Bloodless: Witch's Blood Series, #1

CHAPTER 1

YOU SAID I COULD CALL YOU IF I EVER NEEDED YOUR HELP.

The voice of the caller isn’t one I’d normally recognise immediately, nor is her number familiar to my phone.

In the last seven months, I’ve given my number to several people and said, Call me if you ever need my help but not once did I ask for their number. It wasn’t because I didn’t expect them to call, or because I was new to this solo witch thing and forgot that I’d need to have them in my digital Phone Book, but because I knew that I’d see them calling me the moment they decided to get in touch.

Just like I had a premonition of this caller giving me a ring.

Hi, Jax. What’s up? I answer cheerily.

Jax Gilmore is a 16-year-old witch from Mayfair, London. She’d learned some very important—and very deadly—information seven months ago, and I had to go wipe her memory of it. It was my first solo mission.

I need your help, Amber, Jax replies in a tight voice. To find a missing person.

Jen, I assume. Jen is Jax’s older and more powerful sister who hasn’t been seen since last November. She’d used a transporter spell to escape a crisis situation but didn’t go home that night.

Or a week later.

That was around about the time that I’d gone to temper with Jax’s memory, and she’d assumed I was there because of her missing sister. After discreetly deleting the discriminating memories from her mind, I’d offered to help her find Jen.

Have you tried a locator spell? I’d asked that day in her enormous living room.

Duh! the teen had replied, rolling her eyes. It was the first thing I tried last night!

I felt appalled and showed it. My magic stirred in my veins. "Your sister’s been gone for over a week and you only tried a locator spell last night?" I shook my head.

Hey! Jax protested, offended. She’s a grown adult—

Surely, if she’d left for a cruise, you’d know, I snapped.

I wouldn’t actually. Jax scowled. It’s not like she always tells me where she’s going! She went to work last Tuesday and didn’t come home. I thought she’d gone off on some work-related trip.

Exasperated and realising that arguing with a naïve teenager wasn’t helping anyone find anything, I willed my magic to calm and asked, So, what did the locator spell say?

See for yourself. Jax took me to Jen’s massive bedroom on the first floor of their Mayfair mansion. By massive bedroom, I mean the entire first floor was her bedroom, complete with window balcony, luxury en-suite, gigantic furniture, and gorgeous sofas and chairs at one end of the large, airy space. On the glass coffee table in the centre of the sitting area, there were two maps, each with a locator stone on them.

Taking a seat on one of the plush futons, I examined the map closest to me. It was a map of the UK; the locator stone was sitting on London. The other piece of paper was a blown up map of the capital city. The stone’s position indicated that Jen was in Mayfair. Upper Brook Street to be precise.

Jen and Jax’s street...

She’s home? I asked, perplexed. "She’s here?" Instinctively, I glanced around the room, as though I’d be able to see the other Gilmore girl.

Jax nodded. I’ve tried the locator spell loads of times, she informed me. Same thing each time.

Let me try, I said eagerly, reaching for the locator stone.

Be my guest, waste your time, she crooned with a shrug.

I put the stone—it’s more like a grey-blue pebble, actually—on the edge of the map of London and cast the locator spell with Jen in mind.

The stone glided across the smooth paper, heading for Mayfair.

It stopped over Jax’s street.

She’s home, I sighed, eyeing the map anxiously.

You think she’s been here the whole time? Jax murmured her query. But I haven’t seen or heard anything...

I inhaled deeply and faced the young witch. Maybe Jen didn’t use a transporter spell the day she went missing... Maybe she made herself invisible and used a cloaking spell so no one would be able to detect or track her, I mumbled, unsure.

And she doesn’t know how to reverse the spells! Jax surmised.

Or she doesn’t have enough power to do it.

I bet you could you do it! Jax exclaimed excitedly.

I could try... I said hesitantly. Inside, I knew I’d be able to make Jen visible in my sleep—after all, I’m the most powerful witch you’d ever come by—but I didn’t want Jax to know that, not after I’d spent the last few minutes removing dangerous secrets from her mind. Including secrets about me...

You’re the most powerful witch in the country, Amber. One of the most gifted in Europe.

I didn’t argue with that—that’s been public knowledge for some time now. Everything else about my power, I’d like to keep on the down low.

