Here we go again, Marvin thought before his consciousness became sucked through the medium of the incense, into the statue of the tiger on the altar.

This time, however, Blake had come along for the ride.

Marvin blinked his ceramic eyes and grabbed onto the ceramic pot as smoke belched from his nostrils. He could feel Blake looking through the tiger's eyes with terror.

'Marvin, what the hell just happened? Why am I inside this tiger statue?'

'Sorry man. I was in your pouch and I got sent, so you're going for the ride.'

'Blake's agitation was palpable. Man! I don't wanna be in this thing! It's creepy as hell!'

'Relax Blake. Nothing's gonna happen to you. Lemme handle this. Just don't do anything poltergeisty, you hear?'

Blake took a deep breath and then exhaled. There was no use in panicking. He was in for the ride. He might as well experience what it felt like to be the demonic spirit doing the possessing, as opposed to one being possessed.

''Kay.'

The inexperienced eye would have seen nothing extraordinary, confusing the tiger smoke for the incense smoke, but Anh Hai was no inexperienced fool.

He had gone through his ritual with the spirits of the Shadow Realm for hundreds of lifetimes and could detect the signs of possession immediately.

"Ah, Tiger Spirit! Welcome back to this realm. I trust you enjoyed your feast."

Anh Hai shook his head and turned his back to the altar.

"That was also a regrettable thing that happened to your friend. He signed an agreement with me and then tried to back out during an assignment."

'What the hell is he talking about?' Blake muttered to Marvin.

Marvin grimaced. 'It's Luis. He tried to renege on a soul contract and got caught.'

"I am disappointed, to say the least." Anh Hai was talking at the space between himself and the ceramic tiger. "I hate to lose a new recruit, but he needed to learn a lesson."

'Soul contract?' Blake prompted.

'Yeah.' Marvin shook his head. 'He didn't want to kill you so he ran away. Got caught. Now he's stuck in a jar for lord knows how long.'

Anh Hai gave a mirthless chuckle. "Perhaps in the future, you might want to train your new colleagues a bit more thoroughly. Rest assured, he is very safe where he is at the moment."

An orange flew across the room, bursting open where it hit the opposite wall and bouncing onto the expensive oriental rug below. Tangy juices dripped down the deep cream-colored satin brocade wallpaper, making an unsightly stain on an otherwise pristine surface.

"Tch, Tch. Temper, temper!" Anh Hai clicked his tongue and turned to face the altar.

"I see the Phoenix Spirit is here. Welcome, Phoenix! If you don't like the oranges, I will leave it out of the offerings next time. You don't have to throw tantrums. Mon Dieu!"

Another orange flew across the room, this time aimed directly at his head.

Anh Hai reached out with one hand, catching it clean in midair. A dangerous glint entering his eyes.

"Tiger Spirit, you had better control your minion before I destroy her."

The tiger puffed two short puffs in acquiescence.

'Control yourself, bitch, or he really will destroy you.' Marvin sent a warning at Maysie who was still sitting on the chaise lounge with anger roiling in her eyes.

'I can't stand the fucker.' She ground out the words.

'Stand down, Hoe! This isn't the time to piss the Overlord off. There will be plenty of chances to give this ass what's due him. We just gotta be patient.'

Anh Hai pulled out another long thin brown stick from his box of cigarettes and lit it with a heavy engraved silver lighter from his breast pocket.

He put away the lighter, took a long drag of the cigarette and blew a couple of smoke rings. The rings flew towards the ceramic tiger, dropping over its head and encircling it like restrictive collars before dissipating into the hazy air.

He took a deep breath, his eyes narrowing in on the tiger's ceramic eyes.

"So tell me. What happened to the young man I sent you spirits to tame? Did you kill him?"

The tiger statue puffed two short puffs to indicate 'yes'.

"Good. Good."

He shook his head. "But not good enough."

Anh Hai stuck the half-smoked cigarette into the brass claw-footed incense burner and took out a small vial of yellow liquid from one of his side pockets.

He held it up and looked at it askance. His eyes narrowed.

"He's actually not the only one you need to clear out. There are two others within that group that I need for you to handle in the same manner. Once all that's done, I will get my payment and you will get yours."

'Wait. What? He wants you to kill two guys in my band? You gotta stop him Marvin!' Blake wailed in a panic.

'Do I look like I can do anything to that Overlord? He's strong as fuck. And scary as hell.' Marvin mumbled. He was not ashamed to admit he was terrified of Anh Hai. The man was a scary mofo.

'Please! You can't kill my friends!'

'That's our job, kid. We ain't got no choice. We kill people for him.' Marvin heaved a tired sigh.

'I don't care! I don't want any part of this.' Blake shouted.

'Look Blake.' Marvin tried to reason with him. 'You don't have to be part of this 'cause you haven't agreed to anything with him yet, but we gotta do what we gotta do.'

Marvin sighed. It wasn't as if he had any choice in the matter.

'Look at it this way. Once we're done, he contacts the client, gets his money, and then you will know who wanted you dead. Until then, there's no way to know.'

Before Marvin could say anything more, Anh Hai had poured the small vial of yellow liquid into a glass beaker.

"Here's the next one. I got lucky with him and actually managed to obtain some of his urine."

He shook his head with disgust.

"This guy pisses into coke bottles at night because he's too lazy to run to the toilet like any normal human being would do. Instead, he stores dozens of piss bottles under his bed."

He clicked his tongue. "Tch. Tch. You know what they say about sloth."

"It kills you."

Anh Hai laughed and spoke a power word as he threw a white powder into the beaker.

POOF!!!