Gypsy Truths (All The Pretty Monsters Book 6)

by Kristy Cunning

  Arion’s attention is still trained on the lock, and it looks as though he’s lost interest in what she’s saying.

  “Violet, tell me there’s some sort of curse or something else on here. Locks aren’t quite up to par with what Idun’s capable of,” Arion tells her, glancing over.

  Violet rolls her eyes.

  “Do you really think I know the first thing about curses? Even my mother seems to have only been able to pull off a few. In fact, I’m starting to think she failed hundreds of thousands of times, otherwise, you guys would have a lot more curses on you,” she dutifully informs him.

  “But—”

  “It’s just wood, glass, and a little metal, Arion,” Violet tells him, as she pats the side of the case. “She’s not going anywhere. If she gets out, I’ll lose control of my monster. See, Idun and Clyde are the only two monsters absolutely no one defends. Their people fight out of fear and brainwashed mentalities. There’s no individualism. There’s only complete surrender. Otherwise, suffer the penalty of death. I’ve been flipping my middle finger to conformity for the vast majority of my life. My type of person never likes her type of person, and vice versa.”

  She glances over to Clyde.

  “I put real thought into this. I listened close, and I suffered through all of Caroline’s agonizing mental attacks. I decided I’m sick of Caroline taking her anger out on me. The Simpletons will know Idun is down here, but no one else will have a clue. No one knows about this section of the house. I’m glad I never thought about it. I really do have to deal with this whole Demetria thing.”

  She smooths her hand over the dried, tar-like substance on the wall.

  “This was a badly botched barrel of shampoo. I got ambitious and tried to up my ingredients to make more product quicker and better. It backfired. On the flipside, it’s impossible to hear through this. It also eliminates all odors even more effectively than apples. I’m cheap. I usually try to figure out a way to repurpose botched batches,” she carries on, as though she has to defend herself.

  Emit’s grin is far too relaxed, but I feel myself relaxing right along with him. I go to prop at a lean against the wall next to where the wolf is sitting.

  Arion and Damien are now both studying the cases, though Damien keeps the vampire’s body between him and Idun.

  “It’s simple pine and basic construction. It’s just a display case. No bells. No whistles. Nothing all that special,” Violet says, giving the cases a curt smile. “If either of them leaves their spot, Anna will handle it.”

  Two fresh ghosts pop up, replacing the old ones.

  Of the new ones, one happens to be the very disturbing, long-haired, crazy-mouthed ghost. Honestly, that one freaks me out a bit.

  Given the gulp I hear Emit take, he’s once again thinking like me.

  The other is the Jester, who starts setting up a game of solitaire…

  “Need a drink?” Emit asks me, elbowing my leg from his spot on the ground.

  “Yep,” I announce, letting the word pop.

  Violet continues explaining her nonchalant plan. “These two ghosts—yes, I’m still calling them ghosts—have one job. That’s to keep an eye on Idun and alert me if she even so much as wiggles a finger without my permission.”

  A camera floats to her, and Violet snatches it out of the air. The creepiest ghost goes to take a seat in the corner, her hair in her face. Only a tiny hint of one eye peeks through, and it’s trained on Emit.

  Emit deliberately keeps his attention on Violet.

  There’s a tripod in the room that I haven’t noticed, at least not until Violet takes it and starts setting it up.

  “Caroline will be visiting, I’m sure. She has a lot of issues to work out, understandably. Idun will suffer through whatever painful memory Caroline wishes to share, any time she wishes to share it. Caroline, in return, will leave me the hell alone, so that I don’t accidentally hurt her,” Violet carries on.

  “Which will happen. We’re protective of Violet,” the jester states from the ground, grinning like she’s ready to do more than twiddle her thumbs.

  There’s a rustling in the walls, and we hear someone moving away quickly. Given the look on Violet’s face, and what she was saying very deliberately, I’m assuming she somehow knew Caroline was spying on us.

