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"Are you sure?" she asked softly. "Is this the one you want?"

Ginny meowed a bit before turning and rubbing herself against the smaller version of herself standing next to her. The smaller female lost its balance for a moment, but compensated quickly under the attentions of its 'mother'. Zodiac had been watching the interactions of her familiar and her first litter. To say the cat played favorites was ridiculous, but it appeared she had moods with some of them. Ginny had been a most attentive mother to the lot of them. They were small for their age, but nine kittens was a major litter for any cat to have-let alone their first. They were all healthy, eating on their own (much to Ginny's relief) and very active. It had been fun coming home to the group and enjoying their antics, but the time had come now. Her apartment was not going to survive the hoard much longer. They were too active and curious now. Six black as night clones of the mother while three others bore a dark tabby pattern. The only clue she had to the missing 'father' of this family. One of the tigers had a gold ribbon tied about its neck. CC had picked one and the little brute would not be missed by the majority of its siblings. Alone, the animal was calm and affectionate, but with the others it was a terror.

The small black one standing with Ginny had a purple ribbon around its neck. This one Zodiac herself would keep. That left seven to find new homes.

"Well then," she climbed off of the bed and kitten shuffled over to her computer and sat down. "No time like the present." she brought up the Word program and began to type a message. Several times she paused and changed a few points till she finally had it right.

Seven addresses were selected and the following would be discovered in certain mailboxes when their mail was checked.



"Okay, your furry little creeps," she smiled as the kittens looked up. They had become used to the 'sound' of her voice but still could not focus exactly where the 'voice' was coming from. In time she felt another telepath could improve on what she started with one of them. CC and Jennifer both had been a major help getting the kittens used to traditional verbal sounds and words. "Your new moms and dads will be on their way soon."

A letter had been left in front of her apartment in Ivy. Being that she rarely got mail, it was a bit odd, especially since it seemed handwritten.

Picking it up, she opened it with a one of her sharper nails and took out of the piece of paper. The typed message inside was no less confusing. Someone named Zodiac had what was a cat for her and asked that she bring a carrier. However, she didn't remember ever asking for a cat, or even knowing anyone named Zodiac. Which clearly meant that this was from a time before.

The address referenced an apartment right below her. She did love animals, however she wasn't sure she was up to another meet and greet. But the kittens in the picture were adorable.

Checking her cell, she realized she didn't have this Zodiac's number, probably had been in the one that had gotten destroyed a while back. But the apartment was right downstairs.

With a quick gesture, she used one of her cooler powers to hop to a pet shop she used to get the gators food and grabbed a cat carrier. Another hop and she was at the elevator of the apartment building. Flicking her eyes around nervously, she knocked on the door and the fidgeted while she waited for an answer.

Zodiac turned at the sound of the knocking and worked her way to the door. The peep hole was slid open as she checked who had come.

"Oh my God," she thought when the woman's face registered in her mind. She had forgotten about this one. She did not know the girl on a personal level, but had seen her come and go out of the complex many times. She lived upstairs on one of the floors above. River seemed to defy logic and reason most of the time. Zodiac had found a soul mate in Sundial-her neighbor down the hall on this floor. She had felt right at home when she discovered someone in the building was as strange as she was.

Then she noticed River. She had no clue how to even approach her and the gypsy would swear the girl smelled of alligators most of the time. She mainly minded her own business when she saw her. A occasional nod or a smile at best.

Where does she get the gators? She was dying to ask the question. Some of her older potions and spells required alligator bits and such, but in the polar north of Canada, alligators were somewhat scarce.

"This chick is weirder than me and Sunny put together," she thought to herself as she opened the door and smiled brightly. She inclined her head and then made a gesture from her forehead to River's before 'speaking' to her mind.

"Greetings, and blessings of the night to you. You are River from upstairs, yes?" she spied the carrier and smiled more. "Thank you for following my request. The kittens have not been out much, so I figure why take a chance they would run off. Better to get then to their new home safely where they can get to know you, and then try taking them out without a carrier."

She pushed the door open fully and beckoned with her arm. "Please, come inside. Mind where you step though. Lil' devils are all over the place now. So, what sex are you looking for in a kitten?" Her telepathic voice continued to speak. "This will be nice. Maybe I can visit the girl or boy occasionally since we both live here."

