Max arrived at the most convenient moment. Not only did he arrive at the end of the fight, he didn't arrive during it to interfere or pass out from the excitement. Not that it was a great fight.

Carmen stuck her head out from the kitchen holding a fake chicken wing. The wing dropped to the floor and she exclaimed, "About time you made it!"

"That shop you told me to go to, it ain't easy to find. I hope I got the–"

"No, don't!" We all yelled just before Max could set foot into the condo.

James stopped sweeping up the ashes and waddled to the front doorway. "Ye better stay out there until I disable the barrier. I'm James by the way."

"Maximus Lewis, happy to help."

James tapped along the barrier with the broomstick until he found the breach. "I need you to pass me the blue and pink powders through here."

Max took out two large test tubes filled with coloured powder and passed them through.

James uncorked the tubes and put a small amount of each in his left hand. He combined the two powders and once the mixture turned purple, he blew the dust into the barrier. It fizzled a bit and turned into a rainbow spectrum upon contact with the powder, which was cool. After the fancy special effects ended he gave it another tap. That time blue and pink sparks appeared. "Ach, that didnae work."

Max looked down and took noticed of the piece of wood. "That was a jee-ang-shee, right?"

"A what?" James was puzzled by what Max called his ex.

"You know, a jee-ang-shee. Those zombie-like vampires that have a hop to their step."

"That was my ex-girlfriend, and the last time I'm dating a jiangshi."

"That's what I said." Max pointed at the base of the front doorway. "Six inches. That should be six inches."

"It is six inches. I measured it myself," James argued.

Max was right about something. The hopping step is only a trait that appears in the vampires of East Asia as far as I know. I can easily step over let alone hop over a six inch piece of wood.

I examined the one by the balcony entrance and swung my foot over it. My toe didn't hit the wood, but it did hit the barrier. It let off some sparks and a force to knock me onto my back.

"That barrier isn't coming down any faster, Lena," Carmen said lending her hand out.

"I think Max has pointed out something." I grabbed Carmen's hand, pulling myself onto my feet. "When I arrived here and entered the room, I stubbed my toe against what I felt to be a large block of wood." I walked back to the balcony entrance and stood parallel to the screen door. "This piece of wood moves up when someone or something approaches it, like so." I stood on one leg and swung my free foot to and fro."

Carmen's head bobbed along with the wood growing and shrinking. "This ain't the drugs making me see this, is it?"

"It's definitely not the drugs, but I am enjoying watching the wood grow and shrink." I played with it for a while until I realized I had to help get the barrier down. I walked over to where James was standing and stood next to him. "Max, step away from the door and come back."

Max stepped back and the piece of wood shrunk. When he approached the doorway as far as we allowed him, the slab grew, but it was two inches taller than the one by the sliding doors.

"Whoa, you're right! That's nae six inches."

"And how is this not the drugs making me see things?" Carmen asked joining our small group.

"Because it's meant to react to any vampire forcing their way in," James explained.

"But you said I could bring someone with me and that you'd extend an invitation to them."

"I did, however you never told me that your guest was a vampire. I have to invite Lena to my home personally or at most she can only go as far as the hallway. My home, my rules."

"Carmen told me you were just into weird magic shit." I shook my head then continued, "I didn't believe you to be an actual witch."

"This is so cool!" Max exclaimed with a huge grin on his face. "We got a vampire, and a witch. Now if we can find a werewolf ..."

"Not helping right now!" All three of us yelled at him.

"Okay, okay. I'll just stand here with the magic supplies."

James looked at the test tubes to see how much of his magic powders he had with him. "Is this all the supplies you brought from the store?"

Max peeked inside the grocery bag to search for more. "There's another tube of blue powder but it has a label on it."

"Then I guess I'm stuck with these." He turned to Carmen and asked, "Can you fetch that bowl on the altar for me?"

Carmen said nothing and retrieved the bowl. On her way back she staggered a bit. Ramsay MacRamface had to walk in front of her. "If only sheep were conventional household pets."

