Ghoul Me Once: Magic and Mayhem Universe: Shifted, #2

Copyright

Copyright © 2019 by Celie Bay Publications LLC

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is coincidental.

This book contains content that may not be suitable for young readers 17 and under.

The Author of this book has been granted permission by Robyn Peterman to use the copyrighted characters and/or worlds created by Robyn Peterman in this book. All copyright protection to the original characters and/or worlds of the Magic and Mayhem series is retained by Robyn Peterman.

Edited: Kelli Collins, Edit Me This

Cover Illustration: Regan Kubecek

Cover Design: Yosbe Designs

Dedication

The City of New Orleans.

Thank you for welcoming me back with a thunderstorm and embracing me with your sights, smells, sounds, and beautiful human beings. You inspire me to work harder so someday I can kick my feet up in your town and stay a while.

Foreword

Blast Off with us into the Magic and Mayhem Universe!

I’m Robyn Peterman, the creator of the Magic and Mayhem Series, and I’d like to invite you to my Magic and Mayhem Universe.

What is the Magic and Mayhem Universe, you may ask?

Well, let me explain...

It’s basically authorized fan fiction written by some amazing authors who I stalked and blackmailed! KIDDING! I was lucky and blessed to have some brilliant authors say yes! They have written brand-new stories using my world and some of my characters. And let me tell you...the results are hilarious!

So here it is! Blast off with us into the hilarious Magic and Mayhem Universe. Side-splitting books by fantabulous authors! Check out each and every one. You will laugh your way to a magical HEA!

For all the stories, go to https://magicandmayhemuniverse.com/. Grab your copy today!

Chapter One

Name: Johann Bastien

Age: 24

Occupation: Musician, Guitarist

Hobbies: Gardening

Gardening? What chick is gonna want to date a dude who’s into gardening. You’re so not slick.

Johann clenched his fists under the table. His bandmate Brad was such an asshole, and yet he had all the women he could possibly want.

Their gigs in the Vieux Carre were frequented by beautiful women who only had eyes for Brad, their bass player, or Lucien, their percussionist. All the stories about guitar players or lead singers getting all the chicks lied. At least stories that involved Johann. What was wrong with wanting to find a nice girl who shared his interests?

Fuck off, Brad. At least I have hobbies. He cringed. Johann was terrible at comebacks, a fact his band members never let him live down. He’d been hazed ever since joining the band five years ago, and he was damn sick of it. He’d almost rather go back to street busking. At least then it would be just him and his guitar to worry about. But he owed his bandmates both financially and artistically. They’d fronted him the money to buy his gear and kept them in gigs when they were hard to come by. He’d tried to leave them, break out on his own, but every time he’d make a move, something terrible would happen and he’d be stuck. Gear stolen, medical bills from a freak accident. It was almost like he’d been cursed they day he met them and he couldn’t seem to break away.

Dating apps are the wave of the future, Daisy the bartender said with a wink. Leave the poor kid alone.

Johann smiled at her in thanks. It was the end of a very long Friday night full of drunken bachelorette party girls and asshole frat boys. Johann wished they could play someplace off Bourbon Street—maybe Faubourg Marigny—but Bourbon Heat was a decent place and a steady gig. Occasionally they played over off Frenchmen and the crowds were much better. Plus, they got to play their originals—originals he’d written—and not just Stray Cat Strut over and over.

Yeah, well, it ain’t gonna cure him of his bitchiness, Lucien said as he took a swig of beer. Be sure you include ‘whiny bitch’ in your bio.

Johann wanted to sock Lucien in his smug mouth, but the last time he’d thrown a punch at one of his band members, he’d ended up hurting his hand so badly it required a trip to the ER. Someday he’d leave these assholes and start a new trio. Someday couldn’t get here soon enough.

Johann stood from the table and went over to the bar for a drink and a breather.

Honey, you come over and help me with my garden. I’d love to grow something rather than a pile of exes at my house, Daisy said.

Johann smiled. Anytime you want.

She leaned forward and lowered her voice. Don’t pay no mind to those two knuckleheads. I heard tell from that waitress who left last week that they was both lousy lays anyhow. You notice they get nothing but tourists, and they ain’t got no repeat customers. That tells me all I need to know.

Johann kissed Daisy on the cheek. The older woman always brightened up his days and nights like the flower she was named after. He muttered to the Douchebag Duo—oh, sure, he could come up with a good comeback after the fact—that he’d see them the next afternoon. They ignored him, which was probably for the best. He’d had enough of their shitty attitudes for one night.

Johann wished he had a bit more backbone, but when he’d left home at eighteen and found himself sleeping on the streets of the French Quarter because he couldn’t find enough work, he’d been desperate enough to take anything. Including joining a band with a pair of assholes. Five years later he was ready for a change. Maybe one that included a nice lady. With a garden. Screw those guys.

He found his moped unharmed, tucked into the small alley a block away where a restaurant owner allowed him to park it in exchange for doing deliveries during his evening break. He swung a leg over the seat and was just about to take off towards his home in the 7th Ward when he noticed a woman across the street. Watching him.

She had her cell out like she was texting someone, but she peeked at him repeatedly over the top of it with a welcoming smile. She appeared to be a little older than him and was dressed in a short floral sundress. She’d probably consider her long, curly brown hair a nightmare in the Louisiana humidity, but it framed her beautiful face and mischievous expression and drew Johann in like a helpless bug to a lantern.

