Wicked Desires (2 page)

A good little witch would have packed
up her bags and headed back to Europe. Dinera might be little in
stature standing just above five feet tall. However, she was about
as far from good as a witch could get. If this Odessa wanted
William as badly as he claimed, then she was going to have one hell
of a time pulling Dinera’s claws out of his back.

It wasn’t about love. It hadn’t been
about love since the birth of that useless boy child. This was a
magickal power struggle. No one took what rightfully belonged to
her and in Dinera’s eyes William was her property, much like her
First Street home.

On her way to the cemetery
entrance Dinera encountered a group of teenage thugs. The night’s
waning moon provided just enough light to illuminate the face of
her own son. Fueled with anger she marched right up to him, yanking
a can of beer from his hand and pouring it on the
ground.

Her high heel boots gave her just
enough height to smack his face. The blow wasn’t hard enough to
hurt, just enough to make him blush with embarrassment. He’d
inherited her pale complexion and red haired temperament, but he
knew better than to talk back to her.

“
How dare you disrespect
your ancestry on the most sacred night of the year?” For further
emphasis she smacked his other cheek. “If you are not home in your
room in fifteen minutes you will not be leaving that room until
Winter Solstice.”

“
But Mom, it’s Halloween
and we're just having fun.”

“
It’s Samhain. The night
the veil drops and we are closest to those who have passed over to
the other side.” She looked around the group of boys. “This is the
night the dead walk among us. Not a good night to be loitering in a
cemetery, especially this one.”

Right on cue, an ear
piercing wailing and keening cry filled the air. Dinera knew it was
Mammam Merci, the city’s most powerful Voo Doo practitioner,
visiting with her dearly departed husband.

Those boys didn’t, and even if they
did, Mamman Merci’s magickal powers were strong enough to fill even
the bravest and most rational person’s heart with fear. Wordlessly,
they all rushed for the entrance to the cemetery.

“
It’s straight home for
you,” Dinera reminded her son.

She would have liked to
have paid her respects to Mammam Merci, but Dinera knew the Voo Doo
Priestess only wanted to converse with her husband’s spirit
tonight. Every Samhain Mammam Merci held a twenty-four hour vigil
by his crypt while someone else tended to her French Quarter
shop.

Outside the cemetery gates she looked
around for her son and his hoodlum friends, but they were not to be
found. A police officer nodded to her politely and she gave him her
most seductive smile.

“
Thank you for watching
over our loved ones tonight,” she said.

“
Just doing my job,” he
said. “We’ll have three officers here after the little ones finish
their trick-or-treating and the real shenanigans get under
way.”

“
Please make sure no one
bothers the little black lady sitting by her husband’s
crypt.”

“
Mamman Merci.” He smiled.
“Her nephew is covering the overnight shift. He requested this
position to keep an eye on her.”

“
That’s good to know,”
Dinera said. “Have a blessed Samhain.”

“
You too ma’am.”

Ma’am
… Did she look old enough to be
called ma’am? Although the young officer probably thought he was
being polite, Dinera threw open her cape to let it be noted that
she wasn’t ready to be called ma’am just yet. She turned to walk
away after noting the appreciation in his eyes as he took in her
pushed up cleavage, slim waist and shapely legs.

That made her feel a little better as
she walked to the front of the St. Louis Cathedral and paused for a
moment to take in the building’s incredible majesty. William
descended from a long line of devout Catholics. His relatives would
probably be spinning in their boxes inside that crypt if they had
lived to witness him marry a witch.

That Cathedral stood so impressive
that Dinera would have willingly gone through with a ceremony of
his faith, had his mother still be living when they were
married.

She pulled her cape snuggly into place
and stepped inside the church, stopping in the little shop off the
entranceway to buy blessed candles from a nun. Stepping into the
sanctuary always took her breath away. Whether one chose to worship
a God or a Goddess this place just screamed holiness.

Dinera picked a quiet corner of the
altar to kneel and light her candles. One for the deceased
Fletchers, one for her father, one for every DeFliehr witch who had
came before her, and one for her dearest friend.

Lois had been killed when her plane
exploded in mid-air while en route to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve
almost two years ago. With a chill slipping down her spine she lit
the final candle to signify the death of her marriage to William
Fletcher.

The only marriage vow she intended to
honor would be ‘until death do us part’.

~
3 ~

Dinera always came out of
St. Louis Cathedral feeling like a coven of angels stood guard at
her back. Ignoring the French Quarter revelers she slipped down a
side alley and climbed the stairs to Mamman Merci’s shop. A store
so exclusive there were no signs of advertisement or even a number
on the third floor door.

She rapped on the door and waited for
the attendant to request her personal password. No one entered
Mamman Merci’s sacred domain without her advanced
approval.

A deliciously melodic voice sang out,
“Your name and password please?”

“
Dinera DeFliehr,” she
replied, before speaking her password in French.

The door flew open to reveal a busty
woman with skin the color of a starless night with no new moon in
sight.

“
Blessed Goddess.” The
woman smiled, revealing teeth as white as her skin shone black.
“Ms. DeFliehr, it is my honor to be of service to you.”

With her crown of cornrows and a
sliver of a red satin dress the woman looked like a Nubian Goddess
straight from the pages of one of many mythology books that filled
the DeFliehr / Fletcher library.

“
Dinera,” she said
extending her hand, “and you are?”

“
Rosette, Mamman Merci is
my great aunt and I’m here from Haiti as the chosen one to learn
her craft.”

“
What a fitting name,”
Dinera said, still not releasing her hand. “For one as beautiful as
a rose.”

“
Thank you.”

