Magic's Not Real

by J. L. Hendricks

  “No. You don’t know who you are, do you? Who are your parents?”

  “I don’t know. I was orphaned at a young age. Wait, why am I answering your questions?” I pushed myself off the wall and attempted to leave the alley, but Ivan stopped me.

  “Don’t leave. It’s not safe. You have vampire smell on you now. Any vamp in a one mile radius who smells you will be after you like a bee to a flower. The one thing vampires love more than a fresh kill, is taking one from someone else. I’ll walk you home. Then you’ll need to bathe in rubbing alcohol to get our scent off you. If you don’t, they’ll mistake you for a blood whore.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Something worse than dying. If you ever come into contact with a vampire, you must get his scent off you immediately.” Ivan warned.

  “Why are you helping me? Why not just kill me?” I asked.

  “I honestly don’t know. There’s something different about you. Besides, I’m not into killing women.”

  “Then how do you get your blood? You do need it, don’t you? Like in the movies?” I wondered who this guy was and why I no longer felt like I was in danger. Well, not in mortal danger. Now, I was curious about him.

  “Don’t worry about me. Your blood isn’t appealing to me. In fact, most vamps wouldn’t even try to drink your blood. They would, however, try to kill you once they scented your ancestry.” He took my hand and walked me out of the alley. “Wait here. Don’t move.”

  He ran back into the alley, and I watched as he proceeded to pull the head off the other vampire. I put my hand over my mouth to stifle a scream. When I turned to run, he caught up to me.

  “I told you not to leave. It really is dangerous. What I did back there, that was to protect you. Once he woke up, George would have come looking for you. I doubt he would have stopped until he found you.” Ivan took a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to me.

  I looked at the white piece of fabric and then at the vampire standing in front of me. I was about to question him when he took my hand gently and put the cloth on my neck. “You’re still bleeding. Hold the handkerchief there until we get you home.”

  ***

  Jenna

  Kat shook her head and she was suddenly back in the store with Rico, me, and everyone else.

  “After that night, Ivan watched me for a long time, from a distance. It’s weird, but he was at most of our gigs and would follow us home. He never approached me again.” Kat looked down at the cold tea in her hands and got up to heat it.

  “Do you still see him?” I asked.

  Rico asked, “What did he mean about your blood? Are you part shifter?”

  “Yes, and yes. Once in a while I see him. Not much anymore. I looked into my birth parents afterwards, but there doesn’t seem to be any record of my birth. Either I was abandoned or my birth records were destroyed.” Kat walked back to the sofa with her fresh cup of tea.

  “Don’t you remember your parents? How old were you when you came here?” Rico asked.

  “Maymie always said I was four.” She shook her head and sighed. “I don’t have any real memories, just vague images once in a while or a stray dream. Nothing concrete.”

  Sam walked to Kat and bent over to hug her. “I’m sorry, I never knew you were attacked. I remember that night, I think. That’s when you were really distant from us for a while. Your music was much darker than usual, too. You should have told us what happened. We would have helped you get through it.”

  “You’re right, I should have. Now I wish I would have. This whole situation would have been easier for you all to deal with. But I couldn’t bring you into that world. It was such a dark place. I thought I was protecting you all.” Kat hung her head and fiddled with the spoon in her tea.

  Indie walked to Kat and sat next to her. “Kit Kat, don’t worry. We’re here now. We can all deal with this, right girls?” Indie looked to us for confirmation.

  “Don’t call me that. You know how much I hate that name!” Kat exclaimed.

  I chuckled. “Give me a break, Kit Kat!” Then the rest of the girls joined me and we all laughed. It helped to break the tension. Up to that point, it was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

  Rico and the boys looked confused. Rico’s forehead scrunched together and said, “Inside joke?”

  “Yup. Kat hates it when we call her Kit Kat, and she refuses to eat the candy bar! Every now and then, one of us will cover her bed in those chocolate candy bars and she has a cow. Usually, we save that for when she had been a big pain in our you know what.” Indie put a hand on her hip and eyed Kat. “It might be time for another Kit Kat attack.”

