Gypsy Truths (All The Pretty Monsters Book 6)

by Kristy Cunning

  “Fucking vampires,” Damien mutters under his breath, staring with me, as the vampires all grin with giddy excitement over the day’s gruesome lineup.

  Arion’s a fool if he thinks this day is going to work out in his favor. But he won’t listen to reason. Also, he may love Violet, but he doesn’t know the first thing about appropriately wooing her.

  The odds are that she’ll knee him in the bollocks before this day ends.

  Violet laughs harder, drawing my attention back to her. Her head is tipped back, and she’s laughing almost hysterically, as Arion dances while wearing that damn tiger head.

  Then my gaze drifts a little behind them, where I spot Idun in her very tight, short, barely-there red shorts and red sports bra. Her gaze is trained on Arion and Violet, as the vampire puts his hands on our little monster’s hips and forces her furry body to move to the music.

  When she starts attempting to dance with him, they end up head-butting, which only leads to bouts of refreshed laughter.

  The moment Idun’s eyes land on ours, and she realizes we’re witnessing her visible moment of ire, she gives us a cruel smile and walks away.

  “That’s not ominous at all. I bet he regrets the rules of his ‘games’ when she punishes him for being that fucking happy in public,” Damien says on a sigh.

  “He’s been brazen in making his intentions known,” I add. “He’s told almost everyone this is the day he’ll ask her to be his bride.”

  “She held her composure when Emit mated Violet,” Damien says, feigning a hopeful tone in a dismissive sort of manner.

  “Only because she knows the mark can be removed,” I quietly argue, watching as Idun moves through the crowd until it swallows her path, blocking her from sight.

  My gaze drifts back to Violet and the vampire. Arion pulls the tiger’s head off, as someone’s beta begins speaking over a megaphone, announcing the introductory speeches.

  With some admitted envy, I watch as Violet pulls him down by the back of his neck, and he greedily presses his lips to her, taking advantage of the moment.

  “He better enjoy it while it lasts,” I note aloud.

  “After she sees the first event, she’s not going to be in such a good mood,” Damien adds in agreement, as the vampire goes so far as to press her against the side of the concession stand, essentially devouring her.

  The tiger head drops to the ground, while the two of them presumably forget they’re in a crowd, given the show they’ve put on. The vampire tent all turn to give their attention to the show at hand.

  It’s not just the vampire tent watching. All the wolves have moved their attention to the oblivious couple as well. Even our own respective alpha tents have paused their own activities, far too interested in Arion and Violet. The Neoprys are certainly invested in the scene at hand.

  “This isn’t even a little worrisome,” Damien states, the words dripping with dry sarcasm, as he bristles.

  “Hearing it and seeing it are two different things. This is the first time they’re truly seeing how very obsessed he is with her.”

  “We’re going to need to stage an intervention if she rejects his proposal,” he says on a long, dread-filled sigh.

  “Remember what he said about today. Follow his rules, even if you hate them,” I tell him, giving him a pointed look. “You can’t be lazy unless you win at least one event. If you receive a trophy, act like it’s the best thing that has ever happened to you.”

  Damien rolls his eyes and groans.

  Avery moves toward me, fully dressed in his Van Helsing tactical uniform, which halts our current conversation.

  “Are you here to cheer me on?” I muse.

  His serious expression doesn’t waver, which causes my brow to furrow.

  “Sorry, sir. This came for you just over an hour ago, but I wasn’t notified of its urgency,” he tells me.

  He hands me an envelope he’s already opened, and I pause when I see the seal that’s been broken.

  It’s a wax infinity symbol that’s been split in half.

  Damien sucks in a breath just as shaky as my own.

  Without farther delay, I quickly pull the letter out and hurriedly skim the contents.

  Vancetto Van Helsing,

  Why are you sending men in search of me? Why is the vampire questioning old contacts of mine? Why does the savage wolf and the deviant no one remembers insist on hiring men to seek out my old dwellings? What does the monstar quad want with a wicked witch they’ve not crossed paths with for so many centuries?

