Page 49 of Love Me Darkly
“If you insist, I … thank you.”
She gestured for him to precede her into the kitchen. The heat inside the bright, airy space would have been oppressive if she hadn’t opened the windows, allowing in a current of cooler air. He sank into a chair at the little round, wooden table and laid the evidence on the surface. The kitchen was small but efficiently organized, with spice bottles lined up on racks along one wall, while produce was nestled into hanging baskets. A rack of pots and pans hung overhead, and the door to a small pantry hung open. The corner of his mouth twitched in a smile at the sight of glass bottles filled with peppers drowning in vinegar and oil. His mother made her own pepper sauces and oils, and her kitchen was much like this one.
Aveline placed a steaming bowl in front of him. Mateo almost shed tears as that steam assaulted him. He couldn’t pick up the spoon fast enough.
“Red beans and rice,” Aveline said, her hazel-green eye twinkling as she watched him take the first bite. “A New Orleans staple.”
It might just be the best thing Mateo had ever put in his mouth. The flavors of chili and paprika and bay leaves danced on his tongue, and the familiar ingredients of beans and rice made him feel like he sat in his abuela’s kitchen.
“It’s incredible,” he murmured between bites. It was all he could manage when every bite invited him to take another, until he was scraping the bottom of the bowl with his spoon with a sinking heart.
“More?” Aveline urged.
His face went hot, but he wasn’t stupid enough to refuse. “Please.”
A little smirk showed at the corner of her mouth as she went to refill the bowl for him. This time, she came back with a glass of what he discovered was sweet tea. Before he could dive into his second bowl, she slid one of her pepper sauce bottles toward him.
“If you think you can handle a little spice,” she teased.
Mateo snorted. “I’ve been eating raw chili peppers since I was three.”
He doused the dish in pepper sauce and then dug in, lowering his head and groaning at the enhancement of the spice. His tongue and throat began to tingle and then burn, but he enjoyed the sensation as well as the heightened flavor. Aveline watched him eat in silence, her stare as unnerving as ever. Mateo was so involved with his food that he didn’t feel its intensity at first. It wasn’t until he came up for air after polishing off his sweet tea that he registered it.
“How can I help you, Agent?”
There was both a sharpness and a gentleness about Aveline that made Mateo both comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. It was as if her eyes gave a hint to her dual nature, conveying that she could be warm and helpful but was not to be trifled with.
He pushed the evidence bags across the table toward her. “The powder was retrieved from an inhaler that delivers a drug of some kind. Lab tests revealed a designer cocktail including PCP and tropane alkaloids. They know the alkaloids came from a plant, but were unable to identify it. I thought maybe you could. The fabric smells like it was contaminated with the same substance. All we know is that the plant compound produces psychotropic and hallucinogenic effects.”
Aveline opened the bags and retrieved the fabric first. The scrap of a victim’s shirt was faded from its original red and stained, but it still held the distinct scent of BAZ-024—sickly sweet and cloying. Aveline raised it to her nose and inhaled, nodding. Then, she retrieved the little baggie of powder and tapped some out onto the back of her hand. Aveline licked the powder, then frowned and wrinkled her nose. He flinched at her fearlessly ingesting what he had come to think of as poison. No lab tech he knew would ever put a sample of an unknown substance onto their bare skin, let alone lick it.
“Datura,” she said with a decisive nod. “That is the plant they used.”
“What is Datura?”
“It has other names—zombie’s kiss, Jimson weed, witch’s apple. You probably know it as moonflower.”
Her confidence alleviated his anxiety about her tasting the powder. So far, she didn’t appear to have been affected by such a small amount. He doubted the answer could have been found by any other means, which was why the crime lab had failed.
“What’s it used for?” Mateo asked.
Aveline went to a cabinet, which she opened to reveal rows of what appeared to be mostly cookbooks, but when she returned, he realized she held some kind of reference book. Curious, Mateo leaned in, realizing that it was an index of plants listed in alphabetical order, complete with drawings. She found what she was looking for and turned the book towards him. He noticed on a few pages that she had stapled a small sample of whatever plant was on the page. Datura had a sample, which she snatched free and handed to him. He eased it open and sniffed, finding the same cloying, syrupy odor coming from the powder and the cloth scrap.
“Smells the same.”
She nodded, using two fingers to pinch some of the dried flakes. “See how the leaf crumbles and the veining? That’s Datura stramonium. You won’t find it in your crime lab databases, but I’ve been using it in my practices since I was a girl. Potent stuff, highly dangerous. Should be used with extreme caution. The powder form of it has been sanctified, burned with bone ash so that it can be inhaled.”
Mateo scowled. “Why would anyone willingly ingest this stuff? The lab coats told us this stuff is deadly in high doses, not to mention the risks of heart attack or stroke when mixed with the PCP.”
“In some cultures and religions, Datura is used to unlock the mind and sharpen the senses. It is used in binding rites, dream rituals, and ancestral communications. When mixed with the other compounds you mentioned, I imagine this designer drug is meant to offer its users an elevated spiritual and physical state. Strength, imperviousness to pain, a mind that is open to suggestion and influence.”
“So, it’s safe to say The Veil uses this to control its members. But not just control them … turn them into soldiers.”
Aveline slowly shook her head. “Not soldiers, agents. Remember, one of Datura’s other names is zombie’s kiss. It doesn’t just make you see things, it empties you completely and fills you with something else. In the case of The Veil, that something is the doctrine of Azrael.”
Mateo shuddered, an uneasy feeling writhing in his gut at the memory of those low, rasping chants.
Blood and breath … blood and breath … blood and breath.