Johann looked around, in disbelief she would actually be offering that smile to him, a scrawny kid from Terrebonne Parish. He’d thought coming into the city and joining a band might give him a little more clout, but not so. At 5’10" and a whopping one-seventy with average looks, he got by being nice to people and helping folks out. But this woman had noticed him. That was unusual.

He waited. She stared. The situation was getting a little awkward. Finally, he called out to her.

Did you need something, ma’am?

She laughed a little more enthusiastically than the situation called for, but okay.

Yeah. I do.

This is awkward. Johann scooted the moped across the street and stopped in front of her. She was typing on her phone again but as he got closer, she lowered it, and he was gifted with a smile so mesmerizing that what happened next should have been no surprise whatsoever.

Nothing that good ever happened to Johann.

***

Clarabelle Cocodri loved her not-so-little brother, her corner of the Bayou, and spending time in her garden, but she was damn sick and tired of having the same argument with Beau. She’d been his guardian for the last four years, which had been tough, but he was mostly a good kid. She had one simple request. However, no matter what she said or did, he refused to adhere to that request.

Beau, how many times do I have to tell you?

What? Sorry! It’s, you know, like a spur-of-the-moment thing. It just happens. I didn’t plan on it.

It’s not like you don’t have any control. You’re getting a bit old to use that excuse.

Well, sometimes I’ll be thinking of stuff and it just sorta happens. I don’t know! The other guys—

Oh, just because your friends are doing it, you have to?

God, no! Why you gotta always be on my back about somethin’?

"’Cause I’m all you got, little brother, and if you can’t remember to take your damn clothes off before you shift into your gator, you ain’t gonna have any clothes on your back! I can’t keep sewing these rags back together—"

Maybe I’ll just go see the alpha. He and that witch are supposed to be fixin’ everything. Maybe she’s got some clothes-mendin’ magic or somethin’.

Clara stomped her foot and felt her other half hiss. You stay away from them. Nothin’ a witch can do to help this, and besides, witch help comes with consequences. You’d best remember that.

Beau looked adequately admonished. Sorry, sis. I’ll try to get my impulses under control.

She patted his shoulder. At seventeen, he really was a good kid, just starting to really hit his growth spurt, and he definitely had the Cocodri genes in him.

I know I ride your ass a lot, but I just want more for you. Being able to fit in both worlds, having options and not just barely getting by...that’s why I sent you to school in the human town nearby rather than the Shifter school. She’d even begun researching colleges for him in New Orleans. There may come a time we have to move away from here—

Sis, no. I don’t want to go.

I know, I don’t necessarily either. But I won’t stay if things get bad again.

She knew others had left because of their old alpha, Pierre Cocodri. Some left by choice, some by necessity. Her cousin Garrett hadn’t been given a choice five years ago when his father, their alpha, allowed his bitch witch mistress to hex him, taking away his ability to shift. Clarabelle wondered if it had truly been Garrett’s choice to come back and become their new alpha. She was glad for a change, but hesitant.

Beau was on track to be big as their new alpha...

Which worried her.

She didn’t want any problems. If Garrett wasn’t the same good-natured soul he was before—if he’d turned out like his father—she didn’t want him to view Beau as a threat.

What’s Garrett like? Beau asked her.

Clarabelle sighed. I forget you were so young when he left. Well, he was the one boy in our congregation who was nice to me. I followed him and the other kids around...he was popular, you know. I wanted to feel like a kid every once in a while.

You spent most of your free time with Mama, sewing and gardening and cooking, he said. You took care of me.

Yeah. And I’d do it again, you weirdo.

She sighed. It was hard talking about their past. Pierre Cocodri had bullied his own brother—Alphonse, her father—since they were hatchlings. When Grand-père died, Pierre challenged his brother for alpha. Alphonse acquiesced. The challenge had been unwinnable. If he’d beaten Pierre physically, he’d have to watch his back forever. He’d had a wife by then, Clarabelle’s mother, Amelie, and if Pierre decided to eliminate him, she’d be at the mercy of his brother. So he’d left the wellbeing of their congregation to Pierre, and eventually paid the ultimate price.

Would Garrett follow in his father’s footsteps? Or would he be a benevolent leader like Grand-père had been?

Have you seen him yet? Beau asked.

Nope. I’m not planning on going by the homestead, so I don’t reckon I’ll run into him.

She went back to her sewing but she sensed Beau wasn’t done.

What if he ain’t like Pierre? What if he’s a good alpha?

Clarabelle shrugged. That was the real question. Then I suppose we’ll have nothing to worry about, will we? But I’m not taking any chances. If things go south, you and me are getting’ out. It’s what we’ve always talked about.

She glanced up at Beau, and he was frowning, his powerful arms crossed over his chest. But I don’t wanna go. This is our home. Bad enough you make me go to school with them humans—

Boy, what have I told you? Times are changing! We gotta be ready to move on. You want what happened to Mama and Daddy to happen to us?

No, ma’am, he said, his head hanging.

Good. We’re all set then. You got any more homework to do?

His turn to shrug. Some pre-cal and some physiology. He rubbed at the back of his head. You know, that teacher gonna have us dissecting cats pretty soon. He shivered. I ain’t sure about cutting’ up no cat. And what if my gator—

We’ve been over this. They use so much formaldehyde, your gator will shrink back in horror and feel sorry for the poor critter. She smiled. ’Fraid you can’t handle it? What’s the matter? Big ol’ gator boy can’t handle a little kitty cat?

Beau scowled and threw a pillow at her. Hush now! I’m no chicken.

She snorted and tossed her long black hair over her shoulder. "Nope. You a little