As Kara and Olivia travelled to the vampire house they tried to come up with the best way to explain what they’d found out. They concluded that they would try the explanation they used on Vasha again, as the other vampires wouldn't be as perceptive as she was.
After arriving at the house, Olivia went up and knocked on the door. After a moment, Damien answered. When he opened the door and noticed Olivia his eyes lit up and his face softened into a smile, until he noticed Kara at her side.
Damien ignored Kara. "Olivia, you're alright." Damien stepped forward, but Olivia put her hand out to stop his approach.
"Did you get my text?"
Damien stepped back, flustered. "Uhh, yes. Why should we be on watch? Did something happen?" he asked, glancing from Kara to Olivia. "Kara didn't tell me what happened to you the other day. Does it have something to do with that?"
"Don't worry about that. Now, be a good boy and gather your housemates. They all need to hear this."
He nodded. "Right. I'll be back in a bit."
He ran up a set of stairs towards the rooms on the second floor. The house had six people living there, including Raymond and him. They were all vampires like Kara and Olivia, and they’d all known each other for years.
Kara and Olivia entered the main hall and waited for Damien to return with the others. After a few minutes he came back with Raymond and the other roommates. They were questioning each other about what was going on, and giving Kara angry glances.
"Alright, what was it you found out?" Damien asked.
"We found out of a possible attack that's going to happen. A psychic gave your address to another psychic for an unknown reason. We think that they want them to attack you, maybe even kill you all."
Damien and the other vampires were in disbelief. There hadn't been a concentrated attack on vampires in years.
"Really?" was all Damien could spit out.
"Yes, really," Olivia replied.
"How many are coming to attack?" Raymond asked.
"We don't know, but we should prepare for the worst. We need to be ready for an attack at any minute. If there's a lot of them, they could combine their powers and… well… we'd be fucked. Luckily, we have Kara to back us up."
Damien and the other vampires stared at Kara, her hoodie drawn and hands in her pockets. Damien shook his head. "You can stay, Olivia, but… Kara has to leave."
Olivia sighed. "We don't have time for your bullshit, Damien. Our ancestors only survived against psychics by hiding, so if we're going to fight we need to use their power against them."
Damien's attempt at civility in front of Olivia quickly faded. "Tch, I'd rather die," he spat, staring daggers at Kara. "Just because you look like us doesn't make you one of us."
"Shut the fuck up, Damien!" Olivia yelled. Damien was about to say something else, but she clocked him in the face, sending him sprawling on the floor. She turned and pulled Kara out of the house. "Shows what we get for trying to help them. They deserve what's coming to them." She turned around and faced the house while walking backwards. "Serves you right, assholes!" she screamed before turning back around. "I can't believe you dated that guy. And to think he's after me now, the nerve."
Kara pulled away from Olivia when they reached the sidewalk. "We can't just abandon them, they're our friends," she said while wiping her eyes.
"They were our friends. That ship sailed a long time ago, Kara."
The door of the house opened and Raymond came running out. He had on a thick jacket and a laptop bag slung over his shoulder.
"Raymond, go back to the house," Olivia commanded.
"No, I want to help."
"You'll be more help in the house with the others if that's what you want to do. As for us, we're done. If you want to save yourself from getting killed, then feel free to tag along."
"Liv, we're helping them," Kara said with force behind her words. "I don't want them to die."
Olivia stared at Kara for a moment before turning away with a sigh. "Then what do you propose we do? If we wanted to fight, the only way to do it would be with their help," she said, pointing to the house.
"There's only one thing we can do right now. We have to stop the attack before it happens."
7. Ten Minds Are Better Than One
"And just how are we going to stop the attack before it happens?" Olivia asked while resting a hand on her hip.
"We find James and stop him before he can do anything."
"That's easy enough to say, but how do you expect to find him?"
Kara looked at Raymond and his eyes shot open. "I… I suppose I could ask around. Someone might know something."
"We can also check his place. He's probably not going to be there, but we might be able to find a clue about where he went."
"Well, I suppose that's a start," Olivia conceded. "Raymond, why don't you go back to my place and do your thing while Kara and I go to James' place to see what we can dig up?" Olivia took out her keys and gave one of them to Raymond.
Raymond accepted the key. "Right," he said with a nod of his head. "I'll see what I can find out."
Raymond went to his car and drove off, and Olivia and Kara went to James Moore's apartment. They went up to the third floor, and when they reached the top step Olivia put her hair in a ponytail in a mirror of the day before. They went over to James' apartment and tested the door. It was locked.
Olivia twisted the knob past the breaking point with ease, and the door opened. "I'll search his room, you search here," Olivia suggested.
"Alright," Kara replied.
Kara glanced around the room, seeing where to start in her search. There was a severe lack of personal effects, aside from electronics. Well, his computer might be the best bet for now.
