Witch's Bell Book One

and trying to grab at her arms.
    Ebony began to scream. 'Backup! Help! I need backup down here!' She had no hope that her voice would reach her friends. There was too much magic around for sound to travel in a straight line. So she kept fighting. She angled a kick right at the man's arms, and finally managed to connect with the book. It spiraled out of his grip, and off into the darkness of the crypt.
    The man let out an aching scream.
    So did the woman. She screamed, right in Ebony's ear, and right at the wrong time. It momentarily shocked Ebony, and the man lunged forward.
    His sacred-blade sliced across the top of her arm, sending blood splattering out in an arc.
    Ebony screamed, arm filling with pain. But she didn't give up. She grabbed at the man's elbow with her good hand, and dug into the flesh. She twisted the arm forwards and away from her. Then she brought up her knee, right into the soft flesh under his chin.
    Her knee connected with a satisfying thud. The man's jaw made a clicking sound, and he fell down, unconscious.
    For just a second, Ebony just lay there, motionless. Then the cavalry came in.
    She turned to see Ben, torch beaming in his hand. 'Ebony,' he said with a choked breath, 'what's going on?!'
    Ebony took several shaky breaths. 'It's okay,' she said. 'The guy's down.' She managed to get to her feet.
    In the torchlight, Ebony could finally make out Detective Nate's distinctive form. There was a strange kick of emotion in her stomach, which she quickly dismissed as leftover adrenaline. But she couldn't stop her eyes from locking onto him.
    'Are you okay?' he said quickly, carefully, kindly. His voice was strong and, for once, Ebony was overjoyed to hear that unmistakable hint of control.
    She put a hand up to her profusely bleeding arm, and was about to mutter back a reply, when the Detective walked straight past her. He rushed over to the woman by the wall, kneeling down before her with an expression that would set any woman at ease.
    Ebony had barely a moment to register the deep disappointment that flickered through her chest – before it ignited with rage. 'Why you complete-' she began. But before she could get the words out, a circle opened out beneath her. Clear white symbols formed along its edges, its girth growing and growing with more power.
    'Oh no,' Ebony choked out the words, just as a hand descended out of the circle and latched onto her ankle.
    This time Detective Nate did look over to her, his face filled with confusion.
    Then the hand began to pull. With a tremendous force that Ebony simply couldn't resist, the hand pulled her through the very floor of the crypt.
    'Ebony?!' Detective Nate shouted, trying to make his way over to the circle.
    But it was too late. The hand had her. And in a moment, Ebony Bell disappeared completely leaving the crypt full of police, candle light, and a blood-spattered book no one would notice.

Chapter Eight
    E bony didn't scream; she didn't have to. She knew where she was going, and just let the fear ride through her like a wave on its way to the shore. She dropped through the circle, as if it were a glowing tunnel through the center of the earth... quite possibly because that was exactly what it was.
    Witches used several ways to transport themselves - not just cars, trains, feet, and all those other mundane forms of locomotion. Witches had several more tricks up their sleeves. While site-to-site transport was something you were more likely to see in a sci-fi as it took simply too much magic to perform, there were still other ways to get someone from A to B without having to fork out the couple of bucks for a bus ticket.
    And the circle of light Ebony was now breathlessly hurtling through was just such a way. The way it worked was a witch would create a magical symbol at the intended destination, careful to write down all the right runes along its circumference, in case the transporter would accidentally turn into an incinerator. Then, at the location of whoever you were trying to transport, you would draw another magical circle. While an ordinary witch couldn't do it, if enough powerful witches were gathered in one spot, they could use the combined magical force of their minds to write such a circle anywhere, without being physically present. The two magical circles would then connect, temporarily emptying out the space in between, whether it be earth, building, sky, or forest – and creating a perfectly straight, perfectly neat, tube. The