  I’ll be at the dragon’s cemetery for the next two hours. You have that long to ask me your questions, silversmith.

  —P

  She only signed it with one letter, but one letter is all we need.

  Pandora…

  That chill that’s slowly been slinking up my spine turns into a rod of ice.

  Monstar quad…

  She used Violet’s embarrassing pet name.

  “I’ll go with you,” Damien states quietly, his finger running over the same couple of words that have my spine so painfully stiff.

  “No. It’d be best if I went alone. This was very deliberately addressed to only me. Out of the four of us, she’d trust me the most, given the fact I uphold our laws. And I need to hurry—”

  “I’ve prepared the helicopter, sir,” Avery says, reminding me that he’s still in earshot, as his eyes warily—but subtly—watch for any eavesdroppers.

  No one can hear a damn thing over the Star Spangled Banner that is currently being played on a very loud, electric guitar.

  My gaze drifts to Violet, who is standing at attention, hand pressed over her heart, as she stares up at a flag. Arion looks very displeased, even as he does the same thing.

  “She taught the vampire manners,” Emit says as he comes to stand next to us. “Surely she knows he has no country he feels patriotic toward—”

  His words stop when I abruptly walk away, shoving the note at Avery.

  “Where the hell are you going?” Emit calls to my back.

  Damien will have to fill him in.

  We’ve searched high and low for any trail that would lead us to Pandora, and have come up with nothing but dead ends. With the world slowly spinning toward Idun’s impending chaos, Pandora decides to voluntarily reach out?

  I really don’t like this.

  Chapter 28

  VIOLET

  “You could have been a sexy cheerleader. Instead, what do you choose to be to cheer on your four very hot alpha boyfriends?” Anna asks, rolling her eyes. “A terrible mascot.”

  My head almost falls off, but I get a roar of applause when I bend over for my furry booty dance.

  “You know they’re not cheering for you, right?” Anna asks as though she’s reading my mind. “They’re cheering because a big round, wooden wheel full of salt just rolled past the blue line. Again.”

  She gives me a pointed look, as I ignore the sweat that is definitely beading across my forehead already.

  “Not only is it boring as hell, it’s also incredibly offensive to ghosts, who have a known allergy to salt,” she adds in a huff, glaring at Arion. “He doesn’t respect your friends. However, you should still be his bride.”

  “Anna, we’re not discussing the bride thing, remember? There’s a big fat pin in it.”

  “Well, you better get that pin out of it. He’s going to get down on one knee or ‘vant to suck your blood’ in public or something by the end of the night. How do vampires propose to their brides?”

  “Maybe you should ask someone. You seem to get more answers about things than I do,” I mutter, admittedly being a bit petty.

  “Of course I do. As I’ve said before, I’d be a much better main character than you,” she inserts, shaking her head as though she’s embarrassed for me.

  The Morpheous tent erupts into a frenzy of cheers, which is far more enthusiasm than I expected. They seem a little ‘too cool’ for sports. Especially sports that include rolling a wheel of salt d
own a hill.

  I’m sure there’s a deeper meaning that I’m clearly completely in the dark about.

  It takes me a second to realize Damien has won the entire event, and he’s shaking a bottle of champagne that sprays the crowd of Morpheous alphas in front of him.

  “Your vampire boyfriend is lamer than I expected him to be. Do you think he chose such sad little childhood games because he’s really a broken little boy on the inside? Or is it because he thinks you’re such a delicate little flower who can’t be subjected to true monster sports?” she drones on.

  “Seriously, Anna, I’m seconds away from salting you. You’re ruining my day with all your—”

  “The wheel has turned, so pucker those lips of yours now!” Damien crows with a lot of dramatic excitement, as he turns and bends over, all while pointing to his ass, acting like someone I’ve never met before.

