A while after my near spewing fit which thankfully didn't happen; my Aunt portalled us to Arne's mansion. It almost seemed like he was expecting us when we arrive as he glided over to my Aunt and showered her with affection. Duncan had also showed up and came and stood beside me, a little more restrained in showing his affection for me, I mean we had only been on one date. He gently clasped my hand in his and planted a quick kiss on the back of it. I felt a little flushed after that.

'You want to use your lab?' Arne asked my Aunt. She nodded in reply.

'Could you keep an eye on us for a few hours please? We're going in for a bit.' Auntie M asked her Scandinavian vampire. He bowed his head then taking her hand, led her through to where her lab was. Duncan and I followed.

The reason why we were here was a little odd. When I started feeling sick after our evening meal, I told my Aunt I had just seeing weird apparitions again, which I hadn't actually seen since this whole thing started. Plus I just didn't feel right in general.

'It happens once in a while when you're a fledgling. Once you've got a decent grip on your powers you'll find it happens all the time, but you can control the visions better.' Auntie M told me.

Wow I don't think I liked the idea of seeing spooks and ghosts all the time. Seeing shadowy dogs and frilly dressed Victorian ladies on the odd occasion was a bit frightening at the best of times but seeing them constantly? I didn't like the sound of that. We soon got to my Aunts laboratory where she sprung in to action, getting various bits and pieces out of the drawers and cupboards. She drew something out from under one of the chairs.

'Get on these and tell me your weight.'

She had brought out a set of digital scales. I raised an eyebrow looking at her wondering what she was up to but did as I was told.

'Er, fifty eight kilos, bang on.' I told her, reading the numbers that flashed up on the little digital display. Auntie M wrote this number down on a scrap of paper then motioned for me to jump off the scales. She stepped on and took a note of her weight.

'Sixty kilos. Shit I'd better start laying off the pies.' She chuckled. 'Hey Maddie, can you do me a favour and stick the kettle on for me please?'

I did what she asked and flipped on the kettle she kept by the Belfast sink. I watched as she pulled various bottles and boxes out of one of the cabinets and began weighing out and measuring stuff, then grinding the mixture up in a pestle and mortar. She brought out a weird handmade looking teapot and dumped the mixture in. Some of the bottles had labels on; chamomile, jasmine blossom, peppermint. Standard stuff for making some kind of sleep tea. But one ingredient stood out from the rest. Belladonna. With the Belladonna, she had literally counted the grains in to two separate teacups, one for me and one for herself. I continued my intense watching as Auntie M set the teapot on a small wire rack with a lit tea-light underneath. She then poured boiling water in the pot, chanted something in a language I didn't understand at the small candle then left the mixture to brew.

'Just give it a few minutes.' She said to me. 'You ready to go on an adventure?'

'What kind of adventure?' I asked. I had absolutely no idea what she was up to, besides making some kind of sleep tea with what could easily be a nasty ingredient.

'A trippy one. I don't want to tell you too much it has to be experienced personally. Here, a drop of blood in the pot please.'

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Great, my Aunt was drugging me. I complied with her request, taking a pin she handed me to prick my finger for a drop of blood for the pot whilst she did the same. She turned back to the counter and grabbed a small jar of honey out of a drawer along with a teaspoon and drizzled some into the cups, before she poured in the tea concoction through a fine mesh sieve. She handed me my cup.

'C'mon, this way.' She nodded her head over to a wide doorway I hadn't really noticed before, separated from the lab by a thick, heavy black velvet curtain. As soon as we stepped in to the room behind the curtain, dozens of candles flickered to life; bathing everything in a soft, yellowly light. The room felt comfortably cosy with plush and expensive looking drapes and silks carefully draped from the ceiling. The floor was squishy underfoot with a deep, expensive feeling dark wine red carpet which lead down a few very shallow steps in to a sunken seating pit absolutely filled with various pillows, cushions, quilts and throws.

'Make yourself comfortable.' Auntie M said. I found a spot in the seating pit and rearranged some of the cushions around me.

'So what are we doing?' I asked, still holding my tea cup.

'We, are going to speak to some of our ancestors.' Auntie M replied. 'And we need this to do it.' She nodded to her cup. 'It's like their spirits are in another dimension almost and the only easy, quick and safe way we can get there together is this tea induced sleep. Kind of puts in you in a sort of out of body state.'

I was trying my best to keep up with what was going on. This was obviously a kind of magic I wouldn't be able to do at my level but it was a cake walk for for my Aunt.

'But why are we going to see them?'

'Just because. It's probably time you meet them, they wouldn't be happy with me if I didn't take you.'

'Y'know Auntie M. When most Aunts take their nieces on "adventures" they take them on big shopping trips or to Alton Towers, not to some weird ghost dimension.'

I didn't mean to sound as cutting as I did but sometimes all these bizarre things that were just sprung on me with no prior warning got to me sometimes. Auntie M must have noticed the bit of regret that showed on my face after I said that, but she just grinned at me.

'Shopping trips and theme parks are days out Maddie, not adventures. We're going to another dimension not bloody Ikea!' She cackled. 'Anyway, you better get comfy we'll be out for a good few hours at least.'

Auntie M produced a smallish wooden box from seemingly out of nowhere. She took a large tealight candle, an oil burner and a small dropper bottle of what looked like oil out of the box and quickly set everything up on a small, low down table that was in the middle of the seating pit. Then she brought out that mad family athame made from the leg bone of one of our ancestors.

'I need a bit more blood this time. About a teaspoon should do it.' She said as she handed me the athame then pointed to the oil in the burner. I took it from her, took a deep breath the jammed the sharp end of the bone knife in to my thumb. I winced and gasped as the blade cut through my flesh. Resisting the urge to instantly shove my thumb in my mouth, I held it over the oil and squeezed as much blood out as possible. I passed the athame back to my Aunt who casually wiped the blade on a tissue then proceeded to do the same to her thumb, without the wincing though.

'Hey, do we have to worry about like, blood borne diseases and stuff?' I asked, the question popping in to my head. Perfectly valid question I reckon.

'Funnily enough, no. Not in witch families anyway. Can still get nasties from regular people though.'

'Ohh. Fair enough.'

Well I guess that answered my question then.

Auntie M finished squeezing her thumb in to the oil, then ran her other hand over the deep cut, using her magic to heal it instantly. I glanced down at my thumb, wondering why I hadn't done that myself then figured I should. The cut slowly melded back together after a few seconds. I had got the hang of healing magic, I just wasn't as quick as my Aunt.

'Okay then.' Auntie M said. 'You ready to go in?'

'I suppose so.'

'Good, the tea should have cooled down a bit by now.'

I grabbed my cup and stared in to the weird concoction, feeling the fine china wasn't as hot.

'So what do we do then?' I asked.

'Just neck it.'

I shrugged my shoulders then literally tipped the tea down my neck. I coughed a bit after doing so then put the cup on the side, watching my Aunt do the same. Within a second it felt like I was having general anaesthetic at the hospital. I started feeling light-headed and there was a weird hot then cold sensation that felt like it was running through my veins.

Then I don't know what happened.