  Which is great. Since I missed it.

  But Violet has ghosts…who can tell her what’s going on from every angle at every moment.

  She really is a beautifully designed predator. I can’t wait to test her limits or start gauging her abilities. I wonder how hard she’d be to hunt if we played a small game.

  I’m going to end up being just as aroused as the fucking vampire if I keep thinking like that.

  “And the best news is that everyone’s favorite new show isn’t getting cancelled. It’s just getting a new look,” Violet goes on.

  “What?” Arion and Damien ask in unison, attention turning from the cases to the camera.

  “Idun TV will be on twenty-four seven. All monsters can tune in any time they want to see what the dethroned queen is up to. As far as they’re all concerned, it’s going to be the four of you who took her down and made an example of her,” Violet states as though she’s given this true and genuine thought.

  “Idun TV will be streaming from your dungeon, where you plan on keeping Idun bound with no spells?” Damien asks her very seriously.

  Violet nods. “I’m confident that Anna is terrifying. I haven’t seen all the memories yet, but I told her to scare Idun the best she could. I did force her to hold back a little, because my monster has way darker ideas than I do. Seems to have worked, based on what I can remember about last night.”

  I glance down, finding Emit’s lips curving in a slow grin, as he stares at Violet with even more intrigue and excitement.

  “That’s arrogance, Violet,” I decide to point out. “Let Marta help us create a lasting—”

  “No offense,” she cuts in, softening it with a timid smile, “but all those fancy curses and excess magic doesn’t ever seem to work out in the end. Caroline is in charge of Idun’s sentence. When she feels she’s been acceptably punished, then Idun can go free. Until then, I’m Idun’s leash. I’m her cage. I’m the bolted door that stops her from seeing the outside world. I’m the lock. I’m the key. I’m completely impervious to her. She can’t do anything unless I allow it. She’s my one and only problem, and it bothers me. Clyde won’t budge or be a problem.”

  She looks over at Idun, staring down on her with clear dismissal.

  “She knows that now. I once warned her that I’m the only problem she was allowed to have. She should have listened. I would have attempted to play by most of the rules for a while, if she’d only gone after me.”

  Then Violet turns and gives us all a pointed look.

  “You guys changed the world so you could be in charge and sit at the very top of the food chain, where no one else could ever step on you again,” she says. “In return, you got stepped on by the person you trusted, and the woman you loved so much that you sacrificed your prized possessions to spend eternity with her.”

  Violet flicks her gaze to me very briefly, before focusing her attention more on Damien, as though he’s the safest to look at.

  “The world has monsters and those monsters need alphas. Alphas don’t need alphas. Here’s your chance to finally be on top. No games. No wars. No sacrifices. I can be your secret weapon, and I can also be the safe harbor for the misfits and cast-offs.”

  She gestures above toward Sanctuary.

  “I don’t want to create an entire line of monsters. I don’t want to be a Head Alpha. I never asked for any of this. I really just like making bath products and selling them at my store. I like making my own clothes to save a buck or two. I like watching old monster movies with my newfound friends. I like being the girlfriend to four very exhausting men. In short, I like being me. I don’t want to be someone else just because I’m a powerful monster.”

  Damie
n wipes his grin from his face, but it’s back on within seconds. Arion’s the same. Even I struggle to keep a respectable look on my face, because…Violet.

  “Oh, and I’ll let you tell the Idun TV followers what’s going on. I don’t want them knowing I’ve been involved in anyway. I’m just the sweet Sanctuary keeper. Nothing more,” she continues. “Is that okay with the four of you?”

  “Perfectly okay,” Arion quickly tells her, as he presses closer and closer, until he has her caged against the wall.

  I decide to let him do the talking, because I’m still at somewhat of a loss for words.

  Violet looks relieved and lets him run his hands down her body, as though she’s given him all the freedom to touch her wherever and whenever he wants. The vampire will never stop smiling ever again.

