She says it so casually.
Just as casually as she’s said most everything.
It’s as though she’s speaking simple facts she’s already reasoned inside her own head. Meanwhile, the rest of us aren’t ready to be so bloody casual about this.
Because this is not casual. Or normal. Or…or…
I can’t even think right now.
“Weren’t you about to give us some privacy? I need to explain something to Vance,” Violet states.
Marta seems in the dark about whatever is going on, but she also doesn’t seem to be nosy. She nods, turns, and steers Edmond away. Father’s been standing in the shadows this whole time, eyes shrewdly assessing every moment of this.
“Zuela, can you not tell the whole world I’m a big bad monster? I’m not ready for everyone to know just yet,” Violet states without looking behind her.
“She’s shy,” Anna says as she pops up beside him.
He startles, but recovers quickly, eyes finding mine. There’s a familiar edge of fear there, but also…guarded relief.
“Even if I told someone, they’d never bloody believe it unless they saw it for themselves,” he says in response.
With one last look, he turns to go, giving us the privacy Violet’s requested.
We’re standing in the middle of town, right on Sanctuary’s steps, so I’m not sure it could be called very private. However, I don’t think anyone knows it’s over.
There’s a suspended moment where I get lost after that thought.
It’s over.
In one night, it’s over?
It can’t be over.
Idun’s in two pieces with a missing head, but I still don’t trust that it was this easy.
“I’m not shy. I’m just worried everyone is going to freak out and stop coming to Sanctuary if they find out I made Idun scream from sundown to sun-up,” she says, humbly bragging a little, as she eyes Idun’s body.
“I lost her head.” She rushes to add, “I’ll find it, but Anna doesn’t let me see everything. She keeps secrets. Apparently, this is something I have to trust my monster with. I’m sure there’s a reason.”
Her words are rambled, the way she does when she’s nervous. It’s one of the few signs this is truly Violet, because it’s too Violet to be anyone else. Hyde can’t imitate Violet, which is why it took Anna and all the others as a persona.
Surely…that’s a fair assumption.
She’s essentially a brand new monster to learn everything about.
She swallows thickly, and I watch her with a great amount of suspicion. Talbot’s become a nonissue at this point, since he’s laid on the ground and covered his face with both hands, clearly relaxed and satisfied that he was wrong.
He’s fickle.
I never trust fickle people.
After some clear hesitation and what appears to be a steeling breath, she says, “Vance, I didn’t know Anna was my monster until recently. Even if I had known, I wouldn’t have known what it meant for you to sleep with both my monster and myself at the same time…”
She lets her words trail off, as though she expects me to figure it out for myself, once again giving me a taste of what it’s like to be her on the clueless end of things.
Something that she apparently finds obvious is bewildering to those of us not in the know.
Namely me.
And also once again, I fucking hate this feeling and have no desire to experience such in the future.
I will learn all the things.
All of them.
Hell, I may even investigate Bigfoot sightings.
“Violet, I know we circle around conversation, make it impossible to learn anything in a straight-forward fashion, and struggle to understand how ignorant you are about our world. However, don’t repay that by doing me that way right now. Spell it out for me. What did you do to me?”
Anna moves up to my side, and I hiss out a pained breath. My eyes dart down to my hand, where that watchful eye is once more visible on my skin, almost perfectly resembling an innocent tattoo.
Then…the eye moves, and I stumble back like I can get away from my hand.
“That’s fucking creepy as hell, mate,” Damien says, sounding too tired to show surprise.
Emit grabs my arm and examines my hand, but he makes sure not to get too close.
“What the hell is this?” the wolf asks, while I continue to stare at the black eye that is staring at me.
“Based on what I’ve learned, I have a possessive monster,” Violet answers very quickly, and with some clear nervous tension. “Once I claimed you, it left a mark on you so that I could find you at all times. But like all things related to my monster, she knew how to hide it. She picked you because you scared me so much. Hyde doesn’t like for someone to have the ability to make me scared. You were targeted…in an unconventional way.”
My eyes dart back down to the roaming eye on my wrist. It fades to dull black, and it slowly sinks back into the skin until it’s lost from sight once more.
“That’s how she found you after you were taken. She gives me memories instead of answers, in most cases. I had no idea I’d claimed you, until just before I turned myself over to let Anna play with Idun,” she says, her voice still strained with dread and apprehension.
It takes a second to really digest her words.
“You claimed me?” I ask, those words standing out above all the others.
“For a lack of another term, you’re my mate, Vance,” she says with a lot more apprehension, eyes warily gauging me. “I didn’t mean to force you into it, and I have no idea how permanent it is. As far as I know, it doesn’t do any sort of cosmic ownership that forces you to feel things for me. But…you’ve been mated to me since the day you were generous enough to help out my ‘dying ghost friend.’ She tricked you into mating me, because the name Van Helsing scared me. You know, back before I had any idea I was a complete freak of nature, even by monster standards.”
Her nervous ramble cuts off, and the vampire dances in place like this is only getting all the more exciting.
