Sweet Desire, Wicked Fate Read online

  Speaking of drugs … Jaden realized that her sap-induced giddy mood had dissolved. According to Violet thornapple poisoning can last several days, and not only cause hallucinations, but dull a persons memory. Well my memories just fine. I remember sticking my hands in Datura’s sap. Apparently the sap didn’t have as long-lasting an effect on the skin as when it was ingested.

  “Oh yeah, as usual, Ava’s right. I’m a closet alcoholic. I rolled around in poison ivy so I could stay at this deluxe rental house drinking beer all day.” Jaden flopped back against the seat. “We don’t even have any alcohol in the house! You think I go out and steal it? Oh, and just so you know, I sneak into the landlady’s house and take her painkillers, too.”

  Her mother’s mouth snapped shut, teeth striking together loud enough for Jaden to hear. Without another word, Brooke exited the car and slammed the door shut.

  I’m such a jerk.

  Jaden hurried after her mother. Since she knew it was no use telling her the truth, she lied. “I’m sorry, Mom. I must be allergic to this ointment. It makes my mind all sketchy. I just wanted to help ‘cause I know how badly you need to get the place ready to sell.”

  “Aww, isn’t that sweet.” Ava was still standing by the door. Jaden looked over to see her clutching the limp piece of paper to her chest.

  “It’s from Brisbane,” Ava gloated. “He said he’s sorry he missed me. He doesn’t have my cell number. I suppose I should tell him I have a boyfriend back home?” Delighted with herself, she opened the door and sashayed inside.

  Brisbane. Even if they did have sex, she doesn’t have the right to call Briz by his full name. Jaden glared at her sister. In another month he’ll be leaving for Europe. Why couldn’t it be now?

  “Ava, stop it.” Brooke’s tone was weary as she followed her.

  Jaden put her bike in the garage then stormed into the house. She hurried into the bathroom and scrubbed her sap-covered hands until they were raw. Wearing a fresh coat of Dr. Schilling’s cream, she snatched the FedEx box from Amelia’s lawyer off the kitchen counter on her way out. The decaying picnic table in the backyard was one place where she knew she could have some privacy. Aside from the landlady’s yapping dog, no sane person would sit in that bug-infested sauna.

  She was at an ultimate low point. Swimming in a septic tank would be an improvement. Gazing at the white clouds that adorned the horizon like a string of misshapen pearls against the azure blue sky, Jaden wondered how such a beautiful place could be the spawning ground for miniature devils. She opened the box that held the legacy her father never knew he had, and she sifted through the paperwork looking for who knows what—a clue, or a hidden note that said, “Beware! Mal Rous!”

  The legal mumbo-jumbo made for a boring read, but it reminded Jaden that her family had also inherited Aunt Amelia’s home in North Carolina—only they couldn’t take possession of it until Amelia’s man-friend kicked the bucket or moved out.

  Great, another house. What all have you got hiding there, Auntie?

  At the bottom of the box was a black velvet pouch holding a heart-shaped locket. Inside it there was a small key, and tiny pictures of her grandparents.

  Brooke came around the side of the house fanning herself with a piece of paper. “We’re going back to the estate,” she said. “You get some rest. Don’t stay out here too long. You could pass out. I can’t handle another person doing that today. We’ll see you this evening. Don’t go anywhere.”

  Jaden wasn’t sure if her mom was swatting bugs away or if she actually thought flapping that piece of paper was going to cool her off. “Yeah, okay. Mom, I’m sorry I upset you. Are you all right?”

  “I’ll decide how I’m doing when I hear how Carl is.” Not very convincingly Brooke added, “I’m fine … really.” Brooke flapped her makeshift fan faster. “I left my phone on the kitchen counter. If you need to reach us, call Ava’s number. And try to remember what you did with your phone.”

  Jaden nodded. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

  “Hey Mom, did you know that Amelia left us some kind of key?”

  “I saw that. I think it’s for a safety-deposit box. Don’t lose it.”

  Jaden listened to the car driving away. The tires whirring into the distance said Your life sucks, you’re helpless and alone, your life sucks, you’re helpless and—

  Slipping the key into her pocket, she gathered up the contents of the box and went back into the house.