  “Ha ha, very funny girls.” Kat sat back against the couch after putting her tea cup down and crossed her arms over her chest.

  “But what does that have to do with you guys? Are you vampires too?” Indie asked incredulously.

  “No, we’re part of another race of supernatural beings. Some call us werewolves, but we’re actually wolf-shifters. Werewolves can’t control their shift and are forced to shift every month on the full moon. We can shift whenever we want.” Jose looked at Indie and tilted his head. His gaze lingered on her a bit too long.

  “Huh, so you can turn into a wolf whenever you want? That’s pretty cool.” Indie smiled. “Can you show me?”

  Jose ran a hand through his hair as he let out a breathe. “Sure, if you really want to see it, I can shift. But not in this room.” He looked around at the 7 foot by 7 foot room, then to the back door. “We could go out back to the alley if you think you can handle watching me shift from man to beast?”

  Indie jumped up with exuberance and grabbed his hand and tried to pull him out back. “Yes, I would love to see it.” She stopped so fast, Jose almost ran into her back. “You guys don’t eat people do you?” She narrowed her eyes.

  Jose chuckled, “No, we may be carnivores, but we don’t eat humans.” He held her hand as he walked into the back alley, moving his head from side to side.

  I followed them both out back to watch as well. My eyes bulged when he began to change.

  Rico explained, “When a were changes into their animal form, it’s more like a magical shimmer, and less like a metamorphosis. The beast is human one second, and then anyone watching would see a shimmer effect that clouded the area. Once the cloud evaporated, an animal would be present.”

  I opened my mouth as what Rico just explained took place in front of me. My life just entered the twilight zone.

  Chapter 5

  Jenna

  For the next few days, Rico and his pack took turns watching out for us. No one, and I mean no one, approached us when they were in “Protection Mode”. These guys were scary looking. I caught a glimpse of Rico out of the corner of my eye one day when some random dude was checking me out. I felt danger- the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. He stood his full 6’4” and narrowed his eyes and scowled at the poor guy. He hightailed it away from me as fast as he could. I rolled my eyes and rolled my shoulders.

  “Rico, have you seen any vampires yet?” We were out front, getting ready to head out to our latest gig and he was standing there like some secret agent, guarding the president or something.

  “We haven’t sniffed out a vampire within a half mile of you ladies. The city is full of vampires, but none seem interested in the Voodoo Dolls.” He looked at me out of the corner of one eye. I assumed he had the other eye looking everywhere else.

  While he wasn’t relaxing, we were. “Rico, you don’t have to act like that. You can relax now. I doubt that vamp will be back any time soon. He knows your pack is protecting us now. Chillax.” I patted his beefy shoulder and walked past him to finish loading the van for our gig.

  “Fine, how about we leave you alone when you go to gigs? I’ll be just a phone call away if you need me. Should this work out, we will taper back on the protection detail.” Rico said.

  I squealed and almost hugged him. I stopped myself and held out my hand. He shook it. �
��Thank you Rico. It was just getting a bit stuffy, that’s all. You guys have been doing a great job!”

  ***

  “Leapin’ lizards! That was the best set we’ve performed to date! You ladies were rockin’ it! Sam! WOW! I don’t think I’ve ever seen you put so much emotion into your bass during a gig before! Great job!” Kat was walking in circles, pumping her fist into the air and talking a mile a minute.

  “And Jenna! Your vocals tonight were just amazeballs! I sure hope those record guys were in the audience because there’s no way they couldn’t love us now! Wooo hooo!” Kat jumped in the air and tapped the ceiling.

  “Excuse me, ladies. You have a visitor.” John, the bartender walked three men we didn’t recognize into our green room. “These gentlemen are from a record label and wanted to meet you.”

  Kat’s eyes opened wide, and her cheeks took on a bit of pink. She was still going crazy when they walked in. “Yes, please come in. I’m Kat. This is Jenna on lead vocals, Sam on bass, and Indie on drums.” She pointed to each of us as she called our names out.

  The men walked over and shook hands with us. “Nice to meet you ladies. My name is Donovan, this is Mark, and that’s Justin.” Each man lifted his hand as he was introduced.

