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She sat poised in what she called her 'purple throne' looking at the three invitations that sat in front of her. Her hand idly petting the cat that filled her lap purring softly. Ginny had been deeply missed by Zodiac as her familiar raised her first litter, and the girl was reluctant to move them back and forth from the shop to home nightly. She leaned back in her chair and focused her thoughts upstairs and sensed the nine little heartbeats romping and playing about. Another week and she could finally begin finding homes for them.

"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:







"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.

There in the corner, he sat. His slender form poised in indian style manner, legs folded before him, and his eyes completely white as they were rolled upwards out of sight. As often times he would, Psyche sat back in the secluded corner of his apartment and recited memories as he sifted through individuals' minds and memories. Weaving in and out of the memories of those individuals he'd come to know of, his traversing was halted suddenly as his consciousness bungee'd back to his body. Something had disturbed his memory reading. He'd not quite mastered the concentration needed to retain awareness while performing under the mental strain needed for telepathy. His eyes rolling back down to normal, blinking a bit before looking around and wondering what had disturbed him. Then the buzz rang throughout the apartment and he had his answer.

"Who the hell?"

He couldn't figure who would be visiting him, as ...well... he'd never had someone visit this apartment before. Taking a look around the room, he contemplated if there was anything that could land him in hot water. Hmmm. He could perhaps utilize the distraction method. Quickly taking off his shirt, he crumbled the grey tee shirt into a ball and tossed it into the bedroom. Watching as it landed on the face of the gagged naked man bound to the bed posts, he closed the door behind him to ensure it didn't become a spectacle. He was half finished with that art project and really needed to keep to his other locales if he was going to start receiving visitors.

Dropping down to the ground, Psyche knocked out 10 push-ups and flexed his not so impressive biceps to himself before kissing his 'guns'.

"Yeaaaah. The ladies... they love me.

Walking to the door, he grabbed at the knob and pulled it open to find a small red-haired girl in a Canadian tuxedo. He grinned at the shocked expression of the girl and cocked his head to the side. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the situation. Had someone sent him a gift? Was this girl lost? Maybe she was from some sort of Census Bureau? Oh god, he hoped not. He really hated those vague statistic analyzing individuals.

"That is so ******* RAD!" the girl spouted off with a look of amazement.

Psyche stared for a second and then l laughed out. "Oh my. She likies."

"I'm sorry, an invitation from Mistress Zodiac to Psyche."

"Ooooooo. Invites and ****. Sweet!"

Taking the invitation from the girl, he read it over and smiled. "Always a doll." Looking back over the well-framed girl in her somewhat cliche chick flick visage. The type that, if you removed their glasses and put them in a form fitting dress they'd have the wolves howling, sort. He grinned and leaned against the wall.

"You know...", Psyche raised a brow and a completely shameless grin, "I have so many more tattoos I'd be willing to show someone with your obvious appreciation of art. If you'd like to come in, we can get you wined up, dined up, dressed down and maybe look at covering that canvas of yours."

The girl looked at him with a raised brow and shook her head with absolute denial at the lame attempt to coax her in. Besides, she was way to busy to be entertaining any of this non-sense. "Uhhh, sorry. I've got other work matters to take care of."

His shoulders slumped and his expression dropped at the obvious shut down. "Ah well. 'Nother time, maybe. I'll be sure to let the Mistress know of our established engagement. Thank you." , he then closed the door on her face and went back to the bedroom to look through his attire.

There on the bed, the man was looking at Psyche with an odd grin and laughing to himself. It was apparent the man felt his attempts at seduction were lame as well. Laughing back to the man, "Ohhh, yes. I know, I know. No such luck tonight eh? Opening the dresser drawer he pulled his firearm out and placed a well-aimed shot between the man's eyes, painting the wall with any remaining thoughts he may have been having.

"Shot....down." he chuckled to himself.

Sitting on the bed, he let the weapon set in his lap and his eyes stare off into the thousand mile stare, off into nothingness. Zo, I'll come to you. This time tomorrow night, I'll stop in. My hand should be better then and not so bothersome to your customers' eyes.

Cutting the connection he looked back to the bed and scoffed at the mess he was going to have to clean now.

Zo, I'll come to you. This time tomorrow night, I'll stop in. My hand should be better then and not so bothersome to your customers' eyes.

She looked up for a second as the message took hold in her thoughts. She held her finger up to urge patience of her client for a moment.

"I will be expecting you then, Mr. Bones." she replied back. Her hand reaching over and making a quick note on her notepad. Psyche-tomorrow.
Zodiac then looked back to her client and smiled as her hands began to form her words for the mortal woman sitting in front of her. Shall we continue? A spirit was whispering to me just then. she grinned.

***

The next night, the mystic was taking devilish delight in teasing her day manager.

"You thought he was cute, didn't you?" Zodiac followed the girl around as she checked the inventory.

"I did not." the woman huffed.

"Liar!" the gypsy teased. "I know you."

"So what if I did?" Jennifer turned and confronted her. "Are you interested in him?"

"Maybe....."

"Oh now who is a liar?"

"Hey! It could happen. Perhaps it's time for me to expand my horizons a bit" Zodiac gestured dramatically.

"Yeah, right! And spirits my pop out of my ***."

"Hey! I can make that happen, and you know I can." she waggled a finger and Jennifer. "He is done from head to toe and all points inbetween, for your info."

"Really? Holy ****! How do you know?"

"He told me!"

"Oh, and you just believe him?"

"Well, if he is lying, it's a lie he can get called out on pretty damn easy. Just de-pants him and then we'd know."

"I see," Jennifer looked her employer in the eyes. "And I suppose you want me to do the de-pants-ing?"

"Now who else could I trust with such an important job like this? A mission of such magnitude has to be handled just so."

"De-pants him yourself."

"Oh no, I could not trust myself," Zodiac began to giggle, followed by Jennifer a half a second later.

"When confronted by the power of the mystic.... bones, I was helpless." the girl began to drama as well.

"The storm surged and thundered. To the very depths of depravity and beyond it raged all night long." Zodiac took a stance, not to be outdone.

"All night? Really?"

"Vampire stamina, doll."

"I hate you."

"Biggest lie of the night!" The dam broke and the two hugged each other laughing hysterically. Hugging and giggling like a pair of school kids until the door chimes caught their attentions. The pair looked to see the object of their discussion walking into the shop. They looked, then looked at each other, Jennifer snorted and the laughter began again. They both waved to the man and managed to say 'Hi' (each in their own way of course).

Zodiac let loose of the girl and tried to look serious. "Now get the inventory done, woman!" she admonished and then bowed to her guest and urged him to follow her into the parlor.

"Ma'am, yes ma'am." Jennifer said aloud, while mentally- 'Liar!'

"I heard that!"