Knowing that Mamman Merci
never had a child of her own, Dinera had been well aware of the
woman’s search to find a family member worthy of passing along all
the secrets of her Voo Doo path. Her respect for the young woman
instantly heightened. Mamman Merci would have taken her knowledge
to her grave if she didn’t find this Rosette a worthy
student.

“
Would you like to join me
for some Sangria and fresh pumpkin and banana bread?” Rosette
asked.

No one ever just rushed in and out of
Mamman Merci’s just to pick up a random necessity. A visit to her
shop was a treat to all five senses.

“
That would be just
lovely,” Dinera said, following her over to a round glass table
already set with a pitcher of iced Sangria, a choice of breads and
fine china as place settings.

Taking a seat, Dinera said, “I
generally prefer La Fée Verte, but on Samhain, Sangria is always my
drink of choice.”

“
Mammam said you would be
coming tonight.” Rosette poured Dinera a glass of Sangria and added
samples of both breads to her plate before taking a
seat.

“
There’s no taking her by
surprise.” Dinera took a sip of Sangria, savoring the rich drink’s
tangy flavor before cutting into her first taste of
bread.

“
You shouldn’t waste your
energy burning another one of those black penis candles on your
husband,” Rosette said. “If there is no love, there’s no use in
being consumed by all that negativity.”

“
She told you why I was
coming, didn’t she?”

Rosette nodded. “Yes, I can
sense all the negativity. It swirls around you like a tornado ready
to tear across anyone who dares cross your path.”

“
So, what do you suggest I
do?” Dinera said.

“
Let him go. Let him be
with her. Those two are the ones that are truly in love. You don’t
love him and you never have.”

Dinera almost choked on a bite of
pumpkin bread and had to take a long sip of Sangria to formulate
her response. “I took a vow to be with him until ‘death do us
part’.

“
Isn’t there a little
something about love mentioned in those same wedding
vows?”

Rosette’s dark eyes burned right into
Dinera’s conscious, or what little conscious she had
left.

“
Mark my words.” Rosette
shook her head, her cornrow beads rattling like wind chimes. “If
you don’t let him go, you’ll destroy him by eating away at his
sanity until he’s nothing but a shell of the handsome man he once
was.”

~
4 ~

“
What are your plans for
this night?” Dinera asked after finishing off the last of Rosette’s
delicious breads.

“
I would have liked to have
joined Mamman at the cemetery, but I know she needs her personal
time with her beloved,” Rosette said.

“
Would you like to join me
in invoking my ancestors to make a sacred plea?”

“
Mammam has told me of your
power and I would to honored to assist in your spellwork,
provided,” Rosette gave Dinera a look that sent a shiver down her
spine. “This has nothing to do with your William.”

“
Not at all.” Dinera
laughed. “If only my Charles had enough charm to lure a witch of
his trollop’s power into his bed.” She took a steadying sip of
Sangria, “Image a child of mine and Odessa’s bloodlines. The little
red haired girl would be a force of nature.”

“
So, you wish to cast an
enchantment spell on your son to produce a DeFliehr
heir?”

Dinera nodded, “ As slow as William
is, I believe it will take several Samhain’s of spellwork with my
ancestors to be able to carry out our bloodline.”

“
He didn’t inherit any of
his father’s charm or worldly ways?” Rosette asked.

“
If I hadn’t given birth
to him in my own bed I would have sworn my child had been switched
with another.”

Dinera finished off her glass of
Sangria before gathering the tools she would need, a red male
figure candle and a female fertility candle.

“
Do you want some of
Mamman’s fertility oil for your candles?”

“
But, of
course.”

~~~

After gathering up their
supplies, the two witches made their way to the rooftop terrace of
Mamman Merci’s shop. This was where the ancient Voo Doo Priestess
grew her special herbs and flowers in beds of dirt lining each
wall. A trickling fountain brought a sense of divine peace, to her
special meditation spot. In honor of Samhain, Mamman Merci had
placed jack-o-lanterns in each corner of her rooftop
oasis.

Rosette spread a scarlet cloth across
the glass table where Mamman did readings for her most special of
clients. She also lit a white protection candle along with some
Jasmine incense and said a prayer in her native Haitian before
taking a seat at the table.

Dinera unsheathed her
athame and sealed their magickal circle, chanting in a combination
of French and Romania that her mother had taught her as a small
child.

With the circle sealed,
Dinera sat down across from Rosette. She laid out her silver
chalice engraved with DeFliehr and a pentacle before pouring some
fertility oil in the antique cup. Then she carved her son’s name
into the male figure and anointed it with a heavy dosage of
oil.

“
What are you doing?”
Rosette asked when she saw Dinera start to carve a name into the
female fertility candle.

“
I want Charles to produce
daughters who will mate with the sons of Billy Dalton. He’s such a
handsome man and I adore his Lizzie. A mixture of our combined
genetics is bound to produce a witch of immense power.”

“
Tis not a good thing to be
so specific in your desire.” Rosette grimaced as Dinera carved
Dalton into the candle.

“
This is defense of me and
mine,” Dinera said. “I have to have a powerful red haired female
heir to carry out the DeFliehr name.”

Using the protection candle, she lit
the first of Mamman Merci’s special four elemental candles, “I call
upon the power of earth for fertility.”

Dinera placed the green candle in its
northern slot and embraced the yellow candle. “I call upon air to
breath life into her womb.”

Next she took an orange candle, “I
call upon fire to protect and sustain this new life.”

After placing that candle in the
southern slot, Dinera used the protection candle to light the most
powerful of the four elemental candles, blue for water, the essence
of life. “I call upon water to instill a passion in their
hearts.”