Page 103 of My Big Fat Vampire Wedding

Pandora couldn’t help but feel drawn to it, this invitation that threatened to bypass her conscious thought, her very morals.

She turned, following the tug she felt inside her, finding the bar spread across one wall. Behind it, a male bartender was pouring the house specialty – a viscous, dark-crimson liquid – into two separate goblets for waiting patrons.

Half of her party broke off to head to the bar. Or, she shuddered to think, find human donors.

Pandora and Lucy pressed deeper into the room.

The atmosphere shifted as she watched the way the humans moved around, captivated and adoring, orbiting the vampires like moths to a flame.

She caught snippets of conversations, mentions of ancient clans, deals being brokered, thinly veiled threats to make good on old rivalries. All around, there were hints of danger wrapped in velvet voices.

Lucy led Pandora toward a raised private section with comfortable seating and tables. “There’s a staircase directly back there,” Lucy told her, pointing toward a darkcorner of the VIP section. “Leads down toward a private feeding room. But beside that is a doorway into the alley that connects this club to the bar next door, so we can sneak in and out without anyone really noticing. Kind of glad how busy this place is tonight.”

“Is it a thing that people buy private feedings for others?”

“Yeah. That’s how some of the male vampires are trying to seduce the humans.” Lucy waved toward where one of the servers was leading a dazed-looking human toward a red-headed female vampire sitting at a table alone. The server gestured toward a man who raised his glass of blood at her before the woman stood, grabbed the human, and led him toward one of the private rooms.

“OK. So … you are just buying me a bunch of feedings tonight to celebrate.”

“Precisely.”

Plan in place, Lucy and Pandora joined Kora and Maribelle on the dance floor, all of them getting lost in the music and the ability to be in public, but also unafraid of moving too fast, of acting too … inhuman.

Eventually, though, Lucy linked an arm through a human donor’s and led him over to Pandora. Then the three of them made their way toward the feeding rooms. Where they simply handed off the human to another vampire, then rushed out the back door.

The alley smelled rancid, making both women wrinkle their noses as they inched toward the door to the pub.

The inside was in direct contrast to the club.

The lights were a warm white, the floors a light hardwood, the walls an understated cream, but covered in kitschy, mismatched decor. From signed football and rugby photographs to film posters and maps of old London.

It was a rowdy crowd. Loud and brash. A group of young uni guys were in a back corner singing a rugby anthem, their arms swinging with the beat, making their pints slosh over onto their hands, shoes, and the floor. Another duo were arguing about something on the TV. A group of women were laughing at something one woman was showing the others on her phone.

And then, of course, there was her family.

Pandora had no idea if she had Elias or Uncle Leopold and Cody to thank for the fact that none of her family was wearing something out of ancient Greece or some nineties goth club.

“Victor seems happy,” Lucy said as the two women watched a man who must have been Sebastian lean in toward Victor and say something that had him throwing his head back and laughing.

As if hearing Lucy speak, Elias turned, honing in on them, then disentangling himself from the crowd and walking their way.

He kept moving past them, though, and out the back door.

“How’s it going?” Pandora asked when she reached him.

“Have you managed to keep Victor from overhearing something he shouldn’t?” Lucy asked.

“Your faith in me is truly heartwarming, pup.”

Lucy rolled her eyes at that, but she didn’t snap back at him for once.

“Everything is going as planned. Luckily, only Cody, Leopold, and Jasper know about the vampire club. And they’re helping me make sure no one finds out and tries to sneak over.”

“How’s Victor?” Pandora asked.

“Good. His mate, Sebastian, has helped loosen him up a bit. What?” he asked, frowning at Lucy and her faraway look.

“What?” she asked, snapping back. “Oh, nothing. I seem to slip into a fugue state whenever you’re speaking.” Her lips were twitching, though, like she was enjoying teasing Elias, rather than actually snapping at him.