The Golden Ghouls: A paranormal mystery adventure (Monsters of Jellyfish Beach Book 1)(Paranormal Women's Midlife Fiction)

The Golden Ghouls A PARANORMAL MYSTERY ADVENTURE MONSTERS OF JELLYFISH BEACH 1 WARD PARKER MAD MANGROVE MEDIA Contents Prologue 1. A Day at the Beach Ruined 2. My Patients Are Monsters 3. The Vampire Creative Writing Group 4. Botanica Blues 5. Dead on Arrival 6. Can Ghouls Be Vegans? 7. Worst Petting Zoo Ever 8. Finger Sandwiches 9. Bulk-Trash Pickup Day 10. Ghouls 11. Time for My Magic 12. Furry Ears 13. House of Horrors 14. Jailhouse Rocked 15. Festival Follies 16. Arms and the Man 17. Crime in My Own Backyard 18. Ghouls’ Night Out 19. Hamster in Her Heart 20. Night of Knights 21. Witch’s Familiar 22. Dangerous Routes 23. Truth Spell 24. Buried Secrets 25. You Can Always Find Me Here What’s Next Acknowledgments About the Author Prologue I’m a witch, not a clairvoyant. I couldn’t tell if the nightmare I just experienced was a premonition or simply a reaction from Taco Tuesday. But when I awoke from it, there was none of that blessed relief you feel when you realize it was a just a bad dream before falling asleep again. No, I felt unsettled and full of dread. Like something wicked was coming. My old-fashioned clock radio said 2:34 a.m. Brenda and Bubba, my two gray tabbies, studied me from the other side of my bed in the faint glow from the clock. I must have awakened them by moaning or something. The dream had been about my mother. I had a relationship with her that could charitably be called difficult. I grew up with adoptive parents and didn’t even know my birth mother was alive until a few years ago. It turned out she was an evil sorceress. I know what you’re thinking: I’m a bitter daughter who calls her mother evil because I resent her. No, it’s because she’s evil. Really. Our paths first crossed when I fought back against her black magic. And she tried to kill me. Long story short, the Magic Guild in North Florida finally neutralized her, stripping her of her black-magic powers. Afterwards, we had an uneasy truce and remained distant. But at least she stopped trying to kill me. So, in that sense, you could say she was an absolutely wonderful mother. That’s why the dream I just had disturbed me. Because in the dream, she performed a ceremony with a demon. There was fire and blood, as well as sacrilegious acts I couldn’t remember. As if she had regained her black magic. If true, what would she do with it? Good thing I don’t have to see her for the holidays. Chapter 1 A Day at the Beach Ruined I had to face the truth: employers will be employers, and clients will be clients. They’re all slaves to their instincts and selfish needs. And if I spend my life catering to their demands, instead of my own, I’m going to get burned. Because in my job, I worked for and with monsters. Metaphorically and literally. It was time to consider a career change. And here I was, spending my precious day off at the beach obsessing about it. The beach was uncrowded, and atop my towel, I stood out like a tourist fresh off the plane from Siberia. Yes, despite living in Florida, I had the complexion of a corpse. Why? Funny you ask. I work the aptly named graveyard shift. I’m a home-health nurse for elderly retirees, and the bulk of my patients are vampires who were seniors when they were turned. As you know, seniors both living and undead must retire to southern climes like Florida. I’ve altered my life to fit into theirs. And I’m increasingly asking myself why. It was late afternoon, the sun was no longer blasting me, and my skin was cooled by a gentle breeze from the southeast. A flock of sanderlings picked at tiny shells at the edge of the surf, racing away from the last gasp of each incoming wave. Not having been to the beach in so long, I studied the crowd. There was a time when the only people you’d see on a day like this would be retirees, who lived in condos along the beach, and a few younger tourists. Only on the weekends would you see the folks who lived inland and worked at jobs managing the retirees’ money, fixing their plumbing, or selling the goods they consumed. Now, the crowd was more diverse in age. Jellyfish Beach had a new luxury hotel on the beach. More beachfront mansions were sprouting up, as were subdivisions on the mainland. Everyone was moving to Florida, even monsters. Though our state already had plenty of home-grown monsters, not even counting our politicians. My employer, Acceptance Home Care, was booming because they catered to the various species of supernatural creatures who hid their true identities. Despite their business doing so well, the company did not pay me well. I needed to work a part-time job at the Jellyfish Beach Mystical Mart and Botanica to help make ends meet. That’s why having last night and this afternoon off was a rarity for me. I became a home-health practitioner after years as an ICU charge nurse had burned me out. It seemed another burning out was just around the corner. “Well, Missy, aren’t you as pale as a vampire?” said a male voice above me. It was Matt, my friend, partner in crime, and potentially more. Matt was a reporter for the local newspaper and knew about the secret existence of the vampires, werewolves, and other monsters I cared for. He had sworn to me he would keep the secret in exchange for my giving him a rare glimpse into the supernatural world. His investigative skills have come in quite handy when I’ve needed to solve mysteries of various sorts in this murky, dangerous world. “You ready to go?” he asked. We had planned to grab late-afternoon drinks and an early dinner at a nearby restaurant before I was