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

by J. L. Hendricks

  “Whoa! What are we going to do? You guys can’t stay with us from dusk ‘til dawn every day.” Scanning the area I took the stairs two at a time. My legs aren’t as long as Jose’s, so sue me.

  Once we were inside, he put Adalaide down.

  “Ladies, you might want to wake up the others. I have some really great news to share with you.” Jose smiled and walked to the kitchen. He grabbed a water bottle and sat down on the chair closest to the fridge.

  “Sam, where’s Indie and Kat?” I looked around the room and only saw Sam and Amaline. It was late, but I hadn’t expected Kat or Indie to go to bed yet. At least not until we got word from Rico.

  Sam and Amaline looked back and forth at each other and me. Sam scratched her neck. “Um, I don’t really know. When you ran after Adalaide, Indie and Kat disappeared. I went to find them a few minutes ago and discovered they aren’t here.”

  “What is wrong with you women? When a battle between paranormal creatures is happening, you really need to stay inside with your doors locked and weapons at the ready. How do you not know this?” Jose stood up and stomped across the living room.

  “Are you sure they’re gone? Maybe they went downstairs to the store?” I asked.

  “Uh, we found an open window with the fire ladder hanging out.” Sam bit her lip.

  The expletives that came out of Jose’s mouth were worse than anything I had ever heard. A vein on his forehead was throbbing and for the first time, he actually frightened me.

  Jose took a deep breath. “Please tell me you pulled the ladder inside and locked the window.”

  “Of course I did! I’m not stupid. We might not understand everything going on, but a ladder hanging out of an open window in NOLA is just screaming for someone to break in. Even if it’s above a voodoo store.” Sam crossed her arms over her chest.

  “I have no idea what Rico is going to do, but don’t be surprised if furniture ends up broken.” Jose took a few more deep breaths and ran a hand through his long, dark brown hair.

  Jose’s head shot up, and he focused on the door. “He’s here.”

  “Rico? Please tell me it’s Rico and not Lukas.” I had shivers going up and down my spine.

  “It’s Rico. Lukas is dead.”

  “Oh, thank goodness!” Amaline exclaimed.

  I opened the door before he could knock. Acadia was the first inside, and I quickly hugged her so she could get to her sisters. All three girls shrieked their excitement.

  Looking up, I saw Rico staring intently into my eyes. “Thank you.” I walked up to him and kissed his cheek. I probably lingered there a bit too long, but I didn’t care. The emotions bubbling to the surface were so strong, I couldn’t help myself.

  Rico kissed my cheek and rubbed my shoulders before he walked inside and closed the door.

  The sisters were crying and hugging. My heart was so full of joy, I couldn’t stop smiling. My friend was back and safe. “So, what happened? How did he get you, and why?”

  “Where’s Kat and Indie?” Rico was looking around the room. “Surely, they aren’t sleeping through this?”

  “Rico, I just found out. I couldn’t leave these girls to go look for them. Kat and Indie snuck out. We don’t know where they are.” Jose ran a hand through his hair.

  “Did you try calling them?” Rico asked.

  “Yes, no answer. Indie’s phone is here, but Kat’s isn’t. They probably took hers but aren’t answering for some reason.” Sam was wringing her hands.

  “What next?” Rico sighed. “Do you have any idea where they went?”

  “Well, Kat was really ticked you cut the feeds. She might have gone looking for the vampires. The van is here so wherever they went, it was on foot,” Sam responded.

  “I don’t know what to do with you girls sometimes. One minute you’re doing what any sane person would do, and the next, you’re acting like kids. How did you make it this long without getting into any trouble?” Rico looked between both Sam and I.

  “Well, most people don’t mess with the Voodoo Dolls. Growing up, we had the whole town believing we were voodoo priestesses or witches.” I shrugged.

  It’s true. Most kids didn’t want to play with us, and no parents ever set up playdates with us and their kids.

  “I’m shocked a vampire hasn’t sunk their teeth into you yet. One look and they would know you weren’t witches.” Rico shook his head and ran a hand through it.

