Briz more and more of Ava. Making him increasingly aware of his own repressed desires.

  “Spit in this.” Tamara stuck a vial in Jaden’s hand.

  Jaden pressed her lips into a paper-thin line. Taking the vial, she looked over at Briz. He nodded his head like a bobble doll, encouraging her to do it. After she spat into the container she handed it back. Tamara added water to it, put the lid on tight, and started shaking it vigorously.

  “For now, dear, ya can savor this.” Olympe offered Jaden a small bottle with drops of licorice oil. “Till Tamara can get the salve made for ya.”

  Jaden took a whiff. Her nostrils pinched. She stared at Briz as if she preferred his pheromones. He was sure she was going to make a mad dash for him at any minute.

  “It’ll calm your libido.” Gesturing toward Briz, Tamara grinned. “And stop him from arousing you.”

  This time Briz glared at Tamara. She was like a bad comedian that he couldn’t avoid.

  “Here you go,” Tamara said, walking over to Jaden with the well-shaken vial of saliva. “Every twenty minutes, put a drop of this under your tongue and rub some on your belly. Let it dry into your skin.”

  Jaden’s face creased with distaste.

  “Go get dressed. Go on,” Tamara insisted. “Isadora washed your clothes. They’re sitting on top of the dresser.”

  With the bottle of licorice oil under her nose, Jaden disappeared down the hall.

  “Now I’m going to make you some sage tea.” Tamara pointed at Briz. “It’s an anhidrotic. It prevents perspiration. It may help the situation.” Tamara waved her hand through the air. “By stopping your irresistible scent from wafting through the house so readily.”

  Briz sat down between Isadora and Olympe. The slight breeze from the ceiling fan ruffled Violet’s hair, making her wings flutter as she climbed onto the upside-down mug Olympe had set on the middle of the table for her.

  The subtle movement of air wasn’t enough for Briz. The house was so muggy and warm. Or else he was suffering from extreme embarrassment. He couldn’t stop rubbing his forehead and tapping his foot. From the corner of his eye he scrutinized Tamara. Honestly, he wanted to like her and be friends. As she worked at the stove heating a chunk of wax and the licorice oil in a double boiler, she looked like a glistening snow queen melting in the sun. Removing the pot, she stirred the ingredients that were soon to be Jaden’s salve and Briz’s protection from Jaden’s advances.

  “So, Olympe,” Tamara said, zigzagging her spoon through the herbal mixture as if she were creating a magical potion. “Unlike the time when it happened to Hubs, now we have Violet’s help. We’ll have more information. We might be able to do more for this girl than we could your boy.”

  Might be able. Briz winced.

  Olympe appeared to grow smaller, sinking into her chair. Briz thought about getting up and sticking Tamara’s beloved spoon down her throat—so much for being friends—to keep her quiet about Hubs. Oblivious of the impact her words had on her sister, Tamara kept talking.

  “If Jaden continues ingesting the bottle of her saliva, it should help to balance her system.” As if discussing a new recipe for gumbo stew, Tamara continued. “Though it would be a lot better if we could get some of that Mal Rou’s blood.”

  Briz sprang from his seat. “You want her to drink that thing’s blood? That’s what made her like this.”

  “Briz.” Isadora took hold of his arm, guiding him back down onto his chair. “Tamara’s idea is a good one.”

  “Whatever you were giving her was working, wasn’t it? I mean, yesterday she was acting normal. She wasn’t sniffing me like a dog.” With his elbows on the table, Briz pressed his fist against his mouth as if trying to prevent a sudden onset of Tourette’s syndrome.

  “Exactly,” Isadora said. “Which means it’s not working as well as it should. If we could use the Mal Rou’s blood, it would be so diluted there wouldn’t be a trace. Hopefully, it would trigger her body’s ability to heal itself.” Isadora’s light eyes stayed focused on Briz. “Are you familiar with homeopathic medicine, son? Treating ‘like with like’?”

  Briz nodded. His grandparents used arnica gel and homeopathic tablets for joint pain.

  “Then you understand the benefits of ingesting a substance that is ailing you, in its weakened form, to treat the symptoms. Admittedly, we haven’t any proof it would cure Jaden. But it wouldn’t harm her, either. We have to do whatever
we can to slow down the process.”

  “Please, everyone,” Violet unexpectedly joined in. “You must understand. Jaden’s desire to mate is merely one of the changes she will experience. She will become more aggressive in all ways.”

