Page 95 of My Big Fat Vampire Wedding

They’d already gone at her over some mean-spirited teasing of Pandora and her terrible gown-shopping fiasco.And some comments she had to make about how weird it was to date your food source.

“And you’ll help Elias with the stag party?” Pandora asked. She’d already asked Kora and Maribelle to team up with Lucy against anyone else and their crazy plans. They’d been charmingly open and excited to be working closely with a werewolf. Pandora was relieved to realize she and Dante weren’t the only vampires who didn’t buy into that bullshit about vampires and werewolves hating each other.

“Yeah. Don’t worry about it. We’ve got this all handled. Go and enjoy your time with Victor.”

“We’re not really together, remember?” she asked in a whisper.

Sure, she’d had some hope after the events of the cupboard. That things had changed for them. That he was possibly as interested in her as she was in him.

But there’d been no other incidents since then.

No accidental touches, let alone deliberate ones. No innuendos or lingering glances.

She was starting to think she’d imagined it all.

One thing was for sure, though. It had clearly just been a spur-of-the-moment thing. A moment of charged feelings, of mutual built-up desire. Not necessarily personal. Definitely not a sign that Victor wanted to make their relationship real. No matter how much that might have hurt her.

“Sure, yeah,” he said, but there was a false note in his words. “What time is your flight?”

Pandora glanced at her mobile. “Oh, no. Only two hours. And I don’t know where we’re going or what I need to pack.”

“Layers,” he said, shrugging. “Books. That should cover it for you.”

He wasn’t wrong about that.

So Pandora took two pairs of shoes out of her suitcase and added in a few more paperbacks instead.

To save time, she was meeting Victor at the airport, so she grabbed her bags and made her way out into the hall.

Where she almost collided with Bellatrix.

“She’s not fooled, you know,” Bellatrix said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Ambrosia. She’s not fooled. That’s why she’s sending you away.”

“Sure, Bellatrix. Whatever you need to tell yourself to feel better,” Pandora said, even if her stomach was twisting itself into knots at the idea of her cousin being correct.

She pushed past Bellatrix before they could get any further into an argument.

“What’s wrong?” Pandora asked, coming to a stop when she found Vlad sitting on a perch in a dark corner.

To that, the raven let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Elizabeth.”

“What happened? Last I checked, you were feeding her almond slivers and dancing for her.”

“That’s private,” Vlad said, puffing up. “She was watching the crow from the window today. Saying things like, ‘Love you, pretty bird.’”

“Vlad, that’s all shecansay,” Pandora said. “She’s not like you. She has a very limited vocabulary.” And because she was such a sweet, snuggly bird to her owner, Dudley, all he said to her were sweet words. “That’s literally all she can say.”

“Well, it hurt,” Vlad said, flicking his inky head and refusing to talk about it any further.

Pandora figured that, before the end of the night, he would be treating the whole family to a recital of the saddest, most heartbreaking poetry ever written.

“If you two haven’t worked it out by the time I get back, we will talk about it, OK?” Pandora stroked his soft feathers for a second before making her way downstairs and out, doing so quickly, before anyone could drag her into conversation.