  “The Voodoo Dolls, huh? That’s an interesting name. Does it come from the local legends?” Donovan asked.

  “Sorta, we run a voodoo shop here in town, so it just made sense.” Indie shrugged.

  “We just wanted to say hi and let you know we really enjoyed your show. I’m sure we’ll be seeing you around.” They walked out and we all stood there mouths agape with wide eyes.

  “Do you think we’ll get a contract now?” Sam whispered.

  We went back to packing up and walked outside in a daze.

  “I sure hope so,” Kat responded. “That would be totally amazeballs!” We all packed into the van.

  “Oh, stink! I forgot my cell in the dressing room. You guys go ahead and head back without me. I’ll grab my phone and meet you back at home.” I jumped out of the van and headed back into the club.

  “No way, nuh-uh, no how. We’ll wait right here for you. Remember, no one walks home alone in the dark anymore.” Kat shook her head and turned the van’s engine off. Then she raised one eyebrow and shooed me off to hurry and get my phone.

  ***

  “Hi guys, sorry it took so long. I ran into some old friends of ours.” I pointed to three young women, triplets. All three had long black hair and wore very deep red lipstick.

  Kat recognized them and asked, “Where have you three been? We haven’t seen you in ages!”

  One of the triplets, Ann, ran over to Kat and pulled her out of the van. “Kit Kat! We’ve missed you! How have you been?”

  “Right where we always were, why did you just disappear? What happened? We looked for weeks for you guys. Then I heard you moved to New York! Why on earth would you do that?” Kat opened her mouth and pushed her tongue slightly forward and made a gagging noise.

  Ann and her sisters, Ariana and Amanda, all laughed. “Kat, NOLA isn’t the only place to play music. We got a few gigs in the New York club circuit so thought it would be our chance to make it big.” Ann twisted her mouth and tilted her head.

  “I take it that means you didn’t do so well?” Indie asked.

  “Nah, we had one chance for a contract, but couldn’t stomach the terms of the deal. Can you believe they wanted to split us up?” Ariana huffed.

  “Oh, that was lame! We won’t take anything that tries to split us up either.” I said.

  Sam looked at her watch, “Guys, we better hurry up before the dogs are unleashed.”

  We all exchanged numbers and agreed to meet up again soon.

  “Sam, I like that, let’s refer to the pack as the dogs going forward. Rico’s gonna flip! I love it!” We all giggled. “They do kinda feel like guard dogs, don’t they?” I frowned.

  Rico and his pack had given us just a slight bit of rope. They loosened their hold on us today to test the waters and see if we could stay out of trouble. Please, we were always getting into some sort of trouble, but handled it ourselves. I certainly didn’t need a twenty-four seven babysitter.

  Kat looked over her shoulder and said, “I think Rico is taking his role as your protector a bit more seriously than the rest are.” The rest of the girls joined in her laughter.

  “Oh, please! Just because he’s hanging around a lot doesn’t mean I’m interested.” I shook my head.

  “Uh huh, sure thing Jenna,” Sam replied and they all kept laughing.

  “Who has time for men right now? I don’t see any of you getting serious with anyone.” I crossed my arms over my chest and looked out the window as we passed revelers on the streets of our hometown.

  We made it back to our loft pretty fast. As we drove down the street I saw one of the guys in the pack, Damien. He saluted us as we drove past.

  We began to unload the van into the garage behind the shop when all four of us stopped and stood up straight. The hairs on my arm stood at attention and I knew he was there before I turned around. “Kat? You feel that?”

  “Yup, sure do.” She looked at me and took a deep breath.

  “Jenna, where are your guard dogs? Have they moved on to greener pastures?” The cocky man asked.

  I released the breath I held before turning around. “They’re here. One scream and you’ll see them. Why don’t you just leave me alone?”

  “I can’t. You’re the reason I was turned. You had the power to help, and you didn’t.” He pulled his hand out from under his cloak and opened a small leather sachet. “My new friends told me this will hold a witch and bind her powers.” He blew a powder into my face, which caused me to cough.

