Page 48 of My Big Fat Vampire Wedding

“V ictor?” Pandora’s voice was half whisper, half sob as she blinked, thinking when her eyes opened again, he would be gone.

But he was still there.

In fact, he was moving closer toward her.

He looked better than she remembered, in his dark jeans and thick forest-green jumper that made his light-green eyes pop all the more.

His hair was a few weeks past needing a trim, but the disheveled look was endearing on him.

“Congratulations,” he said as he approached the counter, his gaze moving over her.

“I always knew your bookshop would be amazing. Love the name,” he went on when she stood there, too stunned to speak.

Or blink. Or pretend to breathe. “The Eternal Page.” He gave that small twitch of a smile she loved so much. “A little nod to who you really are.”

“Y … yes,” she said, nodding.

“It’s perfect. You nailed the vibe you were hoping for in here too. Bright and happy, but cozy and inviting.”

The door opened with a chime, making Victor turn to look at the man coming inside. A man so well-built that you could see the muscles through the thin material of his shirt. He had chiseled features and cool, dark eyes.

Something about him had Victor’s brows furrowing as he turned back to Pandora.

“Gargoyle,” she said, never wanting to lie to him again.

“Gargoyle,” Victor said with a little laugh. “Guess there’s still a lot I need to learn. Are there other creatures?”

“Well, Lucy is a werewolf,” Pandora told him, waving over toward where Lucy was making lattes behind the counter in the café section of the shop.

“A werewolf. Wow.”

“And there are fae, succubi, sirens … basically all the creatures you read about in fiction are based, at least partially, on reality.”

“I should be more shocked than I am,” he said. “How have you been, Pandy?”

She knew she was supposed to feed him some platitudes, tell him she was all right, that everything was OK. After all, her misery was of her own making.

But she couldn’t force out even a kind lie. Not to him.

“Not good.”

To that, Victor’s head tipped to the side as he watched her.

“I knew it was you,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“The funding for my department. I knew it was you the second I heard about it.”

“It was the right thing to do,” she said.

“I didn’t think you would take the money directly from me.

But if it came through the school, I thought you would take the opportunity to finish your PhD.

You’ve earned it.” When he didn’t immediately reply, Pandora leaned forward.

“Please tell me you took advantage of it.”

“The next term hasn’t really started yet, but, yes, I decided to finish.”

“Oh, good. I’m so glad to hear that. How have you been?”

“Doing a lot of thinking,” he said.

“About?”

“Many things. Not the least of which, going back over every movie, show, and book I’ve read about vampires, as well as my entire thesis, knowing now what I know.”

“Any new conclusions?”

“That you’re not purely evil creatures.”

“How did you come to that?”

“Because I spent weeks around your family,” he told her. “No one who has met Ravenna would think she’s evil.”

“But she drinks blood,” Pandora said, pitching her voice lower.

Victor glanced around. Clearly uncomfortable with the close quarters and possibly eavesdropping ears, he looked back at her. “Is there an office where we may speak more freely?”

“Sure.” She led him down the hall, past the toilets and into the shoebox-sized office.

Away from the scents of brewing coffee and sugary syrups, Victor’s cinnamon, vanilla, and leather scent overwhelmed her senses, making her chest feel tight and her skin warm.

The longing was acute and instantaneous, and she couldn’t help but wonder if the need was etched all over her face.

“That’s something I’ve been wondering about,” Victor said, no longer whispering.

“What?” Pandora asked, too focused on the nearness of him to keep track of the conversation.

“The blood.”

“Oh, right. OK. What about the blood?”

“Does Ravenna drain people? As in dry?”

“Not that I know of, no.”

“But it happens.”

“Yes, it happens.”

“The night of the stag and hen party …”

“I thought he’d been drained,” Pandora said. “Lucy and I were worried that you might step into the alley, find him, and call the police. We were just going to move him, not get rid of him.”

“Have you done that often? Hidden bodies?”

“Never.”

“Not even your own … meals?”

“I don’t drink human blood. Not anymore. I did as a child, back before I knew any better.”

“What do you drink?”

“Well, it was pig’s blood. Until the night of my hen party. We were at a club next door to your pub.”

“There’s no club there … Oh,” he said, putting things together. “It’s an … underground club.”

“Yes. And, well, the barman told me that there’s a new blood on the market for ‘vegetarian’ vampires like me and Dante. It’s synthetic, but provides everything we need to survive. I’ve been drinking that since.”

