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

by J. L. Hendricks

  Apparently, there were multiple cameras in the area. She flipped through a couple different images as I looked on.

  “That one!” I yelled and pointed.

  Sam zoomed in on a black car several blocks away from the cemetery. It was stopped at a signal. “Hmm, it could be. It’s a Cadillac alright. I’ll write it in if you want to text Kyrie and let him know?”

  “Sure thing.” I pulled my phone out and texted Kyrie.

  Once I was done, I considered texting Rico too. He hadn’t been gone too long. If he headed straight home, he wouldn’t be too far past the cemetery right now. It wouldn’t be too much trouble for him to turn around and investigate.

  I threw caution to the wind and called him.

  “Rico. Hi. I saw something on the monitors I think you might want to check out.”

  “Jenna, what is it?” Rico’s voice was cool, for a second I wondered if he was mad at me. He was probably in the middle of something.

  “Just outside of the St. Louis Cemetery, I noticed a black Cadillac, like Lukas’s. Sam even found it on the monitor. She’s tracking him now.”

  “Did you text Kyrie?”

  “Yes, we did. I thought if you were heading back to the pack, you might want to drive by, since you go that way.” I didn’t know what he was up to, but it was late and he should be heading home.

  “Okay. Thanks. I’ll call Kyrie and get him to steer me in the right direction. You should keep scanning in case this isn’t him.” Rico hung up without even saying goodbye. He was ticked. Guess I couldn’t blame him.

  “What’d he say?” Sam was glued to the monitor and kept plugging away at the keyboard and trying to follow the black Cady.

  “He’s going to work this with Kyrie. Rico said we should keep scanning the images in case it isn’t Lukas.” I shrugged and sighed. This was going to be a long night.

  Sam eyeballed me out of the corner of her eyes. Thankfully, she kept quiet.

  I also noticed that she kept one of the six images up trailing the car. The rest of the images continued to scroll through at some sort of preset interval. I really tried to focus on them, but I couldn’t

  My eyes kept moving back to the corner picture. On occasion, the driver of that car would move out of frame, and Sam would scroll through the surrounding cameras looking for it. She would get the car back into frame.

  This last time, however, took longer than usual. It was a full two minutes before she found the car again. I breathed a sigh of relief as we watched it pull into another cemetery. This was getting weird.

  “What’s that guy doing? It’s got to be a vampire, right? I mean, who goes to multiple cemeteries in one night?” I blinked and scrunched my eyes.

  It was getting very late, and I was coming down from the high of the concert. I rubbed an eye and stifled a yawn. My stupid body was giving out on me. What’s up with that? I’m way too young for my body to give out on me.

  “Look! Right there. That’s Rico’s car.” Sam shoved my shoulder. My eyelids had drooped, and my mouth was hanging open. Not a pretty sight.

  “What? Did something happen?” I sat up straight and stretched my arms above my head.

  “Not yet, but Rico just got out of his car and is heading inside the graveyard.” Sam was staring at the screen which only had the one image on it.

  “Wow, he can jump.” I watched as Rico ran, jumped onto the gate, and then did some acrobatic move with his hands holding the wrought iron while he maneuvered his feet over the gate. The rest of his body followed, and he landed with grace. It looked like he pole vaulted over the gate but without the pole. The gate had to be at least seven feet high.

  This was where our show ended. I sat there impatiently waiting for him to come back into the line of site for the camera. My knee was bouncing up and down while Sam and I both sat there quietly.

  “I think I want some popcorn. This feels like we’re watching a movie.” Sam chuckled.

  “By the time you get the corn popped, the show will probably be over.” I smiled at my adopted sister.

  Chapter 12

  Jenna

  “There he is!” I pointed to the screen. We had been waiting for close to fifteen minutes to see what was going on.

  “He’s alone. I don’t see anyone else, or headlights. Where’s the cady?” Sam frowned.

  “Should I call him?” I chewed the inside of my cheek while I considered my options.

  We focused intently on the screen as Rico pulled something out of his pocket.

  When my phone buzzed both Sam and I jumped. “Ah!” I put a hand to my chest and took a deep breath before answering.

