Serafina and the Silent Vampire (20 page)

“He’s even psychic,” Blair finished for her. “You think you inherited your gift from him. You think it isn’t yours anymore.” There was more, of course. There was always more. Her gift had made her special, in her own eyes more than in anyone else’s. Now it wasn’t special at all. It was shared. It was
given
to her, just as her black hair was given, because of who her father was.

Serafina MacBride, brash and capable as she was, had built her self-confidence on very shaky foundations. It was probably even the real reason she’d rarely left Scotland, where she was the strongest psychic anyone was likely to encounter. And she’d recognized that earlier tonight when she’d brought the subject up.

“Serafina. He didn’t make you who you are. Many things come with blood. Life itself. It’s what you do with those things, those gifts, that makes
you
.”

She didn’t look up. But she didn’t move away from him either. He shifted his leg under her face. “I know what you’re thinking. That you have a pale imitation of his power. You think you can’t defeat him because he’s stronger than you, and that if he wins, it’s therefore your fault.”

“Oh, shut up,” she said, sudden anguish in her voice. “I hate you.”

Since she put her arms around his waist and clung to him as she spoke, he didn’t take her words too seriously. It wasn’t hate he sensed coming from her. So he lifted her off the floor and settled her in his lap.

He stroked her hair. “I know. I know too that you
can
win, because you have a strength he lacks.”

She lifted her head, rested her chin on his chest to look up at him. Christ, she was beautiful, her eyes sparkling with her recent tears and raw emotion still trembling on her full, so kissable lips. “The night before last, you said he was stronger than me.”

Blair shrugged. “In some things he is. But you have something he doesn’t.”

“What?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I feel it.”

****

Sera woke with the sun filtering through the curtains. She opened her eyes and lay very still. His big, cool body was no longer beside her, which was disappointing. She stretched luxuriously, like a sensual cat.

On the other hand, it was probably as well he’d left. As she relaxed her muscles, the warmth of the comfort he’d given her so unexpectedly last night began to dissolve. She’d wept all over him. No wonder he’d buggered off.

His kindness had been a surprise. After all, it wasn’t as if Blair was the sort to go through the socially expected motions:
There, there, don’t cry, you’ll be fine.
But it was his understanding that devastated her. He had knowledge of her pathetic weakness now, and that gave him power over her.

“I’ve messed it up again,” she whispered.

Messed what up? He’s a vampire!
she reminded herself.
Were you imagining
yourself in some kind of relationship with him just because he chose to fuck you a couple of times? Because you chose to let him? Because it was so bloody good…

She threw off the quilt and leapt out of bed, as if by doing so she could escape the unbearable thoughts in her head. They weren’t worth a damn anyway, besides the rather more important issue of her sodding father taking over the world with entranced vampires.

What B-movie writer had thought that one up?

She showered and dressed as quickly as possible and ran downstairs. The flat smelled of him, of sex and false happiness, and she couldn’t wait to get away from it. She made coffee in the office of Serafina’s and nipped across the road to the shop and bought a bacon sandwich. Then she settled down at her desk with a pen and a piece of paper.

The sandwich was finished, but she was still writing busily when the others arrived, all together for once.

“Busy boss,” Jack observed, throwing his jacket at the coat hooks on the wall as he did each morning.

“Conference,” Sera commanded, and Jilly and Jack promptly came and sat on her desk while Elspeth sat at the reception desk nearest the door. “You too, Elspeth,” Sera said.

Elspeth looked surprised but pleased to be included. Jilly wiggled her eyebrows but made no comment, merely dragged a chair across with her feet for Elspeth to sit in.

“We need to decide what to do,” Sera said abruptly. “This is the situation. Nicholas Smith, aka Nick Black, is a sorcerer who has used some unknown spell to control an ever-growing number of vampires, turned under his instructions from people holding key posts in the financial sector. His ultimate plan is to use the vampires to control—and use—all the wealth at their firms’ disposal. We know the danger to human life and freedom etc. What you probably don’t know is that Nicholas Smith is my father.”

