Indie waved and yelled, “Jenna, over here. And bring me some water too! I’m dying of thirst!” She could be such a drama queen at times.
I picked up one of the bottles and walked to Indie. “Here ya go.” My hand was dripping moisture from the water bottle. Instead of leaving to find a towel, I wiped my wet hand across the thin fabric covering my stomach.
Everyone was so loud, I had to yell over the voices laughing and chattering. “Kat, Sam, your water’s on the side table.” I pointed to the wobbly piece of wood holding the other two water bottles.
“Finally! What took you so long?” Kat asked when she walked past me. “I’m dying of thirst here.” Kat guzzled half the bottle in one drink.
“Yeah, I’m dying of thirst, too! So glad you could make the time to bring us our drinks.” Indie downed several long gulps of water.
Sam even spoke up in front of all of these men as she picked up her bottle, “You know we don’t accept drinks from strangers. I can barely swallow, my mouth’s so dry.”
“The bar’s really busy tonight. Had to wait for John to notice me. Who are your friends?” I sidled up to Indie and batted my eyelashes as I smiled at all of the very tall, dark, and handsome men.
“I’m Rico and this here,” he pointed to his friend, “is Jose.”
Rico put his hand out and I shook it. When Rico’s hand touched mine, I felt a tremor roll through my entire body, all the way to my soul. My entire system was jolted from this stranger’s touch. My eyes popped open and I yanked my hand back.
“Nice to meet you both, but we gotta get ready for our next set.” I took my friend by her arm and walked to the stage.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you? We still have a few minutes before we need to go on again,” Indie complained.
“Something’s not right. My weirdo-meter is off the charts tonight. I don’t like how they’re looking at us, like they want to eat us up or something.” I nodded to Sam and Kat when I walked by them. “Come on, ladies. Break time’s over.”
“Already? Come on, five more minutes.” Sam looked pleadingly to me and Indie.
“There are supposed to be agents in the audience. Do you want to miss out on them?” I pointed to the curtain separating us from the stage and raised an eyebrow.
That was enough for Kat. “Come on, Sam. We can talk to these nice gentlemen on our next break, right guys?” She ran her fingers over one of the bulging arms near her and looked up at him through her eyelashes. Then slowly made her way to the stage to join me and Indie.
***
Our next set ended, and Leo was waiting at the side of the stage with two drinks in his hand. “Hi, Jenna. I got you a drink. You must be really thirsty from singing so long.” He tried to hand me a drink, but I refused.
“Sorry, I don’t drink alcohol when I’m working.” Kat came up behind me, and looked the guy over. She dismissed him and walked on to meet the group of men waiting for her.
“Oh, come on. One little drink won’t hurt. I got it just for you.” He took a sip of his drink, and I noticed his hand shaking.
“No, I also don’t accept drinks from strangers.” I tried to walk past him, but he shoved the drink into my hand and blocked my path.
“You are going to drink with me, little lady, and you will like it. I didn’t spend this money for nothing.” He scowled while staring into my eyes.
I took the drink, tilted my head, smirked, and threw it into his chest. He screamed and his chest began to smolder where the liquid touched him. “What did you do?” He screamed. He kept shouting and I screamed, “Help!”
The guys who had been chatting up the band heard the commotion and came running to my side. “What happened? Why is his chest on fire?” Rico asked.
“I don’t know. He tried to force me to drink something, and I threw it in his chest. Then he started smoldering. What’s going on? Is he part of your group?” My hands were trembling as I grabbed a bottle of water from a nearby table and threw it on Leo’s chest. “Why didn’t the water help?”
Rico bent over and tried to get a good look at the man writhing on the floor in pain. “I don’t recognize him. Do any of you know him?”
Jose grabbed a towel from the side table and threw it on Leo’s chest in an effort to stomp out the smoke. The towel burned up quickly, and just as fast it went out. It looked like a bulb burning out right after one turned on the light. “Looks like a strong spell to me. Is Joseph around?”