  “I think we’ve stayed pretty close to Bourbon Street all our lives at night. This is where the action is. Don’t they usually stay away from here?” Scratching my cheek, I pondered his statement.

  “Except during Mardi Gras. There are so many people here, they can move amongst you and feed without anyone the wiser. As long as they don’t take too much blood from one person, no one ever suspects.” Jose stood up and walked to the window looking out.

  “Should we try calling her again? Maybe she didn’t hear it before?” I wondered.

  “Sure, try calling again. If no answer, I’ll see who I can send out to look for them. Maybe Kyrie can find them on the cameras.” Rico went into the kitchen and grabbed a cold bottle of water.

  Biting my lip, I waited as Sam tried calling Kat’s phone again. Since she kept quiet, I assumed no answer when she hung up.

  Sam shook her head and put her phone on the table.

  “I’ll call Kyrie. As if he doesn’t already have enough to deal with.” Rico’s forehead was creased as he pulled his phone out of his back pocket.

  “Kyrie, have you heard from Kat and Indie? Or seen them on the feeds?” Rubbing the back of his neck, Rico listened and responded, “Yes, they took off right after we cut the feeds.”

  Rico nodded and responded to Kyrie’s questions.

  “Alright, call me if you see anything on the feeds. Send me a few guys as soon as they can be spared.” Rico hung up the phone and looked right at me.

  “Jenna, I can’t leave you all here with just Jose. He’s a great warrior, but you need more than one wolf. I won’t leave you to find your sisters.” He spun around and grunted as his fist hit my wall.

  “Whoa! Calm down. They’ll be fine. Before we found out about vamps and everything, we were just fine out there at night. They will be home soon, I’m sure. Right Sam?” I looked to my sister who was staring at the hole in our wall.

  At least it didn’t go all the way through.

  Chapter 18

  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.

  ***

  “Kat, since so much has happened tonight, we should probably call the house and let everyone know we’re alright. I bet they know we left.” I didn’t want my sisters to worry about me, not like how Amaline and Adalaide worried over Acadia. It wasn’t fair to them.

  Kat patted her back pocket and turned around to re-enter the alley. “Ivan, do you see my phone?”

  Catching up to Kat, I remembered where she put it. “Kat, it’s in your messenger bag. The one stuck in the Greenwood Cemetery fence.”

  “Oh, fiddlesticks! We better hurry back home. I doubt the bag is still there, anyway.” Kat pursed her lips and looked longingly at Ivan one last time before turning to leave.

  “Wait! Did you say you left your bag on the fence of the cemetery with your phone?” How Ivan got to Kat’s side so fast I’ll never understand.

  “Yes. We were being chased by two vampires, so we both left our bags there.” Kat shrugged.

  Ivan ran a hand through his hair. “Kat, you can’t leave your phone for them to get. They can hack into it and find out who all of your friends are. They’ll use that against you.”

  “As soon as I get home, I’ll call and
have it disabled. Can they still access my phonebook?” Worry lines were etched over Kat’s face.

  “Yes, they can. I’ll come back and take care of the body later. First, I think I should walk you both home. Then, I’ll see if I can get your bag back. You said there were two vampires who chased you? What happened to the other one?” Ivan queried.

  “We killed him. Kinda by accident, but he was trying to bite me, and my stake got in his way.” Kat had every right to be proud of that feat! She shouldn’t be downplaying it.

  “Please tell me it wasn’t while you were still at the cemetery?” Ivan sighed and dropped his head in his hands.

  “Okay, I won’t tell you that.” Kat smirked.

  “Ah! Jeeze! Let’s just get you back to Rico. I’ll talk to him about all of this. Does he know anything about me?” Ivan grabbed Kat’s hand, and I followed them home.

  Chapter 19

  Jenna

  “They were at Greenwood Cemetery earlier. Looks like they left in a hurry, too.” Rico just hung up a call with Joshua.

