'So tell me how your date went?' My Aunt asked me. We were having a slightly later than usual dinner, or tea as my Aunt called it in the American diner in town. We had both othered a cheeseburger and fries with a miniscule salad, macaroni cheese and some fried chicken strips as sides. We both had some milkshakes too; I had a malted chocolate shake whilst Auntie M had a banana one, which was funny because she absolutely hated bananas as a fruit but enjoyed it as a milkshake flavour.

'It was awesome! Duncan took me to Bletchley Park it was so cool.' I raved, shoving some fries in to my mouth.

'No typical dates for you two then, you pair of nerds.' Auntie M grinned.

'Hey I'd rather go somewhere interesting than waste two hours of my life watching some film I don't like and not being able to talk.' I cackled back.

'I know I know, I'm the same. Duncan's a nice boy though.'

'Boy? He's like a few hundred years old and he was turned when he was an actual adult.' I said.

'That's true. You gotta remember though there's still a personality in every vampire they don't all become devoid of emotion or become psychotic killing machines. Just like humans, certain events might change them they just have a longer time of experiencing being around.'

I nodded at her, I guess she had a point. She continued.

'Besides, Arne brought up his clan to not be complete vampire dicks. Help's them all evade detection.'

'So you think Arne's pretty much the same guy he's always been since he was turned more or less?'

'From what I can gather... yes more or less. From what I've heard of him, he sort of developed a sense of humour that's for sure.'

'And what's he always been like then?' I asked, genuinely curious to know as my Aunt has known Arne for quite a while and was also bonded to him. She was bound to know something more of his history.

'An absolute sex pest.'

My Aunt said that with the straightest of faces. I started laughing and nearly choked on my burger. I coughed and choked and spluttered before attempting to quell it all with a good long drink of my milkshake.

'Oh Christ I hate you so much now.' I shook my head and chuckled. My Aunt just smirked at me.

We carried on chatting all the way through our meal and dessert, which as always was amazing. I had an absolutely massive strawberry sundae, blathered in whipped cream and chocolate sauce whilst Auntie M had the diners home made apple pie with whipped cream and home made vanilla ice cream. Suitably satiated and satisfied, we left the diner just before half past seven and began making our way up to Arne's mansion in my Aunt's BMW.

'It'll be getting cold enough now to warrant getting the XC90 out.' My Aunt said as we tootled up the road. Arne's mansion I had only recently found out was, was located just outside of Cambridge. I barely ever travelled there by normal means as I was usually portalled there by my Aunt or I had tried doing it myself; but my Aunt occasionally liked driving up once in a while. At this time of night though with my Aunt taking it steady in the darkness and not razzing about like a psychopath, it would take around fifty minutes to get there give or take. I loved being in the car though and so did my Aunt. She had put on a pretty cool playlist, a mixture of The Jesus and Mary Chain, Echo and the Bunnymen and Sisters of Mercy to name a few. I knew some of the tunes and sang along to some of them.

I checked my phone to see what time it was, another twentyish minutes and we'd be at Arne's but what had literally just hit me was the date. We were just a few days off from December meaning school would be breaking up for the Christmas holidays, Yule would officially start a few days before then and the two things that I could have punched myself for nearly forgetting.

My Aunt and my Mum's birthdays. Both were in the first week of December. My mum's was on the second and my Aunt's was on the sixth. I couldn't believe I had nearly forgot them but I'm glad I remembered them in just enough time to get something and some cards sorted out. My mum would be happy with a nice bouquet of flowers and some lovely chocolates but my Aunt; My Aunt was a nightmare to buy for sometimes. She always told me I never needed to buy her anything but I liked buying gifts. I had to have a serious think about what to get her.

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Now we were only about ten minutes away from Arne's. We were having a bit of a sing along to This Charming Man by the Smiths, doing our best impressions of Morrissey when all of a sudden my mouth started salivating as if I was about the throw up. I looked over to my Aunt who was grimacing as if she was in some kind of pain. We had just got in to a small village on the outskirts of Cambridge which seemed pretty quiet and the roads were dead, so Auntie M pulled the BMW over in a nearby bus stop. As soon as the pulled on the handbrake we both launched ourselves out of the car. Auntie M was coughing slightly and I was dry heaving, keeping my balance by leaning an arm on the perspex side of the bus stops.