  “I really need a shower, and you sort of need to deal with all this,” she tells him.

  “Of course. But then you’ll be my bride,” he says as though it’s important she understands that.

  She gives him a small, tired smile. “Can I have a little while to process all this? Then I’ll be your bride. You always scare me the most, because you’re the most consuming and blindly loyal. Make sure to talk things over with them first. I’m not sure you understand how different I am now that all my secrets are out. You still see me as…docile, judging by your whole demeanor.”

  The vampire’s eyes glisten with excitement, but he plays it off with a smirk.

  “Of course, love. Take your big, bad, scary monster self to the shower. We’ll handle the aftermath for you. You can trust us with that,” he tells her.

  His lips brush hers with a teasing touch, and he releases her.

  Her eyes immediately move to Emit’s. “I know you didn’t realize who or what you were mating. If you need me to remove the mark, I’ll do whatever you need.”

  Emit blinks as though he’s surprised to hear that, and his lips move to no words.

  He doesn’t get the chance to formulate a response, before she turns her attention to Damien.

  “I know you only get one Flame, but I also know you’ve been left with some severe trust issues when it comes to overly powerful women. I’m strong, but I have no aspirations for dominance. Still, think things over, and let me know if this is something you can really handle.”

  Damien keeps a cool smile on his lips, not speaking or giving anything away, as he calmly sits atop a table near the cases.

  Her eyes land on me last.

  “I’m sorry about what my monster did to you. If there’s a way to reverse it, I’ll find it. If that’s what you want. You’re all free to go at any time. I don’t want you feeling chained to me. This really is a lot to take in, so I’m going to let you have some time.”

  With that, she clears her throat and quickly heads up the stairs.

  Emit blows out a long breath.

  Arion smiles at Idun’s head.

  Damien keeps that cool expression in place.

  When the door shuts, they all turn to look at me as though I should be the one to say something first.

  Chapter 52

  ARION

  Vance, for the first time ever, looks positively stupefied. One might even accuse him of seeming lost.

  Best. Day. Ever.

  “Idun TV,” Emit snorts, laughing and groaning at the same time.

  “It’s clever. It’ll keep eyes on Idun at all times, so that no one has to worry about what the bitch is doing,” Damien chimes in, a dark and calculated look stirring in his eyes. “Should eliminate the vast majority of her out-of-control fear factor, until she’s diluted enough to be on the same level as us.”

  I feel like Damien is finally alive once more.

  I know I certainly feel more alive than I have in centuries.

  “She put thought into this. She knew she’d win,” Vance tells us, eyeing the display cases, the tarred room, and the camera last.

  It’s a simple setup.

  Simple.

  Now there’s a word that will never be the same after tonight.

  “She knew she’d win,” Emit echoes, as though that’s just starting to set in.

  The ghosts are still in the room, but they’re playing a card game together now…right between the display cases.

  “I have to say, this is possibly the best day of my eternity, and I don’t see how anyone could ever top it. Well, I suppose Violet could when she lets me take her as my bride,” I tell them, though no one but Damien seems to be listening.

  I don’t want to wait days for that to happen. I want that to happen to finish off the best day in the world. Given all the events, this day truly started with the sunset instead of the sunrise, so it’s a vampire day to top it all off.

  “Bloody hell. All that power, and the girl wants to save the weak and make fucking shampoo,” Damien says, clearly not listening to me as much as I thought.

  “Vance, you give the PSA on Idun TV. I’ve got more important things to do,” I tell the Van Helsing.

  Vance makes a frustrated sound, and then there’s a chilling silence. We all turn to look at Idun, expecting this charade to finally end, since it’s too hard to trust that it’s just that easy.

  A simple pine case.

  I suppose only time will tell if Violet’s made the impact she thinks she has. I’ve called her arrogant quite often. I’m starting to wonder if she’s deservedly arrogant.

  “You’ve never been effortlessly dominated before,” Vance tells Idun.