  Clearly, these days that sort of thing comes across as suspicious.

  “Fates chose the king you’ve yearned, so prepare yourselves you stupid sows!” Damien adds, which oddly renews the cheers from the Morpheous tent.

  I don’t know what’s happening right now.

  For once, my expression mimics Anna’s, because I find it so weird how proud of that salt-wheeling trophy they are.

  “This is everything,” Damien says a little too theatrically.

  He hugs the wooden, round trophy, while smiling so widely that is definitely starting to worry me.

  “You have no idea how very much this means to all of us to win the first event of the very first Monster Olympics,” he carries on, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye.

  “Seriously, your Morpheous boyfriend is lamer than your vampire boyfriend,” Anna assures me.

  “This is the sweetest thing anyone has done for me,” I hiss.

  “Also super dangerous, since the Simpletons got an invite as well. Why did they come?” she asks.

  “How was that?” I hear Damien asking, as Arion steps onto stage, looking entirely unimpressed.

  “Dick,” Arion says just loud enough to carry over the microphone at a murmur.

  I’m so lost.

  “Where’s Vance?” I ask, as Arion instructs everyone to the grounds for the next event.

  “Flying at outrageous speeds,” Anna states dryly.

  “Do I want to know?” My eyes turn to hers as the question leaves my lips, and she shrugs while staring down at her nails.

  “It’s probably a secret,” she says, giving me a smirk, as she looks up to meet my eyes, a deviousness resting in her gaze.

  “Then I don’t want to know,” I say very decidedly, nodding my head as I move to the field next to us.

  It’d be shitty to expect their secrets if I’m not telling all mine. I already feel as though I’ve invaded too much of their privacy by seeing so many personal details from their pasts.

  I really expected Vance to shine in the archery tournament. The Salt Wheeler tournament…may have been Damien’s only possible sport to win, judging by how very obviously the first Morpheous flops.

  “Oops. How clumsy of me,” the woman says as the arrow stabs the ground. “Guess I’m disqualified for missing the target. Terrible shame,” she carries on as she goes to drop to her couch.

  I notice Arion roll his eyes, while Damien grins.

  “Teenage boys,” I mutter.

  “I’m starting to think they like being this way. You may just have to adapt to their dynamic, or…loan me your body. I could so—”

  “Anna?”

  “Yes?”

  “Shut up or get salted. Again,” I state with zero emotion in my tone.

  “You used to be more fun. Maybe sex was bad for you—”

  The salt crashes against her face, and her eyes widen in anger, just before she disappears.

  “I warned you,” I tell the empty air.

  My eyes drift toward Emit, finding him smirking at his brother, who lands the arrow perfectly in the center of the target. He actually looks to be enjoying himself.

  Which is a relief.

  Maybe the timing was better than I thought, even though I know he has to be sick at his stomach.

  There’s an uneasiness in me today that wasn’t in me before I realized just how severely I underestimated Idun.

  I really am reckless.

  My age is finally showing, because Idun is centuries ahead of me.

  She wasn’t supposed to be my problem.

  Chapter 29

  VANCE

  I’m barely under the time limit when I drop from the chopper, falling the forty feet to the ground, and land with a slight grunt. A mild sting of pain shoots up my legs, burning through my spine next.

  As I straighten and stare toward the eternally foggy cemetery, the pain quickly numbs, and my eyes narrow on the cottage in front of me. The chopper flies away, unable to stay longer, since the fog rises when an aircraft is too close.

  “Vancetto Van Helsing,” a familiar, almost chime-like voice says.

  The wind carries the words toward me from five different directions, giving me very little indication as to where she is.

  “I came in good faith. Alone. I hope I’m being wise and considering this a friendly meeting between old friends,” I call into the fog, as I crunch over dead leaves on my way through the creaking, heavy gate.

  The feel of the rust grazes my fingers, and I cringe, because that’s disgusting. Rust is offensive to most all the senses.

