“Thanks. She sang on the record. That was my first real breakout hit. I sort of rode her popularity, but it worked.” He paused, studying me. “What’s wrong?”
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
“Doesn’t look like nothing.”
I sighed. I certainly wasn’t going to tell him I’d been comparing myself to women on television. And in the past. “It’s just…it’s going to take some adjustment to get used to your lifestyle, Jared. I…I don’t know if I can do it.”
He rushed to me and took me in his arms. “Of course you can,” he said. “You’re probably still in shock from everything that’s happened. I would be, too…”
Jared didn’t have to say “if I were mortal.” It was the elephant in the room.
“It’s just hard, Jared,” I said, my head against his chest. “Everything’s so different. All of this. A couple of days ago my biggest problem was waking up in time for class, and now…I’m in New York with you, I’m trying to come to grips with the idea that I’m a reincarnated vampire, I’m hanging out with a millionaire rock star, and there are hunters after us.” I sighed. “You have to admit it would throw most people off balance.”
He pushed me back, studied my face with his incredible blue eyes, and grinned impishly as his expression lit up. “I have an idea! We’re in New York, as you said. What do people do when they’re in New York?”
My forehead scrunched. “I don’t know. Eat bagels? Go to Times Square or the Empire State Building? Remember, I’ve never been…”
He shook his head emphatically and retrieved his sunglasses from his jacket. “Nope.”
“Then what?”
He took my hand and glanced around the room. “They go shopping.”
Chapter 25
The sidewalk was teeming with humanity, the air hot and muggy. Thousands of city dwellers roamed the streets, walking with the particular urgency of their kind even if only out for a stroll. Jared wore his baseball cap and sunglasses and a healthy application of sunscreen. I felt like an alien; all the other girls my age were in short shorts or summer dresses, while I was still wearing my Docs and black jeans.
We walked over a grid in the sidewalk, and he slowed and cocked his head. “Hear that?”
“No. What?”
“Subway. A few stories below us. You’ll be able to feel the hot air being pushed in front of the train come up through the grate when it arrives in the station.”
I listened, and after a moment I heard a low roar below, and then a gust of hot wind blew up at us, as predicted.
“Have you ever been on the subway?” I asked.
“Not since before the war,” he said. “World War Two, that is.”
“Ah,” I replied. He would have been helpful to have by my side in history class!
We walked to Columbus Circle and then downtown. A store caught Jared’s eye, and he pulled me inside. “Let’s get a bag for the clothes we’re going to buy.”
“How much are you thinking we’re getting?” I countered.
“I don’t know. Let’s say enough for…a week?”
My eyes widened. “You really think…?”
“I don’t know. But it’s better to have too much than too little. And we’re in New York, after all.” He inspected a black duffel bag with wheels. “That looks like it would hold a decent amount.”
I checked the price and blanched. “I could live for a month on what that costs.”
Jared pursed his lips. “Doesn’t matter. Do you like it?”
“I suppose.” I was a little unused to impulse buying.
He signaled to a clerk, a severe-looking woman in head-to-toe black, and tapped the bag. “One of these, please.”
“Of course. Just a moment and I’ll get one from the back.”
The woman returned with the bag when we were at the counter, and Jared paid with a credit card. I watched him scribble his name and whispered to him, “Aren’t you afraid the hunters might track you?”
“New York’s a big place. By the time they could learn I was here, which is a long shot, we’ll be gone. Assuming they didn’t catch me on TV an hour ago and figure out where the studio is.” He waited for the receipt and pocketed it. “But it’s not like these people are the CIA, Lacey. They’re individuals. Usually fringe cases, considered nuts by most. I mean, think about it. What would be your first reaction to learning someone was a vampire hunter?”
“Until now?” I rolled my eyes. “Crazy train.”
“Exactly. I’m not worried.”
Jared’s point was somewhat reassuring, but I was still uneasy. And his statement that I could be away from school a week was troubling. I couldn’t lose my scholarship. It was fine for him to be so breezy about everything – he was a star, whereas I had to scrape just to make ends meet. I debated calling him on it, but decided it could wait till later.
Jared had the clerk clip the tags off the bag, and then shouldered it. “Ready to find some clothes?”
“I still have the stuff from Maine at the hotel…”
He took my hand. “That’s garbage. We’re headed to Bloomingdale’s. They’ll have anything you can imagine, and then some.”
“I thought my clothes were fine,” I said. And after all, I had chosen them myself.
“They are, but you deserve better,” he declared with finality.
We walked several blocks, and then he flagged down a taxi. “Sorry, but I’d rather stay out of the sun. It’s pretty bright today, even with the glasses,” he explained.
“I’m getting hot, too,” I agreed.
Jared told the cabby to drive to Bloomingdale’s, and the car rocketed off into the traffic with a honk, steam rising from manhole covers parting like morning fog as the taxi blew over them. Bike riders with suicidal tendencies wended between the vehicles at high speed, narrowly missing and being missed by drivers who viewed each stoplight as a challenge