“You tried to claim me too then, right?” Arion asks, his grin so wide that it looks painful.
Violet blows out a frustrated breath.
“Apparently, my monster got impatient with how long it was taking me to trust you and tried to take matters into her own hands. It wasn’t the first time she’d forced her way to the front, nor was it the first time she wove intricate tales of bullshit to manipulate me and play me like a pawn. But like most all of those times, I kicked her out of the driver’s seat. I’m stronger.”
“For now,” Talbot mutters from his place on the ground. “Wait until Hyde sits at the top of the food chain, amasses a greater ambition, and grows strong enough to overthrow you.”
“You said she wouldn’t be able to overtake Hyde tonight, and she’s standing right here. Fully in control,” Arion is quick to argue.
“And what happens when Hyde gets so good you’ll never know the difference between Violet and the monster?” Talbot fires back, still lying down and covering his face.
“We’ll know,” Emit interjects, slowly moving toward Violet, as he cups her cheek. “Someone could imitate her heart, but there’s no way they could do it genuinely and consistently. Certainly not a soulless monster.”
He shoots a pointed look toward Arion, as if he’s showing us all his evidence to back up that bold statement.
“Lovely chat we’re all having, but can we get back to the reality of our current situation?” I interject, slicing my hand through the air.
I swear, the three of them are ready to move on at a moment’s notice from life-altering madness. I, however, am still digesting the fact Violet not only got close enough to hurt Idun, but she somehow managed to leave her in dismembered pieces. Earlier tonight, I watched Violet’s body be fully shredded, something that should have taken her years to heal from.
Not mere moments.
And I really want to talk a lot
more about…the fact she’s already claimed me.
A lot more.
I’d rather do that last part privately, though.
There’s a loud bell that chimes, and I watch as Violet’s eyes widen and her back goes rigidly straight. For a moment, I feel an edge of dread, wondering if Hyde has taken back over.
But…Violet grimaces, turns a little pale, and covers her face with both hands, as though she’s deeply ashamed of something.
“What?” Arion demands, sounding worried.
I think he’s confusing her expression for something else.
“That was the oven,” Violet says, her words muffled through her hands.
I open my mouth to ask why in the hell this is important, when…suddenly…breadcrumbs…start appearing before us, leading into Sanctuary.
We all study the random trail, as the scent of something slightly disturbing travels through the air.
Damien, still sitting on the ground, reaches over and warily pokes a breadcrumb. It immediately crashes into a small, powder-like pile of salt.
“This is illusion on a different scale than I use,” he says, fascinated enough to lean over and poke another piece, that also turns into a salt pile.
“For the record, I’m not doing this,” Violet points out, as though it’s important information.
“I am,” Anna gloats, grinning and nodding her head very rapidly.
“She just let me remember where Idun’s head is. This is so fucked up,” Violet carries on, screwing her eyes shut and massaging her temples.
Anna continues smiling.
“This way, please,” come two small, childlike voices that have us all whirling around.
A blonde girl and a blond boy—ghosts.
The boy is clad in overalls, and nothing else. No shirt. No shoes.
His dark grin is mildly alarming.
The girl’s grin is just as dark, as she lifts the hem of her dress ever so slightly and dips to curtsy.
“Just follow the breadcrumbs,” she stage-whispers.
The sound of their laughter is a little sinister and creepy, and it fades with the vision of them. More salt spills to the floor.
“Seriously, what’s with all the creepy kids?” Damien asks in a flat, emotionless tone, staring at the empty doorway and trail of salty breadcrumbs.
“Because I read and loved too many Grimm Brothers stories,” Violet says in a reluctant, confessional tone. “And because Wednesday Adams was my all-time favorite heroine.”
Anna disappears, and I study the line of crumbs. Violet quickly walks by us, cursing to herself, and talking to…no one about how sick and twisted this has gotten.
“My bride isn’t as sweet as I thought,” Arion states, grin still highlighting his fascinated expression. “It’s as though Christmas came early and was actually exciting for the first time since the last time I got to be a lad.”
Emit is the first to follow after her. Damien is right behind him. Arion makes a hop, skip, and twirl before he blurs by, knocking some of the fragile salt-breadcrumbs into dust in his haste.
Tugging at my collar, doing all I can to make sense of the madness, I head inside. Slowly. At this point, I have no idea what we’re going to find or what happens next.
The world now feels like a complete mystery for the first time in centuries, and it’s…unsettling to a man who has spent a long time knowing anything and everything that could happen.
Now I feel like I’m damn near starting all over.
Chapter 50
EMIT
Violet shoots me a worried look, as she hurriedly pulls open the oven door. My eyes widen when I see the head inside.
Idun’s eyes are wide and bloodshot, as they move to find me, silently pleading for help.
Her skin is baked and blackened in some spots, though some are unevenly cooked by comparison.
Running a hand over my beard, I work hard to have no reaction.
Real hard.
Violet grabs a handful of Idun’s hair to lift the head…but the hair breaks off in her hand, and the head drops. There’re a few gross sound effects when it lands and rolls across the floor, stopping at my feet.