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “Because, they both left packs stuffed with weapons and holy water at the gate. It appears they were in a hurry to leave.” Sighing, he rested his head in his head.

  I gasped. “What!? Did they get away?”

  “There’s no sign of a struggle. Joshua and his team are going to keep looking as they make their way here. He grabbed the bags. Kat left her phone inside one of them. That’s why we couldn’t reach her.” Rico looked at me winced.

  “Okay, this doesn’t necessarily mean bad news. They could be holed up somewhere safe and not able to call for help.” Rubbing my face, I sighed.

  The door burst open and in ran Kat, Indie, and a vampire!

  “Vampire!” I yelled.

  Kat stopped abruptly with her hands in the air. “Stop! He’s my friend, Ivan. He won’t hurt any of you. He’s here to help.”

  “He’s the vampire who saved you?” I looked him over and realized Kat had good taste in friends.

  “Yes, and he saved us tonight as well.” Walking in, Kat directed Ivan to a chair.

  “Rico, this is Ivan. Ivan, this is Rico, the local pack alpha.” After Kat introduced the two men they sized each other up, and Rico stuck his hand out. Ivan shook it.

  “Thank you for taking care of Kat and her sisters when I couldn’t. I’m not exactly welcome in this city anymore.” Ivan chuckled.

  “Has Kat told you everything that’s been going on recently?” Rico and Ivan chatted away as though they weren’t natural enemies. They even laughed a few times with each other. It was kind of odd to see them get along so fast.

  “Kat, what happened? Why’d you go to the Greenwood Cemetery?” Pulling Kat toward me for a hug, I whispered in her ear.

  “How’d you know where we went?” She asked.

  “Joshua has been looking for you. He found your packs at the entrance to the cemetery.” I sat on the sofa and patted the seat next to me.

  “Please tell me he picked them up? Did he also see the dead vampire we left?” Kat sat down next to me.

  Rico’s head swiveled in our direction. “You killed a vampire tonight?”

  “Two actually,” Ivan responded.

  Rico whistled. “I don’t know how we’re going to protect you from this. The vampire queen is going to be livid. After we killed a bunch of her loyal bloodsuckers, and now you go and kill two more? She’s going to be after you all as well.” He ran a hand through his hair.

  “To be fair, I killed one as he was trying to make Indie his dinner. He deserved it, though. The girls claimed your protection, and Vasily didn’t care, he went after them both anyway.” Ivan sat on the end of the couch next to Kat.

  “Sounds like he did deserve it. They all did. The queen won’t care about that. Openly, she’ll admit the rules were not broken by the girls, but secretly, she’ll want them dead.” Looking around, Rico’s eyes stopped on Jenna.

  “Hey, I didn’t do anything. She shouldn’t be mad at me.” I held my hands up in the air. It wasn’t fair the way things were turning out in this new world. It was time I learned the rules and how to live with them.

  “When this is over, if this is ever over, can we learn the rules and how to fight?” I bit my lip waiting for Rico to answer.

  Nodding, Rico said, “First thing, holy water doesn’t kill a vamp. It does absolutely nothing to them. The only things that work are: fire, stake through the heart, pure silver knife through the heart, and decapitation. Remember those rules, and you will be better off than you were today.”

  Hopefully this meant that Rico would be teaching us more in the coming days.

  “Oh!I almost forgot! Kat and I learned a few things tonight at the cemetery.” Indie sat on the chair closest to me and Rico.

  “The security guards you saw the other night. They work for the vamps. Also, they seem to gather at one of the larger crypts in the Greenwood Cemetery.”

  “That’s where Lukas was coming from when we saw him on the monitors earlier. When we went back, there were several more vamps hanging out, like it was Starbucks or something. The security guard was chatting them up.” Indie’s face lit up with excitement from her adventures tonight.

  I hope this didn’t mean she was going to be doing it again any time soon.

  “That’s news to me. I met one of them, and they didn’t mention working for the vamps. Although, I didn’t tell them I was a wolf-shifter either. It’s good info. Thanks, Kat and Indie. Next time, wait for us. Don’t go running into danger like that again. You could have so easily gotten yourselves killed tonight.” Rico rubbed his eyes.