  “Rico, what’s going on?” I was still breathing heavy, hopefully he didn’t pick up on it.

  “I just checked out that Black Cadillac. It’s the same model, but it wasn’t Lukas. Good call, though,” Rico responded.

  “Oh, that’s too bad. What was he doing going from cemetery to cemetery in the middle of the night?” That’s what I couldn’t understand.

  “There’s been some vandalism at these sites lately. He’s a special security guard. He spends his nights driving around in an unmarked car hoping to catch the idiots who are messing with graves.” Rico chuckled.

  “Sorry. I hope you weren’t too put out having to go check on this.” I sighed.

  “It’s no problem. I would have checked it out if Kyrie had been the one to see it. The car really did look like our target. It was a good call. Now, I’ll just have my pack pay extra special attention to the more famous cemeteries at night when doing rounds. I don’t like the sound of the vandalism. Most of the graves belonged to witches or voodoo priestesses. Sounds like someone is trying to get more power.” I could hear Rico opening his car door and close it as he got into his car.

  “That’s just crazy!” This was all so weird. I was new to the magical community, but this concept was just cracked. Why would anyone want to raise the dead? Hello, zombies anyone?

  “I agree. I want all of you to stay clear of witches. Something’s not right in NOLA. Gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow.” There was a beep, like another call was coming in so Rico hung up before I could even answer.

  He didn’t need to warn me away from witches, I wasn’t ever planning on visiting them. I mean really, what do you do with them? Invite them over for tea and cookies? Not likely.

  Sam and I continued to watch the screen. “Sam, do you see anything remotely interesting?”

  “Nope, all quiet on the western front.” Sam leaned her elbow on the table and put her chin in her hand.

  ***

  The next day I was able to sleep in until almost noon. “Hey, sleepyhead. Time to wake up.” Kat threw a pillow at my head to wake me. She was really nice that way.

  “Ugh, let me sleep some more. What time is it?” I grumbled.

  “Almost twelve. Indie’s falling asleep on her feet, and I need you to cover for her so she can sleep.”

  “What about Sam? Why can’t she?” I complained.

  “Because she’s going to watch the cameras now. Get up you lazy bag of bones.” Kat was not the best person to wake people up. She could be really loud and rude.

  “Fine, but I’m going to bed early tonight.” I threw the pillow back at her and missed.

  Once I was up and ready, I grabbed a bacon and cheese breakfast burrito and coffee before heading down to the store.

  I was not prepared for the group of women stuck in the sixties. They all wore long, flowy skirts and peasants tops which were too big for them. Several of the women actually had flowers in their hair. I wasn’t sure if they were just clueless, flower children or a group of actors.

  “Ladies, how can I help you today?” I rubbed the back of neck, it looked to be like a migraine sorta day.

  “I heard you make the best love potions around. We each want to buy one,” the blonde chick closest to me said.

  “Alright, six love potions. I must warn you, these are really potent and have backfired on a few women in the past. Ma
ke a small pot of tea using just one of these tea bags. If your love is true, then your man will be yours. However, if your love isn’t true, then he will leave you and never come back.” I walked to the case holding our special love potion tea bags.

  All six women giggled like schoolgirls and waited while I brought back the potion. “That’s six love specials at fifty-five dollars each. With tax it comes to $363 even.” I packed up the tea while the blonde dug in her satchel for her credit card.

  I smiled and ran the card. When I handed her the copy to sign, I noticed the name, Ida Flower. Might as well have named her “Ima”. Strange people.

  She handed me the signed copy, and I gave her the bag with her tea. If only she knew the truth. I smiled and waved as they all walked out of the store whispering and giggling. Most of them had to be in their thirties, a couple could have been twenty-something. Still, they’re all too old to be giggling like schoolgirls over a love potion.

  I ended up closing the store all by myself. It turned out to be a really great day, profit wise. However, I was beat. All I wanted to do was eat dinner and go to bed. Maybe soak my feet.

  “Hi, ladies. Anything interesting happen today?” I asked as I walked to the kitchen to see what was for dinner.

