Page 94 of My Big Fat Vampire Wedding

“Honestly, I don’t know exactly where you are heading. I just know why your family wants you out of the house.”

“See!” she said, pointing at Lucy. “I told you there was some sort of catch.”

“A small one, really. And I probably shouldn’t ruin the surprise, but this is a situation that, unfortunately, I feel like you might want your little furball here to be in on.” Elias shot a little wink in Lucy’s direction.

Lucy growled. “I am not furry.”

Elias’s gaze slid over Lucy in a way that Pandora felt was just shy of suggestive. “Perhaps not at the moment. But the full moon will be here again soon, won’t it?”

“Elias, focus,” Pandora said. “What is my family up to that I can’t be around for?”

“They’re planning stag and hen parties.”

Pandora groaned. “Oh, no.”

There were only about five thousand ways that could go wrong.

“Relax,” Lucy said, holding up her hands. “I will get all over it. And I’m assuming Count Blech-ula can handle the stag part.”

Elias, eyes bright, pressed a hand to his chest and gave her a small bow. “See? We have it covered.”

“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.