been born a warlock.
After I opened my own place, a deep sense of security and peace hit me. But it lasted for only a few days. The temptation to set up a secret spot in which to do magic was overwhelming and the basement was perfect. While I’d managed to hide it from my tattooing mentor, I’d never been able to completely stop using magic despite my initial belief that I’d be able to stop cold turkey with no problem. Geez, the world had crack addicts with more self-control than me. I’d gotten better, but it was a struggle every day to not tap into the energy in the air to do the simplest of things.
And now I was back with the Ivory Towers working as a spy and a part-time guardian. I couldn’t even spot where I’d veered off my original path anymore. Hell, I couldn’t even see my original path from where I stood.
Serah popped into the shop around three in the afternoon, carrying two large coffee cups from the coffee shop down the block from Asylum.
“Come on back,” I called as I let up from the pedal for a moment. I watched on the little security camera as she stepped around the glass case before I started the tattooing gun buzzing again, turning my attention back to the siren’s hip I was working on. Charise was one of my regulars. I had completed a series of roses and vines along her lower back, placed the kanji for love on the back of her neck, and now I was doing a pair of dragonflies on her narrow hips.
“Oh! Sorry! I didn’t realize!” Serah gasped as she entered the main tattooing room.
Lifting the tattooing gun from Charise’s flawless pale skin, I looked up to see Serah blushing brightly, quickly turning away to head back toward the lobby. I swallowed back a chuckle. What the TAPSS investigator had not been ready for was the fact that Charise was wearing a little pink tank top and matching pink bikini-cut panties so that I could easily get at her hips.
“It’s okay, honey,” Charise said in a voice that poured into your ears like expensive champagne. “You can stay. He’s almost done.”
“Another ten to fifteen minutes,” I said, putting the gun down so that I could smear a little more petroleum jelly along her skin.
“Oh, are you sure? I can—”
“Stay!” Charise said with an almost child-like giggle before turning to me. “Isn’t she just the cutest thing? She’s embarrassed.”
I smirked up at Serah, who was torn between embarrassment and anger at being laughed at. “Yeah, she’s adorable.”
“Ah, honey, I used to be a dancer down at Diamond Dolls. I’m not embarrassed, so you shouldn’t be either.”
And that was why I liked doing work for Charise. It’s also why she got a discount. That and she got a number of her coworkers to come to Asylum for tattoos as well. Charise felt no embarrassment or shame regarding what she did for a living. She knew the value of the service that she was providing and she wouldn’t allow anyone to make her feel bad about it. There was an inner strength in her that I didn’t see in women who pulled down six figures a year, drove a Mercedes, and had a closet full of designer clothes.
“Is one of those for me?” I asked, saving Serah from the mire that she was starting to sink into. Her eyes snapped to the two cups she had in her hand as if she had forgotten that she was carrying them.
“Uh . . . yeah,” she said, extending one toward me.
“Put it on the counter,” I directed with a jerk of my head toward the counter on my left while I picked up the gun again. The scent of the coffee was heavenly, though my stomach was starting to rebel a little bit. I’d sucked down a pot of coffee already but hadn’t followed it up with anything that actually resembled food. My stomach wasn’t pleased.
“What are you having Gage tattoo on you?” Charise asked as I started working again. I inwardly cringed a bit. That was the one drawback about Charise. She didn’t have some of the boundaries that most people had. Most customers knew better than to ask what they were having done because there was a good chance that it was something very private between you and your artist. But you couldn’t fault her. She was just trying to make polite conversation.
“I haven’t decided