Page 1 of Blood Witch

PROLOGUE

Twenty years ago…

“There must besomething you can do! Dammit, Helga, the Council is supposed to protect witches,” Gabriel Marlow hissed.

He cut a striking figure in the long, gray coat he wore over a custom-tailored suit. The fit seemed to emphasize the innate power in his tall, lean body. Gabe Marlow might seem thin compared to other supernaturals, but there was no mistaking the strength flowing in his veins.

He was rakishly handsome, but that was part of his design. Her attraction to him would vanish the second she left his company, and wasn’t that another strike against his kind? In fact, it was the very reason they stood there quibbling.

“They don’t see her kind as witches, Gabriel—”

“That is ludicrous. Her mother was a witch. Your sister, for fuck’s sake, Helga. Mabe is innocent!”

“I know, Gabriel, but try to understand. The Council of Covens has been reconvened, and yes, I hold the title as Head Witch, but I have very little say—”

“This is outrageous,” he snarled, eyes blazing red as he snapped his head toward her.

Helga’s eyes widened, but she stood her ground. Her magic came to her, as always, ready to serve, and at full strength. Magic was draining from their world, but Helga Armstrong, Headmistress of the Westwood Academy for Witches, and leader of the Council of Covens, had a large and powerful store of power at her disposal.

“Damn it, I am sorry,” the rogue Vampire said, releasing a shaky breath as he tried to regain his composure.

Helga’s heart squeezed in her chest as she watched him regain control over his emotions. Vampires were so secretive, so rare, and yet her sister, the ever-beautiful Madeleine, had caught the attention of this one.

Helga had caught the two of them in their clandestine meetings, and she had kept their secret for the love of her sister. Then Madeleine changed. The bright light that had always shone within her began to dim even as her belly grew. Pregnant and sick at heart, her sister had run away from the safety of the Armstrong home and into the arms of the revenant who destroyed her.

“It’s all right, Gabe. Take a moment,” Helga consoled the male she’d once considered her enemy.

The alley where he had begged her to meet him in secret was dank and cold, smelling of sewer and filth, the likes of which Helga would rather not imagine. It wasn’t that she was sheltered from the cold and sometimes ugly reality of the world. It was that she’d seen far too much of it during the latest Witch Wars and the resulting reestablishment of the Council of Covens.

Oh, it had been a long, hard fight to right the wrongs of their kind, and all she could do was try. Patience was key, even if most witches were sorely lacking. Helga had learned what the cost of being foolhardy and reckless meant to their world.

Magic was dying. But there had to be a way to save it. The sound of an infant crying brought her head up, and she gasped in shock, watching as Gabriel quickened to a basket hidden amongst the shadows in the alley. He reached inside, lifting the small bundle swaddled in a familiar blanket. Not blanket—a shawl.

Madeleine’s shawl.

“You brought her here?” Helga asked.

“What else could I do with her?” Gabriel replied sadly, lifting a tiny bottle to the child’s seeking mouth.

Propelled as if by magic, Helga walked over to look at the tiny baby. Her heart stuttered inside her chest as she noted the similarities between child and mother. Madeleine had been her junior by five years, and Helga had often enjoyed her position as older sister.

“Oh Madeleine, she looks just like you,” she whispered, as if her sister could hear her somehow from the ether.

“You must shield her, Helga. The Vampires are looking for me, and before you ask, no, I cannot divulge any information.”

“But you, you left them. You went rogue—”

“For Madeleine, I did. But it was always dangerous, and word is out that she is gone. I can’t let them get their claws on Mabe, Helga. She will be two powerful, and in the wrong hands, they will use her terribly.”

“But I can’t, I am not enough to protect her.”

“You are the only one who can!” Gabriel implored, his blood red eyes searching hers. “Hide her then, if you can’t raise her yourself. Just make sure she is safe. Please, I beg you. I will do what I can to make certain my kind thinks she died with her mother. It’s already too late to say she doesn’t exist. They know, Helga. They know—wait, shhh!” he whispered.

Gabriel’s head snapped from left to right as he searched the night with his preternatural senses. She heard the screeching of dozens of bats a millisecond after he did. The Vampires were out, and they were looking for him.

Gabriel hissed, then shoved the child at her. His eyes were wide with fear for one moment before resignation washed over him. Helga shook her head. This could not be happening.

She knew Vampire and Witch communications were strained, but this?

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