New Orleans Magic: Urban Fantasy Series (The Voodoo Dolls Book 1)

by J. L. Hendricks

  New Orleans Magic

  Book 1

  Of

  The Voodoo Dolls

  By

  J.L. Hendricks

  This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Copyright (c) 2017 J.L. Hendricks

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy.

  First Edition April, 2017

  All rights reserved. Copyright © 2017 J.L. Hendricks

  Editor: Rebecca Reddell

  Illustrator: Rebecca Frank

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Other Books by J.L. Hendricks

  Newsletter Sign-up

  Acknowledgements

  Author’s Notes

  Sneak Peek of The Voodoo That You Do, inside Midnight Magic

  Chapter 1

  Magic’s Not Real sneak peek inside Myths & Legends!

  Chapter 1

  Prologue

  Indie

  “Oh my Buddha! Kat! Why’s that vampire still chasing us?” I was almost out of breath.

  Kat and I were on the run from a vampire who wouldn’t leave us alone. It’s not like we tried to start any trouble. Trouble just sorta found us.

  “Keep going, Indie! We’re almost back to Bourbon Street,” Kat huffed as she ran around a corner with me following.

  We were running down a side alley. It was a shortcut back to civilization, or so we hoped. There were no lights on, and the area was covered in debris. It looked like someone had used this alley as their own personal dumpster. There were broken crates, open garbage bags, and beat-up furniture lining the pathway.

  The place smelled worse than any dumpster I could remember. I wasn’t sure if there were dirty diapers everywhere, or if a group of people had used this alley as their own personal toilets. My nose itched from the acidic smell surrounding me.

  I had to jump over a pile of junk. Hopefully, this would slow the guy down, but I doubted it. It probably just slowed us down.

  I hope I can make this jump. There is no way I could handle landing in that pile.

  “Oomph!” I barely made it over the debris. My foot almost touched something brown and gooey. Which caused me to shiver just thinking about what was beneath my feet.

  “You are so cute. Do you really think you can outrun me?” The vampire hissed in my ear.

  How did he get so close so fast?

  “Aahhhhh!” I screamed as he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me to a stop. “Let me go! When the pack finds out what you’ve done, they will kill you!” I spat in his face.

  “Let.Her.Go!” Kat yelled as she conked him over the head with a metal rod.

  The vampire let me go and swirled around to grab Kat. His hands were a blur as he yanked the metal rod out of her hand and sank his teeth into her neck.

  “Aaahhhh!” Kat screamed and tried to push the bloodsucker away from her.

  The demon from hell pushed her away and spit her blood out. “What are you? You taste like a mutt!”

  He wiped his mouth with his shirt sleeve and spit the rest out of his mouth. While he was busy, we continued to run toward the safety of lights and crowds.

  “Not so fast.” He grabbed us by our collars and pulled us to him.

  “Stop right now! Let us go. We’re protected by the local pack. You know you can’t mess with us. It’s in your own laws!” I continued to struggle but to no avail.

  “Where are your protectors? I don’t see any wolves trying to help you.” He cackled and sniffed my neck.

  “If you were under my protection, I wouldn’t let you out of my sight. Would you like to be mine?” The vampire nuzzled my neck and licked right over an artery. “Mmm, I would love to keep you in my arms at all times.”

  “Not even if my life depended on it!” I tried to kick against his shin, and he just laughed into my ear.

  “Dear, your life does depend on…” The devil’s spawn was cut off before he could finish his sentence, and we were free.

  Kat and I both spun on our heels to see who saved us. “Ivan! Perfect timing, again.” Kat smiled at the new guy.

  “Who’s Ivan?” I asked, and then it dawned on me. “Oh! He’s your…friend. The one you told us about a few weeks ago?” I covered my mouth and looked between Ivan and Kat.

  “Yes, he’s a vampire. Don’t worry, Indie. We’re safe now. Ivan will take care of the trash.” Kat flicked her hand toward the vampire who was struggling against Ivan’s hold.

  Ivan’s eyes sparkled in the moonlight when he looked at Kat. When he looked at me, his smile showed his fangs, and I took a step back. “Are you sure I’m safe? I’m not the one with partial wolf-shifter blood.”

  A few weeks ago we learned that Kat was descended from wolf-shifters. We guessed that she was only a small part wolf, since she couldn’t shift. Vampires hated the taste of shifter blood. Kat was lucky. Me…not so much.

  “All of Kat’s sisters are safe with me. I would never harm any of you.” Ivan nodded to me.

  “Okay. Thanks?” I furrowed my brow and watched as Ivan continued to squeeze the neck of the vampire in his arms. He had one arm around the guy’s chest, and his right hand looked to be squeezing the enemy’s neck off.

  “I get it. These girls are under your protection. I’ll leave them alone, Ivan. How was I to know you were protecting them when they don’t smell like you?” The vampire continued to squirm and try to get away.

  “Nice try, Vasily. They already told you they were under the protection of the New Orleans pack. You should have left them alone as soon as they mentioned Rico’s crew. You know better.” Ivan squeezed harder while Vasily continued to squirm.

