Gypsy Rising (All The Pretty Monsters Book 5)

by Kristy Cunning

  “She’s young. Just starting out. And already she’s doing things no immortal has ever thought possible. Two hundred licks from a Van Helsing flogger is equivalent to a mortal being hit with five sharp daggers on fire at the hands of the devil himself. Per lick.”

  Violet smiles at Jerome, shaking her head in answer to his question about if she’d ever consider moving back.

  “And she took it at a true twenty-six-years old. She’d barely gotten her immortality, and the girl landed right in your laps—almost literally—the moment she moved to town. Could any omega honestly do that?”

  “You’re saying she’s a budding alpha? That’s impossible. The only alphas are the original alphas—”

  “It’s an ever-changing world, old chaps,” Talbot tells us, glancing over to meet our gazes at last. “Even Idun is scrambling to keep up, because she has no choice. Her alphas are in Violet’s home—her main power source.”

  “They are pledged to her House, regardless of where they reside, and Idun still gets what she needs through those ties,” I remind him.

  “True, but she can’t touch them or play with them,” he says as he starts to turn. “Still, it makes you wonder what Violet is capable of, when she’s effortlessly pulled off this much already.”

  I don’t like how much he seems to know. It makes me feel like I know too little.

  “His brain is broken if he genuinely thinks an alpha would drop to their knees and take a beating without even getting violent. We have to fight when challenged,” Arion groans, disbelieving that we’d take any of this seriously.

  “I’m simply saying you were wrong; Violet wasn’t punishing you for your inaction. For whatever reason, she wanted to take that beating,” Talbot states more seriously.

  “Yes. We know. She wanted Idun’s focus on her, because she’s bloody infuriating that way, and attracts the worst dangers she can. Like a really potent omega,” Vance grinds out.

  Talbot’s eyes flick to his. “Or maybe like an alpha perceived to be weak. Sort of like the one who keeps fighting off mutinies, wouldn’t you think?”

  Vance bristles, and Arion’s humored look falls slowly.

  “I was wrong as well,” Talbot adds. “She claims she was making a statement. However, Violet didn’t step in there to prove any sort of point. I believe she stepped in there to find out just how fucking tough Idun really is. She was testing Idun to see how close she is to being able to take her.”

  Now that’s just insane. Violet isn’t that calculated.

  “What else do you think you know?” I ask him, taking him more seriously, remembering the daring glint in Violet’s eyes as she goaded Idun into using what we thought was just a little of her strength.

  What if she really is weakened?

  That ice is still holding her captive.

  “No new omegas have joined Sanctuary, despite Violet’s resilience to that beating. Wouldn’t it be wise to have an impossibly fabulous beta, such as myself, in there when whatever is brewing finally boils over?”

  “This pointless incubus is starting to make me paranoid. Idun is not Violet’s problem. She’s genuinely adamant about that,” Vance says as his own wary gaze moves over to Violet again.

  “I wouldn’t say I’m pointless, but I am off my game when it comes to Violet Carmine. I’m just telling you the latest rumors circling the girl you all have in common. I live out in the real world where people love to whisper about the alphas. Just remember a Van Helsing, on live TV, told the world that not even an alpha was expected to endure more than two hundred lashings with a Van Helsing flogger.”

  He takes a step toward the edge, gesturing at Violet, as she takes her second cup of coffee the future dead wanker is handing her.

  “And January Violet Carmine essentially talked shit to every alpha in attendance after every ten licks. Then, along comes Zuela Van Helsing, the cruelest of his kind, to give the girl a gift of apology. A gift never bestowed upon anyone outside the Van Helsing family. Your girlfriend is plotting, and she’s damn good at it. She makes Marta look like a rookie, and Marta Portocale knows it. Start there. I’ll handle your invitation for you, like any good beta would do,” he adds before dropping off the rooftop.

  I glance down to see him land in a crouch, and leisurely stroll away with his hands in his pockets.

  “He’s the most coveted rogue beta among your people, and has never pledged to a House, since your laws are fucking stupid,” Arion tells me. “I looked into him as well.”

