"You look splendid." Said the man.
"Thank you." In spite of herself, the woman was pleased with the compliment. "You look well too.”
"Your new apartment is very luxurious. I like the Gramercy Park area.”
“Do you want a drink? I have Russian vodka.”
While preparing to drink Shantaya could not avoid the burst of memories that came spontaneously to her memory. She remembered when she had arrived in New York from her native Louisiana, sixteen years old and without a penny but with the iron determination to break through. Boris had found her sleeping in a square and had taken her with him. They had lived together for almost a year after which the man simply disappeared. He had not learned that she was pregnant until she reappeared years later. Boris was William's father and the boy resembled him so much that he seemed to be just his son. Once again Shantaya was wrenched from her nostalgic meditations, this time with a tug on her left arm. Boris had grabbed her and dragged her with irresistible force. The woman tried to resist but it was in vain. The giant lifted her in his arms and headed for the rooms area in search of the bedroom. He then threw the woman on the bed and began to undress her, or rather to tear off her clothes. Once again, the woman adopted a passive attitude towards what clearly was a non-consensual union just as had happened that first day at sixteen years and countless times after.
When Shantaya woke up the first thing she did was consulting the fine wristwatch she had left on the floor. Totally naked she went to the bathroom to sanitize her intimate areas. She looked at herself as she passed the mirror in the dressing room and had to admit that her silhouette was magnificent, tall, and slender, with prominent buttocks and breasts, and dusky skin, a true ebony goddess. It was not surprising that men wanted to possess her and were frustrated when she showed them what their true sex role was when they were with her. All but one man, as her body reminded the episode a few hours earlier. She was not surprised to find that Boris had left while she slept. In fact she would have actually been surprised if he had stayed. As Shantaya entered the bathroom she looked more closely at her face, which showed signs of the hard love game that the Russian imposed on her. She then continued the inspection of her body and saw that her breasts and hips also evidenced bruises produced by the rough play. The woman was glad that her black skin partially concealed those marks, but she would still have to use make up in order to hide some traces in her face. Shantaya shook her head reproaching herself for her passivity in her relationship with Boris, but ultimately she wore the marks on her body with inner satisfaction and a certain pride. The man had always left traces in her body including a pregnancy. Much to her regret Shantaya admitted that she had a kind of self-destructive addiction for him that was already assumed. Already she would take revenge in her relations with other men, a painful revenge.
Chapter 4
Kafil had been waiting at a food stall for Federico to leave the building where he and Zahra lived. His boss had already told him at what time the young man usually left his house and in fact that morning Kafil had already followed him and obtained the information about the place where Federico worked. The evening departure was apparently repeated a couple of times a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Kafil would try to find out what they were about. Indeed these were the most intriguing outings.
The young man descended on the subway station discreetly followed by Kafil. The trip included a couple of combinations of subway lines and then a walk to a building on Seventh Avenue. When Federico entered the building the African man was behind him and waited for him to take the elevator, observing on what floor he stopped. Then he turned to the building warden, an elderly African-American who had followed his movements and imagined what would happen next. Kafil ostensibly extracted several ten-dollar bills and approached the man. He knew how to get accurate information.
When Zahra arrived the next day to the flower store Imani hurried to open the door to her and incidentally told her.
"You have two clients waiting for you. As soon as you finish Kafil has the information you have requested.”
Once she had finished with the buyers, Zahra went to a room placed in the back part of the shop, hidden from the public, in which Kafil prepared the orders. Without any introduction she asked with obvious anxiety.
“All right. Do you have the information I asked for?”
“I got a lot of information. Let´s see if it suits you.”
They both sat on chairs among the flowers baskets and the man began.
“Federico is an Argentinean who arrived in New York three years ago and has recently obtained a green card. He is a systems analyst and is twenty-three years old. As you know, he lives alone and apparently has no relatives in the United States. He does not have friends outside the circle of his work relationships either, as he seems to be a rather shy guy. This boy works in a company producing software that for the most part is exported. Are you interested in the company information?”
“Not now. Keep going, I'm interested in his evening outings.”
"Well, yesterday I followed him to a building on Seventh Avenue and there by the usual means ... I got information about who he's going to see.”
“Go on.”
“It is a luxury escort’s agency, which has African, Asian and a couple of Russian girls. They have a number of important and frequent clients that they generally handle by telephone, although the first interview is always personal and is done in that building in person by the lady who owns the agency.”
"Owner? Is there a mistress?”
"She's a woman of about thirty-five and although I have not seen her yet she is described as a black Venus. Her name is ...” Kafil drew a paper from his jacket.”... Shantaya Washington. She is American and comes from the south, perhaps from Mississippi or Louisiana.”
“What else do you have?
"It's this Shantaya whom the boy comes to see. The building manager is sure they have not a business but a sexual relationship.”
