Path of the Vampire forum

Lyana was walking along the streets of Harper Rock. Nothing seemed to catch her eye. The wind blew, and the trees swayed. The stars in the night sky were bright, and shining. Some streaked across the sky as if asking for people to wish upon them. The night was peaceful, and Lyana couldn't settle herself in any one spot for too long. She moved slowly; her eyes darting from one place to the next. She happened upon a sign, and shrugged as she moved closer to read it. Honeymead Market. She watched as a few walked past her and inside. She quickly followed after them, but soon lost them as she was amazed at the contents of the market. She walked around inside, and stopped by all the shops one at a time. She even happened by a shop with one of her Bloodlines name in the title. She then peered around it, and something finally caught her eye. Walking up to the shop, she stood in front as she read the sign. Pandora's Box. It sounded as if she shouldn't open it. The contents of Pandora's Box in legend said that it held every kind of evil imaginable. She hesitated as she reached for the knob. But also in the box, was Hope. Her life was a mess, and Lyana could use a little hope. She pulled the door open, and moved just inside. An alarm went off alerting people of her presence, and she thought nothing of it. Off to the right was a fish tank, and she moved over to it. Peering inside, she watched the fish for what seemed to her was hours.

"Okay, thats got it!"

"It's not going to explode like the last time, is it?"

"Have some faith, Jenny-Boo, and hold the bottle still!"

"I am!" The girl insisted as she watched her employer carefully tip the small caldron and allowed a thin orange liquid to ease out into the bottle she was holding.

"Another bottle, please," The gypsy asked. So far, her fifth attempt at this particular potion was actually going right. If she was lucky she'd have close to 7-8 bottles.

The chimes went off, signaling someone had entered the shop.

"Shall I go see who is here?" Jennifer asked.

"If you move I swear I'll make you drink some of this," Zodiac gave her a look, then winked in humor. "Very well. Line up the other bottles first, please."

Jennifer did as she was asked and blocked the bottles with wood blocks Zo kept for such a reason to avoid the bottles from tipping easily. "Are you in, if I am asked?"

"Depends..." she grinned as another bottle was filled. "If it was someone who knew me, they would be calling my name by now, but since I hear nothing it must be a new customer, so go out and see how we may help the poor lost soul. Then come bother me."

Jennifer took off her apron, checked her hair in the mirror and then stepped out of the back of the shop into the main area. She saw the person at once. Lost in the fish tank of all things. Granted there were a couple of curios Zo had in stock that got that kind of reactions from others, but the fish? This was a first.

She stepped around to the opposite side of the counter and stood behind the tank. Jennifer bent down to see the woman's face through the glass and smiled at her before standing back up. "Welcome to Pandora's Box. My name is Jennifer. The Mistress is busy at the moment, but hopefully I can be of assistance to you this eve. So tell me, what do you seek in Pandora's Box?"

She smiled inside. "Zo was right. That does have a ring to it."

Lyana was enthralled by the fish. She watched them swim back and forth in the tank, and even touched a finger once or twice to the glass as if trying to touch the fish. Her earliest childhood dream was of her father and mother fishing on the peer as she ran up and down playing carefree. Her dad would catch a fish, and then call her over to help get the fish off the hook. She was always too scared that she would get hook or fin'd. She was most times jumpy and dropped the fish before their mother could get a picture. Oh how she wish she could have retained a picture of back then. Back before her father and mother disowned her. Tears started to stream down her face, and the memory of her lost parents hindered her from hearing the shop keeper from coming in. Suddenly a face appeared behind the glass. She looked over in shock, and then calmed herself. Following her up to a standing position, she heard the lady. Feeling the warm streaks running down her face, she turned away quickly, and shook her head. No one could help her. "I am fine. I will be just fine. I am only browsing." Her violet hues finally looked around more at what the shop had to offer. There were all sorts of different, peculiar things on the shelves. "Wait, what is this place? They say Pandora's Box held the worst of Evil. Is that what you guys do here? Like evil curses, and incantations?" Lyana knew better than to ask so rudely. Her mother had tried to bring her up better than that. She let it go, and moved over to a shelf with a few different color bottles. She reached out to touch them, and suddenly the shelf gave way. Lyana cursed as the bottles hit the ground and started to shatter one by one. Three bottles in all. She covered her mouth and nose, and backed away quickly. It smelled, and she didn't know if the elixirs actually worked or not. "I'm so sorry! I didn't even touch them... Or the shelf!"

