Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99700 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 499(@200wpm)___ 399(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99700 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 499(@200wpm)___ 399(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Because those cultures likely encountered actual vampires.
This was a complete and utter nightmare.
Pandora desperately needed Lucy to get back from her hunt. She needed someone to talk to, to discuss this with, to talk her down from the cliff. Because she was seconds away from calling this off and submitting to an eternity of poverty.
“Pandora?” Victor watched her with scrunched brows.
“Sorry. Just … thinking.”
Victor’s head tipped to the side and Pandora watched his brows pinch, regarding her with a mix of surprise and confusion.
“I didn’t have you pegged for a book snob.”
“What?” She straightened in her seat.
“I thought that someone who reads so much of a genre that a large majority of the book world looks down on would be above judging science fiction.”
“I’m not judging science fiction.” Hell, it wasn’t even fiction. But she couldn’t tell him that. “I was just wondering, uh, why you didn’t choose, you know, Frankenstein,” she said, proud of being able to think on her toes. If this carried on, she was going to need that skill more than ever. “You know, since it is arguably the beginning of science fiction as a genre. Besides.” She tried to make her tone light. “You get the fun of exploring how a teenage girl wrote it as a challenge. And likely to avoid another threesome with Lord Byron and her own clueless husband.”
To that, Victor’s lips twitched up slightly. “I think Mary Shelley has been covered a lot in thesis work. Besides, I think that her story is perhaps better told by another woman, who might have more insight into what it may have been like for a young, talented woman like Shelley to try to make a name for herself among the male ‘greats’ of her time. While trying to balance motherhood and being the wife of a poet who was also a drunk and a philanderer. And, yeah, what it must have been like to know her husband likely had a relationship with Lord Byron. And herself. It’s a thesis that writes itself. Just not one I want to put my name to.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Pandora was glad to clear up that misunderstanding.
She intentionally asked him about his favorite vampire books, wanting to know if they were the ones that were closest to the reality of vampires.
In the end, though, she had no idea, because he’d mentioned a dozen or so books, some of which she’d never read. Though, she figured, it might be worth picking up some copies and pore over them. Just to know where his mind might be when it came to her kind.
“So, how do we pay?” Pandora asked a few moments later, when they made their way to the end of the rows of books and wound up at a long, time-warped desk. It was cluttered with what looked like thirty years of newspapers, books, and paperwork. Not to mention no fewer than fifteen mismatched teacups.
There was a spider plant sitting near a window, its leaves droopy and parched. It was silly, but Pandora’s heart ached a little over its neglect.
“The owner lives upstairs,” Victor said. “He’s ancient. Ninety if he’s a day. Sadly, I don’t imagine this place will be open much longer, as he doesn’t remember to make it down here most days. I just write a list of the titles I bought and stick the money in that box over there.” He gestured to the other side of the counter, where a locked wooden box was situated.
She waited as Victor wrote down all the titles, then put money and the list into the box. As he was distracted, she grabbed a small cup of water sitting on the desk and poured it in the spider plant’s dirt. It wasn’t much, but those plants were practically unkillable. It would make that drink last a week or two, at least. And maybe she could pop back in to give it more …
“Wait, I have to pay,” she said when Victor started to move away.
“Already done,” Victor told her as he picked up his books. “Think your handbag is big enough for all our books?” he asked, since there was an obvious lack of bags to carry them in. “Don’t want them getting wet,” he added as she placed her bag on the counter, rearranged the contents, then stuffed her books in before piling his on top.
“Perfect,” she said when she just barely managed to get the zipper to close.
Victor checked his mobile for the time. “Probably should be heading back. Your shift is starting soon.”
Was it?
Pandora felt like only maybe an hour or two had passed. But when she looked, sure enough, Victor was right. Four hours had passed. And, she had to admit, they’d probably been the most enjoyable four hours of her entire, er, life.