My First Coven

Walk of Life

Duncan had to take me back to the mansion after my outburst. I had cried twice today; once for a dumb reason and the second for a depressingly legitimate one. Everything just felt like it came over me all at once and kicked me in the teeth. I felt really, really bad and I didn't know how to cope with it so I just erupted with this violent crying fit. Duncan kept me close to him as he guided me back to the mansion, where my Aunt was already waiting at the door for me.

'Oh kiddo.' She said to me as she held my face between her hands. She looked genuinely concerned as she brought be in to her arms for a hug. I squeezed my arms around her waist and sobbed in to her shoulder, she stroked my hair gently which I found quite comforting.

'It's finally got to you hasn't it girly?' She asked me as I brought my head up to look at her. My eyes were all itchy now from crying so much, I sniffled then rubbed my nose on the back of my sleeve. I just nodded in reply.

'Come on, lets get a brew and have a chat and a sit down.' Auntie M said, she kept and arm round my shoulders and led me in to the cosy living room where the fire was roaring away, giving off a welcome and comforting warmth. Duncan had slinked away through in to the kitchen but returned to the living room with two fresh mugs of tea and a plate with some cake on it for us.

'Can you give us a while please Duncan?' My Aunt asked him.

'Of course.' He turned to leave but I caught him looking at me, I gave him a small smile which he returned. I could see the kindness and concern in his eyes, but it made me want to cry more for some reason.

Auntie M parked herself on the sofa next to me, grabbing her mug of tea and taking a big drink of it.

'Come on Maddie, tell me what's up.'

I let out a mammoth sigh and blotted the corners of my eyes with the bottom of my jumper.

'I don't know it just...' I struggled to find the words. '... I just felt really overwhelmed all of a sudden. I mean, we're trying to stop a massively misogynistic psychopath from killing even more women, just because he wants to summon a demon. For fucking real! Tell me that doesn't sound crazy?!'

'It does sound crazy though Maddie. It is crazy.'

'But why though? Why us?'

'Because that's how it's always been. There's nobody else.' My Aunt stated.

'I thought you said hunters sometimes went after demons and stuff? Why don't they sort messes out like this?'

'Because they usually, don't want to. Hunters have always had this thing with hunting and killing witches first and foremost. They've been around nearly as long as we have and druids also. They'll go after dangerous warlocks but they tend not to.'

'Why?' I was getting a bit confused now.

'Because they're men. Hunters generally only tend to have women around to fulfil the whole housewife baby making role, so they can have successors and continue what they're doing. They're not actually all that far off from being a cult really. They have been known to work with warlocks from time to time to accomplish their goal, which is eradicating witches. We have all the power and they don't like it.'

'That's so stupid.' I let out a splutter with a hint of a chuckle. It was really stupid.

'Besides, hunters don't really have the proper ability to deal with demons or monsters. To be honest when it comes to that they can barely find their arse with boths hands. We're not entirely all that human to begin with, but we're still susceptible to things that affect humans. We're not immune to everything.'

There were a few moments of silence between us. Then I decided to ask my Aunt a question she may not have been comfortable answering.

'Can you tell me about that time a hunter got you? Or is that something... you'd rather not talk about?'

My Aunt took a deep breath and reached for my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

'There's not much to tell, but I was careless. I had been visiting your mum actually and was on my way home. I stopped in a pub for a bit of dinner, 'cause your mum's a tight bitch at times and didn't offer me anything. I then woke up in the back of a van, I had been drugged unconscious. The hunter was taking me to their ritual site but stopped off at some abandoned warehouse so he could dose me up again because I was coming to. Heh, worst thing was... he had his young grandson with him.'

'He what? How old was he?' I was a little shocked by this.

'About twelve or thirteen I think? I'm not sure he could've been older or younger. The hunter was going to let the kid dose me up again.'

I felt a bit sick at this. They must start teaching them the ways of the hunter from a young age and that, included drugging women. My Aunt continued her story.

'Anyway the kid got out to go piss or something. The old man got tired of waiting so decided to drug me again himself. I was tied up with rowan rope within a magic barrier sigil so Arne couldn't detect me. I managed to somehow kick the guy in the face and escape the van long enough for Arne to track me down. He hypnotised the kid so he remembered nothing of me and snapped the old guys neck.'

I went cold all of a sudden at the last part, though I figured shouldn't be that surprised. Arne was a vampire and he saved my Aunts life by taking that of the man who was going to kill her. Technically Arne's clan were "reformed" vampires who didn't kill for sport or just for shits and giggles. But death happened in this world for lots of reasons and this was something I probably had to learn and get used to. I remember my Aunt telling me that even witches had the duty of killing those, who would bring harm to people and bring the wrath of demons in to the human world; which was evidently, absolutely not allowed to happen. Deaths for us never happen in vain and it was all for "the greater good."

'What happened after?' I asked Auntie M. She continued her story.

'Arne brought me home. He kept an eye out for any other hunters that were maybe coming after us both after what happened, but they never showed up. I haven't crossed paths with any more hunters since then. They're not as prolific as they used to be many, many decades ago but they're still around. Some of us are on their records but thankfully they daren't actively pursue us, they're more opportunistic.'

That put my mind at ease a little bit. But knowing that my family name was most likely on their blacklist was a touch worrying. Now I knew why my Aunt was being and had been candid with me about hunters, especially their use of the Rowan tree for detecting us, how cruel they could be; and also why she recommended I bond with a vampire as soon as I could.

She gave me the talk on keeping myself safe, not just when hunters were involved; but even men who may try and take advantage or do something nefarious to me. But she did lift my spirits up a bit when she said my powers and grasp of our craft was coming along really well. I had been practising and studying magic a lot more and I could even feel in myself that I was getting better. It cheered me up quite a bit actually. Perhaps if I did get good and become proficient and more powerful then I'd be able to help out a lot more. It would be a while I think before I started accepting that we sometimes had to despatch people; and this was seriously messing with my moral compass. But like every other spanner that was thrown in to the toolbox known as my life; I usually found a good way to deal and in a healthy amount of time.

'Come on now, this is a depressing chat and to be honest, you really gotta stay positive. It'll drive you mad otherwise. Trust me we really don't take any of it lightly, but you can hyperfocus on the bad stuff and it is... not good.'

'I think I understand where you're coming from, on all of that.' I said. I had stopped crying, but my eyes were still super itchy and a bit sore now. 'Do you ever get used to it?'

'Never. But it believe it or not, you can sort of tune it out.'

I was going to take her word on that.

Eventually after I had properly calmed down and fixed my face of all the make up that was running down it, I made my way in to the kitchen with my Aunt; where Duncan and Arne were sat waiting for us, with fresh tea and even more cake. Sascha and Reece had made themselves scarce for a while, so they could feed before they went out. First to Waitrose, so they could catch the scent of Bruce and then on to some show or gig they were going to. We were going to make plans at some point to scout around the school, once we had gone over the blueprints to find out what the hell was underneath the place, if there was anything under there.