Hurricane of Magic

by J. L. Hendricks

  “Yes, as well as the debris across the yards and streets.” Romero led me down the upstairs hallway and opened each door for me to look inside.

  “What do the surrounding neighbors think? You have vamps and acolytes moving through here at all times of the night. Sometimes, there is no activity for weeks. Don’t they question you all?” I had wondered how they were able to keep the neighbors from discovering who they were.

  “Most think we are voodoo practitioners so they stay away. Some think we run party services, and others think we’re a rock band. I like to keep them guessing.” When Romero smiled, there was nothing comforting about it. His fangs protruded through his mouth, and his eyes narrowed with red pinpricks. He was the quintessential vampire.

  There was nothing in the house except for women giving their necks and bodies willingly. It was the most disgusting display of depravity I have ever witnessed. Even the vampire queen herself never allowed such displays when I would visit her. Did she know, in her absence, these vamps allowed everyone to watch?

  I needed to keep moving. Once I was back at Jenna’s, I would ask her if we could put on some wholesome cartoons. Anything to get those images out of my head.

  After I searched Nick’s house, I went next door. Thankfully, it was empty.

  I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Luke. “Luke, I found vamps, but it was the regular group. They have plenty of volunteers here. If they can be believed, they don’t know anything about any missing girls, other than what’s been on the news. Have you found anything?”

  “So far just acolytes draining their tunnels of the rainwater. Don’t you find it odd they’re cleaning up this neighborhood when they supposedly abandoned it a few months ago?”

  “Luke, I think they are just trying to keep their options open for locations. If they don’t drain the water, the tunnels would probably collapse. Which could cause issues with the foundations of the house, depending on where they made their tunnels. Either way, I think it’s a punishment for the lead vampires here.” I wasn’t sure what was going on, but punishment was most likely part of the equation.

  However, I doubted they had the missing girls. They didn’t need them.

  “Have you heard from Damien? Maybe his crew got lucky?” Luke had a point, I hadn’t heard from Damien yet.

  It could mean they were in the middle of a fight. Or, it could just mean they didn’t have anything to report yet. I hoped it was the former since we had no luck here.

  “Alright, round up your men and prepare them for patrols. I’ll call Damien and see if he has any news. If he doesn’t answer, we’ll all head over there and help.” If Damien didn’t answer, I hoped it meant he was in the middle of killing a horde of vampires.

  I hung up with Luke and dialed Damien.

  Damien answered right away. “Hey, Rico. Any news?”

  “No. How about you?”

  “It appears some vamps have nested here in the past but not right now. They might have been sent packing when the storm hit. Either way, no sign of missing girls.” Dang it! I truly hoped Damien had them or at least their scent.

  “Alright, spread out over the city. I want a search of the entire area, grid by grid. We have to check everything.” This was not going to be easy.

  “Hold up, Jose has something.” Damien put his phone on speaker, and I was able to hear his conversation with Jose.

  “Damien, I found something which makes me believe they were here. No one is here now, but I found a purse with ID inside. It belongs to the girl who was seen floating on the news report, Melissa. If her purse is here, I’m guessing she was held here until they killed her.” Jose had struck gold.

  “Rico, did you hear that?” Damien asked.

  “Yes, keep searching the entire place. See if you can pick up on some scents. Maybe we can use them to lead us to the girls.” At least we had a lead now. This was the best news we’d had since Lisa showed up.

  Chapter 17

  Jenna

  “Joseph, any news?” I was going stir-crazy sitting here waiting for an update. Rico and the guys left a few hours ago and not one word so far.

  “Not yet, Jenna. Don’t worry. No news is good news, in this case. If they had found the girls, we would have heard something by now. If they were in trouble, we would have heard something by now. So this just means they are still searching and haven’t found anything yet.” Joseph really needed to learn what good news meant.

