Gypsy Truths

“It’s cute how hard she tries,” Anna says, gesturing at Idun. “It’s like she really thinks she’s still the queen. Seeing is believing, I suppose.”

A blur of motion, and suddenly Idun is crying out in surprise, as the two of them vanish from sight altogether.

Arion whirls around, eyes leveling Anna.

“Where the fuck is Violet?” he demands.

“Sitting back and watching the show, I presume. I’m in charge right now,” Anna says with a growing grin. “Isn’t this fun?”

He starts to speak, but Anna’s attention turns to Talbot. In a blink, she goes from beside Damien to standing directly in front of his beta. Talbot startles, but immediately lowers his eyes so that they don’t meet hers.

“I remember you now,” she says, still smiling.

That smile immediately falls, and a threatening look crosses her eyes.

“There’s no box anymore. I’m never leaving again!”

He nods very quickly, never lifting his gaze.

She smiles as though that’s good enough for her, and then she vanishes from sight. Idun and the child are gone too, as though Anna purposely distracted us.

“Find. Them,” Vance bites out, glaring over at Talbot, as he points his sword at the shifty blood-magic incubus. “Now.”

Talbot’s eyes close, and he lifts his hands in a motion that typically signifies a prayer.

“Watch for the lightning,” he says in a hushed tone.

A crash of it streaks somewhere behind us, and the hair on my neck raises.

Spinning around, I kick off from the ground with my back feet, and race toward the next streak that lights up the whole town.

A scream echoes to me, but I have no idea who is screaming. My head is racing with millions of tiny details all trying to sift together at once.

Vance leaps over me, and the vampire races by in a streak of motion. I pound the pavement under my feet, chasing after them. Feeling Damien close behind me, I take a sharp turn, cutting down an alleyway that I hope is a shortcut.

The next bolt of lightning strikes ahead of me somewhere, and sparks fly through the air, as glass shatters all around me. My heart hits like a drum, and the world seems to move in slow motion around me for a weightless second.

It doesn’t even register that I’ve been thrown back by some unseen force, until I’m crashing through a wall of a shop. Spices all assault me, and I sneeze numerous times, before scrambling back up to my feet and leaping back through the hole I just made.

Shaking my head and snorting out as much of the spice as I can, I chase the sound of the next bolt of lightning, seeing it light up the sky much farther in the distance.

Anna is suddenly directly in front of me, sending me sliding to a halt.

“Sorry, wolf. Somethings are better left unseen,” she quips. “Violet has rules, you know.”

She gives me a wink.

I’m blown back again, only this time, there’s no bolt of lightning. My hair raises all over me, as sparks zap all along the metal pipes that line the sides of the buildings. Even though the power’s been cut, the entire street before me starts lighting up.

Shoving back upright, I chase the light, catching barely a glimpse of a dark-haired woman—the same one I saw when I was racing toward my wolves.

She gives me a black-tooth grin that distracts me so much I almost miss the sight of Idun racing toward me in a blur, even as she limps on one leg.

She crashes to the wall next to me, hiccupping out a pained sound, as she shoves her shoulder back into socket. Her eyes are wide and almost bloodshot, and her face is solid white.

“You have to stop her!” she shouts, sounding entirely too distressed, and…I freeze, because there’s another tremor to race through me.

I don’t know what causes it, but it forces my knees to lock in place, and my body becomes statuesque.

There’s a crackle of energy, a loud pop, and suddenly music starts blaring.

Monsters plays overhead, and a screeching sound echoes through every alley surrounding us.

Idun shudders and shoves by me, racing away. I stare in empty confusion, until there’s suddenly a set of solid black eyes before me. This time, the woman is in flesh instead of being a fucking ghost, and it definitely makes her far more unnerving than annoying.

My mobility quickly returns.

Stumbling backwards, another small tremor snakes up my spine, as the woman’s mouth opens much wider than humanly possible, and she screams in my face.

My ears ache, as the scream breaks through the remaining windows surrounding us. Glass grazes my skin, but I stare inside the monster’s mouth, since it’s all I can see before me.

A dizzying, black-and-white pattern lies in the throat that is still vibrating with the never-ending scream.

She snaps her jaw shut, grins as she touches my fur, and then there’s nothing but a whisper of cold air before me.

My hair still standing on end, I spin in circles, searching for which direction she went. Though I have no idea if my feet would allow me to follow right now.

The wind howls, as the rain begins falling again, though I have no idea when it even stopped. It patters against the pavement in an increasingly steady stride, as thunder rumbles overhead hard enough to surely startle the bones in the cemetery.

My own bones are a little shaky as I take an uncertain step. I pause in front of a cracked window, seeing my reflection, once the sky lights up with the distant, yet blindingly bright, streak of lightning.

There’s a patch of fur—where her hand touched—that is solid white. There’s another strip on my other side near my ear.

Fuck. Me.

She scared me so bad I now have white patches in my fucking fur. I’ll never hear the bloody end of this.

Shaking out of my own head, since I’ve apparently gone into too much of a stupor to find an appropriate reaction, I take a seat.

In the pouring rain.

In the middle of the street.

Idun was fucking desperately fleeing, and my fur is white.

The music distantly echoes back to me, because it’s apparently moving with the impossible rush of electricity.

With somewhat shaky motions, I shift back to two legs, and stand at my full height.

The rain slaps my face for a moment longer, until the storm begins to ebb.

Exhaling a shaky breath, I stare into the reflective surface once more. My hair doesn’t have any white patches in this form.

“Well, that’s new,” I manage to say, after clearing my throat a few times.

Pandora’s full power is barely a memory, but I certainly don’t remember it being this intense. This storm has raged for hours now, and Talbot Lane can control the lightning.

How much stronger is he than the woman who started this fucked up world?

My feet start moving, chasing the lightning once again. My instincts are in a frenzy, because I don’t even know what to do if I find her again.

I just froze.

I fucking froze.

At this point, I haven’t seen a single sign of Violet since her monster took possession.

Another scream in the distance has me racing that much harder, because now I don’t trust that Idun’s going to be the only toy of the night.

What if Hyde is here to stay?

It’s certainly fucking enjoying its freedom, and I know it took some of us a long time to push the monster down after the initial change.