  Now what? Do I follow the Mal Rous’ orders? Ignore them? Or find a way to annihilate them?

  Setting the box onto the kitchen counter, Jaden scowled at the goop covering her body—the body Briz wasn’t interested in, and that the Mal Rous wanted to torture. Was feeling like a reject part of being a teen, or was Ava right? Jaden was just a born loser.

  Her attention shifted to a stack of photos her mom had brought from the estate. Brooke said the girls would appreciate them one day as part of their father’s history. On top was an older sepia photo of Elvina as a young girl, hand-painted to give it a hint of color. She was standing next to a good-looking boy who had his arm around her. Both of them were smiling. Sifting through the pile, Jaden could see a drastic contrast between her grandparents’ happy faces in their wedding pictures and their expressions in later photos, where the couple wore dour expressions. Jaden knew she’d been wearing similar expressions ever since she’d released the Mal Rous.

  “Okay,” she scowled defiantly at her grandfather’s photo. “I have a key—whatever good that is—and Violet … sort of. If I can keep her alive, she might help me.”

  Her glance fell back to her goopy arm. “Whoever’s making the ointment might know something about Ivan.” Locating the doctor’s business card on the counter, Jaden grabbed her mom’s phone and called Dr. Schilling’s number.

  She listened impatiently as the receptionist repeated what the doctor had told them earlier. “I think it was Dr. Shilling’s father-in-law … well, ex-father-in-law that first created the formula, Dr. Whiting,” the woman added in her thick southern drawl.

  Jaden’s ears perked up. Elvina’s Dr. Whiting. Could he still be alive?

  “Is he … does he still make it? Does he live here in Belle Fleur?”

  “Just outside of town, at the Meadow Seniors’ Facility. I have to go now, Miss Jaden. I’m gettin’ another call.”

  “Oh, okay, but real quick, who do you buy the ointment from?”

  “We get it from a man named Hubs.” The receptionist hung up before Jaden could say anything else.

  If this was Elvina’s Dr. Whiting, Jaden had to talk to him. And track down this Hubs person.

  She looked at the clock and groaned leaning heavily against the counter. If she left the house again today and her mom caught her, Brooke would probably set her up with a GPS child-tracking device.

  With her laptop in hand, Jaden went out to the side of the garage and tapped into the neighbor’s Wi-Fi. First she found the address to the Meadow Seniors’ Facility. Then she began researching some of the things Violet had mentioned.

  She started with centipedes. Clicking on a site, she learned that centipede venom could cause chills, fever, even anaphylactic shock. She imagined Anders’s thick tendrils burrowing into his victims and shuddered. Moving onto oleanders, her stomach turned. The plant poisons secreted from Anders’s fangs could cause tremors, seizures—even a coma.

  “My grandfather was a real sicko.”

  She knew enough about Datura’s bloodsucking mosquito abilities. “What about thornapple?” A picture of the thornapple bloom, a.k.a. Datura stramonium, appeared on the screen. “How can Datura be named after such a beautiful flower?” Reading the page, Jaden found the dangerous similarities between the two Daturas: the entire plant was poisonous, capable of causing amnesia, delirium, and death.

  On to scorpion venom. Judging from Carl’s symptoms, Jaden was positive Esere had been the one that skewered him. Her next click revealed another disturbing fact: Esere’s Calabar toxins
could affect people like nerve gas. “Nerve gas? Dekle, I hope you had a painful death.”

  The late afternoon rains began. She went back inside the house. She wished a tornado would rip through the area and destroy the Mal Rous and her whole nightmare. Through the window, she saw their landlady loading up her car. Like both of her houses, the woman was old, and could use a makeover. She was also leaving town just in time. Jaden would have traded lives with her in a second.

  “Forget it. I’m calling the police.”

  Dialing 911, she found herself blubbering about mutant creatures. Before she could finish, the operator hung up on her.

