Gypsy Truths (All The Pretty Monsters #6)- Kristy Cunning Page 0,132

have.

When the room clears and becomes visible, Marta sucks in a breath, backing toward me.

We’re completely surrounded by the remainder of my family. My father gives me a small glare, and I narrow my eyes at him.

“You have the audacity to rise against me?” I bite out.

He takes a step forward, crossing his hands in front of him, as the rest of my family simply stands and waits.

“It must have taken most of your power to break through all our illusions. I’m sorry, Damien. You can’t check out for so many centuries and expect the family to back you all of the sudden, especially when you do something as rash and clumsy as you’ve allowed your darling little monster toy to get away with today. You’re once again thinking with your prick, son, and that’s playing a dangerous game. You made this decision too easy.”

Amos slides in at my side, causing my father’s brow to furrow.

“You really think you’ll stand a chance against all of us, even with Damien fighting at your side?” Father asks him. “All because of one fucking Simpleton Portocale bitch your brother couldn’t keep his dick out of?”

“I’ve lived a long damn time, and for the majority of it, I let you and Dorian fuck my head up,” Amos answers, jaw grinding, as he draws his sword. “Who knows? Maybe this will be the moment I finally manage to start redeeming the bloody soul I’m stuck with for all eternity.”

My father twirls his sword, smirking. Marta grins with anticipation, eagerly awaiting the battle.

My mind is still reeling, and anger stirs inside me, because I’m far too desperate to reach Violet.

“Very bloody well,” I say, watching as my mother shoves my father aside, her eyes glaring directly at Marta.

“Very bloody well,” my mother agrees with a smirk.

In the next instant, swords clang, and I meet my father head on, as Amos tends my back. This is going to have to be quick. My chest is aching, my mind is racing, and the world is barely a blur around me.

My instincts demand I find Violet. Even if I have to litter the floor with the heads of my own kin to reach her.

Just as my sword swings against my father’s, Vanzuela Van Helsing crashes into the room, barely saving me from a brother attacking me from behind.

“Never thought there’d come a day when I was fighting alongside Marta Portocale, let alone Damien and Amos Morpheous,” Zuela grunts through a mystifying amount of swordsmanship, making the shit look easy. “At least not in a real battle.”

My father uses the distraction against me, and at the last minute, I bend backwards, narrowly dodging his nearly lethal strike. Kicking out a leg, I knock him backwards, and spin in time to slice through the neck of Theodore, my least favorite cousin.

His eyes are almost wide in apology, as I watch the light fade from his gaze. My attention slants back toward my father’s direction.

Just as I’m about to charge him, a cry of pain is wrenched from my throat, and I drop to the ground, as my skin starts sizzling. The feeling isn’t unfamiliar. It’s fucking Van Helsing silver that seems to be growing on me, which makes no damn sense.

Zuela’s garbled, pained noise is almost immediately alongside mine, and his eyes dart over toward me, as my cousins move in on us. I struggle to lift up, fighting against the searing pain, but nothing moves. It feels like my body is being coated in the damn silver.

My family circles us, grins lighting up their faces, as Marta releases a shaky breath, looking between us with worried eyes.

“I told you we just had to wait for this curse to take effect. They died for no reason,” Gabriel, my youngest cousin says to my father, glaring over at him.

My father smirks at me, and then his foot slams across my face. My neck feels to nearly snap off my shoulders, and my ears ring. For a brief moment, all I feel is the jarred sensation.

The full brunt of the pain catches up to me in the very next instant, and my vision goes speckled.

“You really don’t want to hurt him,” Marta says on a shaky, somewhat worried breath.

Just as a drop of blood drips from my lip, my gaze settles on a ghost that appears in the room.

She grins, and the sound of glass crashing all around sings through the air. The fragments of it spray into the air, almost as if