Gypsy Truths (All The Pretty Monsters #6)- Kristy Cunning Page 0,171

we feel about all…this…or show an expression before she does.

Arion slips in behind her, arm going to her waist, as he bends and starts kissing her neck. Violet allows it, and even leans back on him.

“Your monster tried to force you to be with me,” Arion murmurs, as though now he’s suddenly very pleased with the twist this puts on…every single fucking thing those ghosts have done.

“My monster made me dance like a puppet on her strings for her own agenda, in some ways. She manipulated the hell out of me, and even went so far as to fake my dead best friend’s death, while also trying to force a new version of herself on me—via the triplets. When that didn’t work, she brought in a male ghost, who was in love with another woman, but suddenly found me fascinating enough to stalk…”

She rolls her eyes, leaning back to look up at Arion.

“She tried to duplicate what you and I had when you were Ace, but I had zero interest in getting to know him, which cock-blocked at least one of her manipulation attempts,” Violet elaborates very pointedly to Arion.

The vampire’s smile is so bright and cheery that you’d genuinely believe he just found heaven.

“This shit is seriously fucked up. Stop acting like it’s so exciting, please. I’m internally freaking out because how pleased you look, and I don’t want to freak out so soon after giving my monster so much freedom. I…liked it too much.”

Arion’s smile only grows.

The more she talks, the more it starts sounding as though this is undeniably Violet.

“Again, you’re seriously freaking me out. That’s not a good thing, Arion,” Violet tells him with an abundance of conviction. “For whatever reason, you all think I’m so damn sweet, which means you’re all entirely too fucked up. But you can’t just grin after what you’ve seen tonight. Not even you’re that crazy.”

The vampire is falling in love all over again right in front of our eyes, because she’s underestimating just how crazy he gets when he’s in love. Unlike her, he loves being underestimated.

Obliterating an adversary, starting a war, dancing on a bloody field, and underestimating him…

She’s spent the last several hours doing all his favorite things.

“Hyde couldn’t be this coherent. Not with…all the things apparently rolling around inside Violet’s head,” Talbot says as though he’s already convinced, but also extremely bewildered by the possibility. “Also, being in charge of the body gives it a power trip from hell. It can’t carry on normal conversation for long periods of time.”

“You said it was impossible for her to regain control,” Vance states on a shaky breath, his voice nearly hoarse, as he stares on at Violet, who is dealing with a genuinely turned on vampire. “Ten minutes later, you shrug and flippantly reverse everything you’ve been adamantly preaching.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve done a shite job of predicting anything about Ms. Carmine,” Talbot fires back, sounding more fatigued and exhausted than anything else.

“The vampire isn’t intimidated by powerful women, but the Van Helsing certainly is,” Anna chides, grinning as she gets in Vance’s face. “Tell him what I did to him, Violet. Tell him how I tricked him.”

Violet’s face turns white, and regret shades her eyes, as she looks at Vance.

“Wh-what is she talking about?” Vance asks, completely off-kilter, as he sidesteps Anna.

Violet darts a gaze around, and I lean forward, idly waiting on Idun to glue herself together, encase us all in her fancy new silver-curse, and bury us. Setting us up with false hope is the norm.

Violet’s too casual.

Arion’s already accepted the world is a brave new place.

Vance is on the verge of needing a reboot.

Emit’s so clearly confused that his brain must hurt.

Me? I still have no idea what I feel. I don’t know what to trust.

Chapter 49

VANCE

Violet stares at me and releases a shaky, hesitant breath.

“Anna stole the identity of a real person. I found a newspaper clipping in my grandma’s old things, while looking through my storage buildings for some of my old research,” Violet states, not giving me any indication about where this is going. “I forgot about researching that woman, simply because she had such a crazy life story. She wasn’t famous enough for anyone to care, though. The second I saw that clipping, I started remembering.”

Violet starts toward me, but then takes a step back.

“Anna has access to all my memories, even the ones I forget. She came to me as a person who had already interested me once.