Page 34 of My Big Fat Vampire Wedding

“You’ve been off for weeks. Months, maybe,” Pandora said. “I’ve been worried about you, but anytime I try to bring it up, you change the topic. You’re out all day, then holed up in your room all night. But you aren’t getting any sleep, judging by the bags under your eyes. You look … unwell.”

It was then that she realized just how true that was.

There were the bags and bruises, sure. But more than that, he seemed a little gaunt, so thin in the face that his cheekbones had hollowed out.

If it were possible, she would think he was sick.

But vampires didn’t get sick. At least as far as she knew.

Some members of her family mentioned some sort of vampire plague thousands of years back.

But Pandora was suspicious of the validity of that story since those particular family members were known for stretching the truth.

“I’ve been coming here during the day,” Dante said, waving back toward the pond.

“I’ve put that part together. But … why?”

“I love it here,” Dante said, shrugging. “I love swimming. I love being out in the daytime. I …” He looked off into the distance. “I hate being a vampire.”

“Oh, Dante,” Pandora said, her heart aching for him. No, she didn’t love every aspect of being a vampire, but she didn’t hate it exactly, either. She sure loved the idea of eternity to read all the books she still had on her to-be-read shelf.

“You don’t love it either,” Dante said, looking back at her, willing her to agree with him. “You don’t feed. I know you don’t. And you haven’t for a long time.”

“No,” she replied. “I don’t feed. I drink pig’s blood. It’s more like … like a human being vegetarian, though. It’s kind of a moral thing for me. Not that I hate who I am. Just that I don’t want to hurt anyone just to feed myself.”

“There are human donors.”

“But they’re glamoured,” Pandora said, shrugging. “That just feels wrong too. Pig blood is a good substitute. It’s just … not something I want to share with the family. You know how they are.”

“I can’t stand any blood most of the time now. But, yeah,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s part of the reason I’m working here too. I want to take care of myself. Provide for myself. I don’t want to be jumping through hoops to get an inheritance from Mum and Dad.”

“I get that,” Pandora said. “I really like working too. But … you could get a night job. Or a job at an indoor pool. This is so dangerous,” she said, waving up, indicating the sun above her umbrella.

“Is it?” Dante asked, something strange in his eyes that Pandora wasn’t sure she’d seen there before.

But then, he was reaching out, grabbing the sleeve of his jacket and pulling it up, then thrusting his hand out toward the sun.

“What are you doing?” Pandora squeaked, trying to stay under her umbrella but also push it out far enough to cover his hand.

“Just watch,” he said, wiggling his pale fingers in the sun’s rays.

Pandora’s stomach twisted in knots. But he didn’t spark, let alone catch fire. He didn’t even … burn.

What was going on?

Confused, Pandora threw out her own arm.

She was mostly covered, but there was a small sliver between the top of her glove and where her jacket reached down.

Immediately, though, she felt the sizzle on her skin, saw the smoke, smelled her skin starting to burn.

“Ow,” she said, snatching her arm back.

Dante looked sympathetic as he just stood there with his arm not sizzling or smoking.

Then he used that arm to reach into his pocket, producing a tube that looked a bit like a lip balm, but at least twice that size.

“What is that?” she asked.

Instead of answering, Dante reached for her arm, turning it so the unburned underside was showing, then uncapped the tube to rub some of the thick white contents onto her skin.

“Now try,” he said. When she didn’t grasp his meaning, he pulled her arm back out from under the umbrella and into the sunlight.

This time, though, she didn’t sizzle, didn’t smoke, didn’t burn at all.

“What?” she said, frowning at her arm, then looking at her brother’s skin. “What is in that tube, Dante?”

“Something I’ve been working on in my free time.”

In his free time when he was supposed to be sleeping after working all day?

“That’s what you’ve been doing in your room? With the door locked?”

“Yes,” he said, nodding.

“What is it? Some kind of extra-thick sunblock?”

“Not really. I mean, yeah, there is some zinc oxide in it like normal sunscreen. But it’s more than that. In a, you know, magickal way.”

“Like what?” Pandora asked, mind flashing back to the esoteric shop she’d visited with Lucy. Had Dante been there too? Talked to the same woman she had?

“Ground moonstone, activated charcoal, herbs picked under a full eclipse, infused nightshade … lots of things.”

“You’ve been working on making your own vampire sunblock? So you can swim and lifeguard?”

“So I can have a normal life, yeah,” he said.

