Witch's Bell Book One

reinforcements, right?' Ben continued as he gunned the engine.
    'If things get out of hand,' Ebony began to kick off her high-heels, shoving them under the seat with her feet. She really, really liked those heels. They were white, soft, and reminded her of the glamor of the 50's. They went perfectly with this dress, and she wasn't about to let the tormented ghost of some recently-deceased soul ruin them. A girl had to have boundaries, a witch doubly so.
    'I don't get it,' Nate managed to look at Ebony through the rear-vision mirror, even though it was angled towards Ben as he sped up the ramp and out of the depot, barely waiting for the roller doors to open. 'If this is serious enough to get you to follow orders, why don't we just call for this backup now? We can't go into a dangerous-'
    'Oh, you don't understand,' Ebony harrumphed, pushing herself further into the seat behind her, and crossing her arms tightly over her chest. This wasn't how today was supposed to go, a little voice in her head reminded her. According to her wonderful morning plan, around about now she should be sauntering off to grab Turkish delight and catch a film at the old refurbished cinema just at the end of her street. Ebony stared out the window, her expression cold. 'The entire point of the Pact, the entire point of me acting as your consultant, is so the Coven keep their interference to a minimum.'
    'You mean they have better things to do with their time than help us mere mortals stay this side of death?' Nate scoffed from the front seat. 'Sounds real nice.'
    Ebony barely held back the urge to give the back of his seat a sharp kick. 'No. Look, if we called the Coven every single time an old grandmother picked up a possessed coconut from the fruit market, then don't you think the rest of Vale would catch on? I don't know if you've realized this yet, but not every witch looks like me.'
    Nate mumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "no one else looks like you". Ebony ignored it. 'Not all witches have a stunning sense of fashion, excellent jewelery. and, I don't know, a face at all. The Coven are the most powerful of the witches, and let me tell you, when you get to that stage, you physically change. You don't look like an ordinary human anymore, because guess what? You aren't human any more. You've given yourself up to power completely, and it has seeped through every cell, every pore, and every inch of your body. So Detective Nate,' she stressed his name like an irate principal calling the dunce to the front of the class, 'if you want a group of faceless, wild hags busting down-town every other day, then I can tell you how to contact the Coven. But if you'd like the citizens of Vale to remain peacefully ignorant about the true nature of their city, then you'll have to stick with me.' Ebony finished with a huff, arms closing tighter and tighter around her chest.
    Nate stared at her squarely through the rear-vision mirror, his gaze as even as a builder's level. 'Right, of course. But if we need it, we have back up, right? Even if it's a bunch of toothless, faceless, old ha-'
    'Oh shut up,' Ebony really did kick the back of his chair now. 'I might get away with calling them hags, Detective, but a word of advice – never follow me for behavioral directions. And yes, we have the backup, if we need it. But it will come at a cost.' Ebony ended with a punctuated breath of air, then fell silent.
    Costs. She rolled the word around in her mind. Though she wasn't about to announce it to the annoying Detective, the costs she was warning about wouldn't fall on his wide shoulders. No, they'd fall on her appropriately proportioned, much cuter shoulders instead. And maybe that's why Ebony was so angry, she reasoned. She was going into a very hazardous situation knowing that if, or when, it all went to Hell, she'd be the one dragged down with it. While the police department might do an internal review if something went horribly wrong, Ebony would be called up in front of the Coven. The Coven... and they weren't a very lenient bunch.
    Ebony took a steadying breath. There was only one thing she could be thankful for... maybe. Of the Nine witches that sat on the Vale Coven, Ebony actually knew one quite well. Fantastically well, in fact. Avery Bell, after all, was Ebony's mother.
    Which faced Ebony with the exceedingly uncomfortable fact that if she somehow failed today, she wouldn't just have to just wipe the egg of her face and