Three pairs of wandering, restless eyes transferred their gazes to her face with a snap. Sera drew a deep breath and got it over with.

“He came here last night, waving my birth certificate. His name isn’t on it, but he seems to regard it as genuine proof that I’m his daughter, and Melanie agrees it’s more likely than not. The good news about it all is, he doesn’t want me to be hurt—which I’m sure you’ll agree is big of him. However, I doubt his benevolence extends to you guys, so I doubt it’s much of an advantage. From my end, I’d wimp out of killing him, but I won’t weep if someone else does the bastard in.”

“Fuck,” Jilly said in awe, though at what in particular wasn’t clear.

Sera ploughed on regardless. “The other bad news is that vampires can’t touch him, not even Blair.”

“That’s a blow,” Elspeth said unexpectedly. She seemed to be listening intently and thinking deeply.

“It is. It means we have nothing to scare him with, and if Blair can’t kill him for us, it means we have less chance of breaking his hold on the vampires and—”

“Shit, Sera, he’s a vampire himself, not your private assassin.” Jack sounded shocked.

She stared at him. “We have to use every tool we have.”

“It’s a long time since anyone’s called me a tool, at least in my hearing.”

At the sound of his voice in her head, Sera’s heart seemed to lurch into her mouth. Beneath it, her stomach was trying to do backflips. And when she forced herself to look over Elspeth’s shoulder and see him strolling out of the inner office, looking sexy as hell in black leather trousers and boots and a short, leather biker jacket, she recognized the pain behind all that turmoil as grief.

Oh no.
I won’t grieve for what I never had.
Aloud, she said, “How did you get here?”

“Sewer or smoking blanket?” Jilly added.

“Motorbike,” Blair said surprisingly, although Jilly continued to stare at him in expectation of an answer.

Sera frowned, then forced herself to swallow the question. She had a feeling she’d only be feeding him lines. And besides, she refused to care. “It doesn’t matter,” she said hastily. She looked him in the eye as he came to a halt behind Elspeth’s chair. “I want to know how they feel about the mass killing of vampires.”

His eyebrow twitched. “You want
them
to kill the vampires?”

“If necessary,” she said steadily.

His strange, profound eyes searched hers, one at a time. “They could die. You could die.”

“You have an alternative?” Sera snapped. Around her, she was aware of the others’ bewilderment as they picked up only one side of the conversation.

She heard Elspeth whisper to Jilly, “Oh dear. Is that…?”

“Oh yes,” said Jilly, and Elspeth actually turned her seat for a better look.

Blair said, “Yes. I’ll fight the vampires.”

“You against all of them? You already told me there were too many for you, and I don’t think Smith will risk another fight unless he has them
all
lined up against you.”

“Of course, he won’t. But I have Phil. And very soon I’ll have more help.”

“What do you mean?” she asked with a weird sense of foreboding.

“I’ve summoned other vampires that I know in this country, including the oldest and strongest I’ve ever encountered. You may leave the banking vampires to us.”

“A war? In the middle of Edinburgh?”

“What’s he saying?” Jilly demanded. “What war?”

Blair’s lips tugged upward. “You have an alternative?” he quoted. “But at best, our war only keeps numbers down. Smith can just start again, until between us we’ve killed off most of the banking profession.”

Sera ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. “How the hell do we get to him?”

The shop door tinkled as it opened, and someone barged in with a suitcase and a bag and several books under one arm.

Melanie halted and looked around the gawping faces. “Anyone got a spare hand?”

****

In the flurry of Melanie’s arrival, Jilly watched Sera a little anxiously. She’d caught on to the fact that Mel hadn’t been telling her friend all she knew, and that this was bound to hurt Sera. However, in the current mess of vampires and banking crises, Jilly couldn’t help feeling that Melanie’s arrival was a good thing.