  “I promise I won’t ever touch them again. Now let me go. You shouldn’t even be in town. The Queen has forbidden you to feed here.” Vasily narrowed his eyes.

  Ivan looked at Kat and tightened his hold on Vasily. Vasily began to scream and Ivan ripped his head off. Blood squirted on my face, and I’ll admit, I freaked out a bit. “Ahhh! Kat! He ripped the guy’s head off! How? What?” I pawed at the blood on my face.

  “Shh. You’ll be fine. Just keep it down. We don’t need any more paranormal creatures showing up tonight.” Kat pulled me to her and held me tight.

  “How can you be so calm? Some vampire just bit your neck, and then another one comes to save us and ri
ps the first vamp’s head off, covering me in blood! How can I be calm?” I couldn’t breathe. My chest was tight, and it was difficult to get air into my lungs.

  “Breathe. I need you to take a deep breath and release it, Indie. Can you do that for me?” Kat rubbed my back as I tried to inhale and exhale.

  “A…alright.” I sucked in air a few times. Things started to clear up. My breathing went back to normal, and I wiped the blood off my cheeks with the back of my right hand.

  “Are you alright now?” Kat pulled away and looked me in the eyes.

  “Yes, I think so. How can you be so calm?” I shook my head.

  “Because this isn’t my first time going through this. Remember? A situation very similar to this is how I first met Ivan. I watched as he destroyed another vampire who had tried to suck my blood.” Kat pursed her lips and looked to Ivan.

  “Kat, you should take your sister and get back to the shop. It won’t be safe out tonight. The coven is searching for some humans who know too much. I don’t know all of the particulars, but someone discovered their lair. Or something to that effect.” Ivan wiped his hands on the shirt of the dead vampire.

  “That would be us,” Kat said.

  “What? Why would you go looking for the vampires? You know better than anyone how dangerous they are, and what they do to humans who discover them.” Ivan walked up to Kat and wrapped her in his arms.

  She told us they were just friends, but that isn’t the hug of someone who’s just a friend. There was a lot more going on than she admitted.

  “Why Kat? Why” Ivan whispered in her ear. Too bad I was close enough to hear and see as he kissed her cheek.

  Kat turned her head and kissed him back.

  I cleared my throat. “Little sister, standing right here, guys.” How awkward!

  Kat chuckled and backed away from Ivan. “Sorry, Indie. It’s just been a while since I’ve seen Ivan.”

  “Why, Kat? The pack can’t protect you from the entire coven.” Ivan put his hand on Kat’s cheek and rubbed his thumb across her lips.

  “Because they took Acadia, one of our closest friends. We’re going to get her back.” Kat took his hand off her face and took another step back.

  “When?” Ivan asked.

  “About a month ago. We have been looking for her for the past two weeks. When we discovered it was vampires who took her, I went looking for you. Where have you been?” Kat furrowed her brow and took my hand, pulling me to her side.

  “I left the city for a while. It’s too painful to…to be here alone.” Ivan looked down at his blood stained hands. He wiped them again on Vasily’s shirt, but he couldn’t get all of the blood off.

  “Oh. I’m sorry… I didn’t realize.” Kat looked to me and sighed. “I need to get Indie back to the shop and tell Rico and his pack what we learned tonight. Rico is heading up the investigation into the disappearance of Acadia. Is there anything you can do to help us?”

  “Vasily was right. I’m not welcome in town anymore. Although, I do still have a couple friends left. I’ll see what I can find. Is your number the same?” Ivan sighed and looked at Kat. He raised his eyebrows waiting for her to answer him.

  “Yes. I know I said I was going to change it after the last time I saw you, but I couldn’t.” Kat sighed and squeezed my hand.

  “Um, Ivan. Do you want to come back to our place and help explain things to Rico?” I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do here. It was obvious that they were into each other. Neither of them wanted to leave, but both were fidgety.

  “Thank you, Indie. But, I need to clean up this body. It has to be set out somewhere no one will find before the sun comes up.” Ivan pursed his lips and bent over to pick it up.

  “Oh, I guess the rumors are true? Sunlight will disintegrate a vampire’s body?” I hadn’t had much interaction with vampires before.

  “Yes, and a stake through the heart will also kill us. You ladies should always carry a sharp stake with you. Or a silver dagger. A pure silver dagger through the heart will kill most paranormal creatures. Remember that.” He looked me in the eye and turned to leave.

  “Let’s go home, Indie.” Kat sighed and pulled me back toward our home.

  Up until a few weeks ago, I thought vampires didn’t exist. I also thought magic didn’t exist until someone tried to kill my adopted sister, Jenna, with a death spell. Then everything I thought was a myth, or urban legend, had proved to be true.

  Chapter 1

  Jenna

  Two weeks earlier

  “Welcome to The Voodoo Dolls House. How may I…Adalaide? Amaline? So good to see you two again. Where’s Acadia?” I stepped out from behind the counter and went over to two of my longtime friends.

