Chapter Eight: Not a Threat, But a Promise:

As I washed my hands, gloved them up, and put together my tattoo machine, piece by piece, and got to work on customer number fourteen.

The last few customers in the sitting room were picking out their designs and getting them sketched out on transfer paper.

"Okay", I said as I concentrated, the tip of my tongue was licking my lower lip, "Let's get this done in three, two, one."

As the needle, not made of silver this time, because it was Olivia the werewolf, struck her virgin skin, she jumped a little, but I told her that it was just like a human getting a tattoo, that the needle was not silver, but gold.

She sighed in relief, and two hours later, the tattoo was finished.

"Ah, there it is. The perfect first tattoo. I hope you like it," I said, feeling good about myself.

She walked over to the full length mirror and just stared at her left collarbone, and as her mouth hung open, my heart dropped when she seriously said, "I don't like it."

I started to panic.

Then she smiled and yelled, "I love it!" She squealed and jumped up and down like a little kid.

I sighed in relief.

"Well, I'm glad you like it", I said.

"Are you kidding me, you're the best!"

She squealed again and was about to hug me, but I backed away and told her that she technically has an open wound, so she has to keep it clean.

But I gave her an air hug, just because I knew that it would make up for it.

And plus, I already knew that she would've held it against me the next time that I refused to hug her. That much was clear.

But the one thing that wasn't quite clear was the elephant in the room. Reid was just sitting in a corner, watching silently as he watched me with great interest, which kind of made me laugh inside.

Ha. He thinks that he's getting me back. I laugh for real this time, and everyone in the shop stopped what they were doing and my sister read my mind.

Literally.

In my mind, she spoke to me, ' I've read his mind and he really does think that you are going to give him another chance, now that he is in our part of the city. Plus, his dad really did kill Robert. I could see it play in his head. Reid was there when he did it. And not only that, but Reid wasn't just forced into dating you in the first place, but Reid's dad said that he needed to earn your trust in order to come here. His dad drove him here once he recognized you in the car with us. He had one shot, and he didn't blow it. My point is, Reid really did fall for you the moment he laid eyes on you, after his dad tried to get you in the picture, so that he wouldn't have even more blood on his hands. Serenity, Reid doesn't want to kill you. In fact he was planning on not killing you the whole time and trying to get out of it by convincing his dad that you were not a witch. But ever since YouTube happened, well, let me just show you first hand.'

She walked over to me with YouTube already in the process of playing. She playing it out loud but to only where supernatural ears could hear it, not human ones.

The video was of that one night when I was run out on by Reid, the fight of magic that played out, and then when Damion turned right before my very eyes.

And then the video showed him on top of me, the scratch, me in pain, and then Damion in his werewolf form killed the man, ripping him to shreds. Piece by piece, the man was bitten, scratched, and torn limb by limb.

I understood why he did what he did, because Damion didn't want him to come back even more dangerous than he already was.

The video then switched over to the man who was recording.

He was shaking so violently, that it was hard to keep an eye on his fearful face.

He said into the camera, "Now I don't know if I will make it out of here alive, so I just want to tell whoever finds this phone and sees this video, please know that I'm just a bartender that loves my job, and right now, I am working a double shift and that I love my mom. Oh, crap!"

Then the video went full static, then black.

"Hold on", I said, "Olivia, will you rewind back three seconds and pause the video, right there."

She did so, and what we saw, almost made us forget that we were even witches. It scared the magic right out of us.

"I'm glad that you see it too", I said, still staring at the screen in shock.

"Yeah, you have a good eye."

"What's going on?", Reid said, oblivious to the sight that we were seeing.

"Nothing!", everyone said in unison.

"Oh, come on. That's not fair. I came here to see Serenity, and now you won't even let me near her."

This is where Damion spoke the words that made even myself almost feel for Reid.

He said in a bitter, low tone, so dangerous, so full of truth, that even I wanted Reid to shut up, "You should have never have met her in the first place. You put her life at stake. You are the one who came into our secret community. You are the one who made her feel like she couldn't trust you in the first place by running out on her like the little scared boy you are. What she needs is a real man who knows how to accept her for what and who she is. And I don't have to have any magic to see or sense that you do not have what it takes to leave here alive and not to tell your father where we are. He may have gotten you here, but you'll have to earn every one of our trust to leave here. And in my honest opinion, you won't. You may never earn my trust. And if you do, it will only be if Serenity trusts you and or puts a spell on you to always tell the truth and never tell a human where this place is or that it even exists."

He took a breath, and I jumped in, "And by the way Reid, I never actually loved you. I gave you a chance, but my magic side told me that you were bad news from the start. And now that I'm half werewolf, I can smell your guilt, your fear of getting caught, and your new intentions that you had just made in your mind. So therefore, I don't trust you at all right now, and most likely never will. Oh, and by the way, you can't lie to me because I can read your thoughts, even when you are not thinking about them at the time. So yeah, be very careful about what you think, because once you think about them, all I have to do is get inside your head and read them. The damage is already done. So now it's time to deal with the consequences. You are going to stay with my sister for the night in a magic locked padded room with no WiFi and a force field made of electric shocks if you try to escape. Even your mind will not be safe, so no changing plans."

The look on Damion's face reacting to Reid's expression was priceless.

Reid had a look of utter terror and Damion just smiled, holding back a laugh.

Then when Reid spoke, "You can't really do that. Can you?"

Damion was about to say something, but I spoke first.

"Well, if you misbehave, even once, all I have to do is give Damion a call and he will take care of you. And I will give him full permission to do whatever he plans to do to you, as long as you don't turn into a werewolf or die. I want you alive."

As my words sunk in, Reid's mouth opened slightly as an intake of breath was sucked in, knowing the situation he got himself into.

At this, everyone started to bark out laughter and this was enough to let Reid know that he was no longer the one in control.