Arne and Duncan had only been in the supermarket for a grand total of about ten minutes, then came sauntering out. Arne had a bag in his hand. I wonder what he had bought?

The two vampires made their way over to the car just as I had noticed a few women had followed them out, one or two of them were staff from the store. They oggled the two tall men as they got in to the back of the Volvo, the women then scowling as they noticed me and my Aunt sat in the front.

'I bought you a present.' Arne said as he pulled a large bottle out of the bag. He held it up for my Aunt to look at. She eyed the bottle, it was an expensive looking bottle of British blackberry gin.

'Well somebody's after having a good time.' She said as she looked at Arne coyly. I had to stop myself from making a face at what she was insinuating. I don't know what it was, but why did young people always have to have some kind of negative reaction to their older family members, usually parents but sometimes other family members having some kind of sex life? It was weird.

'How did you get on?' I turned around to face Arne and Duncan in the back seat.

'We found the guy. He does have a magical odour about him but we can't sense it as much as you can.' Duncan said. 'Arne did hypnotise one of his colleagues and got some information.'

'Yes his name is Bruce Allen, twenty seven years old, he's only been working there for a few months so around the same time as the murders started. He apparently lives somewhere in the Westhill area.' Arne told us what he knew. 'He finishes at four o'clock, so if you'd like, we can tail him and find out where he lives? Maybe even have a look round his home when he's not in?' Arne said.

'That would be great.'

Wow I didn't know there would be some breaking and entering involved, but I suppose we were in a bit of a shady world so I guess it was okay if it would help stop this guy from kidnapping more women and murdering them. I found it strange that I was becoming more and more comfortable with things of this nature, it just showed that the world really wasn't as black and white as you would think. Like I've been told before; "for the greater good."

Arne and Duncan left and we headed back to the school. Arne and Duncan wouldn't have to wait long for this Bruce guy to clock out from work as it was just gone half past 3 in the afternoon now so they would find out exactly where this guy lived and maybe even find out what secrets he had in his home. My Aunt and I parted ways and agreed to meet up in the dining hall for our evening meal later on. I hurried up to my dorm room with my big bag of snacks and drinks I had bought for myself and my friends for our girly night later on. They both approved of my choices and gathered everything up to put it all in our special snack basket with the rest of our goodies and various drinks we had. I would have joined them in a study session as I did want to go through some of my English work but I felt really, really tired after my little reconnaissance mission earlier. So I decided to have a nap before we went to get dinner.

I got my head down for about an hour and a half and felt a bit better after it. Katie and Victoria were sat chilling out with the telly on, either scrolling through their phones or reading a book.

'Welcome back to the real world.' Victoria said to me when she had noticed I had woken up.

'What time is it?' I asked groggily as I ribbed my eyes.

'Just coming up to half past five.' Said Victoria. 'We're about to go down for dinner, go get ready and we can go.'

'Yes mum.' I giggled at Victoria. She playfully pushed my arm as I walked past her. I grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste out of my wash bag and wandered in to the dorms shared bathroom to brush my teeth as I had a horrible taste in my mouth, plus I needed to fix my hair now as my little nap hadn't helped in keeping it decent looking. It was all over the place and sticking out from my head. I brushed my teeth and sorted my hair out figuring I would do as I was only dining at the school and not at Claridges tonight, then rushed back to my room so I could leave with my friends. We made sure our door was locked and we had everything then walked down to the dining hall.

Tonight's menu was yet another masterpiece and I had already chosen what I was having. Stuffed portobello mushrooms for starters, beef bourguignon with a roasted winter veg medley and then bread and butter pudding with crème anglais.

We walked in to the dining hall and found my Aunt already sat at our usual table with a mound of food in front of her. We grabbed our food and went to sit with her.

'Hey Auntie M.' We all said to her as we made ourselves comfortable and set about our food.

'Hey girls, you okay?'

We chatted about what had gone on today and what classes we had tomorrow in between having our delicious evening meal.

'So you're having a girly night tonight?' My Aunt asked us.

