Page 24 of My Big Fat Vampire Wedding
“No. I’ll plan something,” he said. “It’s … been nice getting to know you, Pandora.”
Then he was turning and striding away.
Taking another piece of her heart with him.
8
“What isthat?” Pandora grumbled as she was pulled from a particularly vivid dream of Victor pushing her up against a building and kissing her long and deep, instead of releasing her and putting distance between them, like he had the night before.
The sound drifted upward from somewhere else in the house, each note swelling and ebbing, a clawing noise that made her think of a cat yowling in the night.
“That …” Vlad said, and she rolled over to see him perched on his stand, waiting for her to wake up. How he managed to get in through a closed door had always perplexed her. “Is your cousin Bellatrix.”
“What is she doing? Dying?” Pandora curled her pillow up to the sides of her head, pressing it against her ears to try to muffle the racket.
“She has, apparently, picked up opera.”
“Great.” Pandora huffed, giving up on the idea of sleeping in and placing her legs off the side of the bed. “The floorboards are vibrating. Has anyone checked the glass downstairs? I half expect it to all be shattered.”
She wasn’t typically so unkind.
But she was restless from fleeting sleep, thanks to her mind racing with thoughts of Victor. And the awkward silence between them after he’d saved her.
And, well, Bellatrix was probably her least favorite person. So waking up to her vibrato wobbling and warbling, pushing its way under the door, and through the walls and floors, was making her extra grumpy.
Pandora went through the motions of showering and putting herself together. She didn’t dress up. It hadn’t seemed to make a bit of difference anyway. So she put on her usual work uniform with a cardigan over it.
Then she reached for the stainless-steel tumbler she had hidden under her sink. She’d picked it up in the hopes that it would keep her blood fresh enough to last the night, since she didn’t dare risk keeping it in the fridge with Bellatrix snooping around.
The last thing she needed was some big confrontation with her mother about her stubborn refusal to drink human blood. Especially with family visiting. And when she was about to try to float a fake engagement right in front of their faces.
Best to just fly under the radar for the time being.
Pandora chugged her blood then brushed her teeth before making her way out of her room. Vlad perched on her shoulder, looking as pained by the singing as Pandora felt.
They were just about to round the corner to the stairs,when Dante came shuffling toward them. Like he was coming home. In the middle of the day. Again.
What was going on with him?
As if sensing her thoughts, Dante’s head jerked up.
The sleepless smudges under his eyes looked even more intense than they had the day before.
And when she’d been restless in her sleep earlier, she could have sworn she’d heard some strange banging and almost … gurgling sounds coming from his room.
But before she could open her mouth to ask him about it, he was wincing at a particularly egregious missed note, making his shoulders pull up by his ears.
“Who told her she could sing?” he asked.
Her indulgent parents, no doubt, Pandora thought.
“Is anyone else awake?” she asked.
“I’m sure they are,” Dante said. “Who could sleep through that?”
“But are they downstairs?”
“No. Why?”
