The Witch and The Hunters

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Page count: 9

"Hey, how'd it go?" Sam asked the second they walked into the motel room.

Hermione kicked off her heels with the fury of a woman personally offended by footwear and face planted onto the nearest bed. Dean shut the door behind him, smirking.

"We saw the bodies," she said into the covers. "In Dean's very elegant terminology: 'disgusting.'"

Dean raised a finger. "To be fair, it was disgusting."

"She talked to the witnesses and then nuked their memories," he added proudly, like he was announcing she'd won a trophy. "She also verbally castrated the lead detective. Right in front of his whole department."

"You did?" Sam asked, delighted.

"He was a prick," Hermione muttered, not even looking up.

"Understatement," Dean snorted.

Then—serious for once—he asked, "What you told him... was that real?"

"About Collins and Murphy?" she asked. He nodded. "Yes. Collins is a war vet. Murphy was drunk off his arse."

Dean raised his brows. "Huh. No wonder you were pissed. Prick detective or not, those guys didn't deserve the crap they got."

Hermione pushed herself upright. "Anyway—Sam. Victims. What did you find? Any connection at all?"

Sam perked up, always in his element. "Actually... yeah." He lifted a stack of notes. "Their current addresses weren't their original ones. They moved here four months ago. All of them."

Dean frowned. "All together?"

"Within a week of each other," Sam confirmed. "And they all changed their names."

Dean whistled low. "That's not sketchy at all."

"Oh, it gets better," Sam said. "They all went to the same high school. Same college, too."

"Okay, that's a connection."

Hermione exhaled. "So why did they move?"

"That took digging," Sam admitted. "But I found police records from Alabama. There was a hit and run. A pedestrian was struck and killed. There were four suspects in the car, all presumed drunk. Empty spirit and beer bottles were found in the car."

Dean straightened. "And they walked."

"Completely," Sam nodded. "The car was dumped in a river. Ruled unsolvable. No evidence, no prime suspects."

"Why are you certain our victims were involved?" Hermione asked.

"Call it a gut feeling," he shrugged. "The timeline matches their sudden move. Their families all said they left town overnight. Never gave a reason. They didn't officially resign from their jobs, just up and left. They were gone within twelve hours of the hit and run."

Hermione rubbed her temples. "So someone's exacting revenge."

"That's my guess," Sam said. "Given how brutal the injuries were? Yeah."

Hermione inhaled slowly. "Then... That matches my suspicion."

Dean lifted a brow. "So what's our monster? Please tell me it's not a giant sewer iguana or whatever."

"A heartbroken Veela," Hermione said softly.

Sam blinked. Dean stared blankly. "A what-now?"

"Veela," she repeated. "A magical semi-human species. Very rare for a male to be a Veela. They're extremely beautiful. Hypnotically so. Men are drawn to them whether they want to be or not."