Gypsy Truths (All The Pretty Monsters #6)- Kristy Cunning Page 0,114

of the Simpletons, isn’t it?” she muses with no emotion in her tone.

“So my last few minutes alive will be spent with you insulting the woman I intend to marry, while I can’t do anything about it,” I tell her very bitterly. “You’re only making yourself that much more of an enemy. I will get out of this, Pandora.”

She grins. “By the time you get out of this, your ire over my insults to your temporary girlfriend will be the least of your concerns. That pride always rears its ugly head with you, Vancetto Van Helsing. You’ll be humbled and finally recognize your queen by the end of your sentence. I don’t think you know what isolation in Van Helsing silver feels like.”

My silver crawls up my neck, and I choke in a stubborn breath that turns out to be even harder to do with the next breath.

Pandora pokes my cheek, grinning the entire time.

“Idun will keep kicking your girl around on that field for however long she can endure it, because she truly believes she can buy your family enough time to find you.”

I’d make another threat if my vocal cords weren’t frozen stiff by the silver that is making breathing a more and more difficult challenge the higher it climbs.

“And it’s all for nothing,” Pandora gloats.

Just as the silver quickly begins climbing my face, taking my nose and mouth so abruptly that the labored breathing turns into immediate suffocation, I spot a brief glimpse of a familiar ghost behind Pandora.

It’s gone so quickly that I’m positive I imagined it.

Seconds before the silver takes my eyes and seals me into darkness, I catch one last clip of Violet being pummeled. Between my useless, last attempt to struggle free and the darkness surrounding me, my breaths slowly return.

It’s as if breathing becomes only a mild nuisance instead of an impossibility. It takes me a long moment to realize how stiffly I’ve been cast—as unyieldingly rigid as a proper sword.

The silver has dried.

It’s solid.

And I really am going to live inside here with only myself.

Swallowing thickly, I shut my eyes, feeling the weight of so many crushing hunts call to me.

I can’t twitch.

At this rate, I’ll suffer multiple aneurisms a day and go mad within a year.

My eyes burn, and the suffocating need to straighten my tie has my body straining and straining and straining…

In this moment, I remember why I stopped hoping for anything better so long ago.

We still don’t stand a chance against her. Especially with Pandora running point.

Now Violet’s left to suffer a fate we dragged her into.

Chapter 33

EMIT

“Idun striking at Vance first makes more sense than her getting this riled over Arion’s inevitable proposal. The vampire is lost to her and by she now, she knows it. It’s hard to believe such a thing at first, but now that I’ve seen him with Violet, I agree his unquestionable loyalty is only to her,” Talbot prattles on, his voice ringing right in my ear over the sound of the heavily whirling blades.

“I only brought you because you can fly a helicopter. I don’t trust you, and I certainly don’t like how much you seem to know about all of us,” I state into the headset.

“Shera knows more about the four of you than I do,” he’s quick to say. “I don’t see your suspicion hefting onto her. I’ve been an underappreciated, yet extremely diligent rogue beta, who has certainly helped my people and paid my dues. Of course I know all about the four of you.”

“Why don’t you seem to forget Damien?” I finally ask, unable to help myself, as I cut my gaze toward him.

“I’ve developed a process of remembering him. However, there was a time I forgot Damien Morpheous even existed. I decided that was a bad survival instinct, considering the obvious.”

He’s too forthcoming with a rehearsed and perfect answer always at the ready, yet wonders why we all find him increasingly suspicious.

“Any other questions, Mr. Morrigan?” he asks with too much smugness. “Because I have a few. Such as, how does Violet’s ghost stalk Van Helsing, when no trained professional was able to do so. A ghost can’t even step foot on the dragon’s cemetery.”

“You know about the dragon?” I ask, suspicion mounting as I study him.

“Of course I do. I make it a point to know important things. I’ve lived a long time and had a lot of questions I couldn’t ask an alpha. The dragon is an irrelevant point, aside from the fact