  “So far, nada. Had a couple of sightings, but they turned out to be more of those security guards Rico met last night. Black Cadillac’s must be the company vehicles.” Sam turned her head from the computer monitor and watched me walk into the kitchen.

  “Boring, but at least you got to sit all day. My feet are sore from standing so long. It was a very busy day. Looks like we turned a nice profit. Sales have been consistently going up lately. I wonder why?” I mused while searching the fridge.

  “Kat went to pick up some gumbo and beignets. Don’t ruin your appetite.” Indie walked into the kitchen and greeted me.

  “Hey there. Was the store busy this morning?” I don’t think I had more than two minutes alone all day and wondered if the morning was just as busy.

  “Yes, it was one of the busier mornings. A couple of the women said they saw us last night at the club. When they looked us up on Facebook, they discovered our shop. I wondered if all of the customers were from the club? That would be cool!” Indie nodded and picked up a water bottle.

  “Could be. Most of those clubbers had jobs. They could afford our store. We might need to look into booking some of the other white-collar clubs in town. Maybe even get to play at that one again.” I would love to play at the Blue Bayou again.

  “We should probably ask Rico if he can help us to get another gig there. Speaking of Rico, have you heard from him today?” Indie asked.

  “Not yet. He was up really late this morning, and he probably had lots to do with the pack today. I’m sure we’ll hear from him later.” It did seem weird he hadn’t contacted me yet.

  “Guys! Check this out!” Sam yelled.

  “What?” Indie and I ran to the monitors and stood looking over Sam’s shoulder. She was pointing to a girl who looked a lot like Acadia.

  “Oh, stink! Is that Lukas holding her arm?” I pointed to the screen.

  Sam had made the camera the only image on the monitor.

  “I think so. Someone needs to call Rico, now. Maybe we can get her back tonight!” Indie yelled.

  “Get Acadia back?” Amaline asked as she entered the room rubbing her eyes.

  “Did you find our sister?” Adalaide asked. They had been napping.

  “I think so. I’ll call Rico now. Indie, you call Kat. She’ll be really pissed if we don’t call her.” I pulled my phone from my back pocket and scrolled through my contacts.

  I dialed Rico’s phone and waited for him to answer.

  “Jenna, what can I do for you?” Rico answered.

  “Rico, I think we found Acadia! Sam has her on the monitor right now. She’s being pulled away from one of the cemeteries. Sam, which one is that?” I leaned over and asked Sam.

  “It’s the Greenwood Cemetery. Lukas is hauling Acadia out of one of the above ground tombs. Or at least it looked that way. Now, they’re walking to a parked car. It isn’t his black Cady, this is a black SUV. Hyundai? The bigger one? Not exactly sure, yet.” Sam was zooming in on the car.

  “Did you hear that Rico?” I knew he had excellent hearing.

  “Yes, I’ll head over there now. Have Sam call Kyrie and coordinate tracking. Also, call Joshua and tell him what’s going on. I might need him.” Rico hung up again, without so much as a goodbye.

  Doesn’t the guy know how to say “chat later” or “bye”? It’s really not that difficult.

  “Sam, can you coordinate with Kyrie? I need to call Joshua.” I walked away after Sam nodded and called our resident alchemist.

  Chapter 13

  Jenna

  “Jenna, to what do I owe this pleasure?” Joshua could be really smooth.

  “Sorry, it’s not a social call. We found Acadia! Rico and Kyrie are coordinating. Rico asked me to call you and fill you in. He wants you to rally the troops, probably. Not sure, but he wanted me to keep you in the loop.” I really wasn’t sure if I was supposed to have Joshua do anything.

  One more reason to tell Rico he needs to stop hanging up on me.

  “Thanks for the update. I’ll call Rico and get the pack mobilized. You girls stay put. Don’t go anywhere tonight. I’m serious. This night could get crazy. Plus, once we have Acadia back, we’ll bring her to you.” Joshua at least said goodbye before hanging up.

  I went back into the living room, and Kat walked in the door with our dinner. “Any word yet? Does he have her?”