  “You’re excellent at playing dumb,” I commend, as I pocket my phone. “And if my laws are so stupid, why do they work so well?”

  “They don’t,” Vance and Arion say in unison, as we all just stare at Violet.

  “Can we trust him around Violet?” Vance asks me after a moment of silence.

  “I don’t even trust the omega wolves around Violet, so hell no we can’t,” Arion deadpans.

  “But you trust your beta?” Vance volleys.

  “Absolutely not,” he responds with zero hesitation. “Shera’s a damn good beta because she does what I tell her to do, and never oversteps. She’s overstepping now, and she won’t tell me why. Then that codger comes in and yaps about Violet being an alpha, and damn near convinces us there’s validity to it.”

  Jerome walks to the loo, and I see Talbot Lane slide into the freshly vacated seat in front of Violet.

  Violet looks unsurprised to see him, and Anna pops up behind him to start sniffing him like the daft ghost has a sense of smell.

  “I’m officially the beta for Damien Morpheous,” Talbot, the stupid fuck, tells her. “So long as I continue to be useful.”

  He shoots a look directly at me, smirks, and glances away.

  “I really don’t like all the interest piquing around her,” I tell them.

  Anna makes a thrusting motion behind his head, and Violet just ignores her, keeping her attention on Talbot.

  “Now you can start doing the work, Mr. Lane,” she says with a cute little smile that boasts more arrogance than she actually has.

  “Still no hints as to what the work is?”

  She shrugs a shoulder. “You’ve become his beta. Now you have to prove you’re a damn good beta. It’s simple like that.”

  “She’s toying with him,” Arion says as though he’s amused.

  “I’m quite a catch, Ms. Carmine. You’re wasting precious resources,” he assures her, knowing we’re listening in.

  “She’s empathic. Does that mean she senses a reason not to trust him? How empathic is she now?” Arion goes on. “Has she been hiding that much growth from us?”

  “Violet brought a ghost back from final decay, and none of us bothered to ask too many questions, because she really doesn’t think we deserve any answers,” Vance states almost idly. “We have no idea how empathic she is if we don’t even know how Anna came back from a second death.”

  “Because we don’t actually give a shit about an irrelevant ghost,” Arion points out.

  “I think Talbot’s entire point is that we allow impossible things such as that to go unexplained, because we’re too distracted by all the female chaos surrounding us,” I dutifully point out.

  Talbot taps the side of his nose and winks up at us in a quick motion that Violet misses, when her head dips to check her incoming text.

  A thought occurs to me. “Talbot, if you convince Ms. Carmine to let me feed from her regularly, I’ll take you on as my beta with full title to my House,” I tell the seasoned incubus. “It’s the only way I’ll take you on.”

  His eyes swing back to mine again, staring through the glass as though he can’t believe I’m tasking him with this.

  “You’re a dick,” Vance states flippantly.

  I’m not so sure I like it when Talbot smirks.

  His hand goes to Violet’s in the next instant, and I grab Arion’s arm, pulling at him to keep him from being too impulsive. He’s seconds away from interceding.

  This is my possible beta.

&
nbsp; “Stand the fuck down,” I tell him coldly, swinging my gaze to level the vampire with a glare. “I’m every bit a monster too, and she’s just as much mine as she is yours. I’ll be the judge of what I will and won’t allow here,” I add.

  His lips twitch. “If he uses this to his advantage instead of yours, all bets are off,” Arion informs me.

  “Fair enough,” I say with an indifferent shrug.

  I’ll have no use for him if that’s the case, and Arion can have something new to stab full of holes.

  Talbot bristles uneasily, as Violet…continues giving him a very unimpressed stare.

  “Are you trying to read my palm or something?” she asks on a confused breath.

  “Is he impotent?” Arion asks me in a genuine, inquisitive manner.

  Talbot’s jaw grinds. It’s the most insulting thing one can say to our kind, and all other monsters are always assholes about it.

  “Just curious, does Damien’s pheromones work on you?” Talbot asks in a nonchalant way, as he slowly releases her hand.

  “Are you trying to turn me on right now?” Violet says on an indignant hiss, eyes wide and horrified. “Against my will?”

