Moon Hexed Read online

  Moon Hexed

  by

  Sara Bourgeois

  Copyright 2017© Sara Bourgeois

  This story and its characters are a work of fiction. Any similarity to persons alive or dead is coincidental.

  Follow me on Facebook!

  Sign up for my newsletter to get information on new releases and promotions.

  To Carole:

  Thank you for all of the cake. You said that you were my number one fan, and I’m sorry you passed before this story was finished. I hope they have books in heaven.

  Chapter One

  “I now pronounce you husband and wife.” The Elvis impersonator announced to the small, nearly empty casino chapel.

  After weighing all of her options, Belladonna settled on a Vegas wedding. She and Ben had hopped on a plane a few days after their official ceremony because Ben said she could have whatever ceremony she wanted. They’d made sure and paid the extra money to have a videographer film the entire ceremony so they had something to send to their friends and family who couldn’t be there for the wedding.

  The newly married couple only intended on spending one night in Vegas, and the next day they’d catch a plane to an island in the Caribbean that specialized in honeymoon adventures. Belladonna was having a great time, and the Elvis wedding was everything she thought it would be, but at the same time, she was nervous about Aunt Sumac’s warning.

  “Well, what do you want to do?” Ben asked after he’d swiped his credit card and paid for the ceremony. “We’ve got to catch our flight early, but there must be something we can do. The night is young, we’re in love, and this is Vegas, Baby!”

  For the first time since Belladonna suggested the idea, Ben seemed just as excited about being in Sin City as she’d been after having researched Elvis weddings on the internet. At first, Belladonna thought she wanted a big fancy wedding like Murielle’s, but then she remembered being a kid and seeing a movie with a wedding at a little chapel in Las Vegas.

  She remembered the actress’s little white dress and knee-high go-go boots, and much to Bella’s delight, a shop in the casino had an outfit very close to the one she’d loved as a little girl.

  Ben and Bella headed into the lights and noise of the casino hand in hand. They looked around until they found a slot machine with little bells and fruits that spun around when you pulled the handle. It was Ben’s idea of quintessential Vegas, and he had to play those slots at least once before they left.

  “I’m famished.” Bella declared after they’d blown through a hundred bucks in the slot machine.

  “Well, should we hit a buffet?” Ben asked earnestly. “I mean, that’s what people do here, right?”

  “Ew, Ben. No.” Belladonna said with a chuckle. “How about we go check out the honeymoon suite I reserved? We can order over-priced room service.”

  “Okay, I admit. That sounds like a much better idea.”

  They made their way to the shining gold elevators. Once inside, the mirrored enclosure whisked them to the top floor so fast it made Bella’s stomach do a flip flop.

  She and Ben walked into the room, and they weren’t sure if they should laugh or be amazed. It was every inch of tacky delightfulness that Belladonna had hoped for. In the center of the large room was a humongous, red heart shaped bed. Bella looked down at her feet, and the floors were covered from wall to wall in zebra striped carpeting.

  To her right was the entrance to the bathroom. She peeked inside, and there was a walk-in shower that was bigger than her master bathroom back home. On the other side of the room was large a whirlpool tub with a fantastic view through the floor to ceiling windows.

  “We need to order a bucket of mozzarella sticks and eat them in the tub while we watch one of those thirty dollar movies that’s still in the theater,” Bella said.

  “The one about the space man who brings a zombie virus back to Earth and has to battle the undead to save his girlfriend and pet llama?” Ben asked with one eyebrow raised.

  “You know me so well, Husband,” Bella said excitedly.

  “Okay, let’s get our swimsuits on, and I’ll call in the room service order,” Ben said.

  “You want to wear swimsuits in the hot tub?” Belladonna asked suspiciously.

  “You want to eat mozzarella sticks naked?” Ben returned.

  “Good point.”

  They only made it through about a quarter of the movie before their toes got pruney and they had to get out of the tub. After that, Ben had to pause the video every few minutes so Belladonna could jump on the bed.

  It was after midnight before the movie was finally finished, and by the time the credits started to roll, Belladonna was snoring softly from underneath the thick comforter.

  “You never could make it all the way through a movie,” Ben had whispered before he planted a soft kiss on his lovely wife’s forehead.

  Ben got up and went to the window to get a better look at the lights on the strip. It would have been one of the most beautiful scenes he’d ever laid eyes on, except that there was a darkness swirling around every building.

  He wasn’t sure at first what it was, but then Ben realized that it was sadness and despair caused by dark Jinn that populated the city. In this town, the wishes they granted caused pain and heartache. People would spend too much money or do things they regretted and then turn to the Jinn to fix things instead of cutting their losses and going home.

  Ben felt the darkness trying to seep into him, too. He hoped that Belladonna had her fill of Vegas because he didn’t think he’d ever be able to come back here again. It would be entirely too easy for him to make a mistake that could cost him his sanity or soul.

  Once the thick curtains were drawn, and the darkness shut out, Ben returned to bed. He felt safer with Belladonna snuggled up against him, and after a few deep breaths, he was able to drift off into a peaceful sleep.