Zahra could barely hide the displeasure that the news caused her. Kafil continued.
“Currently the agency of escorts is renting offices in the second and third floor. The reception and attention of clients is in the third, while Federico is received in the second. The manager assumes there is some ... intimate room in that floor.”
Zahra could not hide her discomfort and was about to stand up but Kafil stopped her.
“Wait. There's something else you need to know.”
“I´m listening to you.”
"Before the escort agency this Shantaya rented only the second-floor office, and you're not going to believe what her activity there was in."
“Tell me.”
"She was what is usually known as a dominatrix."
Kafil made a pause in his narration to see what effect his words had on his boss. She shook her head, thought for a moment and said.
"So she went from exploiting her clients' sadomasochistic tendencies to being a luxury pimp. It is a good evolution!”
Zahra's sarcastic words transcribed a certain spite that Kafil readily perceived. Then she asked her employee.
"Do you know how long does Federico usually stay on that second floor?"
“A couple of hours. According to the manager he always leaves the building somewhat ... battered. The old man tells me that he was once inside the second floor and then he fleetingly saw that it is equipped in a strange way, with narrow stretchers and some unusual appliances.”
Zahra meditated for a moment about what her employee reported.
"Thank you, Kafil. You did an excellent job. Tell Imani to reimburse you for the expenses you have had, especially for "loosening tongues."”
Zahra postponed the analysis of the information until returning home. Once there, after showering, she served himself a glass of white wine, sat down in an armchair and began to review what Kafil had told her. It was clear that her young neighbor was a sexual slave of that Shantaya woman. It was doubtful that the woman had him as a
subject to obtain money. More likely her purpose was to get pleasure.
As she knew her feelings fairly well Zahra realized at once that she was jealous, and that she would try to find a way to change things. At least she knew who her rival was, another black woman with certain powers that attracted the man they both wanted. Zahra would try to ascertain what those powers were so as to be able to counter them or overcome them. Knowing what powers were effective in keeping the boy captive would be useful to attract him. To begin with it was obvious that he liked black women, which was already an element in her favor.
Zahra had the advantage that her enemy did not know of her existence so that she would act from the shadows.
Chapter 5
Federico returned home from work and prepared to attend the meeting he had with Shantaya every other day. He hurried to get ready as if his life depended on it. Within the mind of the young man there was a conscious light that he was in the grip of an unhealthy dependence, that the woman was exploiting him physically and spiritually, reducing his role to that of an object of sexual use to satisfy her strange instincts, imposing harsh punishments on him while he indulged her desires, but also realized that precisely all that ritual had him trapped no doubt because it appealed to an instinct within him that needed that treatment and that humiliation. Federico could not elucidate that it was a sadomasochistic relationship of which both were actually prisoners. The boy was engulfed in a mental confusion resulting from his deep personality that actually tied his hands to get out of his situation.
As usual, Shantaya had asked her secretary Mira to lead him to the second floor room and Federico was waiting for her with anxiety and expectation. The woman opened the door and then locked it behind her. The young man immediately realized that there was something different this time. To begin with, Shantaya was not dressed with the usual dominatrix corset or net stockings fixed to her thighs or with the usual gloves of the same color as the outfit. The truth was that she had not wanted to waste time changing her clothes to mount the mise en scene. She was urged to obtain what she wanted to get from the boy. She took off her elegant skirt and coat and then her underwear revealing her beautiful body and intimate area. She gestured for the young man to undress and lie down on the stretcher and immediately sat on his face and started a frenzied movement for a rapid climax. Shantaya needed to erase from her body and especially from her mind all the vestiges left by the humiliating meeting with Boris the night before. She knew that the only way to achieve this was by obtaining sensory reactions that were even stronger than those achieved with the Russian. As Federico eagerly sucked her genital area she pulled his hair up to achieve greater depth at the same time as she rubbed his face harder using all the strength of her thighs for it.
At last the first liberating orgasm came, flooding the young man's mouth with fluids that made him cough as the woman slightly loosened the pressure. But the respite did not last long and Shantaya sought to achieve something she had never attained before, a series of orgasms that purged her entire body of all trace of Boris Krupin and finally released her psychological dependence on the man who had dominated her. The pleasure the woman had with Federico was infinite and she enjoyed not only in the sensory plane but also with the certainty that she was now in control. She evolved from being the slave of the Russian to the owner of this younger boy who idolized her.
In spite of the strenuous effort and the principles of suffocation that at times the body of Shantaya produced to him, Federico was enjoying the best moment of his life. His devotion to the black woman grew in the course of time despite an annoying erection he could barely control.
Shantaya had indeed the young man trapped between her legs but she did not realize that the dependency she was building was reciprocal, that the virtual chain she was placing on Federico's neck also tied her to it.