  Her blackened, crisped skin hasn’t started to heal. Her body remains severed in three, shelved pieces.

  Life as we knew it exists no longer, and it’s impossibly hard to come to grips with that.

  I have a lot of trust issues.

  Understandably so.

  “It takes a moment to adjust to such a reality,” Damien assures her, smirking with more abandon than even I feel.

  “It’s a hard pill to swallow—watching your pride be smashed to bits, while your life gets put in the hands of someone who simply cares nothing about what you do or don’t want,” Emit tacks on, the words spoken solemnly and with some strain.

  “To come so close to thinking it was all going to finally go your way. To have your dreams so closely in your grasp. Then to have it all stripped away with cold, unapologetic flippancy,” I decide to add, falling that much harder in love with Violet.

  “Idun’s irrelevant now,” the jester says from the ground, while she gives a red-lipped grin to the long-haired, black eyed girl, whose face is still fortunately mostly covered. “You don’t have to care about the heartless villain when they’ve no power over you. It only took Violet a few months to be ready for her. Talbot was wrong. She didn’t have to take those licks.”

  “She chose not to fight. Why not do it there and be done with it?” I ask, mostly because I’m curious.

  It occurs to me there have been ghosts prying into our lives and stalking our every move, especially recently. Was our sweet little monster worried about us or just possessive?

  Questions like these will drive me mad. Either way, I’ll be damn happy. I’m simply too curious, because I don’t think I’ve ever been truly loved.

  At least not the way I wanted to be.

  I edge toward the door, as the jester shrugs, a secretive grin on her lips.

  “Where’s the fun in that?” she asks.

  The black-haired girl suddenly moves, and the jester’s eyes widen, as the mouth from hell opens wide. The girl releases a shrieking scream.

  Emit practically stumbles into me in his haste to put some distance between himself and that creepy thing.

  “I was trying to make Violet sound more badass. You don’t have to call me out like that!” the jester shouts to the freaky mouth one.

  Oy.

  This is going to take some real adjusting to. I’m still not sure if I want Violet’s subconscious warring with other fragments of her subconscious in public all the time.

  “Violet doesn’t want to be the villain. So
she tries to solve things another way first,” the jester grumbles, glaring at the other ghost like she’s made her tell the truth. “She was going to retire us for all eternity, because she decided Sanctuary is harder, but still more productive than war.”

  I bristle, mostly because I do love a good war. I think my family is the only one left still in for some fun bloodshed, though. Aside from the Neoprys. Doesn’t seem like the best company to keep.

  I suppose some personal sacrifices were inevitable, regardless of the fact Violet said otherwise.

  “But then Idun took Van Helsing,” she adds with a grin. “Violet told me I could play. Just that easily, she changed her mind about Idun. Only Idun. Then Clyde. One day, we shall rule her, and she’ll let us take down more.”

  That’s mildly alarming.

  I’d rather think positive. For once, I’d like to hope for the bloody best, because I’m sick of the bullshit.

  Moving to the case, I put a hand on the wall and lean in to stare Idun in her frozen, nearly glazed-over eyes, that start leaking tears.

  Idun is crying.

  She’d never let us see it if she could stop it.

  “That fear and anger you feel right now? It’s only going to get worse over the next few centuries. A sense of complete hopelessness is what comes next. Acceptance is the hardest part of grieving something you never really had.”

  Since I’m being positive, I grin, basking in this moment for one last look at the end of a dark age and the beginning of a new era.

  “I’m not known for my empathy, but I did spend plenty of time haunting the three of them without their knowledge. I understand better now. Being soulless occasionally leaves me without the proper emotions needed for any sort of personal guidance. And I was a man who once worked hard to be a humble man of the cloth, before I met you. Pride and dignity are just among the many superficial habits I shed to the best of my ability.”

  I toy with the lock, wondering if we’re foolish to taunt her. But it’s better to know if this is for real or not.