  Talbot blinks rapidly, mouth opening and closing a few times. “I was testing your ability to withstand our kind. It’s important to know, since I’ll be his beta. I need to know your strengths and weaknesses with our kind,” he says in an easy, believable way.

  Violet immediately drops her guard, and even gives the little creep an apologetic, oopsy sort of smile. “Oh. Yeah, Damien definitely gets to me with those. Or did. He won’t be getting to me anymore, and if you let him, I’ll let my Van Helsing knight stab you. He constantly begs me for something to stab when Leiza wears her new perfume she’s designed herself.”

  Vance’s lips turn up in an immediate grin.

  Talbot once again gives her an uneasy grin. “I knew I was stepping into a ring of barbarians. I still feel unprepared,” he says on a tired breath.

  “What?” she asks in a confused tone.

  “Ms. Carmine, I’m going to ask of you, very nicely, to consider my…Alpha,” he says, clearing his throat a few times as he looks away.

  “Is the fucker crying right now?” Arion asks in disbelief.

  Talbot indeed wipes his eyes. “Think of how long he’s gone without feeding, and remember all he’s had to endure at the hands of Idun. He’s paranoid right now. Uncertain. Don’t hold it against—”

  “Shut the fuck up and quit guilt-tripping the damn girl,” Emit’s voice cuts in, just as Talbot was selling the hell out of me.

  I glance down, realizing I’m clutching Arion’s hand like we’re two teen girls watching our crush get worked up.

  We both immediately shove the other’s hand away, and I mutter a few curses toward the wolf, who I never sensed getting closer, as Vance rolls his eyes at us.

  “You’re so fucking pathetic, and your beta is a cunt who is just going to sell the hell out of it. Kudos to you for not having an ounce of pride,” Arion mutters, as he huffs in frustration. “I’ve been set back farther than all of you just for being a loyal fucking man to the first woman. Me giving Idun too much attention is the worst thing I could do to Violet. I see that now. She needs my attention on her at all times,” the lunatic prattles on, as if I care.

  I have a damn good candidate for beta, who is going to do the hard work for me, and drag Violet back to my arms in no time if he keeps this shit up.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Morrigan,” Talbot states with charm rolling about him in spades, as the wolf towers over their table. “I was simply trying to do for my alpha what your omegas do for you…in place of your absent betas.”

  “Oooo,” Arion says into his hand while giving a small fist-pump to the air. “I vote he can be your beta if he hates the mongrel.”

  “You don’t get a vote,” I point out. “But I enjoy the mutt’s red, twitching ears right now, as he fights to keep his wits about him. Violet likes Talbot already, because Anna has a thing for him.”

  Talbot grins, and Emit grinds his jaw, as his eyes cut toward us.

  “Violet, Talbot’s getting coached by your rooftop stalkers across the way,” the fucking tail-wagger states like the tattling little bitch boy he is.

  Her gaze immediately swings over to find ours, as she squints and holds her hand up to shield her eyes from the sun, and her eyes narrow, as she releases an audible breath of annoyance.

  “Unbelievable. Five months and no one spares me a glance, and now everyone is stalking me right after I break up with them. I knew this would happen,” she mutters as she pinches the bridge of her nose.

  “So then she admits she wanted this to happen,” Arion states with a growing grin. “Otherwise, why break up with us at all?”

  “Don’t repeat that question aloud, Talbot. I don’t want to be standing next to him when he’s speaking on that level of stupid,” I state dryly.

  “I don’t want to be associated with either of you,” Vance gripes. “I just started making progress. I’ll stab you for this shit, wolf. You’ve been warned.”

  “Their lips haven’t stopped moving yet,” Violet says to Talbot. “I assume that means they’re being teenage boys right now.”

  I hate the way the smug prick smiles, and Emit reaches down impatiently for her hand. “I want to show you your land,” he tells her, while the rest of us twiddle our thumbs and listen in.

  “But that’s later, and I’m sort of here with someone,” she answers.

  Emit doesn’t even blink in Talbot’s direction. “Your date left in a hurry to deal with a client.”