A thought occurred to the mystic suddenly as she closed the door-after making sure no kittens had escaped into the hallway. What if River had the gators in her apartment? She sniffed quietly. There it was.

Alligators.

"No feeding the kitty to anything, please," She sighed softly.

Before she could say much, her mind was suddenly filled with words, and emotions. She flinched a bit, still not used to the mind speaking thing. For some reason it bothered her when people spoke mind to mind with her, but that was probably because she could barely stand her own head much less have some one else poking around.

"Uh..well it made sense yanno to bring a carrier for a kitten. And uh..yeah Im river. You must be this Zodiac? Before we go further, I'll say right off that I before a few weeks ago, I don't remember ****..so if we knew each other or anything and I uh don't act like it..thats why?"

She had learned from the previous last weeks to say this before anything else. It seemed to save a small amount of problems where as in the beginning she had assumed she really didn't know anybody.


"Oh I uh..won't feed it ta anything. And I'd kind of like a boy?" Stepping inside, she looked around and then let out a small laugh at the squirming kittens mewing all over the place.

The black ones especially looked adorable, without much notice of the woman, she wandered over to a group of them and started petting. It would be nice to finally have something to cuddle. She did love her gators but they weren't especially cuddly most the time.

"Memory loss?" she thought as the woman walked by her. Part of her smirked as her mind danced with possibilities, but then decided otherwise. As much fun as it could be to fill that void with 'memories' she decided to behave-for once.

She watched the woman sit down and began to play with several of the black kittens. Zodiac took a seat herself and watched. "Any questions you have, feel free to ask," she encouraged.

Ginny appeared and sat nearby. Watching the woman as if appraising who was showing an interest in her brood now. Eventually, the larger cat turned and hopped up into the gypsy's lap and made herself comfortable as she began to purr under the hands of the girl as she petted. "The ones with the purple and gold ribbons around their necks have already been claimed, but the others are open to choice."

The kittens seemed to like her. She watched them checking River out. Growing bold, then backing up. Play pouncing at her hands. They seemed at ease with her, so that was a good sign.

"Where do you get the alligators?" she blurted out suddenly.

Alexandrea let out a squeal of delight as she read the message from Zodiac. She texted backed quickly that she would be right over after doing some shopping. There were already kitty supplies back at Willow Court but those belonged to Sophie, Kira's cat. And then there were Garfield's supplies at Alex's apartment but Garfield didn't get along well with others and didn't like to share. He just liked to be left alone. Which was fine, Alex got love from him when he felt like it and she knew she always had someone to come home to.

But she wanted a companion that she could have with her at the shop, a friendly kitty that liked people and liked to go places with her. She'd had a cat like that once, a very affectionate little girl that loved to ride around on Alexandrea's shoulders. She spent very little time at home, she had been working so much. And when she went to the house she shared with her Kiwi, she would like to have a kitty that would get along with Kira's cat.

She had gotten all the supplies she needed and stored them in her store at the mall before getting the cat carrier and zipping over there. Looking up at the building, Alex realized she might not want to run or take the train back with her new friend. She chewed her bottom lip in thought as she looked around for a car to steal.

Quickly, she set that thought aside. She didn't want to risk getting in trouble while bringing her new kitten home. It had been awhile since Alexandrea had requested the driving services of Alanoth. She crossed her fingers the young man might be available and looked up his number on her phone, sending him a text explaining the situation and asking if her was free to give her and the cat a ride.

Alanoth had just about wrapped up his work when he received the text message, having been wrapping something up. It was a surprise for a family member in the Bloodline, one who had helped him out a lot lately. Ever since his most recent blackout, everyone he had called friend had begun to disappear. Octavia was gone, Angele was gone...and even Alex was gone, one of his employers. Such was his surprise when he saw that his most recent message was from that self-same former client.

She needed a ride to pick up a kitten? Well, that made sense from his memory of her driving test. He smiled at the fond memory, the exciting experience of speeding down the highway with her at the wheel, and the helpless human driving instructor having to cower in the passenger seat. Then his own test had come into effect, and he may have bored her out of her skull, but at least he'd earned his own license and become her driver.

