Page 2 of Scent of Desire
The music started again when the animal in question was brought out to the mambo. It was a chicken, which was struggling, beating its wings, its cries of horror piercing me from inside.
The mambo seized it by its legs as the animal fought for life. I gulped. Her gaze didn’t leave mine. The fire rose higher. Steps hit the ground, again and again. Dancers spun in circles, singing all together in a language I didn’t know.
Trance—this was what it was. I held my breath. I didn’t close my eyes. Blood spread. The chicken was dead. The garnet blood tarnished the white outfit of the mambo. I curled my hand into a fist and dug it into the sand. I understood it was an offering. Some kind of sacrifice. I ignored the blood and erased the scream of the animal from my head.
The night owned the land, but their dancing didn’t stop. I didn’t move from my seat, but I felt my head spinning. I looked upon the flowers where the shadows of the dancers reflected. Then, the beats slowed.
The mambo walked to my mother and gave her a sign to stand up. “Erzuli tells you your suffering will end.” She gestured to a man who arrived from behind her. He was holding a pot, which he brought to Mom. “That flower you shall cherish, and secrets you’ll uncover. Look beyond what’s in front of you. There is balance. What darkness owns, light shall remain.”
“Thank you, mambo.” My mom seemed touched when she accepted the pot into her hands. She did her thing when her smile was so big that her eyes twinkled and creased.
Both of them turned to me in synchronization. My pupils flared. My skin hissed. The mambo kneeled in front of me, her eyes like those of a wolf in the night. Different. Bigger. Her hand shook, and she tried to reach me once more. This time, I didn’t flinch.
Her gaze went subtly white like a horror movie. It was creepy. Her eyes seemed to have rolled beyond her head. Her lashes fluttered hard as she looked heavenward. My heartbeat slammed in my throat.
“You. Your destiny.” A tear fell down her cheek. “Linked to the Devil’s corpse.Papa Legba I—”
She crouched on the floor. Her eyes squeezed shut. She seemed to be in a dull pain by the way she bowed her head down and gripped her stomach. Heavy seconds passed, and eventually, she stopped shaking. The spirit who had spoken to her probably vanished. My mom believed in prophecies. Me, I wasn’t sure.
The mambo’s eyes flickered to mine. They weren’t white anymore. She tried to graze my cheek, but she retracted—she knew better.
“Love, boy. Love can deliver you,” she murmured with the kind of smile a grandmother would give to her grandchild.
“What do you mean?” My mother rushed to my side, caressing my hair. I remained stoic. Maybe my father was right. I didn’t have a soul.
“Great destiny, but shadows. So many shadows.” The mambo covered her lips with her shaky fingers, her face wrinkling. “Pain. So much pain.”
“Tell me what you saw!” my mother screamed.
“Hell,” the woman deadpanned.
“What’s all this?”Oh no.Father arrived through the plants and gunned his eyes at Mom and me.
We both stood up, and I stepped in front of Mom, squaring my shoulders. His eyes lit up in a threatening red color. His fists clenched. My father was taller than everyone else. He was the most imposing and scariest man I’d ever met.
“You broughtyourson into this satanic voodoo!” He stormed across the circle and pushed the mambo to the floor. My eyes widened, seeing the old lady hitting the ground brutally. Something stiffened my fingers, like a nerve flickering. No one did anything. They all waited. “You cursed him even more.”
“He’s your son too. The universe isn’t black or white, darling. This isn’t—” Mom squinted when Father grabbed her wrist. A painful expression appeared on her face, but she denied it by faking a smile in my direction. She did it again. Pretending that everything was fine while her soul was of the saddest gray color.
The mambo had her eyes fixed on my father with her lips twisted backward. My father grabbed me by the collar, and I had to struggle to keep my feet on the ground. He had an iron fist and was built like a mountain.
“Demon child. You’ll have to be purified.” He didn’t even look at me before pushing me toward the plants to escape the ceremony. I clenched my fist, knowing a punishment would follow. It always did with him. “You want to cause my downfall, don’t you?” he gritted out through his teeth.
I didn’t reply, but a lopsided grin curved on my lips. I’d never had a chance to match my father’s power. But tonight, I had found an emotion I could generate inside of him.Anger.I wished to never become my father. I wished to never have a weakness. To never feel anything so I wouldn’t be broken—he wouldn’t be able to break me.
Before disappearing through the brush, I flashed my eyes at the mambo once more. Her eyes glistened at me, another tear running down her cheek. The last thing she whispered to me was—
Devil.
And it got me wondering, which one was the bigger evil? My father or me?
Which one of us was the Devil?
The Witch had made the aphrodisiac.
I gripped the corner of the desk, fighting the horde of thrills roaming my body. I took in all the air in the lab, but it wasn’t enough. It felt like breathing in a hammam. My hand searched desperately for something to fight the effects of the aphrodisiac but overturned the vials, which shattered on the floor.
“Fuck,” I dropped in a low whisper of pleasure.
