Page 46 of My Big Fat Vampire Wedding
If they were taking suggestions for new names for the male version, Pandora would love to volunteer Elias Thornwell.
No, it didn’t roll off the tongue quite as easily, but it would sure make Pandora feel a lot better if a hated characterization was named after the vampire who was currently schmoozing her mother and father without any effort.
“Pandora?” Victor’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
“Yeah?” she asked, horrified that Victor might have seen her staring at Elias and assumed she might be ogling him, instead of imagining what it might be like to stomp over there and push him into the fireplace. “Sorry. I’m getting tired.”
It wasn’t a lie per se.
She was tired.
Exhausted, actually.
But mentally, emotionally. Not physically. If she went up to bed, she was sure she would toss and turn endlessly, replaying the events of the night, beating herself up for things she’d done, or hadn’t done, to make the evening go more smoothly.
“Maybe we should call it a night,” Ravenna said, looking concerned.
“Oh, no!” Aunt Anastacia got to her feet. “My Bellatrix was just about to honor us all with a song.”
As if the night hadn’t been painful enough.
Pandora turned her head so she could speak without anyone reading her lips, and whispered to Victor, “I apologize in advance for this.”
Victor turned his head closer, his lips nearly brushing her ear, his warm breath teasing over her skin. “For what?”
He found out soon enough, though, as Bellatrix got to her feet, clasped her hands in front of her, elbows out wide, opened her mouth, and made them all regret the great acoustics in the room.
“Victor,” Anastacia said afterward, beaming. “What did you think?”
Victor paused for the barest of seconds before saying, with a straight face, “I have no words.”
A laugh built in Pandora’s throat before she could fight it off, making her cover it with a hard cough instead.
“Sorry,” she said as Victor patted her on the back, his green eyes bright with barely contained laughter himself. “Wine went down the wrong pipe,” she said, despite not having taken a sip.
“Bellatrix,” Elias called out, making everyone turn to face him. “Wherever did you learn to sing?” he asked, making Pandora wonder if his one true flaw was being tone-challenged.
“Oh, my Bellatrix is entirely self-taught.” Aunt Anastacia beamed at her daughter.
“You wouldn’t want a vocal coach to ruin such … raw talent,” Elias said smoothly, making Pandora put a hand over her mouth, looking like she was covering a yawn, not suppressing a smile.
Maybe he wasn’t as boring and annoying as she’d first thought.
Still, that didn’t mean she was going to fall for the guy, no matter what her mother wanted.
She was with Victor.
Just then, Victor’s thumb started to absentmindedly tease over the back of her hand. She felt that familiar sizzle of interest, of attraction, of longing moving up her arm and across her chest, making that newly familiar heat warm her from the inside once again.
At that same moment, across the room, Ophelia’s smile fell as she looked at her daughter.
14
“OK. What else?” Lucy asked in Pandora’s ear as she rushed around her room, trying to get together for her shift.
“It was mostly tame after that. I mean, as tame as my family can be anyway. They wouldn’t let me walk Victor to the Tube, though, which was ridiculous.”
“As if any mere human could overpower you, even running on pig’s blood and anxiety.”