Kara went over to the computer desk in the corner of the living room, and turned on the monitor. The computer was already running, and the fan in the back creating a small hum in an otherwise quiet room. After the light of the monitor brought images to the screen, she began looking through the files and folders. She searched for anything that might give her an idea of the places he frequented. She settled on checking his internet history, which included a multitude of lewd websites, gaming forums, and craigslist ads which seemed to be looking for weed. She also could see that he was an overly active social media user.
Kara clicked on one of the image sharing sites he frequented, and to her surprise it logged her in automatically as James. From there, she was able to see all the pictures he’d posted as well as his information available on the website, but it only listed the address she and Olivia were currently at.
Kara started looking at the photos he was posting, and then she burst out laughing in hysterics. "What an idiot!" she couldn't help but yell.
Olivia ran into the room with Kara still doubled over laughing. "What? Did you find something?"
"Look, look!" she replied, pointing at the screen.
Olivia went over to the computer and peered at the screen, her eyes squinted. Kara was staring at her, anticipating her reaction.
"Oh my God," she said while shaking her head.
"I know right? All this wondering about where he is, and all we had to do was look at his pictures. He should know better than to post a photo with GPS on."
Olivia grinned while still shaking her head. "Look at the caption as well: 'Getting ready to bust some heads with the boys tonight,'" she paraphrased. "It looks like if we want to stop this attack we need to act fast."
"Right, I'll look up the address right now. Can you call Raymond and see if he found out anything, or if he can tell us about the building we're headed to? It might help if we know what we're up against."
Olivia got on her phone and did as she was asked. Meanwhile, Kara looked up the address and found that it was an old abandoned warehouse. Looking at it from the map service’s street view, it looked fairly large and open.
Kara listened to the one-sided conversation for a few minutes, then Olivia said her goodbyes and hung up. "So�
��?"
"So, he said that James is gathering several psychics for a job, but wouldn't say what the job was. He's taking anyone until eight p.m. and then the job begins. James was being secretive about the meetup, and is only giving it out to people he knows, but we found that out easily enough."
Kara chuckled. "Yeah."
"Raymond looked up the address and said that for that type of warehouse there's a fire escape on both sides that leads to a second-floor catwalk, just like in all those action movies."
Kara lit up. "Oh, I know the ones he's talking about!" she shouted with a wide grin.
Olivia smiled. "He did caution that James and his company could be up there, though. He's going to meet us at the address in thirty minutes. That will give us a few hours before their planned time of attack."
"Let's get going then," Kara said.
Kara and Olivia headed to the warehouse, staying a few blocks away just in case they could be spotted. They texted Raymond to tell him where they were and he met them in his car a few minutes after they arrived.
"So, what's it like over there?" Raymond asked, pushing his glasses up.
"We're not sure. We didn't want to get close in case they had a lookout. Kara, can you sense anything?"
Kara peered down the street at the warehouse and squinted her eyes as she focussed. "I'm not sure. I sense a lot of psychic energy, but I'm not good enough to know how many people he has in there. I might be able to tell their locations as we get closer."
Olivia nodded. "Alright, let's get a closer look, but stay alert."
The others nodded, and then the three of them made their way towards the warehouse. As they approached, they couldn't see anyone guarding the main entrances, nor the visible fire escape for the second floor. They used their fleet feet to move in silence to the bottom of the fire escape, and then put their backs against the wall.
Kara closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. "I can't sense anyone on the second floor," she whispered.
"Good, we'll be able to spy on them from there."
"It's like you guys have done this before," Raymond commented as the three made their way up the steel steps of the fire escape.
"It's been a while since the three of us have been together," Kara replied. "A lot has happened since then."
"Evidently."
Kara smiled, and they continued up the steps to a rusted old door. Olivia gripped the handle and turned the knob gently. It made no sound as she pulled the door open a crack to peer inside. After her inspection, she opened the door fully and nodded to Kara and Raymond. They entered the building and stepped onto a metal catwalk going around the perimeter of the warehouse. Olivia entered and closed the door behind her.
The three of them went to the edge of the catwalk, knelt down, and looked over the side to see twelve people lounging around on torn and weathered couches, or walking around and talking with each other. Lying on one of the couches and smoking something was James Moore. From where Kara and the others were they weren't able to hear anything, but knowing how many people there were was almost as much as they needed to know.
If this is everyone that's going to attack, then right now we're outnumbered by nine, and even with the others we're still outnumbered by four, Kara thought. "This is bad," she whispered. "We should leave and tell the guys. We can't take them on our own."
"We still need to find out their plan of attack. If we know that we can at least come up with a plan of our own," Olivia replied.
Kara furrowed her brow and deliberated over the issue in her head. The closer they got, the more they risked being seen, but Olivia was right. They needed more information, otherwise they would be dead in an instant.
Kara moved away from the catwalk edge, and then stood up and silently moved to the middle of the warehouse. Olivia and Raymond followed behind, creeping along so as to not make a sound.
The closer they got, the better they could hear the conversations that were going on. They could hear James complaining about the lack of people showing up.
"Has anyone gotten any messages?" James asked. He received a variety of negative answers. "Ugh, what a joke. I thought we could get at least twenty people."
