Gypsy Rising (All The Pretty Monsters Book 5)

by Kristy Cunning

  I’m not sure what anyone else is doing, because my eyes are on Violet.

  She dodges a camera that moves too close, and she frowns over at Idun.

  “That’s going to be over three hundred licks,” she says as though she’s pointing that out.

  My knee starts bouncing, moving faster, as the tension ratchets up.

  “If she can survive that, she’ll be free and clear. I will sign it in blood that she can live in your little sanctuary. See? I’m amendable.”

  “You get to try to kill her by beating her to death, so I’d say that’s just a more fun challenge for you to get your way,” Violet inserts with a dry tone.

  Idun’s grin grows.

  Across the room, I spot Zuela rolling his eyes, before shooting me a disappointed look.

  “Guess it’s good to be alpha sometimes. But you don’t understand our purpose, because you’re omega. We’re an infection. We have to monitor that infection. And omegas who forget their places infect the world in one way or another. I run a tight ship. Remember that in the future when another shifter swings by for sanctuary.”

  Violet nods as she takes a few steps forward, and Idun feigns stretching, as her grin broadens. I listen for Violet’s heart to drop, expecting her to go with a fast element of surprise.

  She moves to the small platform in the middle of the room and drops to her knees in front of the pillory. My knee stops bouncing altogether.

  “Do I get to stay clothed for the flogging, or am I allowed that dignity?” Violet asks far too conversationally.

  Everything goes utterly silent.

  Zuela sits up, brow furrowing, as Arion leans so far forward in his seat that he almost falls out of it.

  Idun blinks like even she’s surprised.

  “What?” Idun finally asks her, as Damien mutters a curse under his breath and scrubs a hand over his face.

  “I have no right or legal authority to stop this. I’m too young to be able to judge this law, due to the fact I don’t know the story about why it was passed to begin with. But since I represent sanctuary, I have the right to keep peace by giving you your pound of flesh, while also protecting those who come into neutral, untouchable, sacred territory and seek my protection.”

  I exhale a painful, shaky breath, as the life is drained out of me.

  Idun looks trapped for a second, as she glares at Violet.

  “Why put that little combat addendum in there if you planned on just taking the punishment yourself?” Idun asks through strain, like she’s exerting herself to keep her control.

  Violet’s lips twitch. “To ensure you came after me the second you read it. You predictably couldn’t resist.”

  “Don’t fucking goad her, you stupid girl,” Marta says as she slams her hand against the bar closest to her.

  Violet winks over at her mother. “Ah, Mom, don’t be so surprised. You secretly knew I was born for this. That’s why you told me not to lose my head every time I stepped outside. You never wanted me to end up here.”

  Marta’s eyes glisten, as she fights to stay composed. My mother shoots a nervous look my way. Arion’s family all cast worried glances toward him, as Idun helps Violet into a pillory with too much amusement.

  I really wish I fucking knew what laws I’ve passed these past five months.

  The Morpheous family dart occasional glances between Damien and Dorian, as Dorian enjoys the moment too much.

  Emily keeps a straight face, sitting in the back with her foot propped up on the back of the chair just below her row. Isiah remains just as stoic, as Idun draws out the suspense, giving everyone time to assess how each other is gauging the situation.

  Idun calmly walks over and selects one of the lesser offensive weapon choices—simple leathers braided in larger pieces for less tearing. She shoots us a pointed look to ensure we notice the small mercy.

  All of my knuckles pop at once.

  “How many licks in total?” Idun asks as Violet stays secured in her degrading position, hair hanging in her face.

  “My shifter is three-hundred-and-sixty-eight. I’d say as many licks—the maximum punishment—was already predictable by everyone viewing this,” Violet, the bloody maddening girl—who is ripping my heart out—says as she goads Idun some more.

  Idun glances at the floggers again, moving over to select a smaller braided pattern, shrugging at us as if to say she tried.

  In the next instant, Violet is struck so hard and so surprisingly that she makes a startled, pained sound. Arion’s on his feet in the next instant.

  “Sit down, Vampyre. It’s just one little blow,” Idun cautions as blood trickles from Violet’s slash.

