Witch's Bell Book One

fallen in love with it. She'd learned the code from her mother, a witch; and had learned to shoot from her father, a police officer. She'd gone off to study, travel the world, and generally bum around in her early twenties, before finally coming back to the only city she really knew. When Harry's second-hand bookstore had come up for sale, she'd managed to muster the money for the deposit. And when the police department had put out the call for a new witch liaison, she'd been delighted when they'd accepted her application.
    That was her story. The enigma of Ebony Bell wasn't too mysterious after all. Just a witch in a big city trying to get by.
    'Ebony is a consultant for us,' Ben scratched behind his ear, 'we call her in when... stuff gets weird.'
    Nate swallowed slowly. 'Of course you do.'
    'You remember when you were transferred to us?' Ben smiled reassuringly. 'You remember when the Detective Chief Inspector sat you down and said this job's going to be unlike anything you've ever done?'
    'I thought he was just exaggerating,' Nate tried to neaten up his tie until it sat flat once more.
    'Yeah well, he meant it. Now, I really should have handled this better. Instead of briefing you at the office about the uh... peculiarities of working for the Vale Police Department, I thought I'd bring you straight in to meet Eb, and get it all over and done with.'
    'You weren't to know Harry would react like this,' Ebony kept picking up books and stacking them into piles.
    'Yeah well, whatever. Point is rookie, Eb here is a witch.'
    Detective Nate nodded slowly, offering something halfway between a smile and grimace. 'We've covered this.'
    'Yep, she's a witch, and she works for us. Vale here is sitting on top of a... now let me get this right... a portal between worlds that somehow makes the energy here more charged.... Kind of like a storm, I guess,' Ben muddled through his words, hands flying about him as he tried to make sense of his confused thoughts.
    'Yes, how about I explain,' Ebony cut in. 'Vale is sitting on top of a Portal, that much is true. In fact, there are many such Portals all around the world; you just wouldn't know it. Vale's Portal, however, is unusually strong,' she said quickly, knowing that such detail would be entirely under-appreciated by the new guy Detective. He had no clue about magic, so the prospect that Vale was sitting on one of the biggest inter-dimensional rifts this side of the Milk Way, wasn't one he'd appreciate.
    She took a deep breath, and decided to continue trying to explain the incredibly complex to the obviously stupid: “while the Vale Portal itself is usually closed, things sometimes leak through. This usually isn't the problem, though. What is the problem is that being in such proximity to an inter-dimensional tunnel means that the city of Vale is highly charged with magical fields. Without going too far into the theory of Field Work, what happens is that being so charged it becomes much easier for people to unintentionally produce magic.' Ebony looked up to see Nate's face, a picture of pained confusion. 'You aren't getting this, are you?'
    'A magical bookstore just tried to kill me because I called it messy,' Nate said truthfully. 'I have to say, I'm having difficulty paying attention.'
    'Hmm okay, good point. Let me put it this way: when someone straps themselves to a metal pole on a bright summer's day, what is their chance of being struck by lightning?'
    Nate took a sigh, chest moving deeply. It was as if he was finally surrendering to the sheer ridiculousness of the situation. 'Low to none.'
    'Right, how about if they strap themselves to a metal pole during a violent thunder storm? Their chances increase measurably, right?' She waited for the detective to nod. 'Well this is Vale. Vale is a violent electrical storm of magic. Now, anyone who recites an incantation they find off the Internet, or buys a book on devil craft, or accidentally picks up a cursed rocking chair in an antique store – they are like that idiot strapping himself to a metal pole. In the ordinary, everyday world, magic is incredibly hard. Here, magic is easy to attract, but still hits you like a thunderbolt.'
    'The way I look at it,' Ben shifted a pile of magazines off the couch and sat down, 'is like this. Magic is like drugs. People use it to forget themselves, get high, get transcendental, whatever. But the stuff is powerful and addictive. It's cheap too, yet comes at a Hell of a price. As Eb said, any goon