At some point I had managed to stop making a complete fool out of myself, long enough I pick myself up off the ground and clean up a bit. I had dirt and leaves stuck to my cloak and some dirt was even smeared over my face, but I was issued wet wipes and tissues by some of the others so I could at least get the gunk off my face. At least my little episode wasn't as embarrassing as some of the others or so they told me.

But thankfully as a bit of a distraction, Victoria and Kate had called me from the school Halloween party. I'm surprised I even got any phone reception out here, but I was glad to hear from them.

'How is it? What did everyone turn up in?' I asked. Katie and Victoria had put me on speaker phone and I could sort of hear some music in the background.

'Oh the hall looks great, they went to town on the decorations.' Katie told me. 'Are you gonna be able to come back I mean you gotta see some of these costumes?'

'Yeah I'm not sure about that, I wish I could though.' I said as I looked over to where my Aunt, my cousins and the rest of the coven were. 'In fact, lemme get back to you in a few I think some people are leaving.'

I hung up my phone as my friends acknowledged I'd get back to them. I was being beckoned over to the group where our vampire friends were in fact leaving.

'Is everyone going already?' I asked as I made my way over. A few nodded, some members of the coven had things to attend to such as their families, or pets they had to let out. A few of them had their own spells to get back to that they had started before they left and needed time to develop before returning after a while. The vampires however had to go feed for the night. Where or how they fed, or who they fed on was not something I wanted to know so I packed the questions in. I guess I was still having a bit of a hard time that vampires were a thing but I should learn that nothing should be a surprise any more.

'Thank you for a wonderful night everyone.' Arne announced to us all. 'May we all come together again for another soiree soon.'

I felt a little bad when the vampires left as I couldn't quite remember all of their names, but they were all really, really nice. You would think that creatures with such a bad reputation; going by what was said about them in novels and movies and the like, that they would genuinely be awful. But I suppose as I had only just been made aware of the existence of vampires and had met a clan of them; my opinion could change. I guess it was steadily changing for the better as Duncan came and stood next to me and casually nudged my side.

'Here, take this.' He said to me as he pushed a small piece of folded paper in to my hand. I unwrapped it and read the writing on it. It was Duncan's phone number.

'Call me anytime, I mean if you wanna like hang out or something.'

I swear if vampires could blush then Duncan would be scarlet right now. I mean, he was turned quite young but for someone who had lived for the hundreds of years he had, Duncan still had a boyish charm about him. He was handsome, more handsome than Liam dare I say and definitely not backward at coming forward which Liam sort of lacked as a personality trait, as he was a little more reserved.

'Oh, cool. I mean, yeah... I'd like that.' I smiled as I replied. 'Here let me call you now so you have my number.'

I jabbed the numbers in to my phone and quickly rang Duncan's for a few rings. He quickly saved my number in to his phone.

'Great, maybe I'll call you first.' Duncan grinned at me. Oh if I was fancying anyone right now then it was definitely Duncan. Liam would have to literally fight for the top spot that's for sure. My thought's were now starting to wander a little, especially when I looked over to my Aunt who was yet again being spun round by Arne. They were both laughing with each other and they genuinely looked like they were having fun.

I waved at the vampires as they finished up saying goodbye, sneaking a final glance at Duncan as he turned to leave. If there's one thing the movies definitely got right then it was the speed of vampires. One second they were all there and the next, gone. Their energy had gone too, the air that was buzzing with power from two magical species dimmed instantly and faded back slightly to that of the coven.

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My cousins were quizzing me slightly as they had noticed Duncan had taken a shine to me.

'Wow Maddie he never gave us his number.' Molly cackled. 'He must really like you.' She was grinning at me now along with waggling an eyebrow in some suggestive manner. I knew what she was insinuating but I wasn't biting.

'Oh you two are totally gonna bond.' Macy interjected. Again, they were talking about stuff I had no clue about and it was apparent I had no idea as they saw the look on my face.

'Bonding. We witches bond with a lot of other creatures. Animals as familiars, other supernatural beings. In our family, coven even it tends to be cats and vampires.' Macy told me matter of factly. 'In fact Molly has a cat at home called Cosmo, he found her just last year. I still haven't found my familiar yet.'

