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)
“Except the two of you are still taking digs at each other.”
“Hey, our tense feelings for each other will motivate us to each try to out-do the other at every turn and make sure that everything that could possibly go wrong has been subverted,” Lucy said.
“So you and Victor can go and enjoy your getaway,” Elias said.
“It’s just three days!” Lucy sensed her friend’s unease. “If anyone deserves a little relaxation, it’s you. You’ve been stressed out for weeks. Go. Enjoy some time with Victor.”
With no actual choice in the matter, Pandora made her way home to attempt to pack a bag without having any idea where she was going or what she might need.
There was a knock at her door, making her suppress a sigh. There was never a moment alone in a house bursting at the seams with family.
She hadn’t decided whether to answer it yet, when she heard Dante’s voice. “It’s me, Pandy.”
“Sorry,” she said, unlocking it to let him in. “I’m … screening my visitors.”
“I just wanted to bring you this,” Dante said, holding out a tube. It was similar to the one he’d had at Hampstead Heath ponds, but easily three times the size. “Now that I got it right, I figured it was wasteful to keep making small ones.”
“This is great!” she said, still so excited for his invention and the possibilities it had for his future.
A life of his own.
Exactly what she was working toward as well.
“It’s going to be so strange here without you,” Dante said.
“Will you keep an eye on Bellatrix for me?” she asked. “I don’t think there’s anything she can find out around here. But you never know.”
“Did you hear she had a screaming match with Kora and Maribelle?” he asked.
“What? When? How’d I miss that?”
“It was when you were at Luna Bean. Bellatrix decided to wake the house with her … let’s call it ‘singing’. Kora and Maribelle ran upstairs, thinking someone was being sacrificed. Bellatrix got all offended. It was brilliant.” Dante smiled.
He’d been just as horrified as she’d been to learn that Bellatrix had tried to glamour information out of Victor. So neither of them felt guilty for enjoying Bellatrix getting at least a little bit of a comeuppance.
“I’m sorry I missed that,” Pandora said. Kora and Maribelle were visiting without their parents, so they had no qualms about getting in their cousin’s face when she was being especially intolerable.
They’d already gone at her over some mean-spirited teasing of Pandora and her terrible gown-shopping fiasco. And some comments she had to make about how weird it was to date your food source.
“And you’ll help Elias with the stag party?” Pandora asked. She’d already asked Kora and Maribelle to team up with Lucy against anyone else and their crazy plans. They’d been charmingly open and excited to be working closely with a werewolf. Pandora was relieved to realize she and Dante weren’t the only vampires who didn’t buy into that bullshit about vampires and werewolves hating each other.
“Yeah. Don’t worry about it. We’ve got this all handled. Go and enjoy your time with Victor.”
“We’re not really together, remember?” she asked in a whisper.
Sure, she’d had some hope after the events of the cupboard. That things had changed for them. That he was possibly as interested in her as she was in him.
But there’d been no other incidents since then.
No accidental touches, let alone deliberate ones. No innuendos or lingering glances.
She was starting to think she’d imagined it all.
One thing was for sure, though. It had clearly just been a spur-of-the-moment thing. A moment of charged feelings, of mutual built-up desire. Not necessarily personal. Definitely not a sign that Victor wanted to make their relationship real. No matter how much that might have hurt her.
“Sure, yeah,” he said, but there was a false note in his words. “What time is your flight?”
Pandora glanced at her mobile. “Oh, no. Only two hours. And I don’t know where we’re going or what I need to pack.”
“Layers,” he said, shrugging. “Books. That should cover it for you.”
He wasn’t wrong about that.
So Pandora took two pairs of shoes out of her suitcase and added in a few more paperbacks instead.
To save time, she was meeting Victor at the airport, so she grabbed her bags and made her way out into the hall.
Where she almost collided with Bellatrix.
“She’s not fooled, you know,” Bellatrix said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Ambrosia. She’s not fooled. That’s why she’s sending you away.”
“Sure, Bellatrix. Whatever you need to tell yourself to feel better,” Pandora said, even if her stomach was twisting itself into knots at the idea of her cousin being correct.
She pushed past Bellatrix before they could get any further into an argument.
“What’s wrong?” Pandora asked, coming to a stop when she found Vlad sitting on a perch in a dark corner.