'Yep! Face masks, nail polish, snacks and a movie.' Victoria replied.

'We're thinking maybe some king of chick flick, or like a dude comedy or something.' Katie followed up. 'Like Anchorman or 21 Jump Street?'

'How about both?' I added my two cents. It was doable for us to watch two films in a night before we had to sleep.

I watched my Aunt who was now on her dessert whilst we were still on our main meals, she was expertly shoving spoonfuls of the bread and butter pudding in her mouth with one hand and texting on her phone with the other. She was concentrating on her phone and every so often, a grin was appear in her face.

'Is that Arne by any chance?' I asked her.

'Ooh who's Arne?' Katie piped up and smiled at Auntie M.

'Arne's my boyfriend, he's Norwegian and he's super hot. Here look.' Auntie M went all girly and excited for a moment as she shoved her phone out in from of her showing Katie and Victoria a photo of Arne. A photo she took of him when he was in the kitchen at his mansion, chopping something up for something he was cooking.

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'Oh my God Auntie M, does he have a younger brother?' Victoria blushed. Totally serious in her question.

'Actually he has a few, you've seen one of them before I think.' Auntie M said as the turned and looked at me with a grin on her face.

'It's Duncan?' Katie quizzed. 'I thought he was Scottish though?'

'They're like adoptive brothers, Arne has a large extended family.' Auntie M said.

'Aw that sounds nice.' Said Katie. 'Well if any of the rest of the family are that good looking and single well... you know where we are.' She continued as she nudged Victoria who smiled but showed a little bit of an eye roll. Yeah,I wasn't going to introduce my two best friends to a whole clan of vampires any time soon.

We eventually finished dinner and parted ways with my Aunt who made her way back to her car parked at the teachers dorm where she could safely teleport to Arne's.

'I'll ping you later when I get some info from Arne and Duncan.' My Aunt told me telepathically. She was going back there to wait for the two vampires coming back from their reconnaissance mission tailing that Bruce guy. And she was going back to spend some time with our cats Duke and Domino who had been staying at the mansion near exclusively now as they had full reign of the mansion and outside, plus Arne loved cats. My Aunt said she was going to"Keep them updated on the situation." I hadn't been able to communicate with Domino properly yet but my Aunt had conversations with Duke all the time.

I watched her on several occasions properly talking to the ginger cat, nodding while there was some silence then full on replying to whatever Duke had "said." I had sort of... heard some gurgles and mumbles coming from Domino which was really, really weird and made me think I was going crazy. But with my life being the way it was right now, I told myself that no it wasn't crazy that I could hear my cat trying to talk. Domino was still only a young kitten so he probably didn't know how to talk properly yet. I couldn't hear Duke though, so maybe it was a me thing? I should ask my Aunt about that sometime.

But right now I was back in my dorm room with Katie and Victoria. We had decided on watching To Wong Foo, Thanks For everything! Julie Newmar; a total nineties classic which we all enjoyed and hadn't actually seen in quite a while. We got in to our PJ's, painted each others toenails, braided each others hair, the usual. After we watched that, I let Katie and Victoria choose the next film as I excused myself to go use the restroom after drinking to may cans of pop. I was just about to wash my hands when I heard a screaming in my head.

'MADDIE! Maddie, Arne and Duncan have some info on Bruce!' She screeched in my head.

'Woah Auntie M, inside head voice please!' I replied as I soaped up my hands. 'What did they find?'

'Oh ho ho what didn't they find? The guys a total nut-bar. Duncan tailed him as he went to some club in Hitchin and Arne went and had a look at his flat. He lives above a shop somewhere in Westmill.'

'So what did Arne find then?'

'Well, he's definitely using his demon powered glamour magic to turn him from the guy we saw in the school to the good looking dude we saw in Waitrose. Arne thinks he's baiting women, makes it easier for him to kidnap them.'

That made perfect sense. It's amazing what women would do for a handsome face sometimes, but this guy was faking his handsome face.

'Arne took a bunch of photos of the guys flat, it's like what's the word...incel central.'

