"I so missed your company," she thought as she nuzzled and adored the animal. Ginny replied with a nuzzle of her own and purred louder, sending a soft vibration the gypsy could feel in her belly.
The door to her parlor opened and a very nervous Jennifer stepped inside. Zodiac blinked and began to laugh. "And what exactly is your problem?"
"Do I have to do this?" the mortal girl whined. "Why can't you send these with others or maybe one of the temps instead?"
"I paid good money for the temps not to have them chewed up," she replied. "Besides, you agreed to do this when we started and you will be the one they are expecting." Zodiac sat up and began turning the invitations over, revealing a sheet of paper that had been clipped to each one. "You know what to do if one of them gets a bit too personal with you, and I will deal with anything that comes from that. On the pages are a list of possible places my guests may be found. If you cannot find them, bring the invitation back and be sure to burn the list when finished. These people cherish their privacy and would not appreciate a list of where they could be found lying about for any to pick up and make use of." The lists also had the shortest routes possible to all the locations.
Zodiac stacked the three groups together. One had been prepared for all three who had won the bidding to have her read their fortunes. Flowing black and purple script on parchment with tasteful decorations announced:
Welcome, dearest ones,
Congratulations and thanks for your support in this years annual auction,
If you are reading this, you have won a session with Mistress Zodiac.
The schedule is as follows:
Psyche,
Jonah,
Madison.
Please contact me ASAP and let me know when and where you wish to claim your time.
As always, all results and findings are treated as
confidential information and will not be shared by myself with anyone.
What you do with what you learn here will be up to you.
Blessings of the night to you all,
I look forward to hearing from you.
Mistress Zodiac
Congratulations and thanks for your support in this years annual auction,
If you are reading this, you have won a session with Mistress Zodiac.
The schedule is as follows:
Psyche,
Jonah,
Madison.
Please contact me ASAP and let me know when and where you wish to claim your time.
As always, all results and findings are treated as
confidential information and will not be shared by myself with anyone.
What you do with what you learn here will be up to you.
Blessings of the night to you all,
I look forward to hearing from you.
Mistress Zodiac
"Okay, okay. Can I just get this over with."
Zodiac stood up, after sitting Ginny on the reading table, and reached into the folds of her skirt pockets. Jennifer's eyebrows raised as she saw the custom weapon her employer carried come into view as was suddenly offered to her. "You loose that and it won't be pretty,"
"But," Jennifer stammered. "I got a glock."
"Glock won't do **** against one of us and I am asking you to go into some pretty dark places tonight. Remember, if it gets totally out of hand? One shot and run. I doubt seriously the three you are searching for will cause you any issues, but those they may hang around with are a different matter." She also handed Jennifer the keys to the mini bus. "It has a full tank, so gas it up before you come back." She then handed the parchments to the girl.
"Just like that," Jennifer grumped.
"You will be fine." Zodiac stepped close and hugged her while putting a small stain of purple lipstick on her cheek via her lips.
******
Part One: Psyche-
"Well, so much for easy," Jennifer fumed as she pulled out of the Market and stopped along the curb. A line was drawn through the location of the tattoo parlor Zodiac said he sometimes worked. There were three other places the man could be and two of the places the girl had no real desire to go to-even in the daytime. That giant tree looked creepy as **** in the daylight, let alone walk up to it in the middle of the night. The other place she had not seen or been to before, but considering the tales she had overheard from her employer on who lived there, it was another location that ranked with the big tree.
That left one other. The man's apartment. Jennifer said a prayer as she dropped the mini bus into gear and began to make the trip there.
***
"We can do this," she breathed as she approached the door timidly. Only the parchment was in her hand now. The other two and the sheets of locations were locked in the bus below as Zodiac had told her to do.
It was odd, to her, that a vampire would own a condo. Basically that's what these 'apartments' were if she judged Zo's place as an example. She had simply bought the place and had not paid a dime of rent since. All part of the Masq thing Zo went on about she supposed. Hide in plain sight? Zodiac certainly did, considering how many of her original clients still came to her for wares and advice despite the fact she usually only worked nights now. She had told the girl the first on her list did pretty much the same as she did.
"How will I know its him?" she asked. Jennifer didn't even have a photo to work from to be sure who she was even looking for.
"Oh, trust me. When you see him, you will know." was the gypsy's cryptic reply.
Jennifer adjusted herself as she looked at the door. It was the same as all the other doors on this floor. ('What did you expect?') and she pressed the door bell.
When the door opened, her jaw dropped in amazement at the sight of the man.
"That is so ******* RAD!" she blurted out, then realized she was staring badly at the man. "I'm sorry," she composed herself and offered the parchment to the man. "An invitation from Mistress Zodiac to Psyche." she managed to say.
