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WHEN HE FIRST APPROACHED Bianca about his plan to become one of the strongest Families in New Orleans, she warned him that there was a price to pay when dealing with the spirits. Before she started her ceremony a warm gust of wind blew through the room. The candle flames flickered but did not extinguish. Even the lights dimmed dramatically and long shadows danced along the wall. For a moment, Bianca’s heart stopped. Surely, this couldn’t be a warning from the spirits. She quickly made a sign of the cross as the warmth that suffocated her in this room turned cold.
Bianca took in this large room where she would start her new venture. She was given an open budget and permitted to purchase whatever she wanted for her black magic. Bianca had made several trips recently to the Amazon. Scattered throughout were various plants of every conceivable shape and form. There were also vials of essential oils, fish poisons, mahogany carvings, and dozens of hand blown glass jars with various concoctions. She had an altar set up as well as a special altar for all of her voodoo dolls. With these dolls, she could cause pain to any of her Boss’s enemies without ever venturing close to them.
One vial contained her most precious toxin, a powder that when absorbed into the skin would make the victim appear dead, but they were very much alive. The drug lowered the metabolic state of the victim. They would essentially become the walking dead. Excitement pulsed through her body at just the thought of using this drug on a victim. She had the antidote, but she never intended to use it on her victims.
She walked over to the man restrained in the chair in the middle of the room. She told her Boss she could get this man to talk, and she meant to prove it. She had great plans for this one; he would be the first to try her new potion. She was anxious to see if it worked the way it should and now was her chance.
***
BRAD SULLIVAN WOKE up to find himself restrained to a chair. He tried to make himself more comfortable when he realized he wasn’t alone. He peered into the dark room to see who else was there. The candlelight barely gave any illumination to the room. If the bastard thought he could scare him into talking, he had another thing coming to him. He had been trained to take pain and not break a sweat. In his line of business, it was important to take as much pain as you could dish out. He had been taught that there would be those who would torture him to get him to talk and for that very reason he inflicted pain on himself to numb his body to the sensations. Let them try their worst; it would not work on him.
He waited for the goon squad to come in at any minute and break fingers, then bones. He shook his head. He still couldn’t believe they’d finally captured him. He should have known not to let his guard down, even for a beautiful woman.
***
THIS ONE WOULD BE DIFFICULT; she could see it in his eyes. He was angry, not afraid. The Mafia Prince looked over at her and nodded his head. She began to work her magic. He had stressed the importance of how he needed the man to talk and answer certain questions before the prisoner was hers. Even after using some of her stronger potions, his will remained strong and he gave vague answers. She increased the amount of her special potion to encourage him to talk more freely. It had to be done slowly or his body would go into shock; she had her own reasons for not wanting this one dead. Her Boss may want answers, but she wanted to experiment with this one. She wanted to know if the zombie potion worked on a man as strong willed as this one. He had yet to be intimidated.
This was the best high she had ever had. She couldn’t wait to continue this journey.
Afterwards, the Mafia Prince walked over to her, “Are you okay with what happened tonight?”
“Cher, do not feel guilty. I wanted to do this.”
He replied, “Yeah, but you didn’t grow up in this world like I did. It can take some getting used to, with me, it is in my blood. My father always said that I had a gift and was born for this very job. There are others in this field that are proficient, but they aren’t born with the intuition that one needs for this job. Some have dreams and can’t get what they do out of their minds, those are the ones that will turn on you.”
“You have given me the opportunity I was looking for. I get to practice my black magic.” She brought his head down to hers and kissed him on the mouth. “Thank you for giving me my dream cher.”
***
AT FIRST HE HAD BEEN surprised at how well she had taken his unusual request. Even his father scoffed at the idea, but not this woman. She was enthusiastic about it. If the others had an opinion about him working with a voodoo priestess, they didn’t voice their opinions. They knew to treat him with respect and to always carry out his orders.
As much as he missed his father, he knew he was doing the right thing. His dad had prepared the businessmen that his son would take over for him soon. His dad had other ventures he wanted to oversee himself and would leave the main part of the business under his command. Even though he still went by the Mafia Prince, everyone knew that he was the one in charge. Besides, when they called him the Mafia Prince, it was a term of endearment and a nickname he’d had since birth.
He knew when he met Bianca that everything in his life happened for a reason. Something told him to go to that bar that night. They were drawn to each other like moths to a flame. She completed him; he could be his true self in front of her.