  I covered my mouth and cleared the powder from my lungs. “I’m not a real witch, you moron. I couldn’t sell you a death spell even if I wanted to.” I shook my head and snarled at the incompetent jerk.

  “Don’t lie to me! I’ve been watching. Your customers seem to think you’re a witch, and your potions work,” he spit back.

  Kat screamed “Damien!”

  Indie picked up a wrench from the workbench next to her and leapt at the blood-sucker. He dodged her attempt to knock him in the head and grabbed me around the waist and ran.

  “Let go! You dried out bag of bones!” I screamed as he took off like a bat out of hell.

  I heard Kat screaming as she tried to run after us, “Jenna! Jenna!” Her voice trailed off the further away my abductor ran.

  ***

  Rico

  “What happened, Kat?” I looked between the three young women as I paced back and forth in front of the garage.

  “That vampire just took Jenna and ran that way!” Kat pointed down the alley.

  “I was afraid of this.” I took out my cell and called Joseph. He picked up on the first ring. “Joseph, we have a problem. Bring everyone to the Voodoo Dolls shop. Jenna’s been taken by the vamp.”

  Then I told the girls to go inside and lock the doors. Ten guys were on their way over and would be there within eight minutes. I continued to pace and rubbed the back of my neck as I considered going after her all alone.

  “Jenna may not have eight minutes. How are we going to find her?” Sam asked as she wrung her hands and paced in front of their rust bucket of a van.

  Damien joined me, since he was so close by. “I need you to stay with the girls until everyone gets here.” I ordered.

  “Rico, it’s my fault. I should have followed them when they came home. I was only two blocks away. I could have stopped that blood-sucker from grabbing her. I’m sorry man.” Damien ran his hand through his hair and stood close to Kat.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll find her. I can’t leave until the girls are safely tucked away in their apartment.” I sniffed the air in all directions until I found her floral scent. I would know that scent anywhere. It called to my soul.

  “I’ve got her. When the pack arrives tell them I went that way.” I pointed down the
alley where her tantalizing scent, mixed with death, was leading. “I’ve got Jenna’s scent and the vampire’s. They shouldn’t have any trouble finding me.” I watched as Damien took them inside, and as soon as I heard the last lock click into place, I bolted in Jenna’s direction.

  As I ran following their scent, I thought about Jenna. Over the past few weeks I had come to adore her. Something inside of me wanted to make sure she was safe and healthy. I grabbed my chest when I felt the pain of possibly losing her.

  Vamps generally didn’t take long when draining a human dry. New vamps took a bit longer as they learned how to drink expediently. During those first few months, any human who was subjected to a new vamp’s eating habits felt extreme pain.

  I had seen it before. I had stumbled upon a new vamp who had viciously attacked a young woman. From a distance, I saw the blood-sucker rip her neck apart as he feasted on her life force. He stopped a few times to swallow and lick his lips before continuing. I had heard it was a type of euphoria that takes them over and they have no control.

  Running as quickly as I could, I knew I wouldn’t make it to that poor woman. The vamp moved slower and slower as he drained her dry. It had to be torture. I could only imagine the agony of slowly dying, while your life blood drained out into the mouth of your killer. Add on top of that, having your neck savagely ripped apart piece after piece. It must have sent his victim into hysterics before she passed out from blood loss. I heard her screams for help, and they pushed me faster and faster. Before I reached them, she was as quiet as death.

  Without thinking I jumped on the back of the vampire and covered the back of his head with my mouth. My teeth locked down onto his small skull and I bit as hard as I could while imagining what that poor woman went through in her final moments on this Earth.

  My teeth cracked the leaches skull and I let go, and then latched on to his neck. I chomped down and tore his head off his body, then threw it to the side, and continued to rip his body apart as I heard the echoes of the dying woman.

  There was no way I was going to let that happen to the sweet and tenacious Jenna. My wolf agreed, and I shifted on the fly. Normally, we don’t shift within the city limits unless it’s an emergency. Jenna’s abduction was enough to convince my wolf of the immediate danger and he took over.