but Smith was before her. As the vampires advanced, Smith held the stake in his hand. “Come, come,” he chided. “You can’t kill your client’s son, anyway.”
“I can if it would save my client himself from the trouble,” she retorted. Jason looked at her without emotion and kept coming. She kicked out, and he dodged without difficulty. Ella moved closer.
“They won’t hurt you,” Nicholas Smith assured her. “We’re just going to take you back to my house.”
“No point,” said the voice she hadn’t expected. “I’d only come and take her out again.”
Blair stood framed in the inner office doorway as if he’d just come from the flat. And yet she hadn’t sensed him there. It didn’t matter. The balance of power changed immediately. That was in Smith’s venomous glare, as well as in the sudden halting of the vampires. They might be in thrall to Smith, but they recognized a threat when they smelled one.
As Blair strolled into the outer office, Smith seemed to issue some silent command, for the vampires began to move again, blocking off the way between Smith, Sera, and the shop door on one side and Blair on the other.
Smith grabbed her wrist, “Run,” he commanded. She tried to shake him off but found herself being dragged inexorably toward the door. She kicked him in the kneecap, then brought her own knee up to connect with his groin. She missed only because he dropped her hand and leapt backward.
“Sera,” he pleaded.
“Fuck off.”
Her crude command seemed to be all Blair needed. He leapt so fast she didn’t see him move. But Jason and Ella were flung to either side of the office, and he reached for Smith.
Smith cringed as if he knew he was dead. His mouth opened, presumably to try to talk Blair out of it, but Blair didn’t wait. He lunged for Smith—and staggered backward as if he’d encountered a brick wall.
He looked briefly stunned. So did Smith until Blair tried again from either side and still seemed unable to cross some invisible line around him. Then Smith began to smile.
“I didn’t think it would work on you,” he confessed. “I am truly invincible. You people should really consider your options more carefully. So long, Sera. You know where I am when you change your mind.”
Jason and Ella picked themselves up and moved after him, giving the baffled Blair a wide berth. Ella was jerking her head, as if there was a crick in her neck
“He’s used a protective spell,” Sera blurted as the door closed on them. “To make sure his own guys don’t turn on him.”
Blair dragged his gaze from the window to Sera. “Well, that’s a pity. I’d just decided the best way out of this mess was to kill Smith. You‘ll have to do it now.”
“I can’t kill the bastard,” she said bitterly. “He’s my father.” Her breath caught. “Or at least, he says he is.” Hope sparked, faint but definite. “He couldn’t have known how that would alienate me,” she murmured, “and he was hoping to get to you through me.” Eagerly now, she crossed the room for her bag and found her phone, swiftly scrolling down for Melanie’s number.
“Mel, it’s me again. Listen, was my mother’s name Rebecca?”
A brief silence, then, “Yes. Rebecca Frances MacBride. I thought you knew.”
“I never asked. A child’s mother doesn’t have a name, does she? Another question, Mel. You know you said you didn’t know who my father was because my mother never told you?”
“Yes.” Mel sounded wary.
“Was that because she didn’t need to tell you? Did you already have a good idea?”
Another pause. Then: “I might have guessed. I never knew for certain.”
“Please tell me it wasn’t Nicholas Smith.”
In the silence, Sera closed her eyes, let the pain batter her.
“I’m sorry,” Mel said, barely audible. “I never liked him. I didn’t want it to be him. And I didn’t want him to influence you or—”
“Good-bye, Mel.” She broke the connection and threw the phone on the desk. “Seems there are some things even your best friends can’t tell you.”
****
Blair felt emasculated in some bizarre way. It had been a long time since he’d come up against any being stronger than him on any suit, and although he could see the funny side of it, being unable to so much as slap a puny and frightened human male was galling in the extreme. His damsel in distress however, seemed curiously unaware of her knight’s failure. In fact, she seemed to be lost in her