Gypsy Truths (All The Pretty Monsters #6)- Kristy Cunning Page 0,166

once more.

Arion fucking cha-chas with Anna, as though he’s warming up to the idea that there’s an all-powerful sociopath inhabiting Violet’s body.

The fucking lunatic even grins, as his red eyes emerge.

“This isn’t good. Arion seems to be enjoying the monster,” Emit notes with some obvious distress.

Anna’s eyes cut toward the wolf, and her smile chills. Arion turns to grin at the three of us, as his head dips and he presses his forehead to hers.

“It’s her. I can feel Violet,” the fucking stupid vampire says, ever the faithfully blind romantic.

Should have known he’d cave all too easily.

Anna’s arms twine around his neck, as she shoots us a devious smirk.

“They’re plotting against me,” she says with too much certainty and cheer. “But they don’t stand a chance, unless Damien feeds and comes after me full force.”

Vance and Emit both swing a look to me, as though I have the bloody answers to back up that suggestion.

“Isn’t that right, maker?” Anna adds, causing us all to follow her gaze behind us to where Talbot Lane is standing, his eyes hooded, as he stares back at her.

“My maker is plotting against us too,” Anna says. “Violet and me. I’ve been spying tonight.”

“Not Violet and you,” he tells her very seriously, as Idun’s head rolls to be next to Arion.

Arion glances down at it, but immediately returns his very interested attention to Anna.

“The vampire loves me. He loves Violet, that is. All of her, and I’m simply an extension of our girl,” Anna tells him, batting her lashes with innocence. “I knew he’d come around first.”

She turns to punt Idun’s head back toward the huddle of ghosts, who all immediately set back in with their game of kick-the-alpha-head.

“If you want to convince us, give us back Violet right now,” I decide to say, taking a step toward her.

She flashes me a devious grin. “I’m not done playing yet. Stay tuned, Morpheous. Reality is more fun than illusions when I’m in charge. I’m a much more exciting main character. I’ve been telling Violet that since the beginning.”

Her body has long since healed—the earlier stitches having vanished into smooth, flawless skin. I know Violet heals rapidly, but this is beyond unnatural.

She becomes a streak of movement in the next moment. Idun’s head is no longer being kicked around. In fact, I don’t know where it is.

All the remaining apparitions give us a grin, before they spray into the air as salt, effectively vanishing from sight with some dramatic flair.

It takes another moment before I realize…the vampire is gone as well.

“Where the hell did Arion fucking go?” I ask, unable to absorb the madness of the night at a quick enough rate to keep up.

“Also, what’s the deal with all the damn salt?” I ask, because my brain short-circuited much earlier in the night.

This is too much.

Way too much.

I’ve been numb and complacently miserable for far too long to even begin to process something so…jarringly different.

“The salt is the least of our worries,” Talbot grinds out.

“Violet can’t see ghosts, or so you said,” I remind him. “These salt projections of hers are constructed in the ghost plane, because not just everyone can see them.”

“She can’t see ghosts. But she can see astral projections who roam the ghost plane as well,” he’s quick to point out. “Such as Arion Vampyre, who none of you could see as a simple projection. The salt amplifies visibility, using the ghost plane’s reflective properties to construct the image in Violet’s mind and create a form of reality. Hyde tricked her into trusting it by posing as a ghost.”

I scrub a hand over my face.

“And Arion Vampyre is a soulless vampire who cares nothing at all about anything other than Violet. He’s loved a far worse monster, in his opinion. Hyde can easily charm him. Violet will be lost to all of you if I don’t strip Hyde free,” Talbot continues. “The vampire is going to be more trouble than help.”

“Arion’s not that simple,” Emit is fast to argue. “He must have really felt something that made him believe Violet was still somewhat present.”

Talbot narrows his eyes.

“Sure, all seems fine. There’s no threat. A monster like you’ve never before witnessed just tore Idun Neopry down in an effortless fashion and it was fun. I’m sure Violet will be exactly the same…while she’s trapped somewhere in her own mind for the rest of eternity,” Talbot says, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

I hate doubting Violet.

Every time I doubt her, she makes a fool of us,