There's something that I can safely say was the most pointless waste of two hours of my life; it was the past two hours that the local, clueless Police Force came to the school to discuss the importance of not talking to strangers and what to do should you ever need to call the Police for whatever reason. It was a two hour long shit show of being condescended to like the dumb kids we all apparently, how serious it was about Francesca going missing and how we all had to do our bit as upstanding members of society. We were all packed in to the schools assembly hall, boarding and day students and pretty much all of the faculty who were in today. My Auntie M was sat next to Mr Evans and they both looked incredibly bored. In fact, my Aunt was speaking to me telepathically about how bored she was.

'Oh this is a load of old bollocks I'm so BORED!' She whinged.

'You're preaching to the choir.' I replied. 'I hope it doesn't go on for much longer, we have actual important stuff to do. Like catch the guy who's caused all this.'

'Damn right. As soon as we get out of here, go get changed and meet me outside the teachers dorm. We'll go to Waitrose and see if we find something.'

I had glanced around the hall looking at the other students, most of them weren't even paying attention and were just messing around on their phones.

The Police had sent out a few of their beat officers and this Detective Cooper who was maybe in his forties and around five foot eight, with massive bags under his eyes and a bit of a beer gut; all crammed in to a dark grey suit that had probably seen better days. His appearance didn't inspire much confidence but I could appreciate the fact that the detectives and officers working on these types of kidnap and murder cases were doing their best, but their best just wasn't good enough. Not against the forces of the supernatural it wasn't at least. Even though it was our responsibility to deal with the supernatural stuff, the Police always had to be involved to deal with the human side of things and going by what my Aunt had told me this morning before this stupid talk; we had to go clean up after in case any humans had come face to face with our business. And that meant wiping minds or causing a bit of weird amnesia or hypnosis that would have them second guessing and doubting everything they saw. No, correction... think they saw.

I went and joined my Aunt briefly before I headed off to the dorm to get changed for our little excursion. She was talking to the knackered looking Detective Cooper as all of the students were making a mad dash to get out of the place, as we had no classes for the rest of the day. She was working a little magic on him, some kind of coercion spell where he would subtly tell her what she wanted to know. I didn't know there were varying levels of this kind of spell, it was quite impressive actually; sort of like a social engineering kind of deal. She probably would have already got his debit card pin number and bank account details by now if she was that way inclined.

'So you've not questioned everyone in Waitrose at all? Just got their CCTV footage?' I heard Auntie M asking the Detective as I approached.

'No Ms Taylor. The Chief wanted us to concentrate on surveillance and forensics.' The hapless Detective answered. His eyes looked a little more sleepy as I focused on him but that was probably my Aunts doing.

'Okay, thank you for your time Detective Cooper.' Auntie M said as she nodded her head as she glided over to me and beckoned me to walk with her.

'He's telling the truth, he did say their Chief Inspector had increased the amount of beat coppers in the area and has just put a civilian surveillance request out so people can send in any footage of suspicious goings on they caught on the doorbell cameras or home CCTV systems.'

'That won't turn up much then. I mean I can understand them not interviewing anyone in the store because we know Francesca didn't even make it through the door going by their CCTV footage.' I added. 'She didn't get snatched on her way in, but just as she got out of her car. Well, if she even managed to get out of her car.'

'And the stores cameras don't have that much of a view of that part of the car park, nor do the EV charge points have cameras on them either.' Auntie M said. 'Whatever, lets go have a look for ourselves.'

I high tailed it over to my dorm room with Katie and Victoria, they had an afternoon planned of doing nothing but watching TV and lounging about. I told them I was off in to town with my Aunt and that I would return with posh snacks so we could have a chill night and watch a film or something. I said good bye and ran back out after changing in to a pair of jeans, comfy boots and my now standard winter jumper and leather jacket combo. Auntie M was already waiting for me outside my dorm in her big Volvo. I jumped in the passengers side.

'When did you get the Volvo?' I asked her, wondering how she got it to the school so quickly.

'Well I was gonna go home, drop off the Beemer and bring the Volvo back, but I couldn't be arsed so I teleported the BMW back to my garage and just drove the Volvo back. It didn't take long really.'

I didn't know that it was possible to teleport big things like cars from one place to another but now I did. I guess I was a way off from doing that, I was only just getting the hang of teleporting myself from place to place, never mind big items as well. I still had a long way to go before I became more comfortable with doing basic witchy things and spells that I would probably be using on a regular basis. The trip in to Hitchin didn't take long though so I didn't have much time to dwell on anything. My Aunt decided to put a little glamour on us both as she could maintain it and keep it very well hidden. It didn't take much to make us both look completely different; a change in hair style and colour, a few subtle facial shape and feature changes and we looked nothing like what we actually do. I now had long, deep auburn hair, even bigger brown eyes and make up that looked I had spent hours on it and my skin was a little more sun kissed. My Aunt now had ash blonde hair tied up in a simple chignon, brown eyes also and had changed her face to look a bit more slender and pointy.

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While the car park was relatively quiet, Auntie M parked the Volvo near to a few other cars. We got out in to the miserable, cold and over cast weather and made our way toward the entrance to Waitrose.

'Are you okay Maddie? Are you pushing your energy down?' Auntie M asked me, she looked a little concerned. I was stressing a little bit and trying to keep my own magical energy hidden was about all I could manage about now.

'I'm trying my best. I just feel a little anxious is all.'

'Here let me help.'

I watched Auntie M scrunch her right hand up then open it back up revealing an odd pinky-purple coloured gemstone. She took my hand and dropped the stone in to my palm.

'Lepidolite. Keep this handy if you do get a bit anxious about anything yeah? I'm here with you okay? This is one of the best ways to learn magic actually, just going ahead and doing it under a bit of pressure. Remember, you thrive under pressure.'

