Gypsy Rising

Shoving open the door to the van, I hop out and stare up at the massive home’s doors, going over my semi-perfected explanation of who I am and how harmless I am, so as not to spook them.

“We’ll bring the boxes. Start with knocking on the—”

The door opens, and Leiza stops speaking, as we both simply stare with bated breaths.

A man with slightly ashen skin, who hasn’t fully healed yet, simply blinks at me like he’s shocked to find me here.

I recognize him; though he’s not as tan, flush with color, and vivid as he was in the small death window I saw of Caroline’s. A girl who couldn’t die but still had a death window open…

He was in the cell across from hers.

Blue bounces out of the door, and I startle as he comes up and almost stares me in the eye, snarling at me. I’m so focused on him, that a small yelp escapes me when I’m airborne suddenly, the world flipping around me, as I’m slung painfully hard over a shoulder.

Leiza drops her purse, eyes wide in horror on me, as the man with a hunch on his back runs inside with me, caveman style. I know four or five alphas who will never let me out without supervision ever again if this goes wrong.

The world tilts again as I’m dropped to my feet, and the man grabs me and smashes me to his chest with one arm. I feel a tickle of satin at my cheek, as my eyes widen.

Oh, shit. What have I—

“Et ?jeblik, Bobo,” a man’s voice says.

Is that Danish? It certainly isn’t English.

I seriously will never hear the end of—

“Et ?jeblik, Bobo,” a man says more insistently.

I manage to cut my eyes over to see that the guy holding me to him is very animatedly tapping another man on the shoulder. Both of them are just wearing robes.

I’m not sure how I feel about this situation, but I do know that this is all going in a really scary direction.

The other man knocks his hand away, getting annoyed, distracted by his struggle with a remote.

“Hvad?” the other guy groans, as he turns around, but then straightens when his eyes widen on me.

He points at me, as he jumps to his feet, causing Bobo to stumble back, his grip tightening on me. I’m forced to sway with him, growing increasingly worried for obvious reasons.

My captor is Bobo…

The man my mother had hanged, after he killed her son, who almost killed him. This all got complicated real damn fast.

“Det er hende!” the other man says with a broad grin, pointing at me.

Still not looking good.

I feel Bobo nodding with excitement.

Please don’t let me have been all wrong. I took the word of horrible monsters these people were sweet and innocent, not thinking of the danger I’d be putting the omegas—

“Um…English?” the guy in front of me asks like he’s remembering something, his accent thick and raw.

I nod, since it’s all I can do.

“Bobo, you sc-sc-sc-scare her,” he says with a slight stutter and a small tic of his mouth.

He’s really tall.

They both are.

I always felt tall until I entered the realm of monsters.

The man’s eyes water in front of me, as he slowly bows at the waist. “W-we all in y-y-your debt, V-V-Violet Carmine.”

They know my name.

I relax a little, just as Bobo releases me and gives me a little space. I glance over at him, remembering he’s mute. I guess that’s why he carried me in instead of speaking.

He gives me a huge, lopsided grin, smiling with a lot fewer teeth than one should have. Dental care back then sucked balls, I’m sure.

This is going to cost more than expected in the long run. Good thing I know a bunch of rich, guilty alphas who will be eager to pay off a debt they forgot they owed.

“Bobo does not s-s-s-s-s-speak,” the guys carries on, and then taps his chin. “I am not the best s-s-s-speaker. New English harder.” He points to himself. “Ighan.”

“It’s nice to meet you both, Ighan and Bobo,” I tell them as the omegas tiptoe in, drawing my attention just a little.

Without a doubt, they’ve been listening to find out if it’s hostile or hospitable in here.

“C-come! Come!” Ighan says, gesturing for me to follow, as he limps his way toward the doorway of another room.

The omegas hang back, and neither of the men bother to glance in their direction, as they guide me toward a large, cathedral-style opening in the middle of the house.

I spot four levels of balconies in the massive home, before a stained-glass skylight tops off the beauty.

While I’m lost, admiring the breathtaking art of the glass, Ighan makes some sort of really loud bird-like sound, startling the hell out of me. My gaze swings around, and I spot several heads timidly peeking over the balcony with wary curiosity.

Every floor has so many faces—forty-eight in total, not counting Ighan and Bobo.

This is a lot of people for one real family, but I remember reading the tree Tiara showed me. From what I’ve gathered, most of them are cousins, who had banded with the family for protection when they were all human men and women braving a harsh world together.

“They sh-shy, but I v-v-vow they grateful,” Ighan assures me.

There’s a burning warmth surrounding me with an edge of fear...but I don’t feel fear. This isn’t my fear.