  CHAPTER 11

  With her hair flowing down her back and her sheer dress billowing in the breeze, Jaden stood on the exquisite white beach, her toes curling into the warm sand. As she stepped into the cool, turquoise water and felt it lapping over her ankles, she knew she was dreaming. The real giveaway wasn’t the breeze or the water, but the dress. She didn’t own one like that. Only alluring femme fatales wore them. Well, the dress, and the fact that Briz was there reaching out to her. To her, not Ava. She leaned toward him as he gently touched her cheek. A glass of water appeared in his hand, and he guided it to Jaden’s lips, tipping it slightly. She swallowed the liquid, expecting it to be followed by a passionate kiss. After all, this was her dream. She might as well make it unfold in her favor. At least she could have Briz when she was asleep. She placed her hands on his hips, pulling him toward her. Laughing he intentionally spilled the cold water onto the thin fabric of her dress.

  His laughter changed into Ava’s piercing cackle and Jaden woke up.

  Water was dripping down her chin and onto her pillow. Scrunching up her face, she opened an eye and focused on a soggy washcloth hanging above her head. Ava was holding it smirking.

  Of course. Snatching the wet cloth, Jaden tossed it onto her sister’s bed.

  “Hey, you snot, you got my spread all wet.” Ava pelted it back at her.

  “Right. I’m the snot.”

  “Well, Mom told me to wake you up. She wants to talk to you before we leave.”

  With the dripping cloth still in her hand, Jaden walked to the bathroom. Standing in front of the mirror, she saw that last night’s layer of goop had soaked in, leaving a sheer pink film behind. She washed her face and studied it. Everyone had said that the cream would work fast, and they were right. Her skin was almost healed. Jaden piled on more ointment to hide that fact. She’d barely opened the door when Ava marched up to her.

  “I didn’t see any festering sores when we were in the bedroom.” Ava eyeballed the slime as if she could see right through it. “Mom, she’s just trying to get out of cleaning up that dump. She’s fine.”

  “Give it a rest, Ava. She’s only used the ointment for a couple days,” Brooke said, putting their lunch into a bag. “By the way, that dump will end up buying us a new car, and with any luck pay for your college education.”

  “It’s not fair.” Ava flopped onto the couch. “I always have to do everything.”

  “I don’t mind helping.” Jaden smiled, knowing it would give her a chance to look for clues about the Professor. And his records. “It’s kind of boring hanging out here.”

  “Well, if you’re up for it, baby. But let’s wait till this evening. It’ll be cooler. Nothing too strenuous. Box up some clothes for the homeless shelter. Wipe down some cupboards.”

  Even better. I’ll have time to see Elvina’s Dr. Whiting.

  “Oh, yeah,” Ava whined, slipping on her sandals. “It’ll be nice and cool, ‘baby.’ Like working in a vat of warm Jell-O.”

  “Go start the car, Ava.” Brooke slid a gallon jug of water in Ava’s direction. “Carry this.”

  “Go start the car, Ava.” Ava sounded like an angry parrot.

  “Your sister will be here at six.” Removing some cash from her wallet, Brooke handed the money to Jaden. “Order us a pizza for dinner, and get whatever you want. You girls can pick it up on your way to the estate.”

  “Wow, Mom. You’re giving us junk food?” Ava spat as she grabbed the water and opened the door, mumbling about the heat.

  “It’s a treat, so appreciate it.” Brooke spat back, following Ava to the car.

  As soon as the two of them drove off, Jaden removed her coating of smelly ointment, and she applied some of Ava’s makeup over her fading sores. Then she slipped a photograph of Elvina into her backpack.

  She didn’t have the time or patience to clean the thornapple sap off her bicycle handlebars, so she covered them with masking tape. Then she set off to visit Dr. Whiting.

  The Meadow Seniors’ Facility was forty minutes out of town by car. She pedaled through the old part of town, where Belle Fleur wore its history like a great-grandmother's faded housedress. The gas station was built back when attendants had uniforms, filled gas tanks, and washed customers’ car windows. Its sign proudly stated, “Established 1927.” The barbershop had opened a decade before the depression. To this day every patron left the building with the same buzz cut.

  Three blocks north was the newer section of town. New for Belle Fleur, anyway. At least the stores had air-conditioning. But they were still in ragged shape since hurricane Katrina had left its mark.

  Jaden pedaled like a wild woman on a mission despite the awful heat. The desire to stay alive was proving to be a great source of motivation.