And after the initial shock, Sera did indeed appear to be pleased to see her. While Jack took the books from Mel’s arms and laid them on a desk, and the vampire took her case into the inner office, Sera met the older woman’s gaze through the turmoil and gave a lopsided smile.

Jilly breathed a sigh of relief and went to help Elspeth make coffee, while keeping a watchful eye on everybody else.

“So did you find something?” Sera asked eagerly.

“Not yet,” Mel answered, “but I’ve brought all the likely books and got a few pointers from wiser folk than me. I can research better here and keep an eye on you guys at the same time. You must be Jack,” she added, holding out a friendly hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Likewise.” Jack grinned, shaking her hand. “Very glad to meet you at last.”

Melanie turned to the vampire, who was leaning one shoulder on the wall beside the inner office to watch the humans. She smiled, and to Jilly’s horror, there was a definite flicker of admiration in Melanie’s green eyes.

Well, Blair would be an attractive man to most. Tall, good looking, with a certain mystery about his strange, compelling eyes. And his fit, slender body was so still it made you long to see it move, lithe and graceful. And deadly.

“Hello. I don’t know you either,” Mel said. Being a friendly sort, she began to walk toward him, hand stretched out. Blair straightened and politely took her hand. Mel’s eyebrows twitched at his touch, which was, presumably, inhumanly cold. Jilly waited for Sera to say something, to warn Melanie who and what she was dealing with. But Sera looked deliberately toward the coffee. Perhaps she was paying Mel back for her silence on the subject of parentage. Whatever, it seemed to be up to Jilly.

“He’s Blair,” she said abruptly. “You may have heard of him. The only good thing I’ve discovered about him so far is that he doesn’t talk. He’s a vampire.”

The catch in Mel’s breath was audible. But she didn’t snatch her hand free or even bolt backward when he released her. In fact, she looked, if anything, more interested. She was a witch, after all. Perhaps her interest was professional.

Elspeth took the first cup to Melanie. Sera watched; then her eyes flickered to Blair and away. The vampire began to walk toward Sera, who swung round at once, almost in panic, walking straight to where Jilly still stood pouring coffee into mugs—somewhat erratically, since her attention was divided. Elspeth would tell her off for the mess.

Jilly shoved a cup toward Sera. “Everything okay?”

Sera nodded.

“Has that bastard hurt you?”

“No.” Sera’s smile was twisted and vanished quickly. “The opposite, in fact.” She picked up the cup and took a hasty gulp. “I was upset last night. Adjusting to finding out about my father, you know?”

Jilly nodded. She knew. More carefully, she said, “And Blair was there? When you were upset?”

Sera nodded ruefully.

Just for an instant, relief flooded Jilly with enough force to make her dizzy. Then her heart began to sing. No one knew better than she that Sera couldn’t stand anyone to see her in the grip of such weakness. That was the cause of the tension between Sera and Blair. To Sera, he’d become unbearable.

“Does he drink coffee?” she asked, and when Sera nodded, she picked up a cup and walked toward him. One of his eyebrows lifted in surprise, but he took the cup with an inclination of the head that presumably betokened thanks. Up close, he was very tall and even more overwhelming. And now that she didn’t need to worry about Sera, she could even acknowledge his physical attraction.

Jilly smiled. “You’re history,” she said happily.

The witch was interesting. She hadn’t picked up on who or what he was, and she wasn’t telepathic. On the other hand, he thought he’d probably have trouble mesmerizing her. She had an inner strength that heightened her gift until she almost thrummed with power. He liked that, although it sat oddly with her mother-hen emotions concerning Sera. She hid those feelings pretty well, but he could still read her like an open book. And along with her natural curiosity, she was undoubtedly alarmed by his casual presence among them.

He didn’t blame her for that. Less understandable was Sera’s reaction to him. After last night’s explosive sex and the new closeness they’d found, he’d expected rather more warmth in her manner. But she’d seemed more dismayed than pleasantly surprised or even made curious by his unexpected arrival, and now she was deliberately avoiding speaking to him.