Snappign out of ti, he texted back that he'd be there as soon as possible, then stowed the gift away securely. He patted his hair down briefly, then hurried downstairs and located an unused car. After checking the fuel auge, he hotwired the vehicle-a trick learned from Alexandrea herself-and sped off at a speed unusual for himself. He arrived at the address he knew she'd be at, then parked and waited for her to come out, texting ehr phone that he had arrived.

When the first text message came through, Alexandrea had been standing in the lobby of the building so she went out to wait for Alanoth. Anxiously swinging the pet taxi in one hand as she waited, she accidentally swung the carrier in the path of a bicycle messenger whose bike came to an abrupt stop, sending the poor young man over the handle bars.

"OhmygawdI'msosorry!!!" Alexandrea yelled out, setting down the pet taxi as she rushed to try and catch the human before he hit the brick wall his trajectory was aiming him for. She wasn't quite... fast enough. The body hit the bricks with a thud and then slid down the wall in almost comical slow motion. Alex did catch him just as he was about to eat the sidewalk and then quickly moved him into the nearby alleyway.

She set the man down and then took a look around to be sure now one had seen, thanking Nox that one of the street lights was out when it was clear that no one had caught sight of the accident. Leaving the bike, Alex rushed back to the human to see if there was anything she could do for him.

There wasn't.

Damn.

She felt like crap but had to do something. Didn't she? Well at least there hadn't been anything supernatural about the death... this time. First she went back for the bike and then moved it into the alley besides it's owner, then took what was in the messenger bag and went to a pay phone, calling 911 anonymously to report a mugging.

She hated the fact that she had inadvertently hurt the human but doing anything else would risk exposing herself to the cops and the police had no love for her, that she knew already.

Her cell buzzed and looking down, she saw Alanoth had arrived. With a dramatic sigh, she went back out to the street and picked the cat carrier back up then waved at him. But when he didn't respond... she went over to the car and tapped on the window.

"Alanoth? Thank you for coming... would you like to come upstairs with me?" It was only after she had spoken she remembered she had used the power of alter ego earlier that night.

Oh no... that bike messenger....

She swallowed a lump in her throat and used mind speak to send into Alanoth's mind.

*Alanoth, It's me. Alexandrea.*

Alanoth sat there in the car, having turned off the engine to save gas, and wondered if Alexandrea was busy. He had seen something speed on past, but ignored it, figuring it to be either a random bicyclist or a Killer using Celerity. He did notice an odd person whom he didn't recognize waving in his general direction at one point, but he was checking his phone for messages so took little note of it.

Was this the right place? He was about to look up and check the address when he bl;anched, seeing the stranger from earlier tapping on the window. How did she know his name? Why did she want him to come upstairs? He instincively reached for his knife, wondering if this was some kind of trick or a sick means of pick-up. Then came the telepathic message, and he stared at the woman for a time. THIS was Alexandrea? Maybe she had changed her appearance to hide from someone? He put the knife away and hopped out of the car, looking up at her.

"Alex? Are you um...hiding from someone?"

She had been tussling with the kittens, playing with them when a black male who was a bit shy caught her attention. That was the one. Not that she didn't like the bold ones, but being a loner herself, she admired the little guy for holding in the back of the pack, wanting to stand on his own. Without a word, she scooped him up and petting the sensitive underside of his neck. He was a beauty. Completely black, beautiful eyes, and with him rubbing against her fingers she nodded at him.

"This one fo sure" The cajun taught to her by others spilled out a bit in happiness as she cuddled him to her and then sorted through the questions the woman had asked but she had ignored to play with the kittens.

"Yep memory loss. Evidently I was in the SR place for a long time and came back without knowing who I am. I've found out a lot of bits and pieces but Ive given up on the whole story. So Im just trying to start again. As for gators, well I can't remember where I got them. I just had them and having taken care of them before when I was much younger, it wasn't hard to remember what they eat. But I know they aren't in the main pet store..so maybe one of the out of the way places? Sorry I couldn't help more, but thats been my prob for a while now. I can't remember worth **** and it bugs me when I don't know the obvious."