"I think my neighbours would call animal services or get me evicted upon seeing a black ram with orange eyes rather than Fido on my morning jogs." James uncorked both tubes and dumped their contents into the bowl. He mixed them until a giant mass of purple powder filled the bowl. He took the bowl and before he blew over it he said, "Stand back everyone. Ye dinnae want to get this shite in yer eyes."

We gave James his space. From where I stood the purple powder dance out of the bowl as if a gentle breeze blew into the room. The powder floated like dead leaves in the wind. I'd like to believe the drugs made this happen. It appeared as if a special effects artist slowed down time and showed every fine, sparkly detail in the dust swirling its way to a semi-invisible barrier. On second thought that was the drugs making everything seem like time slowed down. What actually happened was the whole thing took three seconds for the magic dust to break down the barrier.

There was a flash of purple light and the power went out for a couple seconds. Once the power, I walked up to the doorframe and the piece of wood cracked in two. When I picked it up, it turned out that the piece of wood was only two slats glued together. If not for the magic inscriptions and spells used, even a Chinese hopping vampire could hop over.

Max stuck his head from around the corner of the hallway. "That's it? Just a power outage?"

"The barrier is down," James confirmed.

While I believed James, I freely walked in and out of the condo. No barrier holding me back.

Max approached the doorway and stuck his hand across the threshold. "Why is it that your front door swings outward?"

"It's a design flaw. The door was meant to swing inward, but whoever installed it was probably drunk. Contractor wanted the building up to code, but after a bribe and hex on his mother-in-law he agreed to keep it hush hush."

"Speaking of drunk," Carmen said placing an arm around both me and James, "I could go for a pint at Talia's."

"Same here," Max agreed. "I have no idea what she puts in those cocktails but they're fucking awesome!"

"Talia? As in Natalia Vedmaskaya?"

"You know her personally?" Carmen asked, surprised. "And her name is Natalia Vedmaskaya?"

"Nae personally, but Talia is well-known among the covens, orthodox or not. I wouldn't be surprised if someone who's dedicated to making and mixing potions owned a bar." He looked down at his legs and said, "But will the crowd welcome me there?"

"Look at me. I'm a vampire and I have no trouble getting inside." I removed Carmen's arm from my shoulders and continued, "If there's any haven for supernaturals and humans to hang out it's her place."

"There's also this crazy bitch who'll make sure you're not excluded from anything," Carmen added on.

James looked at us individually and smiled. "Then it's settled. To Talia's it is!" He reached inside to grab his keys off the keyring. Just as he closed and locked the doors, he said to me, "Lena, you're welcome anytime at my place. Just dinnae come while I'm in the shower or doing any of my personal business."

"Sounds fair."

So we all headed to the Tavern to drink the night away. Along the way there James proposed an idea.

"With my knowledge of the arcane, Lena's enhanced strength and speed, and the two of ye with, well, whatever knowledge you have, we can form some sort of crime-fighting superhero group."

"You've got to be joking man!" Carmen reacted. "You fighting crime while you're committing one?"

"I like the idea, though I don't want to be the sidekick who can't do things because I have no powers," Max agreed.

"I don't know about that," I replied. "I see myself as more of Batman before adopting Robin."

"Well, it was worth a shot."

And pretty much we argued the rest of the way on how we shouldn't form a team. But after a night of drinking, they drank enough to forget this argument ever happened. If I hadn't drawn the short straw and ended up as the designated driver, I'd forget about this debate too. Ah well.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Dream on, James, you may get your crime-fighting and solving superhero group one day. And this brings an end to Episode 3. Interactive question: If you suddenly became a crime-fighting superhero, either with power or no powers, would you fight crime alone, with a sidekick, or as part of a team? If you're not alone, who would be your teammate(s)?

You know the drill by now. Comment, vote, recommend this to others.

Regarding Talia's name: Talia isn't really a shortening of Natalia but it's her choice for her short name. She has family and friends who call her Natasha or Tash. Vedmaskaya is her surname, though it's not a surname that exists in real life but vedma (ведьма) is the Russian word for witch.

Song featured: "Bucovina" by Shantel

Edited: 19/01/2018