  “Not yet. I doubt he’s even close enough to catch them, yet. Give him a few more minutes.” Sam continued to scroll through the feeds as she followed Lukas and Acadia.

  Everyone grabbed a fold-up chair and sat in a semi-circle behind Sam. We all ate in silence as we watched the night unfold.

  “Look, there’s Rico! He’s going to catch them!” I pointed to the screen.

  “Shh, I wanna watch. Sam do you have sound?” Kat asked.

  I laughed. “Kat, these are CCTV feeds. There is no sound.”

  Sam and Indie both laughed and shook their heads.

  Amaline and Adalaide ignored us and kept their eyes peeled to the monitors.

  “I hope this doesn’t take all night. I really miss my sister.” Adalaide rubbed the back of her neck and continued to stare at the monitor.

  All of a sudden the screens went dark. Even the second monitor blacked out.

  “Sam! What did you do? Where did the images go?” I stood up and moved closer to see what happened.

  “The feed cut out. Hold on let me see if I can get it back.” Sam fiddled with the monitors and the tower for the next ten minutes.

  “Can’t we call Kyrie and ask him what’s going on?” Indie asked.

  “Something tells me he cut our access. We only have satellite access to his feeds, or to his hacked feeds, I should say. I think he cut us out. I’ll text him and let him know we lost the images but don’t hold your breath.” Sam pulled out her phone and began typing.

  A few minutes later, we had our answer. “Rico ordered the feeds cut. He didn’t want us to watch the fight.” Sam slammed her hand down on the table.

  “Argh! What a pig! What? Just because we’re women we can’t handle seeing a fight scene? We could totally handle it, right girls?” Kat was fuming!

  She was a bit of a feminist. No one told Kat she couldn’t do anything just because she was of the “weaker sex” and got away with it.

  Sam turned around in her chair and looked from Amaline to me.

  “Kat, I think we should be grateful we don’t have to watch it.” I kept shifting my gaze to the triplets, but Kat didn’t seem to get it. She kept going off on Rico.

  “This is the twenty-first century for Pete’s sake! Women are in combat roles now. We can handle a little violence!” She threw her hands in the air and plopped down on the sofa.

  I went and sat next to h
er. “Kat, think about the sisters. What if this goes badly?” I whispered.

  Her head popped up, and she looked to Adalaide and Amaline. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t think. I…um…well, maybe it is for the best.” Kat sighed.

  “She’s going to be just fine! Don’t go thinking they cut the feeds so we don’t have to watch our sister die. That’s NOT happening tonight!” Adalaide jumped up and ran out the door.

  I followed her. “Adalaide! Wait! We have to stay inside tonight.” I ran down the steps chasing after her.

  Adalaide stopped abruptly when she ran into a brick wall. Not a literal one, just a wolfy one.

  “Jose, good to see you. Were you coming to see us?” I panted when I caught up to them.

  “Actually, Rico asked me to look in on you. He was afraid one of you might try to sneak out tonight.” Jose glared at Adalaide.

  “I wasn’t aware that I was a prisoner. I’m an adult who can choose to go out at night if she wants to.” Adalaide huffed and crossed her arms.

  She never took a step back from Jose so her arms were smooshed against his chest. He narrowed his eyes at her and took a step back. “Little lady, you aren’t a prisoner, just a dumb chick.”

  Oh, stink! I hope Kat didn’t overhear that one! I didn’t care how big and tough Jose was, Kat would kill him!

  No need, Adalaide slapped his face so hard the sound reverberated off the walls of the store next to us. “Ow! Your face hurts!”

  I snickered, couldn’t help it. Jose was good looking. His face didn’t hurt. At least not to look at. All of the guys in the pack were good looking. Hotness must have been a dominant gene in wolf shifters.

  “If you were smart, you would have stayed locked in your house. With plenty of stakes and silver daggers. If Rico succeeds and gets the girl, the vampires will come after you all. Don’t you get it?” Jose shook his head and grabbed Adalaide’s shoulders.

  “Let go of me! We’re in a public place, no vampire would dare grab me here. Look, there’s a bunch of people watching us now!” She pointed to a group of men and women drinking their hurricanes and watching the show.