  In all ways. Briz was grateful Violet left it at that.

  “Years ago.” Violet paused, visually connecting with each of the triplets. “You brewed a mushroom elixir for the Professor. He referred to it as the herb of immortality.”

  “I’m the one that mixed that there formula.” Olympe smiled, clearly pleased that she remembered. “The herb of immortality is another name for the Amanita muscaria mushroom. I only made it one time. He never asked for it again.”

  Tamara put a cup of sage tea in front of Briz, then sat beside Olympe.

  Violet continued. “The day the Professor brought that elixir home was when Datura bit into him. A Mal Rou by the name of Talis died from consuming it. So I—”

  Olympe gasped. “Ya mean it was my fault that the Professor was changed?”

  “What happened to him was his own fault, Olympe,” Tamara said, patting her sister’s hand.

  “I was thinking …” Violet lowered her voice as if to make what she was saying less upsetting. “What if Jaden drank a milder form of the drink? Perhaps it would damage Datura’s cells and prevent them from consuming Jaden’s.”

  “What?” Briz pressed his arms onto the table and leaned forward. “Now you want to give her a deadly fungus? You do realize that killing her isn’t the same as curing her?”

  The triplets and Violet all turned toward him. Then Jaden walked in, and everyone became quiet.

  CHAPTER 33

  From the way they all watched her when she entered the kitchen, Jaden understood they thought it would be best if she kept her distance from Briz. She stood at the counter, inhaling her bottle of licorice oil, trying not to look at him. Then he said her name. She almost shoved the small bottle of oil up her nose. When her eyes met his, he averted his gaze to the cup of tea sitting in front of him. As if that would stop her from leaping over the table into his lap.

  She kept her eyes closed while infusing her nostrils with the licorice oil. Briz’s voice thrummed through her, telling her that her mother was being released from the hospital that day.

  Instead of feeling overcome with guilt at the news, Jaden was filled with a sense of determination and hope. She had no idea how, but she would do whatever it took to stop her world—and everyone else’s—from spiraling out of control.

  All of a sudden, as if the triplets had been having a private conversation in their heads, they pushed their chairs away from the table and sprang from their seats. Isadora scooped up Violet, and the three sisters walked over to the kitchen sink. They worked together in perfect synchronicity cleaning Violet’s wounds, studying her crushed bones, preparing an herb-soaked gauze, and fastening it to Violet’s damaged leg with a stick while discussing her possibilities of recovery.

  When they were done, they began scouring Olympe’s books for ways to help Jaden—or, as Tamara frequently interjected, something that might help Jaden. Every idea, possible solution, or option was thoroughly discussed and repeatedly considered. The day dragged on.

  Jaden had finally permitted herself to sit at the opposite end of the kitchen table from Briz. Tamara came up behind her, placed a hand on her shoulder, and announced: “This should be Jaden’s choice. After all, it is her body. Her possible death.”

  Jaden imagined Datura’s tentacles stabbing into her and sucking out all of her blood. She sat very still, holding back her tears, refusing to cry.

  Nothing that the triplets and Violet had come up with had filled her with the confidence she longed for. “What if I could get the Mal Rous to drink a mixture of rat and weed poison?” Jaden asked.

  “That might work,” Isadora replied. “But if it didn’t, they’d never trust you again. And we might never be able to capture them.”

  Jaden looked over at Briz. His eyes were glazed over. He was either deep in thought or deep in despair.

  By late afternoon Jaden found remnants of her old self returning. Apparently the tonic she’d been drinking had done its job. The wild child within her had been subdued—though she suspected that she’d crave Briz whether Mal Rou cells were pumping through her or not. Her willpower, the tonic, and the licorice salve seemed the best solution for maintaining her self-control. Still, sharing DNA with both Ava and Datura gave Jaden the feeling that she was genetically doomed. Bracing her head in her hands, she mumbled, “I don’t want to be mean and vile.”

  “Now, we are gonna do our best not to let that there happen.” Olympe patted Jaden on her back. “Izzie, Tam, as I recall, the Amanita mushroom is a hallucinogen. Back when I made the tonic that mushroom was illegal here in Louisiana.”

  Great. Jaden thought. Were back to that again.

  “In small doses, I doubt it would play with her mind. Or be fatal,” Tamara said, sounding more chipper than she had all day. “Though we’ll need to make quite a bit of the mixture to succeed at killing off the Mal Rous.”