“Hang on, I’ll see if I can find Joseph.” Rico ran into the crowd of lookie loos.
“What? A spell? Are you crazy?” I gasped.
Indie reached me and grabbed my hand. “What’s going on? I heard you scream? Who’s that guy?” Indie pointed to Leo who was writing on the ground.
Sam elbowed her way through the crowd who had gathered around the scene. “Jenna! Are you alright? Why’s his chest all gross?”
Right on Sam’s heals was Kat, who pushed some of the wide-shouldered men, blocking her path, out of her way. “Why is he flopping on the ground like a fish out of water?”
“They said it was a spell. But magic’s not real, right?” I looked wide-eyed into Kat’s face.
Kat pursed her lips and looked down at the body. She shook her head and wrapped her arms around me.
All of us scrunched our noses and put hands over our faces. Sam coughed and tried to keep the bile from coming up. “Oh.My.Gosh! That smell is awful!”
People in the crowd were whispering, “What’s going on?” And “Who is that?” As they angled their necks to get a better look over the massive shoulders of the men standing between them and the body.
When Rico came back, he shoved his way through the crowd, making a hole for the other man following him to get through. I watched in amazement as a man who appeared small next to these giants, but was probably about 5’10” joined our group.
“Make way for Joseph!” Rico bellowed.
The man, Joseph, got down on his knees next to Leo. He pulled a sandy looking powder out of a drawstring pouch from his vest. “In nomine Patris et idcirco praecipio tibi ut veni foras.” Then threw the powder on Leo’s chest.
I blinked as the skin on the man’s chest bubbled up and then stopped. His chest looked like something out of a horror movie. The skin was all puckered and red. Blood was pooling around the spots that had been burned. “What did he do?”
Leo stopped screaming and passed out.
Joseph looked at me and asked, “Why would he try to curse you?”
“What? Wasn’t that acid? And what did you do to fix his chest?” My gaze moved back and forth between the new man and the one on the ground with singe marks on his chest.
“Would someone tell me what happened? Rico?” Joseph levelled his gaze on the man standing on the other side of me.
“This guy came up and tried to force Jenna to drink something he had. She threw it on his chest, he started to scream, and then I went to get you. I have no idea who he is or why he tried to curse her.” Rico looked back and forth between me and the guy on the ground. “Is he your boyfriend or something?”
“I don’t know him. He tried to buy me a drink earlier, and I declined. He was here waiting for me after the last set, and you know what happened.” I turned my gaze from Rico to Joseph. “What do you mean curse me? Magic’s not real. I should know. I run a touristy voodoo shop. None of the stuff works.” I put my hands on my hips.
Kat interrupted, “Jenna, I’ve seen a few things lately to make me think that we were wrong. And this guy,” she pointed to Leo, “makes me think magic might be real. Why would he curse you? Have you seen him before?”
I chewed on my fingernails, a bad habit I only allowed when I was really stressed. “I don’t think I recognize him. If magic is real, what would that drink have done to me?”
“I’m not gonna sugar coat it, it would have killed you. That was a deadly curse. The only reason he isn’t dead is because he didn’t ingest it. I was able to stop the reaction because I’m an alchemist.” Joseph screwe
d up his lips and looked at me. “You must have really upset someone powerful. You run a tourist shop selling magical instruments and charms?”
“Well, we say it’s all real, but there isn’t a lick of magic in the store. If someone was upset, I don’t know how they would have gotten their hands on a real death…” I gasped and covered my mouth.
Rico touched my shoulder. “What? Do you know something?”
I shook my head as a tear rolled down my cheek. “A couple weeks back, some guy came in looking for a death charm. It wasn’t Leo.” I moved in closer to Rico to take in his comfort as I told my story.
“I told him we don’t sell them, nor do we make them. Death charms aren’t something to play with. They are serious business and our shop had made an effort to stay away from them. He wasn’t happy with me, and said I shouldn’t turn him down. It was important that I help him. He then went on to say some really crazy gibberish about vampires. We all know they aren’t real.” I looked up at Kat who turned her eyes away.