After a long period of oral sex, Shantaya dismounted the boy's face and sat down on the stiff member of the boy, whose erection she had already noticed. Then began a new and frenzied cavalcade.
“Holy God! What has she done to you?" Parked inside his old car outside the building Kafil watched Federico leaving the place at slow pace and with obvious difficulties to move.
After showering in the small bathroom attached to the second floor office Shantaya looked for clean clothes in a closet next to the toilette.
Her genital area burned and she had some difficulty walking but she was happy and relieved for the first time in a long time. All the planets of her instincts and desires began to line up. Her escort agency was well known and was quite profitable, with a crew of first-rate girls and numerous clients from business, politics and perhaps even the underworld. But the novelty was the new role she had assigned to Federico. Shantaya was a very intelligent woman and expert in the art of analyzing her emotions and those of other people. The young man was fascinated with her and depended on a very deep level of her whims. The physical contact with her skin was essential and he was anxious every time he came to see her. Shantaya knew how to exercise her mastery by physical and psychological means and keep the boy fully tied. The fuzzy desire to erase Boris Krupin from her mind and her life had for the first time been satisfied. She did not now feel the psychological dependence that had subjugated her and the only link between them was William, in whom the Russian had never shown interest.
Federico was the ideal companion for her needs and she knew that she could control him at her whim. Shantaya had already decided to turn him into her lover although for the moment, until making some arrangements, she would not make him move to her apartment. The pleasure that the boy gave her could not be restricted to two days a week. The woman wanted to have him available at all times when her wishes would light up, and she, a black woman from Louisiana, had the desire always prowling.
Shantaya returned to her office on the third floor and found her secretary with a disturbed gesture.
"What's the matter, Mira?"
“Adhiambo has not come to the agency for two days and I cannot communicate with her...”
Chapter 6
When Zahra arrived at the flower shop that morning she found Imani somewhat altered.
“What's the matter? Why are you so upset?”
The woman stammered several incoherent phrases until the landlady stopped her.
“Wait. Breathe deeply. If I understood you well there is a girl from your village in Kenya who has been beaten and has come to you and Kafil.”
“Yes. She worked for an escort agency and it is not the first time that they mistreat her but now she no longer wants to endure the blows and humiliation. She was wandering the street when Kafil recognized her and spoke to her.”
"And where is that woman?"
"In the square one block away." Kafil is with her.
"Go get them."
It was not a novelty that young African women living in New York in precarious conditions approached the flower shop for guidance and protection. In many cases Zahra decided that she could not help them, usually because of psychic or drug problems, but in others she had succeeded in reinserting them by finding a job, no matter how modest, or a man to take care of the girl. The woman was absorbed in her reflections when she saw the door of the store open and Imani and Kafil came in with a tall, slender young woman with blue black skin. Zahra was surprised by the beauty of the woman that several wounds and signs of violence on her face and arms could not diminish. Although they were torn apart by the violence that the girl had suffered the clothes that she was wearing were of high cost and Zahra associated it with the outfit of an expensive prostitute.
"Come, sit here. What is your name?”
>
“Adhiambo.”
Slowly the girl told them her sad story similar to others that Zahra and her assistants had heard so many times. She had been brought from Kenya with promises of a marriage contract and instead had been prostituted and enslaved. The money paid by the clients was retained by the owner of the escort agency and gave the girls only a small part of what each had earned. In exchange for that the agency provided him them lodging and food as well as the costumes which were a kind of work tool. Before a question of Zahra Adhiambo told them that the Madame had taken her passport and she thus had no documentation, which aggravated her illegal immigrant situation.
Hearing the narration Zahra was at the same time evaluating what she could do for the woman, and thought that once her wounds were healed her beauty would make things easier. It was necessary to find a good stable solution for the young woman and even though the cynicism of her own thinking bothered Zahra, that solution would also help to solve the expenses of her own business.
“ I guess you have nowhere to go.” Said the owner of the flower shop.
"No, I cannot go back to the agency.”
"Well, you can stay here for a few days while we find a solution. Imani will show you a small room with a bathroom that we have at the back part of the store. You have a cell phone?”
“Yes.”
“Don't make any calls, at least to your colleagues in the agency, they will be looking for you.”
"I already spoke to Ludmila.”
"Who is Ludmila?"
"A Russian girl who also works at the agency. She's my only friend.”
"Let's hope that call does not bring consequences. What did you tell her?”
"I told her I'd run away."
"Did you tell him where you were?"
"Yes, I was then walking on the street, near the square.”
Although she hated to rely on him, Shantaya decided to call Boris to help her on that case. To put a preventive brake on the advances of the Russian she decided to summon him in her office rather than at her apartment, where control would be more difficult. That's why she doubted he would come.
The Sorceress Page 3