Page 18 of Scent of Desire
A frown drew his eyebrows together. “Why would you want that?”
“Because he’s my uncle,” I quipped back. “He’s my only family.”
“The one that abandoned you here. He didn’t seem to care before.” He dropped his napkin to his knees, his hand tensing into a fist as he hissed bitterly, “You don’t need that kind of family.”
My heart leaped to my throat. “You don’t know him like I do. I miss him.”
Plus, I hoped my uncle would see Radcliff like I did. Eugene was the only one alive with whom I could confide my feelings about the perfume.
Mrs. Walton served the food, the silver cutlery hitting the porcelain plates the only noise to fill the void. She took her leave right after Radcliff’s dismissive wave of his hand. He poured the wine inside our cups, and I brought the scallops infused with white wine and mushroom purée to my lips.
A muscle tightened in his jaw as he said, “Very well, then.”
“Really?” My lips parted, and I dropped the fork and the scallop on my plate.
“It’s important to you.” He gripped his wineglass, spinning the bloodred liquid. “But your uncle doesn’t deserve this.”
“Thank you. I know you’re not really fond of him.”But perhaps you could change your mind about him.
A cruel and sinister snarl tilted his lips. “I know the darkness in every human, Lily. Their vices, fears, cravings, and sins. My judgment is always right.”
“How?”How did you become the Devil?
“How do you have the gift of smell?” He emptied his glass, and for a moment, I wanted to be this red liquid settling on his lips. “For the simple reason that I’m born this way just as you’re born that way.”
We’d been cursed with a blessing in disguise.
Our pasts had been dark, and I wondered if Radcliff had been an outsider just like me. If we had shared the same pain and loneliness, being stuck in the shadows at the mercy of demons.
“How was it?” I was eager to ask. “Growing up. How did you know?”
“Darkness has been my… friend. It called out to me. Do you hear it sometimes?” His eyes blazed at mine, reflecting the hungry flames rising inside them.
“No…” I took my first bite, knowing I needed to get closer to the point where he had lost his humanity. “But I speak to flowers.”Or perhaps we’re both mentally insane.“How were you as a child?”
“Short story, I brought chaos and destruction to everyone that dared to approach me,” he deadpanned. “I read the darkest part of them.”
My heartbeats slowed. “And the long story?”
A sly grin curved his lips into obscure features. “You’ll not want to eat after that tale.”
“I don’t care.” I let go of the fork that hit my plate and intertwined my clammy hands together, playing with my thumbs. “I want to hear it.”
“My father used to host Bible studies in the exact same room we’re in,” he stated, his eyes creeping through the room as if the memory was engraved in the air. “He invited to his table the most important and powerful men. All good churchmen, of course. I must have been no more than ten when I had to attend those boring meetings. My mother, well, she was playing hostess. A hostess who wore only long sleeves to hide her bruises.”
The flames of the chandeliers crackled, and a frozen chill caressed my back. Radcliff’s eyes twisted with malice, and his finger traced the curve of his glass, making it sing like a ghost fiddle.
“My father said she was… clumsy. He also made sure I wouldn’t cause a scene. I was ordered to sit straight on my chair, not move an eyebrow, and speak only when I was asked to. I was a ghost child, my father making sure to refute rumors that I was cursed by feeding them lies. But you see, all of his guests, portraying the righteousness, the spokespersons of goodness, had black souls. The man to his right was cheating on his wife with prostitutes, defrauding his employees, and the man to his left was a porn addict who beat his wife. How did I know that? At first, it was just an instinct. I could perceive the color of their souls and the evilness around them. Their cravings. I could confuse them and get them to reveal their true colors to me.”
I imagined young Radcliff, with his solemn, cold air, staying mute and already giving the creeps to the sinners. Perhaps this was what the aphrodisiac was about? Peeling the mask off those who had wronged him.
“My father was reading the verse 1 Peter 4:8 to my mother in front of his guests.Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers—”
“A multitude of sins,” I finished.
Our eyes locked. He had probably been assigned to learn the verses of the Bible as I had to at the institute of the young ladies.His mother’s bruises.This verse wasn’t a declaration of love; it was either a demand for forgiveness or a promise it’d continue like that.
“He kept on reciting verses of love, all as false as each other, so I said in the middle of this assembly of deceitful humans: ‘you’re all liars.’ They all fell silent after that, staring at the monster that I was. The dead ruling over this wicked atmosphere.” Radcliff’s grin became cunning. “He didn’t take it well, but he’d never punish me in front of them. No, he’d wait, as twisted as he was. His friends began to advise him on the subject of me. The homeschooled child who scared away each teacher he had. The one without a soul. That’s when the biggest sinner of them all spoke, suggesting a psychiatric asylum or deep cleansing.”