  Strands of hair escaped from her ponytail and stuck to her face. Her sunglasses steamed up and blurred her vision, so she barely glimpsed the car that swerved in front of her. Screeching to a halt, she planted her feet on the ground, stopping herself from flying headfirst over the handlebars and bonding with an oak tree.

  She snapped her head up, expecting Ava to jump from the car and start verbally blasting her for leaving the house. Instead Briz’s ultra-quiet Prius blocked her way. No wonder she hadn’t heard him driving up next to her. He was the only guy in this town who didn’t own a noisy pick-up truck. She thought about maneuvering her bike past him.

  She was caught between her battered ego telling her to hurry up and her heart saying slow down, let him catch you. Her heart won.

  He jumped from the car and flew over to her. “Jaden, I’m so sorry.” Grabbing her bike’s handlebars, he asked, “Are you okay?”

  She couldn’t help thinking it was too bad she’d covered up Datura’s sap with the tape. It would serve him right if she rode away and left him standing there with a dazed look on his face. She meant to—until he placed his hand on her shoulder and electricity shot through her.

  Could he feel it, too?

  Jaden’s body betrayed her, surrendering to his touch. When he removed his sunglasses, she fell into his blue eyes. Back home she had plenty of guy friends, some she’d even had minor crushes on, but not one of them had this effect on her. She needed Briz to touch her, and not just her shoulder. Only he didn’t want her. Not even close.

  “How are you?” he asked.

  His fingers skated over the top of her arm, causing her skin to vibrate.

  How humiliating!

  “Why haven’t you called me back? I’ve left messages on your phone, sent you texts. Did I do something wrong?” With a guilty smile, he added, “I mean besides almost making you crash into a tree.”

  She’d missed hearing his voice, and now it was caressing her like the gentle waves in her dream. But thoughts of him with Ava flooded her mind, and the waves turned into a tsunami.

  “What are you talking about?” Her words rushed out, “Why should I call you?”

  He brushed a strand of hair from her face and her knees went weak. She turned away, wishing she could feel distant and bitter. Gripping her bicycle’s handlebars, she wanted him to come closer, to kiss her and end the spell that her shallow sister had cast on him.

  “I really like you, Jaden. You’ve become a good friend.”

  A good friend. He might as well strangle her with her bicycle chain. He only “likes” me.

  “I lost my phone, so
I didn’t get any of your messages,” she said, slouching forward.

  “Oh, I thought you were mad at me about something.”

  Something besides ‘doing it’ with my sister?

  Jaden watched as Briz plucked his sweaty T-shirt away from his chest. She wasn’t surprised that he didn’t notice her clinging top. Why should he bother? He wanted Ava’s flawless body. A body worth groping.

  “I’m not mad at you, Briz,” she said, not bothering to hide her insincerity. “I have to get going. I need to get to the seniors’ home and back before my mom … I’m supposed to be recuperating.”

  “Yeah.” Briz stepped back. “Your sister said you had poison ivy. You heal fast.”

  “Yep. Thanks to Dr. Schilling’s fuchsia miracle cream. So, I’ll see you around.”

  Briz nodded and leaned against his car. A sense of humility with just the right amount of confidence emanated from him. He probably started meditating when he was in the womb. If only he were egotistical, cocky, and rude. It would be so much easier to hate him. Glancing over her shoulder as she rode away, Jaden wanted to go back and tell him, “Friends is better than nothing. I’ll take it.”

  Instead she pedaled faster.

  A block away her thoughts were still wrapped around Briz so tightly that nothing else could get in or out. She hadn’t realized a car had purred up next to her until it dawned on her that the voice she was hearing wasn’t in her head. Briz was actually there, talking to her.

  “Hey Jaden … Jaden? Can I give you a ride?”

  A goofy grin spread across her face and she veered to the side of the road, suspecting that he might be using mind control on her. She willingly surrendered to the possibility.

  The forty-minute drive seemed like ten. For a while, it was as if the events of the past few days had never happened. No Mal Rous. No older sister aggravating her.

  When they arrived to the Meadow Seniors’ Facility, Jaden saw what a well-groomed southern estate should look like—instead of the mess that her family had inherited. The entrance to this place resembled a hotel lobby, not a convalescent home.