  “Joseph, no news in this case isn’t good. It’s not bad, but it’s not good either. It just means those poor girls are still in the hands of the vamps. Maybe we should call Rico? Or Damien? Or someone?” I bit my lower lip to keep myself from screaming out my frustration.

  Joseph pulled his cell out of the back pocket of his jeans. “Ahh, speak of the devil. Rico just texted me.”

  “And?” Indie was just as anxious as I was.

  “He’s on his way here now. They didn’t find the girls, yet. They did find some evidence of where they were being kept before the hurricane. Maybe it will be enough to catch the scent. Hard to say.” Joseph put his phone away after responding to Rico.

  “Alright, what’s the plan for tonight? Should be split up and join the different groups out on patrol? Now that we have our magical charms we should be able to help.” Kat was looking forward to kicking some vampire butt, just as I was.

  Joseph chuckled. “Whoa, calm down. I doubt Rico is going to let you out tonight. During the day he might be open to you helping with the search but not at night. Too many vamps out and about lately. Since traffic is way down the vampires are out in droves. It’s better for them when there aren’t as many people on the streets.”

  “Why is that? I don’t get it.” How could fewer people on the streets be good for them? I would think they’d want to hide in the throngs of people.

  “Not as many witnesses. We usually see people with low blood count show up in the hospital. The vamps are careful not to drain them dry, but they do like to taste different necks whenever they can.” That was sick.

  “How do you know?” He didn’t work in the hospital, as far as I knew.

  “I have friends who work in the local ER. They tell me about the cases of low blood count and punctures on necks and shoulders.” Joseph was seriously connected in town. I bet he knew where all of the bones were buried, so to speak.

  “Do you know all of the local gossip? How do you know all of these people and get them to tell you things?” Records from the ER were confidential and protected by Federal laws.

  “One of the spells I get from my witch friend is a truth potion. I can get people to open up and tell me anything I want. As long as they are mundanes. The spells don’t work on the paranormal.” What a great spell! I wondered if Joseph could get me some of those.

  “One of these days you are going to have to start telling us some stories. I bet you could write a book and publish it as fiction while telling the real story of New Orleans! People would buy it up so fast! It could all be the truth too.” I shook my head and chuckled, thinking about what we have learned so far.

  “Shoot, we could write a book on our experiences and call it New Orleans Magic and sell it as fiction. I bet it would make us lots of money.” Now Sam was thinking about writing a book of our experiences? This could be good.

  “You can call the series, The Voodoo Dolls! Make it Urban Fantasy, and you can write about all of our adventures and exploits since having learned magic is real! No one would suspect it was true.” I liked this idea. We all needed to get together and write this book.

  “You wouldn’t be the first to do so. I bet you’d be surprised how many paranormal and urban fantasy authors are writing about actual experiences.” Ohh, I wonder if Joseph knew any of them.

  It would be so cool to meet others who have experienced what we have. If for no other reason than to have someone to talk to about it all. It’s not like I can go to a shrink and tell them I almost lost my life to a blood-sucking demon of the night. Hello? Padded
room for one, please.

  Someone knocked at the door, and I jumped in my seat. My mind was a million miles from NOLA, and the noise actually frightened me.

  Kat got up and answered it. “Rico, come on in. Give us an update.”

  Once we were all settled on the sofa and chairs Rico began telling us of his experience. “Jenna, this is why I don’t want you out there. Could you really handle seeing what I saw tonight?”

  “I would have puked. No question about it.” Indie looked a little green under the gills.

  I couldn’t blame her. “I would have too.”

  “I think we all would have run screaming from that den of iniquity. I doubt any normal human would have been able to stomach such a scene.” Kat shook her head and turned a very pale shade of human.

  “Alright. I think we all need to replace those images with something fun. What do you say to pirates? Our favorite Pirate Jack movie has a new release coming soon, we could have a marathon and get all caught up!” This was something we all needed. Even Rico seemed a bit upset about the evening.

  Sam had been quiet up until this point. “I’m all for some hot pirate action, but what about the missing girls? Is there anything we can do at all for them?”

