Marcus wanted to comfort her, but there was nothing he could say to make her feel better. He was so far from normal, he hardly even knew what that was anymore. Hell, in his mind, being normal was worse than any torture he could imagine.
He was stronger than everyone around him. He had access to any VIP room or restaurant he wanted with only a few seconds of eye contact. Women wanted him and men wanted to be him. How could it get better?
He wanted to shake her and tell her she’d risen from the dead! She should be shouting from the rooftops with joy and celebrating.
He felt just as helpless as he had watching her bleed from two bullet holes in his arms. This time was different, though. This time he could show her the new world that was now open to her. He could help her find out who she was. No matter how normal she said she’d been, he knew something very supernatural had happened to her at some point. They would figure it out together.
He and Gena were able to make it to about three different shops before they closed. He wasn’t experienced with shopping for women, but he made the best out of the situation.
At first he tried to sit down and out of the way as she did her shopping, but the boredom got to him much too quickly. Before long, he was making her show him everything she tried on. He did his best to convince her to buy more revealing clothes, but she’d playfully brush his suggestions off.
Soon enough, she had enough clothes to last her a few weeks and had ignored about ninety-nine percent of his suggestions. Apparently he had bad taste in women’s clothing.
He did convince her she needed to buy another outfit she could wear to Fang, but that might have been a mistruth. In all honesty, if he wanted her in Fang, she’d get in no matter what she was wearing. A vampire had to have some fun, though.
Since the rebels had made contact, he wasn’t worried about going to Fang tonight. He could make an appearance tomorrow and no one would miss him.
As he and Gena made their way out of the store, the clerk who had helped them locked the doors to close the store. Gena glanced worriedly at the noise. “I hope we didn’t keep her too long past her shift. I didn’t realize how late it was.”
Marcus took her losing track of time as a good sign. She was enjoying her time with him, even if she didn’t want to. “Considering how much we just spent, I’m sure they could stay open an extra half an hour,” he assured her.
Gena looked guiltily at the bags she was carrying. “I’ll pay you back for all this. I promise.”
Marcus still had to get started on setting her up with an identity. He added it to his mental to-do list. As much as he liked having her around, he knew she’d want her independence back sooner rather than later.
Things like a Social Security number and driver’s license were important. Luckily, because he was of a species that didn’t age, he had someone who could get some papers made up within a week.
He appreciated that she wanted to pay for her purchases, but he didn’t need her money. He refrained from telling her, considering he didn’t want to start an argument when she seemed to be enjoying herself.
He wanted to show her around the city. She said she’d never been there before, and Marcus wanted to be the one to show her everything for the first time, but the multitude of bags weighing them down made sightseeing cumbersome.
He wasn’t one prone to wishful thinking, but his mind suddenly wished he’d met Gena under different circumstances. He wished she was here of her own free will and wanted to be with him. He wished she hadn’t seen the dark side of his life so soon.
He wondered whether she’d think differently of him if she’d believed he was human when they met. He could have taken her on a real date. When was the last time he’d been on a real date?
All he could remember were scattered affairs across the last centuries. Any time he took a woman out, he wanted something from her. Blood, sex, and political favors were his top three, and if he could get all at once, that was just icing on the cake.
Being with Gena was different. Although his itching fangs and constant state of semi-arousal were proof that the drive for blood and sex were still especially strong around her, he wanted her to enjoy herself around him.
It was obvious she still missed her old life, but she was at least slightly enjoying her time with him.
An unfamiliar noise shook Marcus from his thoughts. A cell phone rang, but it wasn’t a ringtone he recognized. One look at Gena’s face and he knew it wasn’t hers. A sense of apprehension filled him. It was show time.