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

Lesson 1 part 7

It was a quiet ride into town. Bobby drove and Carrie kept silent, something Bobby had instinctively recognized as a sign of trouble. She had started going into her head again, trying to pin down all the what if's, and shoul've/could've's. In the past he had always tried to break her out of the winding path that would eventually devolve into a depression spiral. Some of their loudest fights had been over this very process and it wasn't something he want to occur just now.
"Do you want to go all the way into Orangeville, or just to that little motel just on highway 9?" Bobby asked.
"I don't care," she said.
"I'm leaning towards the little motel," Bobby replied. "It's probably cheaper and really more convenient."
"Why convenient?" she asked.
"We are going back later," he said.
"Why?" she demanded. "It's all gone! Tim is gone! Crystal is gone! There house is ashes there pets are gone! There is nothing left but telling Mum, this will likely kill her, and telling Dad, if we can find him!"
"Because I don't think they're gone."
"Why?" she said. "Why don't you think they're gone?"
"I've got lots of reasons, but you should calm down and think this through rationally," he said. He knew telling her to calm down was risky. In a regular argument that would be like trying to put it out with gasoline.
"I am calm!!" she said, then checked herself. Her fists were clenched and her knuckles white. When she unclenched them her fingers started to shake.
She forced herself into some box breathing and after a few minutes said, "Okay, I'm calm."
"Let's work the problem, instead of letting it work us," he said.
"Bobby, I really want you to be right. I really, really do, but I don't know if my heart can handle another drop like that. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I do. I'm just telling you what I can see because I don't have to look through the same fog of emotion you do."
"Okay, I'm ready" she said.
"First, the fire is more or less out and they didn't see any bodies. Which means there probably aren't any bodies to find. Second, the car isn't there. It would've been in the driveway. Third, and I'm going to get a little speculative here, they think the fire started in the living room on the ceiling. There's no electrical wiring there, and they said the upper story went first then collapsed down on the first. There theory is sparks from the fireplace, but there is no way that could've happened. Also, I looked and there were lanterns placed at the cardinal points and a smell of brimstone."
"A summoning spell?" Carrie said. "You don't think..."
"No, I don't think. Not a chance, and I'll tell you why," Bobby said. "Tim is too smart to summon something in his house. He practically has the phrase "don't shit where you eat" tattooed on his forehead. Also, he's never tried to summon anything that has even close to that kind of power. So if he did, he wouldn't do it in his living room where he would have to shut off all his other types of protection."
Carrie thought about it for a moment and it all made sense.
"So someone else tried to summon something?" she asked.
"Or someone wanted us to think they had," Bobby replied.
"So, why then?" she said.
"Well, this is just a guess but, magic items can't be destroyed by mundane fire, right?"
"So, our B and E are going back to sift the ashes to find Tim and Crystal's magical items."
"Tim, Crystals and your Dad's magical items. Your Dad has been leaving stuff there since last summer. Tim told me last year at thanksgiving."
Carrie's mouth hung open in shock. Before she could speak he dropped another revelation.
"You know what else?" Bobby says, "Tim has a seperate old shack for that. With his major books, and a proper summoning circle in it too. It just looks like an old pumphouse for irrigation but if you know what you're looking for you can see the magical distortion around it. I would bet if they're still in on the property they're hiding in that shack."
They were pulling into the lot of the Hilltop motel. It was one of those backwoods, Bate's motel kind of places that you wondered how it stayed in business.
"I think we should go back, just to see who, or what is snooping around. They want us to stay out of the place until tomorrow for our own safety. Oh, I think you should report your sisters car stolen too. "
"No," Carrie said, "We don't have to."
"Why not?" Bobby asked, he was just about to give his reasons when she pointed at little red mazda in front of room number 10.
"Because it's right there!"