It was Sera’s other mother hen, the aggressive Jilly, who provided the clue with a cup of coffee.

“You’re history.”

Since the words were spoken so gleefully, he had little doubt what they meant, especially accompanied by a powerful mental vision. He could have rummaged in her mind for more information. He chose instead to look over her head at Sera.

She was talking to the witch, Melanie. Her eyes flickered to him once and veered away.

“What’s going on?” he asked. He received a shrug, physical and mental, so he gave her one back and left.

Clearly, he was accomplishing nothing by hanging around here. He was already uncomfortably aware that dropping in to discuss his next move with Sera had been an excuse to see her again—a mistake he couldn’t fix while she was surrounded by humans. Time to do something useful instead.

He stopped off in her flat to reclaim his heavy biker’s helmet with its specially made visor. He put it on, refastened his jacket up to his chin, and donned the thick bikers’ gloves. Ready, he jumped downstairs in one leap, opened the door into the idyllic grayness that was Scotland in late summer, got on his motorbike, and rode round to the C & H building car park.

It was easy enough to mesmerize the doorman. After which, he simply followed his nose, releasing the digitally locked doors with his mind as necessary. He took a chance and removed his helmet so that he didn’t excite any suspicion. There was a PA in an outer office, to whom he merely nodded soothingly as he deposited his helmet on the end of her desk, and walked passed her into Jason Bell’s inner sanctum.

The fledgling vampire was dozing over his computer. Blair went round for a look. There was an email on his screen asking him to make an informal investigation into various irregularities and anomalies in some of the firm’s accounts. Blair’s lips curled. Then he had the germ of an idea.

While he considered it, he clicked on Jason’s appointments and found what he wanted almost immediately. Dead or undead, it seemed, Jason was well organized and meticulous.

Blair gave Jason a nudge, and the fledgling awoke with a start that was more human than vampire.

“Oh dear,” he said, as if he’d prepared the words in advance. “Sleeping on the job! I need more coffee.”

“You need a stake through the heart,” Blair said brutally. “Which is what you’ll get, sleeping as soundly as that. I could do you the kindness now.”

Jason clutched his head, no doubt in pain from the previously unused mental pathways Blair had just forced himself into. “Shit, it’s you,” he uttered, belatedly realizing his danger. To his credit, he tried to do something about it, even exercised his new vampire powers by trying to leap over Blair’s head to relative safety on the other side of the room.

But Blair was in no mood to play. Before Jason was more than a foot in the air, he simply reached up and yanked him back by the tie. Jason landed with a bump back in his seat, blinking at Blair in bewilderment that turned swiftly to fear.

“That’s right,” Blair said encouragingly. “I could have killed you twice by now. I still might, if you piss me off any more.”

Moving faster than a fledgling would yet have learned to achieve or even to see as more than a blur, he fetched another chair from the other side of the room and straddled it with his arms resting along the back.

“What are you doing here?” Jason blurted. “How did you even get here in daylight?”

“There are ways,” Blair told him. “You guys need to start using your undead brains. What did Smith do to you?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Ella bit you and killed you and turned you into a vampire,” Blair reminded him. “When you woke, Arthur took you from your parents’ house to explain your new situation and sent you to work before dawn. And here at work, Nicholas Smith came to see you.”

“I couldn’t remember anything,” Jason recalled. Although not particularly handsome, he had the kind of open, self-confident face than inspired trust in humans. But abruptly, his dignity crumbled, leaving a very unsure if still very well-dressed young man. “I was terrified. Nicholas helped me get my memory back.”

“How’d he do that?”

“Just talking to me. Things began to come back.”

“How come? You’d never met him before.”

Jason frowned. “Yes, I had. I remembered
him
.”