Joseph responded, “There are supernatural creatures out there that would hurt you if you got in their way. Was he claiming to be one?”
“No, he said he needed the death charm to kill them, kill them all. He was rambling on about the vampires taking over the city and only a witch could save it now.” I sighed, and then continued.
“Honestly, I thought he was demented so when he left I called the cops. I saw the guy get into his car, I wrote down the plate numbers, and gave it to them.” I looked up into Rico’s eyes. “Do you think it was him? Did he find someone to make him the spell? But why would he use it on me? I don’t get it?”
Rico pulled me to his chest and hugged me tight. “I don’t know why he would do that, but he’s most likely deranged. How he got his hands on a spell that powerful, I couldn’t tell you. I’m sure Joseph will find out. Won’t you, Joseph?”
“Yes, I will.” Joseph walked away and left the four of us girls with the powerful men and Leo.
“Um, what do we do with this guy? Call the cops?” I shoved his body with the tip of one of my black combat boots. The guy moaned but didn’t move.
“When he wakes up, we’ll take care of him. No one tries to kill beautiful women, who can play as well as you do, and gets away with it.” Rico looked at the body on the ground and frowned.
I grimaced and looked to my bandmates. I pulled a few strands of purple hair out of my face and put them behind my ear. “Can we go home yet?” I heaved a sigh and moved to go backstage.
Kat yelled out, “No, we have one more set.”
“Wait, I don’t think you should be alone the rest of the night. We’re going to keep an eye on you. Which means no going backstage without us. Alright?” Rico followed me to the dressing rooms where I left a bottle of water from before we went on stage that night.
“Who are you guys? Why are you insisting on following me or protecting me? Are you cops or something?” I stopped in the hallway and eyed my protector.
Rico chuckled and shook his head. “No. We aren’t cops. I run an investigative company. This is kinda our thing.”
I continued on to the green room. “What? All of you are? Do all of those guys out there work for you?”
“Something like that. Tonight was a celebration for my company. I started it five years ago today.” Rico smiled and opened the door for me. “I also don’t think you should drink anything that hasn’t been in your line of sight since leaving the bar. Let’s go get you some more bottles of water and leave that one alone.” He pointed to the bottle sitting on top of my dressing table.
“Do you really think someone came in during the performance and messed with it? I opened it right before we went on stage earlier.” I shook my head and turned to walk out of the room.
“It’s better to be safe than sorry, Jenna. We don’t know who’s after you or why. It may not be the crazy guy. It could be someone else. An ex-boyfriend perhaps?” Rico looked at me sideways and quirked his mouth.
“I doubt it. Indie’s the one with psycho ex’s not me. Or to be exact, she’s the psycho ex.” I chuckled thinking about what happened last month with Indie and Mark.
“Sounds like a story worth sharing,” Rico commented.
“Yup, but not mine to tell. If you’re gonna hang out with us after the gig, maybe you can get her to tell you herself.” I shrugged and went to get a drink before going back on stage.
***
After we finished our sets for the night, four men - Rico, Jose, Luke and Damien – helped us pack the equipment into our van. They followed us back to our loft above our shop. “This is your store? I always wondered who ran it,” Rico asked.
“Yup, it’s been ours for as long as we can remember.” Indie smiled as she looked at the store.
“You seem a bit young to claim to own this place for so long,” Jose responded.
“We were all adopted at young ages by a really sweet lady, Maymie, and her husband. They passed away about six years ago. They left us the store and the loft. Kat was old enough to take care of us, so we all stayed together and worked the shop.” Indie told the men as she unlocked the side door that led straight to the loft apartment.
“Alright, thanks guys. We can take it from here. If you find out who did this, please let us know.” Kat shooed the guys away. I could tell the events of the evening had shaken her more than she liked to admit. Her hands shook while trying to close the door.
“Don’t you think we should stay with you tonight, just to make sure you’re all safe, Kat?” Damien smiled at her.