I took in a deep breath then let it out in a controlled sigh.

'Lets do this.' I said, hopefully it sounded cool when I said it but I probably didn't.

I couldn't feel any energy spilling off my Aunt, she was a pro after all so I tried to match her vibe as best I could even though my energy felt like it was trying to spike randomly. Every so often Auntie M would randomly touch my arm or tap my shoulder and instantly I could feel my energy spikes vanish. It was like she was siphoning any excess energy off me and just dispersing it.

'You're doing well Maddie, just concentrate I got your back.' Auntie M's voice would sound in my head. I kept my breathing steady and unclenched my jaw, relieving me of the tension that was building. Knowing my Aunt was there helping me if I needed it was quite the comfort.

I grabbed a basket at the main entrance and so did my Aunt. We casually walked around looking at things and pointing every so often, trying to make it look like we were having a natural conversation. I felt a little out of place walking around the most middle to upper middle class supermarket going; in my slightly baggy jeans, oversized but ridiculously comfy jumper and well worn trainers. But I felt a little better seeing a few people in what would be considered their "scruffy" clothes by the style of what they were wearing, but the brand names on them saying other wise. Auntie M looked the part of smart, stylish career woman even though everything she was wearing except her old faithful Jimmy Choos; was from Primark and probably cost her about fifty quid at the most for the whole outfit.

There were of course the obligatory horsey people milling about, looking like they had just come straight from doing nothing with their expensive shiny riding boots, never worn before jodhpurs and Barbour coats worn just for show, jingling the keys to their brand new Range Rover that had never seen a puddle never mind go off road. They were the posh money people, they didn't look after their own horses. That was left to the stable girls who were always covered in shit and barely got out of their hole ridden clothes. Everyone in this store was carrying on like nothing had been happening in town, completely oblivious to the fact that loads of women had been kidnapped and murdered from literally just outside. Every woman in here could be a potential target, but they all seemed to have their own target now, for judgement anyway and it was my Aunt.

'Bloody 'ell Maddie have you seen the state of these?! ' She would shriek as she picked random things up or pointed at stuff. 'Who in the hell needs scented bloody bog roll?! That's proper mad that is.'

The Working Class Northerner definitely came out when she was in places like this and not everybody appreciated her candour. I kind of thought my Aunts influence was rubbing off on me, the Working Class part anyway. I did find it ridiculous that some people could be wearing thousands of pounds worth of designer clothing but still end up looking like the people they looked down on.

I chuckled to myself as my Aunt trudged her way round the shop, stopping every so often to chuck random bags of posh crisps and various other snacks in to her basket. I was a bit more selective with mine but Auntie M didn't care what ended up in her basket. The the smell came. In fact the smell hit me, then rapidly subsided; that horrible sweet, but sickly bin juice smell I had experienced before at the school. My Aunt had noticed it too and told me telepathically to keep my eyes out from where it was coming from and try and keep a low profile.

We slowly turned the corner round the bottom of the aisle we were in where we had a view of the big doors that led in to the back warehouse of the store. There was a lean, slightly muscly looking man there with a stock transport cage full of boxes that he was pulling out through the big swing doors. He was only a few yards from us so we got a good look at his face. He appeared somewhat handsome with dark hair in a trendy haircut and well styled fashionable stubble round his jawline. Upon further inspection though, to mine and my Aunts eyes at least; we could see a strange blurring effect especially around his face. The strange, disgusting smell seemed to be coming from him. I could just about see a name on his tag pinned to his shirt, I think it said Bruce on it.

'Don't let on you've noticed him.' Auntie M said telepathically. 'Let's just go up this aisle, pay for our stuff and leave.'

I nodded. I held up my basket, grabbed a few bottles of pop on the way as we walked up the aisle to the checkout and quickly paid for our stuff and left. As soon as we got in to the car, my Aunt pulled her phone out and rang Arne.

'Hey baby. Yeah we found him. No he didn't seem to notice us. Yeah if you would please, we're on the car park. Yep, see you.'

I listened as my Aunt spoke to Arne. She started the car so she could put the heater on as it had gone super cold outside. I flipped the passenger side sun visor down to have a look at the little mirror on it to find my face and hair had gone back to normal.

'Arne'll be here soon.' Auntie M looked at me and smiled.

'How soon?' I asked. It was a stupid question as I nearly jumped out of my skin as Arne tapped on the drivers side window, grinning away. I freaked out even more when I heard more tapping on my window, Duncan had decided to tag along too and had arrived seconds after Arne. I knew vampires were quick but bloody hell, that was... fast. We wound the windows down to talk.

'Oh my Goddess don't do that again.' I wheezed. 'You scared me shitless!'

Arne and Duncan sheepishly said sorry to me while my Aunt sat and cackled at how jumpy they had made me. I suppose I would get used to it but damn, not any time soon. Ugh I'd just been on an undercover mission too of course I was jumpy, but truth be told; it was a bit of a rush. We had finally found the guy! And it looked like he was channelling his demon energy to use glamour magic to make himself look like something he most definitely wasn't. We had caught a glimpse of him that time in the school when he was about to sacrifice Domino and he was not what you would call an attractive man. But the smell? That smell that was the demonic magic of Baal was unmistakeable. We told Arne and Duncan that this guys name tag read something like "Bruce" on it and gave them a general description of him.

'Okay, let us go inside and get the scent of this fellow.' Arne said. He gave my Auntie M a kiss then walked round to the store entrance, Duncan followed him after he took my hand I had leaning on the car door and kissed the back of it. We watched as they walked through the doors of Waitrose. A few women milling about outside had nearly tripped over or bumped in to things as they watched the two stunning vampires walk in. It was quite funny actually.