Wide eyes stay glued to mine, fear shining for possibly the first time in so many centuries. I forgot Idun could feel fear.
January Violet Carmine really is a confusing paradox, because while I fear her monster, I don’t fear her at all.
While my senses stay confused, I watch with some…bewilderment, as Violet hisses out a sound and hurriedly scoops up Idun’s head.
“Sorry. That might have been overkill, but it’s not like I have much control when Anna is in charge. She didn’t hurt anyone else, right?” Violet asks, looking over at me with the same innocence and compassion as ever before.
Son of a bitch.
I need a drink.
Hell, I need a whole bottle.
Anna is in a baker’s outfit, as dough rolls under her incorporeal touch, and she starts whistling the tune of The Muffin Man.
“I didn’t get to finish making my masterpiece! Can I please borrow the head for a little longer?” the jester girl asks, as she pops in beside Anna.
She drops to her knees, claps her hands together, and starts begging.
“Please! Please! Please! Plea—”
“No!” Violet snaps, glaring over at her. “I told you sundown, and I meant it.”
I…
I…
I…….
Violet quickly fashions a sling, as…I cut my gaze away. I can’t even stand to see the sight of the things that happen next, given the fragile, squishy state of Idun’s head. The sounds are bad enough.
“It’ll grow back. You regenerate too,” Violet is telling her very calmly. “I’d apologize, but I really don’t have a lot of sympathy for you, if I’m honest. You’re unreasonably ruthless, and you don’t seem to have any capacity for compassion. Makes you sort of a sociopath, since even Arion, the soulless vampire, exhibits compassion. No one’s ever been able to remind you what it’s like to be stepped all over.”
“Until now,” Anna sings.
So…is that really what Violet is doing internally? Gloating?
It’s hard to tell, given the uneasy expression and visible tension she’s fighting to hide. I definitely pay more attention to her face than Idun’s. In fact, I make a pointed effort to avoid looking at Idun at all, because…I can’t deal with all this at once.
“You were going to bury them for a thousand years and force them to be with you. I suppose the universe has a sick sense of humor. All that wasted scheming. All that wasted effort. All that wasted time.”
Anna makes a tsking sound, as Violet casually taunts Idun.
Arion adjusts himself in his trousers, clearly more in love with Violet with each passing second. He looks positively star-struck.
Vance swallows thickly, turning his head away, since he was presumably staring too long at Idun’s head.
Damien hops up on the counter, eyes shrewdly assessing Violet.
“You never tried claiming me,” Damien says as though this is the moment for that discussion.
“Bloody hell, he’s already moved on from all this and has found the one stupid insult to his ego to focus on,” Talbot mutters from somewhere in the room. “January Violet Carmine, does this mean I now get to be your beta? I can’t continue being a beta for that selfish man,” says the fool who got drunk, created a monster on a whim, and flip-flops with effortless ease on what’s definitive.
He’s a motherfucking powerhouse with too much whimsy and a laughable amount of conviction.
And we had no idea he even existed.
The wolf inside me has been stirred all night, because there have been two very large threats right under our noses, and we only saw Idun. The world is truly different, and has been, but we haven’t bothered to pay attention.
I thought only Damien was truly out of touch.
I hate how fucking stupid I feel right now.
“The world is
a little different these days,” Violet tells Idun, ignoring Talbot.
“January Violet Carmine, I need to feel certain your monster is—”
“Stop using all my names. And stop acting like you haven’t always desperately wanted to be Damien’s beta. It’s obvious by now. Even to me,” Violet tells him, while the world continues to leave us behind, moving forward too fast for us to keep up.
Well, two of us, that is.
Arion and Damien are striding alongside Violet and Talbot as though this is a typical Wednesday afternoon.
The triplets pop up, and grin at Idun’s head, as they start singing, “Ring around the rosie!”
“There will be no more of that tonight. Seriously, I’m at my limit,” Violet cuts in, jabbing a finger at them.
She cuts a tired, almost sad look to me.
“I’m in control. Mostly. But I don’t know how to make them shut up. It’s embarrassing, because people won’t understand she’s not telling the whole truth about what’s in my head. Sometimes, she just fuses idle, petty, subconscious thoughts with something else and comes up with her own take with expressing my feelings.”
Only about half of that ramble made sense to me.
She’s adamant in assuring us of that—
“So all the creepy stalking and overt perversion…is that your suppressed desire, Little Monster?” the sexual deviant muses, while Violet continues to hold Idun’s head in a sling. “Because I can make your monster really come out if that’s your thing.”
“How is it possible you’re already okay with this?” Violet asks him very loudly, giving him an incredulous look. Flippantly, she gestures to the vampire, before adding, “Him, I get. But you…you’re too suspicious and overbearing when it comes to alpha stuff. You’re the one who points out the pecking order more than anyone else. Why are you already okay?”
Damien’s lips twitch, and his gaze drops to the sling.
Gypsy Truths (All The Pretty Monsters Book 6) Page 44