  The distraction pulls me away for only a brief moment, as I focus my gaze on the thick smog surrounding me. It swirls and blows, a path appearing like a long hallway. It doesn’t stop until a silhouette at the back of the cemetery becomes visible at the end.

  An ancient witch with an undetermined amount of power left, lurking at the back of a cemetery that stays hidden from the human eye by a mystical fog of undetermined origin.

  Not worrisome.

  Not at all.

  “Curious why you wanted to meet here,” I say when she maintains her silence.

  I can feel her gaze on me, even if she’s nothing more than a dark shadow to the eye.

  “Did you know this is the one and only dragon that was ever discovered in the history of the world?” she randomly asks.

  I bristle, unsure why we’re here to discuss the dragon bones.

  “I’d consider that good news, since humans would have been extinct long before we were born, had they bred as easily as most creatures do,” I say, rolling with it.

  “I bet it was magnificent. Even as old as I am, I still missed out on such a brilliant piece of unnatural nature. As it turns out, this one was a reptilian mutation. A fluke of nature. A natural monster with no discernable purpose. Just one. And, if I read the bones correctly, it looked just like the vast majority of legends described them to be,” she carries on, as I take a measured step in her direction.

  When she doesn’t object, I take another step. And another.

  I pause when she starts speaking again, simply because I’m desperately trying not to rile her. If she’s as crazy as Arion swears she is, then this could get bad for no reason at all.

  “That one magnificent creature left chins wagging for centuries long after its death. Dragons are still relevant in myths and storytelling to this very day,” she carries on.

  “They’re almost as popular as Pandora’s box. The one and only Pandora and her devilish box,” I tell her, smiling a charming smile as I begin moving toward her very slowly once again.

  “No need for flattery, Van Helsing. I’m well aware of my name and how it’s grown over these many centuries. I’m a footnote in another’s story. A mere plot device to make up for the sins of others. Everyone needs someone to blame. I’m the perfect villain or victim, depending on the storyteller,” she rambles.

  “Is the reason you chose to meet here because you know Idun is far away and preoccupied?” I ask her.

  She’s quiet for a moment, and my footsteps slow to a near crawl, as just a hint of moonlight strea
ks down on a fourth of her face. Her eyes are solid white, and my breath seizes in my lungs, as something happens to my knees.

  My body is falling before I even realize what’s going on, as my head swims with dizziness. My stomach clenches, as bile rises to my throat, and within seven minutes after arriving, I’ve decided I was an idiot to think she could be trusted.

  “I brought you here because one magnificent beast that inspired so many tales of destruction and death has a lot of power a blood witch can siphon from. My magic dried up ages ago. These days, I can’t use it unless I steal it from something or someone else. I’ve been saving this for something special,” she continues to say, even as her voice seems to grow more distant.

  Gasping for air, my lungs nearly scream in agony, as the world around me dims. My head is too heavy to move, and my body is weighted down just as severely, leaving me helplessly stuck to the ground.

  “You’re so desperate to finally overtake her that you rushed here without hesitation, shamelessly hoping you could trust me. Did you forget how the world really works all because you found a new girl to love with all your shallow heart?” she says in her distant tone, mocking me.

  The hem of a blue dress over bare feet is all I glimpse, before it all fades to black, leaving me blind.

  Her next words barely reach me, as my heart tries to explode in my chest, my body seizing up and on the telling verge of passing out.

  “Desperation suggests hopelessness. Desperation breeds fools who charge in recklessly. Surely by now you know better. Eventually, you’ll have no choice but to submit. It’s the way of our world. She is your fucking queen. The strongest…”

  The rest of her words are so muffled I don’t manage to hear her, and I’m almost grateful for it. Fury burns through my veins for my own ignorance for believing her feelings toward the Simpletons would put her on our side.

  The final breath is finally yanked from my lungs, and the world disappears.

  Chapter 30