I’ll do my best. That wasn’t a lie. I planned to bring Jen back in a jiffy and act shocked by my own success, act like it was a fluke.

But for some reason, I couldn’t reverse the spells. My powers huffed and puffed, irked by the failure.

Jax has been trying to get her sister back ever since.

Jen was still nowhere to be found.

Now, the young witch says through the phone connection, Jen’s a lost cause. And she’s not really missing—

So you’ve given up on her? My voice is high, sharp. Semi-hostile.

If my brother Aiden became invisible, there’s no way I’d give up on getting him back.

Never.

He’s all the family I’ve got left.

Just like Jen is Jax’s only family.

Of course, I’m still trying to undo what she’s done, Jax insists. Everyday, in fact. But I’ve given up hope that I’ll see her again. Her voice is low, subdued.

Never give up hope, Jax. After a few seconds of silence, I ask, So, who’s the missing person, then?

This girl that goes to my school—

"Your school?" I probe sceptically. Jax doesn’t go to school—she dropped out before even sitting her GCSEs—and as far as I know, doesn’t have a job, either.

Jen used to work, but the organisation she served... well, let’s just say that it ceased operations last November. The same time that Jen ‘vanished’. If Jen wasn’t invisible, she and Jax wouldn’t need to work now, anyway. They have a trust fund that’ll provide for them, and for generations to come.

This girl at my former school, Jax rephrases. Simone. Her older sister Imogen disappeared three days ago.

I’m not surprised that she didn’t say, ‘My friend Simone’s older sister’. I don’t think Jax has too many friends, not with the smartass, rebellious attitude she has. Add to that her snazzy home and the OTT riches, the lack of friends probably isn’t through lack of trying on her part. I wouldn’t be surprised if I found out that Jax left school because she was being bullied.

Missing for three days? I say. Her family can go to the police now. They’ll take it seriously if she’s been gone that long.

They did go to the police, Jax tells me, exasperated. They say she may have just gone off on her own. She’s over 21, an adult... Besides, the police won’t be able to find her, even if they tried.

Have a little faith—

You don’t get it, she cuts me off, her tone annoyed. Magic was involved. Dark magic.

I beg your pardon? I’m not sure why my voice went almost hostile when I said that.

Imogen was taken from her art studio, Jax tells me, lowering her voice. I sensed dark magic there. I think a dark witch has her.

Dark witches are magical witches that do evil things. There aren’t that many of them around, and they’re nowhere near powerful enough to do any real damage. But the use of dark magic is a concern, especially if I’m to believe Jax’s suspicions about it being a tool in abducting a young woman.

Why would a dark witch be interested in Imogen? I wonder aloud.

Oh, didn’t I tell you, already? She’s a witch.

CHAPTER 2

IMOGEN, IMOGEN, IMOGEN... Hmm, rings a bell... Wait, not Imogen Hardy? I gasp.

Yeah, Jax tells me, her voice a little faint. You know her?

Not personally, but—

I stop before divulging that the Hardys were a part of the organisation I worked for until it closed down at the end of last year. Our mandate was to protect humans from supernatural threats. The Hardys weren’t part of the inner circle, but they were loyal to us and under our protection. As a result, hardly anyone within the supernatural community knows they’re witches.

I only know because I’d been tasked to contact the witches and tell them that our organisation had shut down. So, I’m a bit taken aback that it’s Jax contacting me about Imogen’s disappearance and not the Hardys themselves.

But what? Jax enquires. How do you know Imogen?

She was in the news, I lie. Years ago, I add after a moment, realising that Imogen’s disappearance probably hasn’t been picked up by the media yet. About some strange activities around her house. I can’t remember the exact details.

Right... It doesn’t sound like I’ve convinced her. I wish I was a better liar! I really don’t want Jax to know the truth about the Hardys. From the moment I met Jax, there was just something about her I didn’t trust.

I don’t think she’s evil or anything, but because of her youth and fearlessness, it’s not safe to disclose sensitive information to her.

Have you told Imogen’s parents? About the dark magic, I mean.

A heavy sigh. They’re convinced that no one knows they’re witches and so the supernatural has nothing to do with Imogen’s disappearance. That explains why the Hardys didn’t contact