“No, I think we got it from here. I appreciate you wanting to protect us, but we’ll be safe up here. We have a few friends named Smith and Wesson who’ll help to keep us safe should anyone uninvited join us.” Kat stood in front of the door with her arms crossed over her chest and a steely glint in her eyes.
“Alright, we’ll be close by, keeping an eye on the place. This is, after all, what we do. We protect people.” Damien waved goodnight and walked down the steps.
Kat was the mother-hen of the group. She was the oldest, but only by two years. However, since our adopted parents died, she had taken it on herself to make sure that everyone was safe and taken care of. Kat had a very tough outer layer, but inside, she was as soft as butter on a hot day. When she loved someone, she would go to the ends of the earth and back to protect them.
Sam spoke up. “Guys, I don’t feel safe here now. What if he had friends? Could they be watching us? Can they send a curse at us while we’re locked up inside?”
Indie considered what Sam said while she peeked out of the front window. “I don’t think we need to worry about it tonight.” She pointed out the window. “Looks like we have a set of guards for tonight, at least.”
I looked through the window to see the four men who took up positions where they could see anyone coming near the building. We may not have known what we were dealing with, but these men seemed like they did.
Chapter 3
Jenna
After tossing and turning all night, I got up early to make some tea. When I walked into the kitchen, I found my sisters already there.
“Look what the cat dragged in.” Indie handed me a steaming cup of tea.
“Ugh, I didn’t sleep at all last night. I lay there thinking about what happened last night and ended up all twisted in my sheets. I take it you all couldn’t sleep either?” I took a sip of my tea and winced at the strong flavor. “Where’s the milk and sugar?”
Sam got up and opened the fridge. “Here ya go.” She handed me a carton of milk, then yawned.
“Thanks,” I said.
Kat handed me the sugar. “Ladies, I don’t want any of us in the shop alone anymore. At least not until this situation is dealt with. So going forward we work in pairs. If that means we cut back on our store hours, then so be it. I will not let any of you take a chance and get hurt, or worse.” Kat was in mother-hen mode.
“After last night, who wants to be alone now? I know the guy was g
oing after Jenna, but what if we’re also on his list?” Sam shivered and rubbed her arms.
“What do you think? Is magic real?” Indie asked everyone as she rubbed the back of her neck.
We all looked to Kat. It didn’t escape anyone’s notice that Kat seemed to understand what was going on last night better than the rest of us did.
“Yes, I believe so. But it isn’t mainstream or anything. From what I’ve seen, it’s mostly devil worshipers who can do magic.” She couldn’t look us in the eye, instead she stared at the ground in front of her.
“You’ve seen this before?” Sam whispered.
Kat sighed and responded, “Not exactly. I’ve witnessed some stuff in the paranormal world. Stuff I would rather forget, if you don’t mind. Look, it’s time to get ready for work. We should probably open the shop early. It’ll help to keep our minds off of last night. Plus, it’s Friday. We always have lots of paying customers on paydays.”
We all mumbled our agreement as we got up to get ready for the day.
***
We all made our way to the shop and were preparing it for opening. The front door opened and we all jumped. No one had unlocked the door yet. How did someone open it? I wondered.
“We should have brought the gun down with us. From now on, one gun in the store and one in the apartment, deal?” I asked.
The rest whispered, “Deal” before we heard a familiar voice.
“You have nothing to worry about. I’m not here to harm you.” It was Joseph who had broken into our store.
“How’d you get in?” I asked with a scowl on my face.
“Magic,” Joseph laughed. “Actually it was a lock pick set. Your locks are really easy to pick. I’ll have one of the guys fix them on the store and check the ones in your loft too. You should probably get an alarm installed as well. Frankly, I’m rather surprised you don’t have one already. Most stores in the Quarter do.”
“All of our windows are barred. The only way in is through a door. I thought the locks were just fine.” Kat looked at the door and examined it for damage.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t damage your door.” Joseph walked around the small shop picking up little items and putting them down after turning them upside down, feeling all sides of each item, and smelling them.
Magic's Not Real Page 2