The last cork slid in and sealed the final bottle. Zodiac nodded in satisfaction before unlocking one of the closets reserved for housing such things. When the small light clicked on, rows of various shapes and sizes of bottles could be seen lined up like sleeping bottles of wine dreaming of being un-corked. A slot of empty rows waited for guests and the gypsy placed each of the 6 full bottles carefully into place. The partial seventh bottle would be held back for further research and applications.

"And it did not explode. It simply snapped and took out a chair" she fumed to herself as she relocked the door.

The sound of breaking glass in the front did not bother her. Accidents happened frequently in this place, so she did not bat an eye when she picked up the partial bottle and began to head to her upstairs work area.

Jennifer's scream, however, almost caused her to drop the lethal bottle of potion. Zodiac slipped the bottle into her dress pocket and ran for the front of the shop.

"ZO!" Jennifer quickly backed up and encouraged the customer to do the same as smoke and mist began to rise and intermingle from the three shattered bottles. The girl had no clue off the top of her head what was in those particular three bottles. What she did know was if any customer wanted one, she was to get Zodiac and let her deal with the sales.

Zo emerged and looked at the small conflagration of smokes boiling away, then up at Jennifer and the customer. A wide eyed look of 'what the fruitcake' in her eyes.

"The shelf broke. What was in those?" Jennifer was almost in hysterics. She watched her boss lean close for a moment, the expression on her face growing even more panicked. The gypsy grabbed the nearest dry erase board and wrote quickly. Pointing to the door as she showed them.

OUT! LOCK THE DOOR! NOW!

"C'mon. Don't argue with her!" Jennifer grabbed the girl's arm and encouraged her to follow her to the entrance. "She says run? You run!"

Outside the shop, Jennifer did as she was told and locked the door, only to press her face against the glass to try and see what was happening inside.

Lyana continued to back away as smoke began to roil up out of the mixture of the three vials. She waved the smoke away from her with her hand, and was soon standing next to the door she came into. When the lady screamed, Lyana looked over, and wondered who she had called for. She soon got her answer as the lady came from almost no where. The smoke had kept Lyana's attention enough that she didn't notice the woman. It wasn't until the clerk grabbed her arm that she saw someone was there holding up a sign. She let Jennifer pull her out the door, and saw that the woman didn't argue with her. She did exactly as she was told. Lyana stood back and watched as she looked back inside. Wondering what was going on, she moved up beside her, and looked in. She could hardly see anything. Pulling out her cellphone, she started to dial 911.

“911 emergency response.”

“Hi, I would like to report a fire at the...” Lyana suddenly drew a blank. She looked around freverantly for something that would show her where she was. “Do you know where Pandora's Box is?”

“No Ma'am. Are you out of the house?” The dispatcher asked over the phone.

“No, we are outside, and it's not a house. It's a city business. Pandora's Box. Also by Grigori's something. Bunch of businesses in a... a... Market! Honeymead Market!”

“Ma'am calm down. Could you give us your exact location? Is there anybody still in the house?”

“It's NOT a HOUSE! It's at Pandora's Box located inside Honeymead Market. A woman is still trapped inside. Please you got to help her!”

“As soon as you calm down, I will do everything I can. Where did you say the ho...” Lyana hung up the phone. They were not going to be of any use. They didn't even know the streets of their city. They didn't listen, and she was actually shocked that she was surprised. They were only human after all. That saying totally meant something different to her now. She started to laugh at the thought, but then remembered what was going on. She moved back over to Jennifer, and tried to peek again. “Can you see anything yet?”

Outside the shop, Jennifer did as she was told and locked the door, only to press her face against the glass to try and see what was happening inside.

Jennifer jumped as the lights went off inside the building. "Last I saw was that smoke cloud getting bigger," she answered the customer. She saw the cell phone in her hand and grinned. "Oh yeah, no be wasting your time with them clowns. Cops are the same way. You call for them and unless you say free donuts and coffee is waiting, you'll be dead, cold, and already being chewed on by animals before they show up."

Suddenly the smoke within reached the windows, but in the outside lighting shining in they looked green in color rather than black or grey. "What in the world?"

***

The customer was a telepath, so Zodiac kept her thoughts guarded as she sat calmly on the break room floor in the darkness. The small portable fog maker she had got for Halloween fun churned out the sickly looking smoke as a small fan encouraged it up into the front of the store. The bottles had been harmless. Simple colored water with a fog making element added for visual effects when it hit the air. Any real potions she had she kept locked up to avoid some fool grabbing something and doing themselves or others harm with it. Only if a customer knew what they were dealing with and if the gypsy felt secure in dealing with them did such things trade hands in her shop.

