"You're a virgin." Constantine stated.

"I didn't know that. Thanks for pointing that out." The girl snarled under her breath, straightening her sleeves.

"Not like I was using that as a pick up line!" John countered back, taking a step away to give her room. "I've just never met one."

"Yeah we're as mythical as a unicorn here in L.A." The girl looked up into his eyes, her own flashing a warning. "Now look, why are you here? It was bad enough you probed my mind, bad enough you've come here to tell them you saw me at Papa Midnite's…"

"Tell them?" Constantine was confused, still recovering from the bright mental flash.

"Tell them you saw one of their employees fleeing the club well known for its not so good reputation. It's a clause in the employment contract that you're not to dwell in forsaken places." The girl sighed. "I so totally need this job and I went and let Emily talk me into going in there…"

"Stop. Back up." John normally would have grabbed her arm but he wasn't prepared for another mental blast. "I didn't come here for you. I didn't even know you worked here."

She blinked, and looked back up at him. "Oh. Shi…uh…oh. Okay. Then this conversation never happened." She turned on her heel and started back out the door. John braced himself and grabbed her arm, pulling her back. No psychic blast this time.

"It won't happen again. I put my shields back up." She murmured.

"You know you're a telepath?" Constantine replied quietly. She nodded.

"Born that way. Got worse when I hit my teens. I learned early on I wasn't 'normal'. I've been medicated for other reasons, mostly depression. Hospitalized for suicidal tendencies. But no one's ever known what I was." She stopped talking. "And here I am pouring my soul out to a stranger."

"It's all right, really. I understand. Personally." He gave her a wry smile. "I'm John…"

"Constantine. The infamous exorcist, mage, and all around shady character. I've seen your picture in the paper, read about you on the Internet." She took another step back from him. "I saw things when your mind touched mine. Dark things."

Constantine smirked. "Be glad you don't even know a third of it." He placed his hands in his trench coat pockets, a gesture of goodwill. "Since I'm on the downside of the conversation, you are?"

"Elizabeth Alder. Sorry." She started to offer a hand but withdrew it. "Why are you here, Mr. Constantine?"

"A job." Best to say something non-committal. Less she knew the better.

"Well then, I better let you get back to whatever that is."

"First tell me something. Why was someone who works for the ministry in Papa Midnite's?" He saw Elizabeth cringe.

She paused a minute before answering. "Emily and Chris… they'd heard there's a backroom. Where strange things go down. And only certain persons can get in. That it involves a card trick. They dared me to go down, see if I could get in."

"You said no one knows what you are."

"No one knows I can read their minds. I've got other… powers." Her gaze dropped to the floor, as though she were confessing a sin. Then turned it back on John, defiantly. "I went in and found the bouncer at the end of the stairs holding a card at me. So I read his mind and repeated what he saw on the card. I guess that's the key. He opened the velvet rope and I realized I was being accessed into whatever lay beyond that door and I freaked. I screamed. And Chris and Emily grabbed me and hurried me on out of there." Elizabeth dropped into a nearby chair. "I cried all night, at some of the things I heard going on beyond that door. I couldn't hold my shields up and read his mind at the same time."

Constantine stepped towards her, putting a hand on the back of the chair instead of directly touching her. Comforting wasn't his forte. "You said other powers."

"I can predict shit! I get premonitions. I can see things before they happen, sometimes right before they do just in front of me! If I don't keep my shields up I hear everyone's thoughts, all day and night, crushing in on me!" She buried her face in her hands, close to tears.

John's hand moved to her back, just below the nape of her neck, rubbing softly. He knew her pain, in his own way. Having seen things no human should see. "It's ok. I'm not here because of you. I didn't even know you worked here. Honestly."

Elizabeth looked up, brushing the gathered tears from her eyes with her fingers. "I need to get back. They'll be wondering where I am."

"I don't want to push but I need to know. You say if you don't have your shields up, you hear everyone." The girl nodded. "Tell me, do you hear Andrew's thoughts?"

Blinking, Elizabeth looked up at John. "I've never tried. Not purposefully. It would be wrong, rude of me."

This could be a lead, a clue into the mind of the Cherub. John came around and crouched before Elizabeth. "I wouldn't ask you, but it's important. And I don't want to tell you more then I have to because really, ignorance is bliss. I really have no right to even ask this of you, but would you try?"

"Try what?"

"To hear Andrew's thoughts."

"Whoa, ok! No! That's just wrong!" Elizabeth jumped up from the chair, out of John's reach. "I've got to go. Please. Don't come back here or ever look for me." She gave him one final look, a warning look, and slid out the door.

"Damn." John swore, as the door closed on his one break in the game.