  The next morning, the wake-up call rang through the room as dawn broke. Ben and Belladonna got ready to check out and catch their flight as quickly as they could. Within twenty minutes of getting up, though, both of their stomachs were growling.

  “Can’t you put a spell on the breakfast buffet that will keep us from getting sick?” Ben asked. “Just so we can grab a quick bite to eat.”

  “I suppose that could work,” Bella said. “Just a quick bite, though. I don’t want to be too stuffed on the plane.”

  Just a quick bite for Belladonna meant a stack of three pancakes, three sausage patties, biscuits and gravy, and a large coffee. She ate it all in record time while Ben ate some fruit and a granola bar.

  “A light breakfast, eh sweetie?” Ben said with a chuckle.

  “Yeah, I didn’t want to get too full.” She said and patted her belly.

  Bella tucked a few cereal bars and a banana into her purse. Ben was going to say something about that but decided just to let it go. They’d spent a small fortune on the honeymoon suite so the casino could part with a few items from the complimentary breakfast buffet.

  They stopped at the front desk to check out, and the look on the desk clerks face told Belladonna and Ben that they were not getting away easily.

  “Sir, Ma’am.” The clerk began in a clipped, haughty tone. “We encourage our guests to relax and have a good time in Sin City, but there are limits to what we can allow in our hotel. This is a business after all.”

  “But…” Belladonna started to speak, but the clerk, Sherrie, put up a finger and then began to type furiously into her computer.

  “The damages total three thousand, three hundred, and fifty-two dollars. Also, I’ll need you to wait here while my manager decides whether to call the police about the incident we found on the security camera.” She said in the same curt tone.

  “I don’t understand,�
� Ben said. “There’s nothing wrong with our room. We didn’t even leave towels on the floor. Besides, we just left the room twenty minutes ago, how could you have calculated damages already?”

  “Not that there are any damages,” Belladonna added.

  Sherrie, the desk clerk, looked at her computer screen and started typing furiously again. Her eyes narrowed, nose scrunched up, and fingers flew even more furiously.

  Suddenly, a bright, cheerful smile spread across Sherrie’s face. She typed a few more things and then looked up at Ben and Belladonna as if it were the first time she’d seen them. The change in her facial expression was startling.

  “Oopsie Daisy.” She said and chuckled lyrically. “Everything looks good here. I hope that you enjoyed your stay and congratulations on your recent nuptials!”

  She reached under the desk and pulled out a black and white gift bag with gold trim. Sherrie reached across the desk and handed it to a dumbfounded Belladonna.

  Ben could see that Bella was about to give the woman a piece of her mind, but all he wanted to do was leave. So, he put his hand on Bella’s lower back and guided her towards the exit.

  “Thank you.” He called back over his shoulder as they departed.

  “You should have let me give her the what for,” Belladonna said as they got into a taxi that was waiting in front of the hotel.

  “We need to get to our flight, sweetheart,” Ben said and kissed her. “I’m sure you would have taught her a good lesson, though.”

  “Probably,” Bella said. “But, you’re right. We need to get to the airport, and I’m sure it was an honest mistake.”

  They were scheduled to fly out of a smaller airport in a resort town about forty-five minutes south of Las Vegas. The cab driver winced when he heard where they wanted to go, but then shrugged.

  “I guess it’ll be a good fare day.” He said and turned onto the highway.

  The island they were going to was semi-private and required them taking a particular flight out of an airport on the coast. Flying out of the smaller airport necessitated a longer drive, but fewer connecting flights.

  “Thank you,” Ben said and gave the cab driver a big tip when he dropped them off at the airport.

  From the outside, the airport didn’t look like much, but once you were inside, you could tell that it was the kind of place that catered to high rollers and their families.

  “The nearby resort is for the big-time gamblers’ wives and families,” Bella said to Ben as they waited in line. “If they don’t feel like hanging out on the strip while the high rollers gamble, they can come here and relax.”

  “We could have stayed there for our honeymoon,” Ben said.

  “I think you’re going to like the island,” Bella answered. “We can always come back here if you like. You didn’t seem to like Vegas as much as I did though.”

  “I like being wherever you are,” Ben said.

  He’d decided to wait until after their honeymoon to explain why he couldn’t go back. There was no sense in bringing up such a dark topic right now. Besides, Bella might feel guilty for putting him in that position, and he didn’t want that. There was no way she could have known. Heck, he was a Jinn and didn’t know how bad they were there.

  The line crept along slowly, and Ben started to worry that they’d miss their flight entirely. The thought jumped into his mind that this trip was cursed, and that’s what Aunt Sumac had been warning them about. He pushed those thoughts down. They were unproductive at best, and it was too early to call their situation a curse.

  Ben couldn’t help but smile as the line shuffled forward. The people reminded him of zombies when they scuffed their feet across the floor to move forward. Of course, he shouldn’t find zombies funny at all. They’d almost destroyed the town he called home, oh and his new family was close friends with Old Man Jenkins. Jenkins was a zombie, but he wasn’t a horror show zombie like the ones who’d almost overrun Winterfield. He was just a guy who loved life too much to die.