"Think we freaked them out badly enough?" Zodiac's hands ran over the black cat that laid beside her on the floor purring softly.

'SCREECH!' Zodiac looked up at Stone Cold, her pet owl, who was shaking his head and flapping. The smoke was not a welcome visitor as far as the bird saw it. She turned off the fog maker and stood up. Enough of it had been generated to hide her from outside view. "C'mon, big guy," she offered her shoulder for the bird to perch on and opened the back door and slipped out with the cat following her. Quietly she walked around the building and came up behind Jennifer and the customer.

"Well, I hope the two of you are happy." she announced her presence telepathically, causing both to startle. She pointed to the green filled window. "Those 3 potions did a one in a million combination. What you are seeing there is a variant of a zombie retrovirus being born. No stopping it now. Once it escapes, zombie apocalypse time. Give the ones in the QZ some real competition."

She stood stone faced as she waited for a reaction. Jennifer looked at the shop, then back to the gypsy several times. "Oh you are so FULL OF IT!" she shouted as she began to laugh. Zodiac grinned in reply then turned her attention on the customer and inclined her head.

"Forgive me, but the opportunity to pull a prank presented itself and I could not resist." she smiled brightly. "I am Mistress Zodiac. Welcome to Pandora's Box. It is normally not this dull around here, I do apologize." She reached up to pet the owl as Ginny sat at her feet watching the woman closely. "This feather duster here is Stone Cold, and the lady below is Ginny."

Lyana turned as she heard a woman's voice from behind them. It was the lady from before. Jennifer, the store clerk, had called her something, but she couldn't quite remember what it was. Lyana listened to what she said and a look of horror replaced her worried expression. More Zombies?! She had hard enough trouble as it was dealing with the ones in the Quarentine Zone. Now the lady was saying that these would be far superior to those. Lyana quickly thought about visiting a magic shop. She had heard about a spell or potion that would help you change what you learned and grew stronger at. She tried to remember how much it would cost, and then looked up as Jennifer started to speak. Looking confused for a second, it soon dawned on Lyana that she had been pranked when the lady spoke again. Biting her lip, she looked at the assumed shop owner. "You aren't serious? There isn't really goning to be a Zombie plague virus thing?" Lyana took a moment to compose herself, and then petted both Stone Cold and Ginny. She extended her hand and introduced herself. "I am Lyana, and it is a pleasure to meet you. I sincerely apologize for ruining whatever that was. I will be happy to pay for it, though I don't think I have much right now. This is quite the lovely shop you have here. So much different than anything I have ever seen. Will it be safe to go back inside soon?" Lyana looked back at the shop. She moved to the windows and watched the smoke still billowing around inside. "Do you have blowers that will suck the smoke out in times like these?"

The girl apparently rolled with the joke easy enough. She introduced herself and expressed her apologies. Zodiac shook her head and whispered to her mind again. "No harm done. Those bottles are for display and hold nothing more than colored water and a fog crystal for effect. The real potions I have made are locked away and only the right kind of people can buy them from me."

She blinked as she caught sight of the girl's face before she turned to look inside the fog filled shop again. Jennifer was already unlocking the door and getting the lights back on.

"You had to use that fog machine, didn't you?" Jennifer fanned away the mist that began to escape the open door as she slowly made her way inside and to the back of the shop. A few moments later, the sounds of ventilator fans could be heard purring in the ceiling as they began to suck away the artificial fog. Zodiac walked up behind Lyana and tapped her gently on the shoulder.

"Oh, turn around, please. Let me see," her hands softly held the girl's head between them as she looked into Lyana's eyes. "Oh, I am so jealous! Beautiful, perfect violet eyes! I may have to slice them out of your head and keep them." Her own crystal blue ones sparking in delight. She did not mean her threat of course, and began to guide the girl back inside the rapidly clearing shop.

"Thank you for your kind words about my establishment. Jennifer and I worked very hard to get to the point we could turn a little business into something like this. I have two now, actually. The second one is located in Veil Tower near Wickbridge. So tell me, Lyana of the Violet eyes, what brings you to my door this night? As the norm, any who enter here are in search of something. Jennifer!" she called out to her shop manager and pointed at Lyana's eyes. "Did you see? Beautiful! I am so jealous now. Why didn't I get purple eyes? So not fair!"

"Zo, your own are pretty enough. You do purple everything else, so purple eyes would be overkill," the girl replied in a tone that suggested this was not the first time she had a conversation like this with her boss.