  “Yes, you can stay home and let my pack continue searching. Tomorrow, if you want, you can join us in the hunt during the day. My guys are doing a grid search and until we check every inch of the city, we have no clue where they may have gone.” Rico sat next to me on the couch and put his arm on the top of the sofa behind my head. It kinda reminded me of high school. Smooth move. Not!

  “I think we can do it. Who’s up for popcorn?” Indie jumped up and ran into the kitchen. She loved popped corn with movies. Of course, it was organic popcorn, so much healthier than the stuff most people ate. I only hoped we still had some black licorice left.

  We all raised our hands for popcorn, even Joseph and Rico.

  Sam retrieved the DVD’s and set them up.

  “Who wants a soda?” I asked when I got up and went to the kitchen.

  “Me.”

  “I do.”

  It looked like everyone wanted popcorn and soda. I grabbed enough cans from the fridge for everyone and rummaged through the cabinets to find the last bag of black licorice.

  Indie gave me her usual evil eye when she saw me remove the bag of black licorice. Don’t get me wrong, I like to eat healthy, just not ALL the time.

  “I need to make a trip to the nearest Price Club soon. Does anyone know which ones are open? I’m thinking of going tomorrow.” I pulled out my phone to do a search while we waited for the popcorn.

  Sam wasn’t going to start the movie until we were all sitting in the living room and situated with drink and snacks.

  “Oh! I have a few items to add to the list.” Sam jumped up from her spot on the floor and grabbed a pen and notepad.

  I scrolled through the website to see which stores were open. “Looks like it’s gonna be a road trip. Rico, you guys need anything while I’m a few hours away?”

  “Really? Which location are you planning to head to?”

  “I think I’m going to have to head up to Jackson in order to get an open location.” It was over a three hour drive each way. If I took the van and filled up on our usual stuff and helped the pack out, it would be worth it. I would just lose an entire day.

  “What about Mobile? The storm didn’t hit them nearly as hard as it did us. Is that location open?” Joseph asked.

  “I’ll look. I wasn’t thinking about going East. I thought going north, away from the gulf would be the best.” I scrolled through my phone looking for any information on the Mobile location.

  “Yup, they are open. Looks like business as usual for Mobile, Alabama. Good, they’re about an hour closer.” I could leave at first light and still be back before dark if I went there. Plus, my favorite coffee shop had a sister store there. I could pick up some freshly roasted and ground coffee beans for all of us.

  “Alright, I’ll go first thing tomorrow. Anyone want to help me? Joseph, you guys need anything at all? I’d be happy to shop for you as well.” I owed them big. This would be a simple way of starting to pay back my debt.

  “How about Indie and I make the trip? The pack really could use a lot of items. We might even want to bring one of the guys with us to help with lifting.” I wasn’t surprised Joseph wanted to go with Indie and not me. In fact, if Indie was open to this arrangement, I would be happier to help search for the missing girls.

  “Sure, I can help. I love Price Club shopping. Girls, just be sure to write out anything you could possibly want. Who knows when we’ll get another chance to go back, or when our location will open up.” Indie sat on the floor in front of Joseph who was in one of our recliners.

  Joseph began massaging Indie’s shoulders as soon as the lights went down and the movie started. Interesting. Were they already moving forward? Both of them seemed rather relaxed with his hands on her. Like they were already a couple and massaging shoulders was a regular thing for them. I had never seen him rub her shoulders, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t done this before.

  Chapter 18

  Jenna

  “Rico, it’s light out. How can I help today?” I called Rico the second I woke up.

  No one other than Indie was up yet. She was getting ready to head out with Joseph for the day. Today was supposed to be our day to help search for the storm girls.

  The media had started calling the missing girls “The Storm Girls,” even though most of them went missing before the storm. With two dead bodies discovered and one who ran to my store, there were still five missing girls in total. I wasn’t naïve enough to think we would rescue them all, but I hoped they were still alive. Of course I prayed they would all make it, but I had to prepare myself for what would probably happen.