"What did you expect, man? No one wants to hunt vampires anymore. It ain't cool," one of the men said.
"Look, this is an easy job. All we need to do is combine our powers and crush the house. No one will know what happened, and the detective said he'll make sure it's labelled as a structural issue."
"And then we get paid?"
James paused for a moment. "Yeah, after that you get paid."
The man looked James up and down. "Yeah, just like last time. This is why no one wants to show up no more, cause they know you ain't good for it."
"Yeah, no one wants ta help yer sorry ass anyways, getting beat by a buncha girls," another person said, which elicited laughter from some of those gathered.
"What did you say?" James shouted as he got up from the couch.
James walked over to the man who’d insulted him, and they went nose to nose. Each man looked like he was about to fight.
Maybe they'll take care of each other for us.
"Yeah, Moore, you wanna start something?" the man taunted as those around them gathered in expectation of a fight.
James was quiet, and the tension in the air was palpable, but it didn't seem to be escalating. Kara thought this would be a perfect opportunity, if only one of them would throw the first punch, or…
Kara used her powers to hit the aggressor in the stomach. He reeled back from the force, and James looked confused.
"You bastard," the man seethed.
James was backing away and holding his hands up. "No, no, no it wasn't me," he tried to shout, but the other man didn't seem to care.
They fought in a similar way to how Kara had fought with the detective—a fistfight, but while augmenting their strength with their psychic powers. Kara could feel that each of them were also trying to break through barriers the other person had up, but it was almost an even match in that regard. James was by far the weaker of the two physically, and would have been overpowered if not for his psychic abilities. He kept saying that it wasn't him and trying to back away from the other guy’s attacks, but his 'friend' kept going.
When the two locked arms, Kara took another opportunity to push them into one of the spectators, and then moved the spectator’s arm to hit another person. Soon enough those two were also fighting.
Kara kept taking opportunities to include more participants in the fight, and soon all but two of the people gathered were fighting with each other. She turned to look at Olivia and Raymond, who both had wide grins.
"Everyone, stop!" one of the people not fighting shouted. After a moment of non-compliance, Kara noticed him close his eyes and lift his hands to chest level.
As the young man lifted his hands, the fighters floated off the ground. They couldn't fight in the air, and their powers also seemed to be suppressed by that one man. After a moment he let them down.
"I thought this was a gathering of like-minded individuals, but I can see now that that is not the case. You are all a disgrace to psychics. I take my leave," he said in a distinct British accent.
He and another young man began walking away towards the opening of the warehouse.
"Wait, no, Simon, don't leave. We need you," James pleaded.
"Perhaps you should have thought of that before you started in-fighting. I think I've tired of America. Cheers," he said with a wave as he turned the corner of the warehouse. After a moment they could hear a car starting and speeding off.
"Damn it!" James shouted. "He was stronger than all of us combined. Without him this job will be a lot harder."
"This wouldn't have happened if you didn't start the fight," the man James fought said.
"I was trying to tell you that I didn't hit you, but you wouldn't listen."
"Then who hit me, James? Explain that."
James looked around to the others in the g
roup. "Well, anyone want to fess up now? Who used their powers to hit him?" No matter who James looked at, they denied doing it.
Kara looked at Olivia and Raymond, and motioned for them to leave. As they were sneaking to the exit, they could still hear James and the others debating what had happened.
"Then, if no one here did it…"
Kara glanced over her shoulder, and she could see James concentrating. After a moment, he locked eyes with her.
"There!" he said, pointing at her.
"Run!" Kara shouted.
The three of them fled the warehouse. Kara could feel psychic blasts flying towards her as she reached the door. She jumped outside just as the force broke the door off its hinges with a loud snap.
Raymond and Olivia jumped off the stairs to the ground below, and turned around to make sure Kara was safe. Kara jumped over the railing and joined them on the ground, and they all ran towards Raymond's car.
Halfway to the car, the psychics ran out of the warehouse. Kara turned around just enough to send a wave towards them. Two of them stopped the wave, but it slowed them down just enough for Kara and the others to reach the car.
They jumped into Raymond's car and he threw the keys into the ignition. He turned the key and the car came to a start. He pumped on the gas, and the car went speeding away.
"Are they following us?" he asked.
"No, they've stopped," Kara replied from the back seat. "No, wait." Kara could see the ten of them standing side by side. She thought they had their eyes closed, and she could feel them gathering energy. "Oh, shit. You have to go down another street, now!"
"I can't, this is a straightaway for another kilometer," Raymond shouted back.
"Then go between the buildings," Olivia suggested, seeing what Kara saw, save the gathering energy.
Raymond was flustered. He glanced to his left and right. "I… I can't. They're too close together."
"Something's coming," Kara announced.
Olivia grabbed Kara's arm. "Make us go faster," she yelled.
Kara looked at her like a deer in headlights. "What?"
Psychics Vs. Vampires Episodes 1-4 (Psychics Vs. Vampires Collection) Page 5