"Says you!" she smiled as telepathic bubbles of laughter began to be heard.

Lyana continued to watch through the windows. The smoke inside made her crave a smoke herself. She sighed as she knew they didn't have any of the old effect. She heard them going back and forth with each other. She thought that maybe they were close, and smiled. She used to have close friends. Now the closest friend she had was a vampire such as her, brand new to the city, and just as young. She only knew the lady as Spike, and couldn't seem to get a fix on her now a days. Lyana felt a tap on her shoulder. Then suddenly, her head was held between a pair of soft hands. She was looking into the eyes of the store owner, shining blue and crystal clear. She heard the woman begin to gush about her eyes, and Lyana blushed and moved her head away and out of her hands, turning it to the side while looking at the ground.

"I haven't always had them. They are new to the change." He said softly and completely embarrassed. "I would rather like to keep them if you don't mind." She nodded as the owner thanked her and went into a spiel about her businesses. Then she asked her what brought her by before gushing about her eyes once again to her manager. Lyana laughed as she had a witty comeback for the shop keeper. "There is no such thing as Purple overkill." Lyana chirped in to back up the owner.

"Zo is it? I don't know what brought me here. I was just wandering. Exploring the city. I happened to wander by the market, I guess you could say, looking for something interesting. I am looking for a job... Any opening here? Oh or at the other shop? I am great with computers? I could do something clerical?" Lyana looked at her hopefully. She gave her only friend ten thousand dollars to go into a business partnership, but she stopped working on the business. Lyana hadn't been paid in weeks, and was hurting for some money. Her hacking had given her some, but between trying to find a place to stay and getting her scrypts in order, she was still nearly flat broke. She thought that the near hundred thousand dollars she had in the bank would last her for a few years, but this city was far more expensive than she had anticipated. "Anything would do actually. I can mop, or something."

She laughed at Lyana's comeback to the purple question. "That's right, you tell her!" She knew a few others who had experienced some physical changes due to their turning, but this was one of the first so striking, yet simple ones she had seen when it came to the eyes of another. She was getting a good vibe from this one now. Zodiac's vibes tended to take the notion of 'going with a gut feeling' to a bit of an extreme at times, but she was seldom wrong when it come to people. A few slipped through on occasion, but her batting average tended to be on the high end of judgment.

She listened to Lyana talk about what she was doing. It was no different than herself upon a time. Seeing what this town had to offer. Harper Rock was deceptive in size and things could be hidden in the small parts away from the normal paths others walked.

" I am looking for a job... Any opening here? Oh or at the other shop? I am great with computers? I could do something clerical?"

A job? Ah, so now it comes out. Her violet shaded fingernail tapped on her purple coated lips for a moment as she considered the idea. She honestly did not need anymore help here or at the Eye. Everyone seemed to be settled in for the long haul now (she hoped). Zodiac remembered the last walk in person she hired. It was Iris, her now childer.

"Anything would do actually. I can mop, or something."

"I would never consider aiming those lovely eyes at the floor," she smiled as her thoughts raced now. "Computers, eh? One moment, please." She held up a finger for patience and walked to her small office. She returned with a set of keys in her hand and bid Lyana to follow her outside. "I would like to show you something if I may."Jennifer smiled and waved bye=bye to the pair as they stepped out into the night.

Outside of Pandora's to the north, several new shops sat waiting for businesses to fill them, save one whose south-west corner almost touched the north-east corner of Pandy's. A large paper banner that declared 'OPENING SOON' hung blocking the windows view of the insides and a tarp hid the marquee sign above the door from view for now. Zodiac took the keys and unlocked the front door and let the girl enter. Inside she turned on the lights to show the partially renovated shop in full view.

"It will be a tea house," she began to explain. "A rest stop, a port in the storm so to speak from the issues of everyday life. I have a hobby of making custom blends of tea, and some have suggested I sell them, and we do in small bags back in Pandy's, but I see something more as well. A place where people can try and sample various blends. Relax, catch up, read in peace. Occasionally I would do card readings and demonstrations for the customers. A good old gypsy tea room for all to enjoy." she turned to face the violet-eyed girl and smiled.

"You say you want a job, you say you can be a clerk, well I am offering you a chance to be in on the ground floor of this newest project of mine. Pay may be a bit light till we get it all into motion, but as it grows, so will what we make in the process. A little patience on your part to begin with but you will find I am no slave driver. As long as what you are paid to do is done, I have no problems with other things. So what do you think?"