Blair searched his eyes and as much of his leaking thoughts as he could stomach. There wasn’t much more on that subject. It was all a blur to Jason. “And he made you keep on working.”

Jason frowned. “I
chose
to keep working.”

“Why? You’re dead.”

“Undead. What do you want with me?”

Blair shrugged. “I’m trying to get the hang of this scam your boss wants me to join. Vampires working in banks is a new one on me.”

“We have the power to alter monetary wealth and society.”

“Spoken like a true thrall. How d’you do it, then?”

“Do the mechanics matter to you?”

“Not really. I’m more interested in whether or not you can pull it off. You can’t have vampires in all the banks.”

“All the major Scottish banks and headquarters. Several investment companies and insurance companies. We’ve already begun.”

Blair rested his chin on his hands. “What if you get caught? You bite the police?”

“It won’t come to the police.”

Jason’s absolute confidence on this point was interesting. Why would it not come to the police? Because if irregularities were discovered, a fall guy was sacrificed?

Blair stood up. “You’ve been very helpful, Jason,” he said civilly. “Thanks. Say hello to old Nick for me.” And he walked out the door, nodded to the PA as he picked up his helmet, and left the building.

****

Sera pushed the enormous old book a few inches away from her and sat back, rubbing her eyes. Leaving the others minding the shop, she and Melanie had retreated to the flat and spread a big bunch of books out on the table. Mel had discovered a few promising lines of inquiry, which Sera was doing her best to pursue, but despite the importance of the research, personal stuff kept getting in the way.

“Smith said she dumped him,” Sera blurted.

Mel glanced up, letting her reading spectacles droop halfway down her nose. She looked like a slightly mad but sexy professor. “Rebecca? Your mother? Yes, she dumped him.”

“I suppose I don’t need to ask why.”

Mel shrugged. “He was egotistical, selfish, and vain, and fortunately, she discovered her mistake in time.”

“Not quite.”

Mel took the specs off, staring at her. “Oh no, you weren’t the mistake, Sera. Never think that. Even unborn, you were the light of her world. She forgave Nick because of you. But she didn’t want him in her life or in yours. And at least in that, they were in agreement. Nick wanted nothing to do with children.”

“Did he know when I was born?” She kept her voice carefully neutral. Tears were very close to the surface, tears for the mother she’d never known. And bitter anger toward the father who’d let her go into care.

“He must have,” Mel said gently. “We moved in a pretty small circle. But he was young, male, and selfish, blah blah blah.”

Sera stared determinedly at the gothic print of the book in front of her.

“Look, Sera. I never liked Nick, but it was definitely the wrong time for him to have kids. Your mother wanted a child and picked the wrong man to have her with. She kicked him out before she even knew she was pregnant. He might have thought—or talked himself into thinking—that you weren’t his.”

“Then why’s he so keen to own me now?”

“Because people change and grow up. It doesn’t sound like he’s any less selfish, but he may have different priorities.” She seemed to hesitate. “Or you may have something he wants.”

“I wondered about that. What, though? Does he imagine I can influence Blair?”

“Can you?”

Sera lifted her gaze to Mel’s, gave a lopsided smile, and looked away again. “No.”

“Then I doubt it’s that. Read on. We’ll discover the truth eventually.”

Sera dragged the book back toward her.

“Serafina.” The familiar voice in her head made her jump.

“What?” she demanded aggressively.

“Nothing,” Mel said in surprise.

“You should work on that telepathy or you’re going to freak out your friends,” Blair remarked. “You don’t need to think aloud.”

“I didn’t invite you into my head,” she retorted.

“I’m not in your head, Sera,” Melanie said anxiously. “Are you all…? Oh.”

Sera directed a helpless shrug at her friend while she listened to the voice in her mind.

“I’ve just been to see Jason. He met Smith before he died as well as after. I think you might be looking at some combination of spells, one planted in the living and activated in the dead. Or undead.”

“Thanks. I’ll pass it along.”