  “It grows in Washington state.” Briz held Violet’s gaze, as if in need of reassurance as he continued, “I have friends there. I could get someone to mail it to us. Or I can probably find it online.”

  Jaden grimaced as the triplets nodded. She would happily give the mushroom to the Mal Rous. But she had no intention of ingesting the nasty fungus.

  The one thing they did all agree on was that Dekle’s journals might hold the answer—the information they’d need to move ahead.

  They just had to find them.

  After listening to everyone debate the best course of action, Jaden came to the conclusion that she would be spending the rest of her life drinking Olympe’s subduing brew, sticking licorice balm in her nose, smearing spit on her stomach, and if possible, ingesting Datura’s blood. Oh, and let’s not forget. Every boy I date has to glug down large amounts of sage tea so I can restrain myself when I’m around him.

  All this represented the upside of her future. There was still the little matter of actually surviving the Mal Rous.

  CHAPTER 34

  What part of the word “vacation” doesn’t mom get?

  Ava wholeheartedly blamed her mother and Jaden for her lousy summer. Of course she was sending a lot of animosity Briz’s way too. She was still annoyed with him for evicting her from his bed so early that morning—a bed she never would have been in if her mom hadn’t forced her to come to Louisiana to work on that dump of a mansion. And then there was the hospital. It took them hours to prepare a release form. The whole time they were waiting, Brooke, who had no recollection of having been bitten, hounded Ava to know what had happened. She was angry with Ava for allowing the nurse to shave off a hunk of her hair.

  The other obvious lingering ailments her mother had were a woozy head and a bad attitude. She was bound and determined to go to Guyon Manor to get her purse, insisting that it contained her entire world: IDs, credit cards, money.

  Ava tried to talk her out of it as she reluctantly drove her mother toward the estate. No matter what Ava said, Brooke wasn’t going to let some wild animal stop her from retrieving her purse.

  Using Ava’s phone, Brooke tried to call Jaden.

  “Why isn’t your sister answering? She’d better not have lost my cell, too. Why wasn’t she with you when you checked me out of the hospital? You said you’d been sleeping in the lobby.”

  Ava considered her options. She could tell her mom that Jaden was staying who knows where on the bayou; which would only stress her mom out even more. Or keep it to herself and use the information against Jaden when Ava could better benefit from it.

  “You know we’re going to the rental house next,” Brooke continued. “I really doubt burglars are sitting around watching our TV.”

  “Relax, Mom. You’re in hyper-mode. What kinds of drugs did the hospital give you?”

  Before Brooke could respond, Ava slammed on the brakes. The c
ar skidded across the dirt to a stop. Hearts pounding, they stared across the road. A truck was rammed into the foliage, a man hunched over the steering wheel.

  “Isn’t that the electrician?” Ava clutched the steering-wheel, her knuckles whitening. “I told them not to work, to stay away.”

  She jumped from the car and ran to the vehicle. When she opened the truck door, steam rushed out, along with the stench of broiling flesh. Bile pushed its way up Ava’s throat. She gagged out the man’s name. “Rick! Rick, can you hear me?”

  A pool of blood covered the truck’s floor under him. More blood was dripping from a hole in his neck, as if from a faucet that hadn’t been shut off. It was clear that he would never hear anything again.

  “Shiiiit!” The word stretched out. Ava’s face turned the color of rotting lettuce as she thought of her mother’s wounds, Carl’s leg, and Briz warning her about a feral animal on the property. Jumping when her mother took hold of her arm, Ava shrieked, “Mom! Get back in the car. Get in the car before we get attacked.”

  “What are you—?”

  “HURRY UP!” Ava pushed her into their car, “JUST GET IN. Call 911. Call 911.” Ava turned on the ignition and hooked her seatbelt. “Mom. Hurry. Call 911!”

  “Ava, where are you going? We can’t just leave him. We have to wait for the police.”

  Sunlight glinted off the hood of the car, obscuring Ava’s vision. Her mother’s nails dug into her arm. Then some thing emerged from the glare, crawling toward the window. Throwing the gears into reverse, Ava put all her weight on the gas pedal, sending the hideous thing tumbling to the ground. Shifting into drive, she cranked the steering wheel and went flying toward it. There was a loud thud. Ava stopped, her eyes riveted on the rear-view mirror.

  Brooke spun around. When the dust settled they saw a small form sprawled in the road.

  “Ava, you killed it.”

  “I ho-ope …” Ava choked as she looked at her mother.