I shuddered at that word. Out and proud incels were the thing at the moment. Except this guy maybe, he was a sort of closeted incel; obviously because he was committing murders he didn't want that coming out for sure. I heard my phone beep as I had just got a message from my Aunt who had sent me the photos Arne had taken. I tugged the device out of my pyjama bottoms pocket and flipped up the images. Holy shit this guy was not right. His entire flat looked like a bomb had hit it, there were take away boxes everywhere, empty cans and bottles piled high, random books and papers and Goddess knows what else piled up high.

The flat was a pig-sty. Until I saw photos of what looked like a small box room which was possibly the cleanest room in the whole place. There was a TV in one corner mounted on the wall, a desk with a large PC hidden underneath and two monitors. But the most intriguing thing was a fairly large writing bureau that was adorned with various paraphernalia that you would traditionally associate with the craft. There was a ritual bowl, various bottles filled with herbs and other things, a pestle and mortar, a cheap looking athame and loads of candles in different colours and sizes. What worried me the most though was the staggering amount about sharp things dotted around this bureau. There were knives galore, small pocket knives, bowie knives, even a switch blade knife, then sitting on top of the bureau was a full set of Samurai swords. But the most worrying of all the sharp and pointy things, was the huge pot of syringes and needles.

I felt sick.

'Auntie M, is this guy drugging women?' I asked her through our telepathic link.

'He bound to be. He probably finds his victims, drugs them, then takes them back to wherever he's conducting his business.'

Oh I really, really felt sick now. This Bruce guy probably drugged Francesca also, yeah I wasn't her biggest fan but I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

'Hey kiddo, I know you probably don't feel great right now believe me I don't either. But we're gonna stop this guy. If it's anything to go by, there hasn't been another body found since Francesca was taken so... there is probably a chance that she's still alive. Arne had a look through some of Bruce's paperwork and notes, to me it sounds like he may be preparing for a final summoning.'

My Aunts words resonated in my head.

'A final summoning? Have all the murders up to now been practice for him?'

'You could say. And sacrifices to Baal in return for power and to show he's serious. Baal must have given him the go ahead to do the summoning ceremony.'

I sighed heavily, thinking back to that awful dream I had where I saw a load of women I had seen before in Hitchin; including Katie and Victoria. I held back my tears, even just thinking about that horrible dream made me really upset. I was broken out of my zone when a girl opened the door in to the communal bathroom. I washed my hands for what seemed like the fiftieth time then dried them on a few paper towels I pulled from the dispenser.

'Auntie M, I better go. Message me on my phone if you find out anything else 'cause I might be asleep soon.'

'Sure thing Maddie. Ta-ra fer a bit.'

Even my Aunts Northern accent sounding off in my head was weirdly comforting. I hurried back to my dorm room and launched myself on my bed.

'Dude what took you so long?' Katie squeaked at me. 'We're just about to put on Empire Records.'

'Oh sweet!' I said. 'Oh, Auntie M called me, just catching up with her while she's over at Arnes.'

I half paid attention to the film as I had most of it on what I was doing. I had some jewellery making supplies on my bedside table that I had gradually been collecting thanks to my boredom fuelled online shopping sprees I would have whenever I did my laundry. I had loads of different kinds of beads for making bracelets or necklaces, all made from different kinds of crystals. I began making some protection bracelets for Katie and Victoria if anything just to ease my mind a little, thinking I may be doing some good. I made three bracelets; one for Katie, one for Victoria and one for myself all with the same beads on so we matched. I had tigers eye, amethyst, clear quartz, citrine, black tourmaline and black jasper beads on there; all of which were for protection, repelling evil spirits and negative energy. It didn't take me too long but I made all three bracelets in record time. I cradled them in my hands, making sure Katie and Victoria couldn't see what I was doing as I channelled some of my energy in to the bracelets, chanting in my head a simple protection spell and wishing that the bracelets would help me find my friends if I needed to. I felt throwing that in was a good idea, especially after seeing what I did in that dream.

I sat and watched the rest of the film with the bracelets in my hands, waiting for the perfect moment to give them to my friends.