'Auntie M what the fuck was that?' I asked her in between retching. The sensation had left just as soon as it had came. I felt incredibly sick for what seemed like only a second or two, then it stopped near instantly.

'That freak's just used his abilities.' Auntie M coughed again and spat on the ground, sticking her tongue out in disgust. I knew where she was coming from on that as I had an absolutely awful taste in my mouth. 'We need to get to Arne's get back in the car.'

I took in a few big, deep breaths and did as I was told. Auntie M and I got back in the car, buckled up then sped off toward Arne's mansion. My Aunt had decided to pick up the pace a bit more and we were there in no time. In fact Arne was already waiting for us as my Aunt skidded her car right near the front door, she dove out leaving the engine running

'Morrigan I felt you weren't feeling well. Is something the matter?' Arne asked her as she jogged over to him, laying a hand on his chest.

'That psycho's just used his magic, we might get a location on him.' She said quickly as she tiptoed up and kissed him. 'I'm fine though so is Maddie. Need to go look at the map.'

'No worries, I'll park your car and make a pot of tea.' Arne said to her as she hurried in to the mansion. He gently smiled at me and squeezed my shoulder as I followed my Aunt to her lab. The lights came on as soon as we walked in. We made our way over to the table where my Aunt had set up the large map of the area around the school and the nearby town of Hitchin. The pendulum hanging from the strange tripod thing that was set up over the map was swinging just ever-so-slightly and a super thin line of the goopy mixture that the pendulum had been soaked in, had drawn an outline around a specific part of the map; approximately an inch by inch square. Auntie M had read some co-ordinates on the map and had already Googled them on her phone, bringing up the exact location the pendulum had indicated. She showed me her phone.

'Waitrose? What the hell's he doing at Waitrose?' I scowled.

'Either he's used his abilities to kidnap another woman or he's trying to magic himself a discount on his shopping.' My Auntie M grumbled. 'C'mon we're portalling over let's go investigate.'

Auntie M grabbed my hand and led me out of the lab, finding Arne on the way.

'Just zipping over to the Waitrose in Hitchin. Got a trace on the guy there gonna have a look around.' My Aunt kissed Arne again.

'Be careful. I'll be there in an instant if you need me.' Arne ran a thumb across her cheek. 'I'll have some tea and cake ready for you when you get back.'

'You've been baking again?'

'Carrot cake.'

The last thing we saw before my Aunt portalled us away was Arne's cheeky smile. But in a flash we were standing just at the far side of the large, super middle class supermarket; checking for any CCTV cameras just in case we had to fritz them. I could smell something gross again coming from round the corner and I'm sure Auntie M could smell it too as she was pointing over to near where there was an electric car charging station. Thankfully it was well past closing time for the shop so there were no people milling about outside, but there were one or two lights on inside; obviously staff who were replenishing for tomorrow.

My Aunt and I scanned outside the shop itself and round the car park to no avail. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. So we followed the smell instead, that awful but familiar smell of death and decay. It got stronger and stronger the further we followed the path round to the larger part of the car park. There were only a few cars still parked up, I figured they belonged to maybe a staff member or somebody who had just parked up outside of Waitrose for some reason. Auntie M walked ahead of me with her nose in the air, sniffing occasionally trying to pinpoint where the stench was coming from.

I carried on walking behind her as we got closer to the electric car charging bays where there was one car parked, still with the charging lead plugged in. I recognised the car. How could I not recognise the car after I had seen it many times at school and heard it being talked about constantly over the past week. A Model Three Tesla in white.

'Auntie M, what's the reg number on that Tesla there?' I asked her, she was closer to the car; practically sniffing it now and even I could tell there was this rancid stink emitting from it.

'Err Foxtrot, Romeo, Four, November...'

'Charlie, Five, Four.' I completed. 'It's Francesca's new car.'