  Her shirt has ripped, and Idun circles her, checking Violet’s face.

  “Sit down, Arion. Don’t draw this out and make it more fun for her, please,” Violet says in such a whisper that I barely hear it. “Stay neutral.”

  Arion’s jaw grinds, as he laughs humorlessly under his breath, that crazy laugh he gets before he does something stupid. But instead of doing something stupid, he sits, shaking his head, as his eyes burn with anger.

  “After every ten blows, I’m required to state who I am, and why I’m here,” Violet tells her.

  “We can skip that formality,” Idun tells her dismissively.

  The next two blows come consecutively, and Violet doesn’t react. Idun grinds her jaw and hits her so hard that Violet’s blood sprays into the first row’s laps. Again, Violet doesn’t make a sound.

  “Being tough just makes you stupid,” Idun tells her. “That’s only four.”

  Violet’s skin starts pulling together on its own, and Idun’s smirk slowly starts to fall. Zuela’s eyes close…as though he almost feels sorry for Violet, when the healing continues.

  “I forgot to mention I heal very fast and have a ridiculously high pain tolerance,” Violet quips like it’s good news. “Especially after that lightning storm I got caught up in two Thursdays ago when I went out for milk. You caught me on a good day.”

  Nadine sits up straighter, brow furrowing, as Marta covers her mouth and makes no sound at all, a dead look in her eyes.

  “If anyone interrupts this, it’s considered an act of war, right?” Idun asks, glancing back at us. “I’ll still get to tear down her precious sanctuary she loves so much if you make any moves. Laws don’t exist during wars, no matter how brief.”

  The air chills, as Arion’s eyes turn solid red. Idun turns away from him, and from the fifth hit all the way until the tenth, Violet is struck so hard and so fast that she crashes through the pillory from the force, knocking it off its hinges, as she slams into the floor face first.

  “Don’t you fuckers dare start a war after watching Idun TV for five months. You owe me this,” Violet groans from the floor when we all stand.

  “That’s ten,” Anna shouts down to her.

  Violet gives her a limp thumb’s up, eyes never reaching ours. “I’m January Violet Carmine, protector of the sanctuary, and I’m here to accept another’s punishment because I disagree with the punishment.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Damien asks just loud enough for her to hear it, as his entire body remains rigid.

  She darts her gaze over to meet his. “Because I can take it. And it’s fun to see her still pretending to play nice, even as she readies my next beating.”

  I want to glue her mouth shut, because she doesn’t know her limits, and Idun is itching to show her.

  “Ma, look away. I love you,” Violet adds, groaning a little, as she pushes up from the floor, the pillory giving way and collapsing to shambles around her.

  Marta’s eyes shut as another tear falls, but they won’t stay shut for long.

  Idun drops the flogger and very calmly selects a longer, more twisted set of metal braids, not even glancing our way this time.

  Violet starts to turn, and the braids slam into the side of her face, spraying blood all over the western side. I bite down on my fist to keep from shouting.

  “
That’s my girl,” Anna says from beside me.

  Violet just spits out the blood and looks back, letting Idun take another face shot that slings her head in the other direction.

  We all move uncomfortably, forced to sit and watch. All because we thought she was coming to fucking fight Idun.

  The next several blows send Violet sailing, her skin shredding, as threads whir through the air. It takes a few minutes to realize it’s her own clothing she’s stealing from, as the wounds start stitching themselves up.

  A few breaths of collective surprise hit the air, but Idun looks like she expected as much. Violet bloody grins like a deranged lunatic, as Anna shouts the count once more.

  “Someone salt that fucking ghost!” Idun snaps, pupils smaller, as she glares in our direction.

  No one moves, and she narrows her eyes at us.

  “I’m January Violet Carmine—”

  “I said we could skip that little formality,” Idun cuts in, moving toward Violet.

  “It’s the law, and why are we doing this if not to follow the fucking law?” Violet interrupts.

  Idun clicks her tongue. “I forgot how stupid you all are,” she tells Violet.

