Vampire Hunter: Corey Crowgarden's guide to killing vampires for fun and profit.

Lesson 6 Part 3

"Should we take a look at the house?" Crystal asked Tim as he packed the tomes that he intended to crack open and research.
He looked up from the large, leather bound tone that he had lovingly placed in his book bag, his bright blue eyes dulled with fatigue. "I'm kinda scared to look," he said. "It was my grandfather's house. My father was born in that house."
"We can rebuild it,"Crystal said, wrapping her arms around her husband and tightening her embrace.
"It seems like we have lost everything."
"We haven't lost everything, all those things can be replaced," Crystal said. "What's really bothering you?"
"I don't know if I can do what your dad wants,"  Tim said.
"Then tell him." Crystal said. "He'll understand."
They were in the room that was both a bedroom and study, where he kept the tones and many of the relics he owned. Bobby and Carrie had searched the burnt out old farmhouse, recovered and returned the magic items that mundane fire would not be capable of consuming. His backpack was on the bed, with his Mages staff. The staff is so different than a wand in use. Where a wand is capable of subtle, delicate manipulations of magic, the staff is necessary for the channeling more ethereal power.
If the wand is the pen knife in your magical arsenal, the staff is a hammer.
"Are you going to need the staff?" Crystal asked, concerned about what that might look like.
"I hope not," Tim confessed, "but it might be a good contingency."
She sat down next to him on the end of the bed. She knew this look on his face, and the tension he held in his shoulders. He was worried about something but didn't want to say what. She knew he would come out with it when he was ready, but she was ready right now and didn't like to wait. She especially didn't like to wait when she knew she had to.
" One of us should go check on the house. The insurance company for the fire department may have left us a notice," she said. " should I go and look?"
" I don't want you going by yourself," Tim said, " but I don't know if I'm ready to go and see it. I have a lot of memories in that house. It is... Was... Very important to my family."
" Maybe I can take Bobby with me, would that be OK?" Crystal asked.
"If he wants to go I suppose," Tim said. "I don't want to leave our shelter insecure, but I don't want you going down there by yourself either."
"Okay, I will check with him," she said and stood up. She threw her arms around him, giving him a tight embrace and a kiss. She could feel the tension in his shoulders and knew his thoughts were somewhere else.
"It's going to be okay," she declared in an unsuccessful attempt to comfort him.
"I know," he mumbled unconvincingly and returned to the tome and the backpack.
Crystal walked down the hallway to the kitchen that found Bobby enjoying another Pepsi while he waited for both Krystal and Tim to pack.
"Almost ready to go?" Bobby asked.
"I would like to go down to the house and see how bad it's damaged," Crystal said.
'No, you really don't' Bobby thought to himself as he sipped quietly on his beverage.
"Tim doesn't want me to go alone," she said.
"Doesn't seem like a good idea," Bobby agreed.
"Come with me?" Crystal asked.
"Sure, as long as Tim is on board with it." Tim stood up for a moment and then yelled, "HEY TIM IS IT OKAY IF I GO WITH CRYSTAL UP TO THE HOUSE?"
"YA," Tim replied from down the hall. "HOW LONG ARE YOU GOING TO BE?"
Bobby looked at Crystal who shrugged her shoulders, "I DON'T KNOW..MAYBE FIFTEEN OR TWENTY MINUTES?"
"Okay," Tim said, suddenly appearing in the kitchen. "Be prepared, I don't know what is out there. Remember, once you cross the foot bridge, if someone is scrying you can be seen."
They all walked together to the ladder  that lead up to the trap door in the pump house and Bobby went up the metal rungs of the ladder. He stopped for a moment and then slid the deadbolt out of the way and pressed the door open.
"It looks all clear," Bobby called down, sitting with his feet dangling down as his ass sat on the edge of the trap door.
Crystal gave Tim a kiss goodbye. "I'll be back soon," she said her foot now on the bottom rung.
"You better be," Tim said. "I'll be watching."
She wasn't sure what he meant but climbed the rungs to the top. Bobby helped her threw the hatch and then closed it.
Tim went through the heavy door and back into the bunker.