  Violet doesn’t look terribly surprised, but the three of us certainly are. “Jerome never came out of that bathroom,” Arion states, as he purses his lips.

  “Not unless he hopped a window,” Vance adds.

  “I’m not sure why he’d hop a window or why Violet is bloody buying this story like the wolf is some innocent bloke who spews nothing but honesty,” Arion states as he turns and drops from the building, moving too fast for the human eye to spot.

  I catch up to Arion, as we head into the café, where Talbot is already walking out of the men’s room, having beaten us there.

  “He’s really gone, Alpha. No blood or signs of a struggle either,” he says to me and only me.

  “You didn’t seal the deal yet. Stop calling me Alpha until you do,” I tell him, sniffing the air in search of the lost ex.

  He catches up to me, and he hands a napkin to me. I glance down to find Violet’s scribbled invite. I now have an invitation to Sanctuary.

  I suppose Talbot isn’t entirely inconvenient. I still don’t want him as a beta.

  Emit drives away with Violet, and Arion is quick to tail them, racing behind the new SUV Emit has acquired these past few months.

  “You’ll be my alpha soon enough,” Talbot says, even though he seems unusually quiet and far less cocky as he walks out.

  “Why did it look like he was sulking?” I ask with a frown, as Talbot leaves without a backward glance.

  “Where are you going?” Vance calls to my back.

  “To figure out what Talbot Lane is up to,” I state very quietly.

  Without another word, I drop down and disappear inside a reflective illusion.

  I pause behind my SUV when I hear a muffled cry of some sort. Scratching my head, I pop the hatch, and a groan escapes me when it reveals a panicked, gagged, and hog-tied Jerome.

  I’m not sure how this shit happens to me.

  “Well…that’s not good,” the useless Van Helsing says from behind me.

  Jerome struggles harder, panicking twice as much.

  “Was it the mutt or the incubus who did this?” I ask the gagged wanker.

  A muffled scream is all I receive in return.

  “I’ll have Arion wipe this from his memories,” Vance states as he pulls out his phone.

  I can smell Emit on him very distinctly now. Seriously? The wolf grew desperate enough to make this sort of r
eckless play?

  “The wolf is apparently off his rocker and not holding back anymore,” I point out. “Which means…he’s clearly about to take her as a mate.”

  There’s a pause of silence on the stunned Van Helsing’s face. I may say the words too casually, given the severity of this situation. Even the psychotic vampire is showing more restraint at this point than Emit.

  “He hasn’t tried taking a mate since Idun. He probably can’t even do it anymore,” Vance argues.

  “He locked her ex in my vehicle so he could bloody steal her away. He’s decidedly in mate mode,” I absently counter, gesturing at the unwanted captive I’m now stuck with.

  Jerome’s eyes get wider as they flick between us, and we tilt our heads in unison, as he pointlessly struggles twice as hard to get away from us.

  I shut the hatch and toss the Van Helsing my keys over my shoulder as I walk away.

  “What the hell?” Vance snaps.

  “Seems like something someone more responsible than me should handle. I have a possible beta who acts sincerely shady, so that’s what I’m going to handle right now.”

  “I think we should be more concerned with Emit at the moment,” Vance calls out. “If his wolf has taken over to stalk his mate, then there’s a chance this could get out of hand.”

  “So deal with the dead wanker and the wolf. Violet’s good at handling our monsters. She’ll handle his too,” I say a little too certainly, frowning as I turn back.

  Emit’s wolf has been caged for so long by the bars of guilt and the confines of his grief. Centuries upon centuries, he’s fought his beast to the point of staying forever broken, never handing himself over to the calls of his wilder side.

  He’s on the hunt now. And he’s clearly started uncaging his beast for the first time since that one time it broke free and claimed Idun. This time seems to be done more on purpose, since it’s less frantic and wild as it was that once…

  “On second thought, I’ll go with you,” I chirp, drawing a concerned look from Vance. “Just in case.”

  CHAPTER 14

  VIOLET

  “How will they be safe?” I ask Emit, trying not to sound like an ungrateful ass when he’s giving me such a large piece of land.