  Violet just gives her a tight smile. “I’m January Violet Carmine. I’m half Neopry. Half Portocale. I’m all gypsy with all my gypsy pride. And I’m the only person in the room who can say that last part. I’m here to remind you of just how far you’ve all fallen.”

  Violet’s slammed into the iron cage with the next hit Idun delivers, and we watch as she takes each one, never crying out in pain. Frozen in our places, all we do is look on.

  It’s the first time I notice us standing still, and it’s the most agonizing thing I’ve ever endured. I’d suffer a thousand Portocale curses to avoid ever facing this motherfucking nightmare ever again.

  “That’s ten,” Anna says as Violet takes a little longer to get up, the wounds sealing with the next bout of thread.

  “I’m January Violet Carmine, and I’m here to ensure that no alphas are gaming the system for petty, pathetic, or vindictive reasoning, as they wield life and death in their hands, while forgetting how to care about the infections who have to die,” she says as she spits out another wad of blood. “And I can keep the peace, because I can take whatever you’ve got, Idun.”

  Idun drops the metal flogger.

  “Remember that I tried,” Idun says again as she walks over and grabs the Van Helsing flogger meant only for alphas.

  “Don’t you fucking dare,” Damien warns her.

  I’m confined by my curse, unable to break the law, even on behalf of the woman I love.

  “Vance would stop me if I wasn’t within my legal right,” Idun tells him, as she gives me a pitying look. “You’re bleeding, dear. Quit trying to reach me when I’m not doing anything wrong. It only gives you agonizing migraines in the end. You never could understand.”

  My eyes drop to Violet, just as Idun swings the Van Helsing braids gifted for floggings. It shoots out the silver, unbearably painful strikes that would cut most immortals into actual pieces.

  Violet flies across the cage, slamming into the bars there and tumbling down, as Idun leaps the distance and hits her again so hard the concrete cracks and spills over from the impact, after the flogger glances off Violet.

  Violet grunts and curls in on herself, as Idun hits her again, and again, standing over her as she maxes out the mark where Violet legally gets a rest.

  “That’s ten!” Anna shouts as Idun just barely stops the flogger in time.

  Idun’s breathing heavily, as Violet slowly gets to her feet, more of her jeans disappearing as her wounds are quickly threaded shut.

  “I’m January Violet Carmine,” Violet says with a wince, as she carelessly shoves her shoulder back into its socket with a loud crunch. “For fun, I try new potions that occasionally blow off a limb or two. Once I burnt myself up. Took a couple of days to heal. I heal faster than average, because I was designed as a cosmic fuck-you to—”

  Idun hits her before she can finish. “There’s a time limit,” she tells Violet, as Violet crashes to the ground. “Time’s up.”

  She slams the flogger down into her skull, her eyes crazed, as the inner monster shows. The monster she claimed was all the devil’s work from the stone.

  Zuela’s grip tightens on the railing, because like me, he knows what a waling of that magnitude feels like. Violet’s face quite literally gets beaten into the concrete.

  Still, all I can do is fucking watch.

  “Ten!” Anna shouts.

  “I said to salt that fucking ghost!” Idun shouts as she turns and points once again.

  “I’m January. Violet. Carmine,” Violet says through a little strain, gathering everyone’s attention once again, as she slowly pushes up from the broken concrete, spitting out blood, while one of her eyes swells shut.

  “Forty-eight Simpletons have endured a hundred times as much as you’re all cringing at today. Which is why I’m here. It’s my turn. Because I’m what stands between her petty, deranged tantrums and all of you,” she goes on, which has Nadine darting a glance at all of us.

  It was once her telling us how bad it was for the Simpletons. Then it was the Simpletons swearing it wasn’t nothing they couldn’t handle. It was easier to just believe the Simpletons.

  Again, Idun wastes no time, over and over again pounding Violet into the concrete like the second time will work better.

  If anyone is moving, they’re not making a sound.

  After ten, Violet raises her head again.

  “I’m January Violet Carmine. I’m paying my dues to the Neopry community today by keeping my sanctuary safe, after opening it a mere week ago, even though I have the backing of five of the six families,” Violet goes on, fucking gutting me, as her eyes water a little in our direction. Her eyes go back to Idun’s quickly. “Because what I’m building is bigger than anything you can ever tear down.”