'Does everybody in the coven have one?' I asked. My cousins shook their heads.

'There's only a few of us with familiars.' Molly replied. 'Even Auntie M doesn't have one, but she doesn't really need one to be honest she's powerful enough.'

Deciding I'd rather read for the explanation rather than have it said to me, I pulled out my new witches guidebook and looked up the chapter on familiars. If I had any questions for my cousins I would ask them for more details.

"Not all witches have a familiar and not all witches requite one. Familiars are drawn to us by our energies and become a faithful friend and guide who can also help us channel our energy and help focus spells."

After reading that, I decided I wanted a familiar.

"Familiars usually find you and not the other way round. They also find you when you least expect it. UPDATE: Due to the rise of many animal shelters, some familiars my not be able to find you no matter how hard they try. The council suggests that those without familiars visit these shelters occasionally to see if a potential familiar is in fact detained there."

'Yeah I should probably take you to the local shelters at some point and see if we can't find you a kitty friend.' My Aunt chuckled as she shuffled in beside me.

'You finished sucking face with Arne Auntie M?' Molly smirked at her, which in turn got her a dig in the arm.

'Hey I can't help myself.' Auntie M looked quite smug when she said that.

'Are you and Arne bonded?' I quizzed my Auntie M, not even sure what I was asking. She turned and looked at me with an eyebrow raised.

'We are actually. You've been talking you lot, haven't you?'

Auntie M eyed us all as if it was gossip we shouldn't have been spreading. She just broke out in to a mad cackle.

'We've been bonded for ooh, about six years now. Not as long as our coven have been associated with their clan, but quite long.'

I heard stirring from the rest of the group. People were getting ready to leave and had walked over to say their goodbyes. I was engulfed with hugs and kisses and reassuring words of encouragement. Gabrielle and Brianna told me they would bring me some of their famous jerk chicken with rice, something they didn't bring to the coven meetings that often but everybody went ballistic over it when they did. Apparently it was their grandmother's recipe and was to die for. Some of the others had been planning another girly day out of shopping which I was invited to and my cousins said we would take a trip somewhere, just the three of us when Macy got her car back from the garage.

Everything was magicked back to where it came from, the bonfire was extinguished and everybody gathered their personal belongings. Eventually, everyone left via their own portals, leaving my Auntie M and I on our own in the dark, moonlit clearing.

'C'mon, we'll teleport back and walk a little bit.'

Auntie M held on to my arm and let her power go a little bit, instantly teleporting us to the outskirts of the forest closer to the grounds of the school. The moon was practically blazing tonight and I could feel the light shining off it, illuminating and bathing my skin with a silvery glow. It actually felt quite nice and refreshing almost. It was quiet between my Aunt and I for a few moments before I decided to speak. I say speak when it was more of a brain fart resulting in word vomit. I'd had quite the night and it was all coming out.

'So, now I'm like properly in the coven I can literally ask about anything that goes on in our world?' I blurted out. Auntie M had told me before that certain things were out of bounds until I became an official part of the coven so now, I could go ham on the quizzing. And I was planning to learn as much as possible. Especially as whenever something weird happened or some revelation occurred, I just sat and took it on the chin. Auntie M just looked at me waiting for me to continue.

'So I wanted to.. I mean I...'

My mind went blank, again. Anytime I got the chance to ask anything my dumb brain just shut down.

'Hey hey, it's been a busy evening don't get yourself so worked up.' Auntie M patted my shoulder. 'C'mon, let's go drop in the school Halloween party for a bit and see what states there are.'

'Can we show up like this?' I asked, lifting my cloak out with my arms.

'Well, we are witches for real and to be honest witches don't all have skin full of boils or wear pointy hats and black spidery dresses. Witches just look normal, whatever that is.'

I raised an eyebrow at her.

'But I say we get dressed up. Any ideas?' Auntie M finished.

'Eighties or nineties theme?'

We both pondered for a brief moment before we said our idea out loud together.

'Wayne and Garth.'