  The three of them were identical triplets. They always dressed alike, but there were a few differences those who knew them could point out.

  “Hi, Jenna. Is Kat here?” Adalaide, who normally smiled, had a long face and hunched shoulders.

  “Yes, give me a second and I’ll call her down.” I went to the back room and picked up my cell.

  Kat answered on the second ring. “What’s up? Need some help down there?”

  “No, Adalaide and Amaline are here. Something doesn’t feel right. I’ve never seen Adalaide so sad. They want you to come down.” I rubbed the back of my neck.

  I could feel a headache coming on. Sometimes I would get stress headaches that started with tension in my neck. Today seemed like one of those days.

  “Tell them I’ll be right down.” Kat hung up the call.

  I went back out to the shop and noticed we had a customer. First, I walked over to Amaline. “Kat will be down shortly. I have to help this customer. Feel free to go sit in the back room if you want.”

  “No, it’s fine. We’ll hang out here and wait.” Amaline picked up a voodoo doll and then put it back down.

  I walked over to the customer and recognized her. “Hi, Lisa! What can I help you with today? Some more rose tea?”

  Lisa loved the tea. She came in regularly for it. A few weeks back she came in and purchased a love potion. We sell the rose tea re-packaged as a love potion. It worked for her. Her boyfriend, now fiancé, loved the tea so much she comes in and buys it on a regular basis. Of course, I mark it up nicely.

  “Yup. Need more tea and was thinking about getting some of your aphrodisiac fudge for a friend of mine.” Lisa smiled and walked up to the counter.

  “None for yourself?” I winked at her.

  “Nope, all good in that department. In fact, I can hardly keep my fiancé away from me now.” Lisa laughed and shook her head.

  “When is the wedding?” She had invited me two weeks ago when she came by to tell me about it.

  “We’re still looking at venues. Once we decide on the location, we’ll get their first available date. I don’t want to wait any longer before I’m married to the man of my dreams.” She giggled and looked at the fudge display case.

  “So, who in your very wide circle needs help in the love department?” I loved to talk about Lisa’s friends. When something worked for them, they came in and started buying their own stock of whatever they needed. Lisa was turning into my best marketing tool.

  “Today is all about Samantha. We discovered her boyfriend was cheating on her. She’s such a sweet girl too. Poor thing. She wanted to wait for marriage before sharing her bed. Tom agreed too! The rat! Oh! Can we turn him into a rat?” Lisa giggled and looked around the store. There wasn’t anyone else but my friends.

  “Um, that would be a no. We can’t do anything to seriously hurt someone. I do have a potion which will make it very difficult for him to, um, ‘work’ for someone else. If you know what I mean?” I elbowed her and wiggled my brows.

  “Ohhh, do tell.” Lisa gave me her undivided attention.

  “Does Tom have a favorite drink? Maybe he keeps a bottle of scotch or something similar at his place?” I asked.

  “Yes, he drinks scotch almost every night when he gets home from work.�
�� Lisa nodded her head.

  “Okay, follow me.” I walked us over to the potions aisle. “This here,” I pulled down a small, iridescent blue bottle. “Will make it so that your intended target won’t feel up to being with anyone, at all.”

  “Hmm, how long will the effects last?” Lisa had crossed an arm over her chest to support her right elbow. She tapped her lips with her right index finger as she eyed the pretty bottle.

  “If you put it in his drink, he won’t feel up for anything all night long. Maybe even the next day, depending on how much he drinks. Don’t put too much in his drink, or he’ll notice the taste.” I held the bottle out for Lisa to see.

  Lisa took it in her hands. “How much does it cost?”

  “It’s fifty dollars an ounce but worth every penny. Remember Emily? She used this and said it worked. Her ex even stopped sleeping with his secretary. Apparently, she found someone else while he was sick.” I raised my brows.

  “Oh, that sounds perfect! Tom doesn’t know Samantha found out. The stupid guy made a sex tape! He had it at his apartment, of all places! I really can’t believe how stupid he is. He asked Samantha to come over and take care of his plants while he was out of town on business.” Lisa shook her head and chuckled.

  “Samantha saw a videotape sitting on the top of his TV. She was curious, who still uses VHS? So, she put it in and watched part of it. He comes back tomorrow. I hoped to have a plan for her before he arrives. This will be perfect!” Lisa smiled and pulled the stopper off the top of the bottle and smelled the contents. She scrunched her face up at the putrid smell.

  “This should work just fine. Have Samantha pour the contents of this bottle into a mostly full bottle of liquor. Colored liquor, like brandy, will work best. She should shake the bottle a bit and then pour his drink. It’s pretty fast acting, so whatever else she has planned, she might want to do it quickly.” I walked back to the cash register.

  “Anything else?” This wasn’t going to be a one hundred dollar sale, but it would still be a nice one.

  Lately, I seemed to have all of my sales over one hundred dollars. Business has been very good. Most of it had to do with couples and their issues. Lots of money to be made in the romance department.