  “Ladies, there’s something you should know. The cemetery isn’t the vampire lair. They do meet in cemeteries, mostly because it’s a quiet place at night. However, I highly recommend you DO NOT go looking for them again. Got it?” Arching a brow, Rico looked at each one of us until we nodded.

  “Stupid humans, just like I said earlier.” Jose received a backhand across his shoulders for his comment from none other than Adalaide. They were sitting next to each other.

  “Watch it, buster. Just because you’re a tough as nails wolf-shifter doesn’t mean I can’t hurt you. We aren’t stupid, just misinformed. Why don’t you spend more of your energy on training us instead of name calling?” Adalaide had a good point.

  Holding his hands in the air, Jose said, “Fine. I’ll help to train you, but you still need to listen up and NOT go outside alone anymore. You’re on the queen’s radar now. That’s a very dangerous place to be.”

  “Jose, you have a point, but we can’t stay inside forever. We need to get trained and figure this all out. I’m not going to stop enjoying life just because some stupid bloodsucking queen doesn’t like me. She’s not my queen.” I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes.

  Wondering if there were any spells I could get ahold of and actually use. Even if I’m not a witch.

  “Can mundanes use spells? Is there something we can get to help protect ourselves from vampires?” Sam asked.

  “Sorry, it won’t work. A mundane can use a spell if it’s cast in such a way to allow someone else to use it, like a charm or a curse. However, the witches in this town won’t be sharing with any of you. Not anytime soon anyways.” What did Rico know?

  “Why not?” Ivan asked.

  “I recently witnessed a vampire and two witches together in a club. I think they were working together on something. Do you know a vampire named Ferdinand?” Rico looked to Ivan when answering his question.

  “He’s back in town? We go way back. He’s one of a few vampires in the area who won’t want to kill me on sight.” Shaking his head, Ivan smiled.

  All of these guys had so many secrets and knew so many others in this crazy new world. How were we going to learn everything we needed to stay safe?

  “I’ll search him out and see what I can find. Can I reach you through Kat?” Ivan asked.

  “You can have my cell number
. Do you have a cell?” Rico handed his card to Ivan.

  These guys were going to end up as besties before long. First chatting about the situation and now exchanging numbers? What’s next? Hanging out at the local jazz club, going to football games together?

  Standing up, Ivan pulled his cell out of his pocket and entered Rico’s phone number and dialed. “That’s me. I gotta go and clean-up my latest mess before anyone finds him. I’ll be in touch, Rico.”

  Ivan pulled Kat up, and they walked out together. When they shut the door, I wasn’t able to eavesdrop on their conversation. She better share later after all of the guys left.

  Kat’s been holding out on us. I knew there was more to that friendship than what she told us. Well, alright, Indie suspected there was more going there. Still, Kat kept a huge secret from us.

  “Soooo, what’s our next step?” I didn’t know what to do next.

  “Sleep. Everyone made it back safe and sound. Time for bed. Acadia, your sisters have been staying here. I suggest you all continue staying here for now. At least until we can get your safety guaranteed from the vampire queen.” Rico got up and slapped Jose on the shoulder.

  “Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m staying here on the couch. Call me later when you know something.” Jose got up and shook hands with Rico.

  “That’s it? We don’t do anything else now? Sleep? But you said we were in danger! How can we sleep now?” This made no sense at all.

  “Until they attack you, we can’t do anything. I’ll seek an audience with the queen and tell her about everything today. She will be forced to guarantee your safety. I have an ace up my sleeve. Don’t worry.”

  “I have a few guys stationed outside in case any demon spawn decide to pay you a visit. I would suggest setting up a place for Ivan to stay during the day. He would make for a great guard as well.” Rico walked out the door, but before shutting it, he winked at me. Maybe we would be alright after all.

  It has been a crazy few weeks. Now that Acadia was back safe and sound, we needed to get her story.