  Jenkins knew he couldn’t drink beer and eat mater sandwiches anymore once he passed on, so he’d decided long ago that he just wouldn’t pass on. This threw a wrench into his budding relationship with Granny Pepper since she was a ghost. But, love would find a way, right?

  Bella and Ben were relieved to see that it was almost their turn. Just two couples remained in line ahead of them. Belladonna felt relief as they moved again, and there was only one couple ahead of them.

  That’s when things went sideways.

  Chapter Two

  The first clue that Bella and Ben weren’t going to make it to their destination without some serious grief was when the man in line in front of them started to yell at the woman behind the counter. He had a woman with him who just stepped to the side when he started shouting as if she’d been through this many times in the past.

  The woman bowed her head and pinched the bridge of her nose as if trying to stave off a headache. The truth was that no one in the general vicinity was leaving the airport without a problem on that particular day.

  As soon as he started to holler, the man began to gesture wildly. Belladonna put her phone into her purse and listened carefully. Something about this man’s ranting didn’t seem right.

  He was speaking a different language, but to Bella, it sounded more like gibberish. The woman behind the counter attempting to wait on him looked stricken with confusion. She looked a little scared too.

  Security quickly came to whisk him away, and Belladonna said a quick spell for peace over him before taking her place at the counter. The man calmed instantly, and Bella hoped that he was okay.

  Everything went fine for the couple at the counter, but security was a different matter entirely. Ben set off the metal detector, and Belladonna’s suitcase triggered the alarm in the x-ray machine.

  The same two agents who had taken the man at the counter away arrived within seconds to escort them to the holding area of the airport. The men dragging her and Ben to the back were not polite. Belladonna could feel the man’s fingers digging into her arm, and she had to use all of her strength not to turn his ugly mug into a goat.

  If Granny Pepper had been there, that guy would have already been turned into something way more horrible than a goat. But, Granny and Aunt Sumac weren’t there. It was just Bella and Ben. It was the first time since they’d eloped that Belladonna felt the separation from her family.

  Thankfully, the men put them in the same room. Ben looked at his watch.

  “Even if they let us out of here quickly, we’re not going to make the flight,” Ben said.

  “Yeah, I can deal with that. A little time spell will do the trick.” Bella hissed.

  “Don’t you ever worry about ripping a hole in the space-time continuum when you do that type of magic.”

  “Oh Ben, the space-time continuum isn’t real. It’s just something the normals made up because they can’t understand the world around them.”

  “You make science sound like mythology,” Ben said with a chuckle.

  “Exactly.” Belladonna’s response was not what Ben had expected.

  Before they could go any further into their discussion of current human mythology, a man opened the door. He was short, round, and his hair looked like it’d been blown into its current formation by one of the airplane engines.

  He’d had to open the door with his foot because there was a large coffee in one of his hands and a Danish in the other.

  “I’m James Landry. I’m the TSA Agent assigned to handle your case.” The man said as he plopped down into the chair across from them.

  “Our case?” Belladonna asked.

  “Yes, the two of you are being held until it can be determined whether you’re a threat.”

  “What on earth would make you think we were a threat?” Ben asked curtly.

  “Well, you both set off security alarms,” James answered even more curtly.

  “Did you find anything?” Ben asked.

  “No, but that�
�s why you’re here.” The agent responded.

  “Wait, the evidence that we’re not a threat is being used as proof that we are a threat?”

  “It’s more complicated than that,” James said.

  “How?” Ben asked.

  “You know, I should be the one asking the questions here,” James said and straightened his back. “You two are the suspects.”

  “We haven’t done anything.” Belladonna was ready to turn the man into a toad by that point.

  Just as Ben was about to protest, the door to the holding room swung open again. This time, a tall, muscular man with an air of authority strode in. He was dressed in a dark brown suit, and Belladonna could see his gun holstered to his waist through his open jacket.

  “Mr. Landry. I need to see you in my office.” The big man’s voice boomed in the small room.

  “Yes, sir,” James said and scrambled out of the room like a dog that’d been scolded.

  “I apologize for my subordinates overzealous handling of the situation. If you two hurry, you can make your flight. You’ve been upgraded to first class by the airline. Your bags have been checked for free.” He said and then exited the room before Ben or Belladonna could say anything.

  They looked at each other and stood up. There wasn’t time to argue with the man, so they made their way to the airplane quickly and quietly. The flight staff must have been alerted to the situation because a stewardess recognized them as soon as they stepped on the plane.

  “Right this way.” She said and led them to their seats in first class.

  The first-class cabin was more luxurious than Belladonna could have imagined. She clapped her hands and squealed with delight, and that made Ben smile too.

  They had two oversized white seats that reclined all the way back. Their seats were next to a window, and a divider gave them privacy from the rest of the cabin.

  “Drinks will be served after take-off.” The stewardess said. “Is there anything else I can do for you right now?”

  Ben looked at Belladonna, and she shook her head no. “No thank you.” He responded.