“How did you know what to use in it?” Pandora asked, taking the stick and rubbing it on her fingers so she could use them to put the sunscreen on her face.

“Trial and error. A lot of trial and error,” Dante said, looking exhausted even at the mention. “I did a lot of research. Went to some shops for obscure supplies. Burned myself thousands of times.”

“Does it always work? How long have you been testing it?”

“All summer,” he told her. “I’ve been tweaking it here and there, wanting to see if I could improve it just a little bit more each time. I especially wanted to see if I could get it to be more waterproof.”

“But you’re still all covered up,” Pandora said, looking at her brother’s absurd outfit.

“When I started here, I may have kind of told them I’m a little allergic to the sun.”

“Not a lie, really,” Pandora said with a laugh.

“Exactly. But I can’t just be like, ‘Oh, hey, by the way, I’m not allergic to the sun anymore,’” he said.

“And it really isn’t completely waterproof, which wouldn’t be so bad if I was sure I would always get a chance to re-apply, but things can get crazy around here sometimes.

I mean, not so much right now.” He waved at the pond, empty, save for a set of kayakers. “But in the summer for sure.”

“This is so cool, Dante,” she said, sticking her hand out again, feeling the comforting warmth the sun supplied. Without all the burning flesh and bursting into flames. “How difficult is it to make? And how obscure are the supplies?”

“It’s a lot of work, but it’s doable. Worth it, at least. Some of the supplies are harder to find than others, but none of it is stuff I would run out of.”

“So, what is your plan? Just keep this for yourself, so you can try to live more of a human life?”

“Originally, yes.”

“But?”

“But now I’m wondering if there is maybe a market for it. Not for every vampire,” he rushed to add. “I don’t think it’s right to take away the only protection humans have. But for vampires like you and me. Ones who don’t want to feed on humans. There’s more of us than you’d think.”

“How do you know that?” Pandora asked, always having felt very alone in her desire not to eat humans.

“There’s some forums for vampires like us. Ones who don’t want to use humans like that, who wish we could all coexist peacefully.”

“You want to see about marketing this product to them?”

“It’s risky,” Dante said. “There’s always the chance of it falling into the wrong hands. I just … I feel bad for everyone like us who can’t live the lives they want because of what we are.”

“I wonder …” Pandora said, trailing off as her mind wandered.

“Wonder what?”

“I wonder if maybe you could … spell it?” she said.

“Spell what?”

“The sunscreen. Could the product have a spell on it that would make it so that, I don’t know, anyone with the wrong intentions can’t use it?”

“I have no idea,” Dante said, frowning. “But it’s an idea, isn’t it?”

“You could try to find a witch. Bring the plan to her. See if she could help you out. Maybe for a share of the profits or something to make it worth her time. Or … when I get my inheritance – if we can pull this off – I can invest.”

Dante’s eyes brightened. It was the first time in a long time he’d looked so hopeful. “I can look into it. There’s got to be a witch somewhere who could make that kind of spell.”

“Until then, I expect one of these,” Pandora said, waving the stick at her brother. “I mean, Victor already thinks I get horrible sunburn.” She indicated her umbrella. “And terrible circulation. And a garlic allergy. But it would be nice to have this just in case of anything … unexpected.”

“Only a few more weeks to go, right?” Dante asked.

“Yeah, the past few have kind of gone by in a flash,” Pandora said.

Things had been back to normal, she supposed, with Victor. She went to work. He showed up to study, work, and drink his macchiatos. Sure, they talked more these days, since they had a lot of planning to do for the future.

Not just the wedding, but things like life after the wedding.

They’d both been doing a lot of flat-shopping online, trying to find a place close to uni for him, but also Luna Bean and the bookshop Pandora hoped to open.

So they would sit and pore over the options on her breaks, then talk about how many bookshelves they’d need, what colours they’d paint the walls, all that stuff.

Admittedly, it meant there was a lot of daydreaming going on for Pandora. Imagining their lives together. Making coffee and tea in the morning. Sitting in the living room at night, each reading their books.

Did those dreams also veer off into fantasies, ones where they might brush each other as they flipped pages, where one, then both of them might lean in, kiss, touch, head to one of their bedrooms, and make their fake marriage a real one? Yes, yes, they did.

But back in the real world, Victor kept his distance physically from Pandora now that they weren’t around their families together.

So Pandora had been trying not to let herself harp on that one thing he’d said to Bellatrix in the pantry while being glamoured.