  “Jenna, it isn’t even eight o’clock yet. You really want to get up this early and get started?” Rico sounded groggy, like I’d woken him up.

  “Dude, you should have had at least a good six hours of sleep if you went straight home after the movies.” It wasn’t even midnight when they left. We only watched two of the four movies. Everyone was falling asleep.

  “I didn’t go straight to bed. I have a pack to run as well as an investigation. It was after five when I finally got to bed.” Oh wow! Rico totally needed more sleep. I can’t believe he even answered the phone.

  “Sorry. Go back to sleep. I’ve got some things to do around town anyway. I’ll get my errands going and meet you when you get to town. Call me before you leave home.”

  “Thanks, Jenna. Talk to you soon.” He hung up, and I got out of bed to see if coffee was brewing yet.

  “Indie, you didn’t start the coffee maker?” I stared into the empty coffee pot and had a tough time understanding why she didn’t turn it on.

  “We’re grabbing some coffee on our way out. I thought for sure you would still be in bed. These past few days have been tough, and you don’t need to be up yet, do you?” Little did Indie know, but I had some plans of my own this morning.

  “I couldn’t sleep anymore so I decided to get up instead of tossing and turning in my bed. Have a great day shopping and hanging with your new boyfriend.” They had to be together now, right?

  “We aren’t dating. For the moment, we are keeping it friendly.” Indie’s eyes turned down and she sighed.

  “Indie, if you want him, you might have to make the first move. He’s totally into you, so I don’t know why you aren’t a couple yet.”

  “It’s because we want to take it slow. The way our family has integrated into their pack would make it very difficult on all of us if there was a break-up. I’m sure it’s the same with you and Rico. You two are totally into each other but haven’t made the plunge, right?” She had a point.

  “Okay, I get it. Just promise me one thing.”

  “Sure, anything.”

  “Don’t make a voodoo doll out of Joseph if things go downhill, no matter the reason
for your break-up. Can you promise me?” There was no way it would go down well with the pack if Indie created a Joseph voodoo doll. They would go ballistic. Shoot, I would too.

  Indie chuckled and smiled at me. “Jenna, I wouldn’t do that to anyone in the pack. We have to keep up our relationships with them, no matter what happens. Our lives kinda depend on them now.”

  “I agree wholeheartedly. Which is why I haven’t let anything happen with Rico. I couldn’t handle a bad break-up with him. I doubt our family would be able to handle it either.”

  “True. Alright, let’s agree to keep things slow with the guys and not jump into anything until both parties are in love. Deal?” Indie stuck her hand out.

  I grabbed it and shook. “Deal. I think this is one of our smarter arrangements.”

  “Me too.”

  A knock sounded at the door, and Indie’s face lit up like the sun. If I wasn’t mistaken, she was already on her way to being in love with the guy.

  The second I was ready for the day I headed out. Kat and Sam were still in bed, and I hadn’t heard from Rico yet. I was on my own for the first time in a while.

  Before meeting Rico and his pack, I used to spend one morning a week strolling through the local farmers market. I enjoyed sampling the different fresh and organic foods while also trying out different smoothies or coffee drinks. Today wouldn’t be like those days.

  It was going to be a bit more exciting. Once I was in line for coffee at my favorite shop, I checked my purse to ensure I had the charms. Hidden away, inside a pouch, was each of the magic stones, including the red stone of death. I also had on my matching jewelry and a couple extra spells on my wrist.

  Since it was still light out, I didn’t expect to encounter any vampires. Acolytes were a whole other story. If one attacked me, I would defend myself.

  There was a storage facility next to one of the more popular graveyards here in town. I know the pack hadn’t hit the center of the city yet. It would be tough to stick it out here during the storm, but if you were on the top floor of a storage facility, you would have been safe. Those places don’t have windows. What better way to hide during the day?