“How do people live like this?” I said, stepping from the car. “Stacked one on top of the other? I’d be completely claustrophobic. Guess it’s not a good place if you’re scared of heights.”
“I have no idea. But it’s certainly changed a lot since I started coming,” Jared said.
I eyed him. “Two hundred years will do that. I can only imagine.”
“The area where we’re standing used to be a hellhole run by immigrant gangs. There was no law to speak of. There were warlords who ruled over each district, and the streets were mud and sewage – it would have made Calcutta look clean. Now…it’s a different place. No horses, for starters,” he said with a smile. “It was pretty cool watching the city go up, though.”
“How many times have you been here?”
“Over the years? A lot. I played the stock market for a while before the exercise bored me. This was the center of the universe if you were in the game, though.” He shrugged. “Whole different place now, like I said.”
I tried to conceptualize what it must be like to be Jared, having watched the country grow for so long, but I couldn’t fathom it. World wars, the industrial revolution, the car…the sense of floating through a dream hit again, and Jared had to steady me. It was like my brain couldn’t grasp the scale of time he lived on, even though I…I’d once been special, too.
Which stopped me in my tracks.
Jared leaned into me and whispered, “What is it?”
“How do I become…special again?” I asked, my voice so low I could barely hear myself speak.
Jared’s face darkened. “This isn’t the time or place to discuss it, Lacey. Let’s do some shopping, okay? Don’t sweat the rest right now.”
“I was one of you. How do I become one of you again?”
“It’s not that simple, Lacey. Believe me, I’ve been thinking about this nonstop. Let’s talk about it later.”
His expression hardened, and I backed off. But the question lingered in my mind. I’d once been immortal, wedded, or almost so, to my immortal soul mate. He was handling me like I’d break if he touched me, which I understood because of the bloodlust and all – but he wouldn’t have to if I were special again.
The idea of becoming a vampire wouldn’t go away now that I’d dared to think it, I knew. That wasn’t how my brain was wired. When I got an idea into my head, my style was to obsess over it until something came out the other end of the sausage machine in the form of a decision or an action. But judging by his reaction, I’d have to tread lightly. I had never seen him so rattled, and that I was responsible for it made me anxious. But it’s my life. Shouldn’t I be able to think about it too?
“Okay,” I said, lightening my tone. “So what were you thinking I should buy?”
He gave me a sidelong glance from behind his shades and then grinned. “Anything you want. Sky’s the limit. Although if you get a pony, I don’t have any way of getting it to Maine.”
I pouted. “Don’t they deliver? What kind of place are you taking me to, anyway?”
We laughed together at my feigned outrage, and the tense mood that had built evaporated. “They have a great selection of everything,” he said. “You’ll see. Just don’t pay attention to the prices. It’s play money, so ignore them.”
“I’m having a hard time adjusting to the concept of play money, too,” I admitted. Money had always been a thorny issue for me and my stepmom, and spending it like it was nothing went against my nature. I couldn’t help but equate what things cost to how many days of school it would pay for, which caused me yet more secret aggravation – as if I didn’t have enough to worry about.
He lowered his voice again. “I’m indecently rich, Lacey. Feeeeltheee steeeenkeeeng reeeech,” he said in an exaggerated foreign accent. “There’s nothing we can buy that would put a dent in my fortune, so don’t worry about it.”
My curiosity got the better of me, and I blurted the first thing that came to mind. “How rich?”
He glanced around and then leaned close again and named a number so big my mouth formed an O.
“You’re kidding me,” I gasped.
Jared shook his head. “Two centuries of investing adds up.”
“Oh…my…”
“Yeah. So when I say don’t sweat it, I mean it. Even the interest on my interest is more than I could spend in ten lifetimes.”
I took a deep breath. “I’m surprised you don’t own the record company, too.”
He chuckled. “That would take the fun out of it. Part of the challenge is to do this on my own. That would be cheating.” He squeezed my hand. “Now let’s do some serious shopping, shall we?”
“You talked me into it,” I said, still dazed by his revelation. Everything Jared did seemed to be on a massive scale I could scarcely comprehend, and his wealth was just the icing on the cake. It shouldn’t have surprised me that he was beyond rich, but it still was shocking to hear such a huge number from his gorgeous lips.
We entered the store, and after Jared checked the duffel at security, he led me into the depths of the store and we rode the escalator to the women’s clothing section, which seemed to stretch for blocks. The floor had few shoppers on a balmy late summer day, and we had our run of the department. The fashionably edgy salespeople hovered nearby, eager to help with anything that caught my eye.
An hour later, we had purchased two pairs of jeans and five tops. We were headed for the exit when Jared stopped at the shoe department and pointed at the Doc Martens display at one end.
