He focused. Nodded in response to her original question. “At the end, just as I was finishing, I felt something.” He tried to bring back the sensation. The rush. “Power.”
A pause. “Yeah, it’s called coming.”
Bast snorted out a laugh. “As I was coming, smart ass.” He let the mirth settle before continuing. “It was kind of like when I’m sick. There was something burning in me, like fire, pushing to get out.”
“You think that’s where the smoke is coming from?”
“I’m almost certain of it. I don’t see it anywhere else and as hot as that was, the bed’s not on fire. It’s more of this fucking mystery that I can’t seem to solve.”
Alice turned to face him, her hand coming to rest on his chest. “When you researched your family, tell me how you went about it.”
Bast closed his eyes, remembering the early days. “You’re a child of the modern world, so you might not understand what it was like for me. In the beginning, I only had verbal reports. Word from my mother’s side of the family giving me little snippets of memories about my father. I don’t even know if they were ever really married. They weren’t together very long, maybe a hundred years or so—”
“A hundred years? Wait...what?”
He looked at her. “I was born a vampire to a vampire. We live very long lives. A hundred years of marriage is nothing and considered a failed one.”
She reached for his hand, threading her fingers with his.
“The fact they didn’t succeed,” he continued, “was a reiteration that they should have never been together in the first place. That I managed to be conceived during that time, more salt on a festering wound. So, what family would tell me of him came couched in between little digs at him as a person, regrets over their marriage, condemnation of me. It wasn’t until the proliferation of the Internet that I could really research our family well. Of course, by then, his trail had gone cold.”
“And your mother? She must have been able to tell you something.”
Suddenly bruises to his heart that he hadn’t felt in a long time resurfaced. “Nothing. And I haven’t seen her in person in at least two hundred years. Letters once in a while, mostly to let me know she’s still alive, but we don’t have the best of relationships. I was an asshole to her in the last few months before I left her household. I did a lot of idiot things and said much that I regret. I’m waiting for her to forgive me.”
“Christ. I thought I had some messed-up family dynamics. You’re just as bad as me.” Alice squeezed his hand.
He recognized the sympathy, the camaraderie in her tone. “Until now I could ignore that I don’t know everything.” A lie told before he could recall it. “But obviously this situation has become more dire.”
“I came to ask you earlier if you’d searched beyond vampires and werewolves for him.” Her voice softened. “If you’d looked closely at your new characteristics for a clue to your lineage.”
Bast shook his head. “Until a few days ago, I didn’t have much to go on. Everything about me says I’m vampire...except the few things that say I’m not, like my ability to withstand the sun. I’ve tried asking her for help, to help me understand, but she’s frustratingly elusive. Something about my father having to keep his origins known to as few people as possible. Don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do with that.” It angered him beyond measure that neither of his parents was willing to help him. Isn’t that what they were supposed to do? Look out for their progeny and help him become something bigger and better than they’d ever been?
“All right, well, let’s put together what we do know. You’ve got wings.” He could hear the smile in her voice. “Damn, those things are sexy.”
His gaze flew to hers, which was focused just behind him. It took effort, but he managed to extend the right wing, allowing her the opportunity to study it closer. “I don’t know what it says about you that you think they’re sexy, princess.”