Page 20 of My Big Fat Vampire Wedding

“Yeah. I mean, she was there when it started. But I, you know, lost track of her once he started kissing me.”

“Did you feel it in your toes? You have the look of someone who felt it in their toes.”

“I felt it everywhere.” Her body felt warm just from the memory.

“And yet you’re speed cleaning,” Lucy said, making Pandora freeze, realizing her friend was right. She was so worked up that she was letting her supernatural speed come out.

“He was weird after.”

“Weird,” Lucy said. “Weird like he was giving you a trouser salute and was uncomfortable. Or …”

“Or,” Pandora said, sighing. “He was silent and kind of distant.”

“But you felt butterflies and heard fallen angels sing?” Lucy asked.

“Pretty much.”

“Hmm.”

“Do you think he really felt nothing?” Pandora asked, hearing the hurt slipping into her voice.

“I don’t think so. Maybe he’s just, you know, conflicted. You know what? Maybe you just need another kiss to see,” Lucy said.

“I can’t just kiss my fake fiancé.”

“You could if you were doing it to put on a show for your family,” Lucy said. “Or in front of Elias to drive it home to him that you two are never gonna happen.”

“I think Victor is a little threatened by Elias.”

“Which is why you can totally get him to kiss you in front of him. Though I don’t think he’d feel in any way threatened if he knew what that guy is really like.”

“I’m not saying he wasn’t being completely inappropriate. But the way you two were sparring felt a little, I don’t know, heated,” Pandora said as she moved the stir sticks that Lucy had threatened Elias with back to their rightful spot.

“Oh, it was heated all right.”

“You said you wanted to lick him.”

“Before he opened his mouth, sure. Even the hottest man on earth can be turned ugly when he starts banging on about things.”

“So, you think he’s the hottest man on earth?” Pandora asked, loving a chance to tease Lucy like her friend had often teased her about her crush on Caramel Macchiato Cutie before they’d known his name.

“Well, I have eyes, don’t I?” Lucy turned away to hide the flush that crept up her neck at the mention of Elias’s good looks.

“Unfortunately, I also have ears. And a brain. And a modicum of self-respect. So no matter how hot he might be, that’s never gonna happen.

Anyway, why are we still talking about that arrogant, narcissistic—”

“Aw, talking about me?” Elias’s voice interrupted, making Lucy let out an actual growl that Pandora had to fight not to laugh at.

“Ugh. Great. Count Fangula is back. I’m taking a break,” she said before disappearing into the back room.

“Where’d you go?” Pandora asked.

“Thought I saw someone,” he said, shrugging.

“Are you working with her?” Pandora asked, suddenly suspicious as she glared at Elias.

“Working with whom?” Elias asked. And he was either a very skilled liar or he genuinely didn’t know what Pandora was talking about.

“My cousin,” she said anyway, wanting to feel him out some more.

“Which one? You appear to have more of them than most.”

That was fair.

“Bellatrix.”

“The, and I use this term loosely, opera singer?”

“Yeah, that one.”

“Why would I be working with her?”

“You’re being just as suspicious as she is,” Pandora said, shrugging.

“And to what end?” Elias pressed.

She couldn’t exactly say “to prove my relationship with Victor is fake”, so she went with, “To break up my engagement.”

“I understand why I could be accused of that. But why would your cousin Bellatrix?”

“She’s just never liked me,” Pandora said.

“I get the feeling she’s accustomed to being the person getting the most attention in any room she is in. An expect-ation not helped, it seems, by her doting parents.”

“She definitely likes attention.”

“And now you have all of it,” Elias said. “How inconvenient for her.”

“She followed me and Victor tonight,” Pandora said, without really knowing why she would loop Elias in on such a thing.

“For what purpose?”

“I have no idea. Knowing her, though, nothing good.”

“Do you think she wants to take Victor from you?” he asked.

She frowned. “That hadn’t even occurred to me. I mean, I don’t think she’d want Victor. My whole family is just barely tolerating the fact that he’s human. I doubt she’s into him that way.”

“Not necessarily to have him,” Elias said. “Just to take him.”

“That’s …” Pandora paused. Ridiculous? Insane? Something only a monster would do. “Not outside the realm of possibilities.”

Their interactions all through their lives had been riddled with competition. Mostly coming from Bellatrix.

Who was prettier? Who was faster? Who had the nicer fangs? Who could get more attention from fellow male vampires?

History had always shown Bellatrix coming out on top. Or, at least, that was how it had felt to Pandora, since she’d never wanted to play those games in the first place, let alone had cared about who’d won.

“I guess the question here is,” Elias said, taking a step away from the counter, “if your fiancé is as in love with you as you are with him?”

With that, he made his way out.

Leaving Pandora with her mind reeling.

Because Victor wasn’t in love with her.

Not at all.

No matter how much she suspected she was starting to fall for him.