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

Lesson 1 part 8

It might seem pretty far fetched to find the perpetrators of the arson staying at the Hilltop Motel, but it's a small community. There aren't a lot of places to stay. Orangeville is a few kilometers west and much bigger, more options, more noticibility, more police. The Hilltop was run by a nice asian couple and they bought it cheap. It already had a reputation as the place you took someone when you didn't want other people to see you with them and Rajesh and his wife had worked to maintain that reputation. The Hilltop, quiet, secluded inexpensive and clean, well mostly clean, was the perfect place to stay. Especially if you had no idea that the people you just burned out had relatives with no place to stay.
Carrie stayed in the car as Bobby registered. She watched the dingy, unmoving curtains of room number 10 as though she might burn a hole through it.
'Either it's Tim and Crystal,' she thought, 'or the people who burned down their house.' Bobby jumped back in the car, half expecting her to have done something crazy. He was just in time, her hand was on the doorknob.
"Well," he said, easing into the seat and starting the car. There are people in number 9 and 10. A couple of guys on motorcycles. Two bikes, four people from the sounds of it. We're down at the other end in number 1."
They opened the door to number one with a creak. It had a metal door with a screen and a sun chapped old wooden door behind it. There were parts were the mesh of the screen had holes and the knob on the wooden door was loose. The lock itself had been recently replaced, suggesting that someone had broken into the room. It seemed like the kind of place where that kind of thing might happen.
The room itself was lit be an eastern window as well as the main window next to the door that faced north. The carpet was old and worn, especially near the door, but the sheets looked reasonably clean.
They had wifi, so they weren't complete savages.
"What should we do?" Carrie asked, recognizing that her own plan, banging on the door until someone answered so she could punch them, unless it was Crystal and then she could hug them, was probably better as a plan B.
"I think we should snoop around a bit, maybe a cup to the wall, and wait for the cops to show up," Bobby said.
Cup to the wall was a spell Tim had taught him. Bobby had always been skeptical of magic and other such things, but he couldn't deny that evil walked the land and that magic could work. Tim had explained it as though it was all very scientific, just things happening at the quantum level.
"I should try it," Carrie said.
"Usually I'd say yes, because you're better at all that stuff than I am, but all the stuff down at the farm really upset you and that's going to slow any sort of magic you can use." He sent her a look, "Well, any kind of non destructive magic anyway."
He really knew her pretty well.
"I saw you snooping around the barns. Find anything?"
"Empty gas can," she said.
"Doesn't mean much,"Bobby replied.
"and a really creepy feeling from the tractor barn."
"Like the tainted?" Bobby asked.
"Yes,"Carrie said, "Definitely."
"Well, that's about what I expected, to be honest. I don't thnk they're trying to get Tim and Crystal. I think they're looking for something."
"I hadn't thought of that,"Carrie admitted. "Do you think they're looking for my Dad too?"
"I don't know." Bobby said. "I'll get set up for the ritual, you chill out. Maybe have a nap."
"Like I'll be able to sleep."
"You better, I think we'll have a busy night on our hands. I know the fire department wants us to stay out of the ashes, but I think our neighbours will be poking around. I want to see who we're dealing with."
Just then there was the sound of roaring motorcycle engines and they looked out the window to see two Harley's driving up the lane.