“Holy shit,” she whispered, echoing her thoughts. The words came tumbling out, as uncouth and low-brow as her life had become. If her mother were alive to hear Alice now, she would have been spitting out soap for the next week.
He lifted his head and turned it toward her. “I thought you’d gotten lost.”
Alice’s mouth couldn’t have been drier. She struggled to speak again. “I almost could have been.” Hell, if she was going for uncouth and low-brow, might as well take it all the way. “Bast? What are you doing with all this? It’s just you, right? I mean, I know you guys always seem to have a lot of money in the movies and stuff, but it’s just you...”
His expression flattened. “My father left me well provided for and it’s only grown over the years. When you’ve lived as long as I have, you get the opportunity to acquire a great many things. By now, it’s simply become habit to surround myself with some of the finer things. But honestly? I don’t even notice half of it anymore. Not until someone like you walks in and points it out to me.”
“That’s a sin, you know.”
“What is?”
“To have all this beauty around you and not even realize it’s there. Life is so very short for most of us, so you’re supposed to take the time to appreciate what’s around you. And when you can afford to live in a place as palatial as this one, and then not even notice what others steal and lie for...” She paused, at a loss for words. Finally she said, “You shouldn’t be allowed to have it.”
He shrugged, the crisp, white shirt like a second skin on him. “I could almost agree with you, except you’re comparing apples and oranges. I’m not a human. I was born vampire. My lifespan isn’t comparable to yours, and so the same rules don’t apply. Incidentally, I don’t find beauty in things.” His eyes flashed. “Only people.”
Wait. Did that mean what she thought it did? Still, she disregarded what might have been a compliment. “I’m very sad for you then. You don’t get to appreciate just how precious life is. That’s a shame.”
“Don’t feel sorry for me, Alice,” he said softly. “There are better people in the world to feel sorry for.”
Her fingers tightened on the plush towel, hiding her body from view. For some reason, she felt as if Bast had the ability to see beneath the material and was studying her now. He somehow saw the imperfections of her body. There weren’t any scars or other obvious flaws to speak of, but standing next to him, she became so much more aware of how simple—how human—she really was.
“I would like to offer you a job,” he continued. “You made a proposal earlier—”
“A job job? That pays money?” Her eyebrows narrowed. “I don’t understand.” She clutched at the towel while watching him stride to the bureau. From its surface he plucked a slender black case and returned with it. “What’s that?”
He unzipped the leather case and withdrew a slick, black laptop. Based on the way he handled it, the weight seemed almost nonexistent. As with everything he owned, it looked top of the line.
“This here is especially equipped,” he said while it booted up. “I’d like to pay you by the hour to go through and correct the genealogy chart. Now that you know what I am, what’s listed on it might make a little more sense.”
“You do? Really? Why?”
“I need to know more about who I am. Who my family is. This laptop has access to every major university database, as well as some governmental access most people couldn’t pay to get into,” he said. “Do what you can and see if you can get further than I did. Even adding one or two names would satisfy me. Finding more mistakes would satisfy me more.”
“How much you paying, if you don’t mind?”
He named a figure that made her eyes widen with surprise.
Alice sat down hard on the bed before her legs gave out. “Wow. Thank you. Any and everything I discover goes with me to the grave, right?”
“Naturally.”
She reached for his hand. A tentative brush of her fingers over his followed. “Thank you,” she said softly. “I know you don’t know me, but I won’t betray your trust.”