  Idun smirks before the hardest hit yet sends Violet’s head whipping to the right so forcefully that I hear her neck snap. She spirals lifelessly through the air, before crashing into the cage. Her unmoving body tumbles to the ground and stays limp there.

  There’s a weighted breath where I forget she can’t die, and a cold washes over me with a painful force.

  Until I hear a crack, as Violet begins to move.

  Idun makes it her mission to hit her as hard as she can, slinging her as far as the cage allows with each blow, in an effort to cheat the beating and make it worse.

  Arion’s hands steeple in front of his face, as Anna shouts, “Ten!”

  Idun’s hand starts coming down, but I’m down the bleachers and reaching through just in time to grab her wrist.

  She stops and glares at me, as her hand is halted midair.

  “You don’t get to interfere unless you want war,” she bites out in roughly translated Romanian.

  “She gets to fucking talk,” I counter through clenched teeth. “It’s the law.”

  Violet staggers to her feet, both eyes swelling now, along with her jaw, as blood trickles from various places.

  She clears her throat as she says, “I’m January Violet Carmine, and like all the Simpletons you’ve mocked, ridiculed, found to be a nuisance, and loathed for simply being weak, I’m here because I’m giving you a fair chance to care, after having a thousand years of an Idun-free world to thaw your scarred, cold hearts.”

  I’m forced back by my Van Helsing curse when Idun tears away to resume the process of beating the fucking hell out of Violet. Violet never even cries out in pain.

  With each set of ten, Anna breaks it up, and Violet hurriedly stitches the wounds shut. Each time, she talks about how she’s built differently, just like all the Simpletons. Each time, she points out her resilience. Each time, she points out our inaction.

  “Why the fucking hell is this thing not working anymore? All alphas are granted a Van Helsing flogger in this room,” Idun shouts as she throws down the rusty junk, t
he flogger no longer blessed as a gift.

  “You’re only allowed two hundred blows with a Van Helsing weapon,” I say very coldly.

  “Not even alphas are expected to endure more than that,” Zuela adds, as even he glares at Idun.

  Violet slowly rises.

  “I’m January Violet Carmine,” she says as she pops all five of her fingers back into place, one by one. “I’m twenty-six-years-old, newly single, have an excellent driving record, pay all my bills on time, and work my ass off to make a living, when I’m not building a sanctuary, dodging wolves who want me dead for no reason, vampire mercenaries paid for by one of my own kin, and crazy ex-girlfriends,” Violet chirps.

  My gaze finds Edmond Portocale for the very first time, his eyes somber, as he sits opposite Marta. They never once even glance at each other. Marta is staring at the ground below her, unable to watch this.

  Idun’s heartbeat drops just enough for me to notice, but she has a flogger in her hand before I can stop her. She kicks Violet so hard I hear bones shattering.

  Ice sprays up the sides of the walls behind us, and everyone looks around as it covers the ceiling. Our breaths fog in front of us, because she pissed Arion off too much this time.

  “You lose ten lashings for that,” Zuela, the referee for this evening’s motherfucking event, says in warning.

  Idun just grins. “Worth it.”

  Violet slowly pushes herself back up, but Idun pounds her down with the flogger.

  “Ten!” Anna roars.

  Idun curses, but no one is looking at her, as Violet uses the wall to push herself up, her right leg broken at the knee, as she balances on one leg.

  “I’m January Violet Carmine, and I’m as resilient as a Neopry Simpleton and as stubborn as a Portocale. I’m just getting started. I’m young and naïve, so I have plenty of fight left in me. I was born to be your fucking punching bag.”

  Violet smirks, the last threads from her jeans and shirt unravelling to stitch her up, as Idun winds up.

  “It sucks so hard to be her some days,” Anna says on a pitying sigh.

  “I was born to stand in your way, just because I fucking can. And now everyone’s going to know that you’re not my problem. But I just became the only problem you’re allowed to have, because you, the big, scary, all-powerful alpha can’t even make me scream while I’m still just a pup.”