“Wow. Is there a market for it?”

“Seems to be. I think it’s a sign of the changing times, the newer generation having different feelings from our parents.”

“Your parents are OK with it?”

“They’re … learning to adjust,” she told him.

Since the wedding, she’d become a bit allergic to lying. Which meant she’d started to come clean to her family about not drinking from humans; she explained she’d been drinking pig’s blood for years and was now on a supplement. And so was Dante.

“They got over me not wanting to sleep in a coffin, so they’ll get used to this eventually.”

“So the coffin thing is true, huh?”

“Pretty much across the board. Some of my family members even travel with their coffins when they visit.”

“I can … picture that,” he said, nodding. “Anyway, yeah, the more I’ve thought on it, the more convinced I am that just like there are good and evil humans, there are good and evil vampires. Bellatrix comes to mind,” he added with a small smirk.

She didn’t feel like it was a good time to mention that in the midst of her grief over the loss of Victor, Bellatrix had gloated any chance she’d got. As had Ambrosia.

“Yeah, Bellatrix is not a great representative for our kind.”

“And no one who has ever met you could think there’s anything evil about you.”

“I haven’t always been good,” she said. Sure, some part of her was craving his compliments and kindness. The other part, though, didn’t feel like she deserved it.

“I’ve had a lot of time to think about things,” Victor said.

“And as much as I was hurt that you didn’t trust me with that information, I also understand that it wasn’t exactly something you could easily tell anyone.

I mean, in some vampire fiction, there are even vampire overlords to make sure no one tells humans you exist. I didn’t even stop to ask if that was the case. ”

“It is actually the law that no one knows. Save for the occasional vampire who keeps familiars, but that’s considered a different matter. Though, I’m not sure how they even monitor something like that.”

Victor nodded at that.

“Still. Even if there weren’t some vampire overlords keeping an eye, I get why you didn’t tell me. And I don’t know if I would have necessarily believed you anyway.”

“You would have. Like you said, you had your suspicions. I should have given you the chance to believe me or not. I’m sorry I wasn’t honest with you.”

“I know,” Victor said. “I’m sorry I didn’t give you a chance to explain. How did things go after … after?”

“I don’t know,” Pandora replied. Even just the memory of those moments immediately following their argument made pain slice through her once again. “I … ah … My mum brought me to my room.”

She didn’t want to tell him in what state she’d been, didn’t want to guilt him for being upset with her. But something in her tone or face gave her away.

“How long?”

“How long what?” she asked. “How long did I stay in bed?”

“No. But, now, yes.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me.”

“A while,” she said. “What were you originally asking?”

“How long was it not fake for you?”

“I don’t think it was ever fake for me. I’d had a crush on you pretty much since you first came into Luna Bean. Had a silly nickname for you and everything.”

“Well, now I have to know the nickname.”

Pandora scrunched up her face, embarrassed to admit it. “Caramel Macchiato Cutie. Lucy teased me about my crush endlessly. I mean, obviously, it was just kind of, you know, superficial then. But once I approached you and we started talking … I was always into you, Victor.”

“That feeling was mutual.”

Was?

It was na?ve of her to hope that it wasn’t all in the past tense for him.

“I need to tell you something,” she said.

“OK.”

“I’m not telling you to guilt you. Or to try to win you back.

I’m telling you in the interest of being completely honest.” She went to her desk to grab her bag, then reached inside for the ring some part of her had hoped to see on her finger for eternity.

“I was in love with you,” she told him, holding out the ring.

“Senselessly, hopelessly in love with you.”

He took the ring, then watched her for a long moment. But she found his green eyes unreadable.

Finally, he sucked in a deep breath.

“Was?” he asked.

“Am,” she corrected him. “I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving you.”

“Forever is a long time. Especially in your case.”

“I still mean it,” she told him.

“Well,” he said, reaching down to take her left hand, lifting it, then sliding the ring on her finger. “I think this still belongs here, then.”

“Victor …”

Tears were stinging the backs of her eyes at the feel of his skin on hers, of the familiar weight of the ring on her finger.

“Unless you don’t want it there anymore,” he said, his gaze finding hers.

“No! That’s not it,” she said, blinking back the wetness in her eyes. “I just want you to be sure.”

“Is there a reason I shouldn’t be sure?”