“I’m all gratitude. Here’s another angle. Your mate Jilly hacks computers.”

“She most certainly does not!” Sera said robustly, although she spoiled the effect slightly by adding, “Why?”

“Get her to hack into the banks.”

Sera sat bolt upright. “Are you mad? She’d never get in, and if she did, they’d crucify her!”

“She doesn’t need to get in, just cause enough of a scare to wake up the banks’ security, start a few investigations rolling. It should slow things down, might even lose a few vampires their jobs.”

Sera found herself grinning. “That’s not such a bad idea. If she can pull it off…”

She waited for him to say something else, but he didn’t. Her mind felt curiously silent, almost…lonely. Dismissing such a stupid idea with impatience, she refocused on Mel, who was staring at her. “What?”

“That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen you do. Who were you talking to?”

“Blair,” she said uncomfortably, then covered the moment by repeating what he’d told her, after which she ran downstairs to talk to Jilly about committing a crime that could earn her life in prison.

****

When her last appointment of the day had left, Sera swept Jilly, Jack, and Elspeth upstairs to her flat and set everyone to work—Jilly on infiltrating bank security online, and the rest on research under Melanie’s instructions.

However, despite Blair’s clues, which had got Mel quite excited, it was difficult reading and slow going.

“How long is it going to take us to read all this stuff?” Sera said at last, waving one helpless hand around all the piles of books.

“Depends how lucky we get,” Mel said ruefully.

Sera groaned. “Okay. Who wants pizza?”

An array of hands sprang up. Mel pushed back her chair. “I’ll get them,” she said. “I need some air.”

Sera settled back to work, conscious that her stomach was rumbling loudly enough to present yet another distraction. Fortunately, Melanie was back pretty quickly, and as they heard the flat door open, Sera noticed everyone’s heads lifted in relief. Only Sera felt the prickles of mingled warning and excitement that came with the presence of Blair.

She found she was holding her breath as the living room door opened and Melanie walked in with a stack of pizza boxes.

“I found him in the street,” Melanie said apologetically to Sera.

Jilly frowned up from her laptop long enough to say irritably, “What’d you bring him here for?”

As Blair walked casually in, Elspeth cleared a space on the table for Mel to lay down her burden and smiled at Blair in a friendly fashion. She was the only one who did.

“We’re busy,” Sera told him, deftly catching the pizza box Mel threw to her.

“I didn’t come to eat pizza.”

“I thought he could help,” Melanie said quickly.

“How?” Jack demanded.

Blair continued to regard Sera. “I can read a lot faster than you.”

Sera listened to the beats of her heart. When she found she was counting them, she said, “We need his help.”

It was less than an hour later when the doorbell rang. Sighing, Sera stood up from her position on the living room floor, snatched the stake from her jacket pocket, and went downstairs. Blair didn’t budge from his position on the sofa, but she knew from his very stillness that he was listening.

She couldn’t sense vampire on the other side of the door. Was it Nicholas Smith again?

She opened the door and saw bright orange hair gleaming in the street light. She frowned. “Constable McGowan?”

“Got a minute?” He sounded half aggressive, half rueful. And he wasn’t in uniform.

“Er—I’m a bit busy. I’ve got people round.”

“Clients?”

“Friends.”

“I won’t take long.”

Sera hesitated. He was out of uniform, which suggested his visit was unofficial. To keep him out would only make him unnecessarily suspicious. And yet how could she invite him in when Jilly was hacking into banks?

She compromised. Opening the door to admit him, she turned and headed back up the stairs calling, “Cup of coffee for PC McGowan!”

He seemed slightly surprised by this.

“That’s my warning for them to flush all the dope down the toilet,” she explained.

“I didn’t think you really had visitors,” he said unexpectedly. “I thought it was an excuse.”

“I don’t make excuses,” Sera said. “I’m more likely to shut the door in your face.”

Praying Jilly had closed the laptop, Sera led the way into the living room.