Free Serafina and the Silent Vampire by Marie Treanor Page A

phone into her pocket as she stood up. She glanced at Blair, who rose politely with her. He was too close, and the fire and the butterflies intensified; but again, she refused to admit her weakness by moving away from him. “Exactly what is it you expect me to do if I find any of these…creatures?”
    “Tell me,” Blair said. “And I will come and kill them.” His sensual lips tugged upward. “You look shocked. Remember, these are the creatures who killed your friend Jason.”
    “And you’re the good vampire?” she retorted with blatant mockery. “The one who doesn’t kill?”
    “Not very often,” he amended.
    “And yet you’re quite prepared to kill several of your fellow…fellows,” she finished weakly. She still felt foolish saying the word vampire with any seriousness. “Aren’t you afraid they’ll kill you first?”
    “At the moment, they seem to be ignoring my existence. Which I find rather rude when they’re stealing my supper.”
    “What if I don’t agree to anyone being killed?”
    “Serafina. They’re already dead.” His sharp teeth gleamed, and terror and attraction tore through her in equal measure. “Like me.”
    Jesus, how could he say those things, be those things when he stood there looking at her like that ?
    “There you are,” said a sultry female voice from nowhere. “Come back to bed, gorgeous.”
    Startled, Sera stepped back, her gaze flying to the speaker, a rumpled brunette in a black minidress that hung slightly askew across her hips and breasts. She had the swollen lips and contented eyes of someone newly awake after a satisfying bout of good sex. The thought appalled Sera for all sorts of reasons, most of which she’d no intention of analyzing.
    The woman sashayed up to Blair and almost fell against him, wrapping her arms around his neck. As she pressed her cheek contentedly into his chest, she appeared to catch sight of Sera for the first time.
    “Oh,” she said, blinking. She lifted her head. “I didn’t know you had company. Shit, am I in the middle of something?” She sounded both accusing and uneasy, prepared for either anger or distress. Her sleepy eyes were suddenly watchful.
    But Blair didn’t seem remotely put out. He simply put one arm around the woman’s waist and half turned her to face Sera properly. His voice in Sera’s head was merely polite. “This is Tess.”
    Sera swallowed. “Hello. I’m Sera.”
    “Pleased to meet you,” Tess said warily. “Tess Mason.”
    Sera swung back to the blandly observing Blair. “Is she?”
    “A vampire? No. She’s supper.” He smiled provokingly. “And breakfast.”
    “No, she bloody isn’t.” She faced Tess with determination. She hadn’t needed to ask. There was no death about this girl, who looked merely randy. “Something’s come up,” Sera said firmly. “I’ll give you a lift home.”
    She moved toward the girl, had even touched her arm, when she found Blair standing between them. Like a dog guarding his bone.
    She stared defiantly up at him, clutching the stick in her pocket. Would it really work? His eyes were hard with something of the same look she’d glimpsed before he killed the vampires. She tensed, ready to strike and knowing she’d have to be fast. She’d only get one chance. If that.
    For a moment, it hung in the balance. Then his lips quirked, and he stood aside. “You’re right,” he agreed. “Something has come up. And it’s getting increasingly hard to do anything about it.”
    Uncertainly, Sera searched his face. In a human male, she’d have understood that as crude innuendo. In a vampire, what the hell did it mean?
    While she speculated, he took Tess’s hand; but although Sera started forward in fresh alarm, he merely kissed the girl’s fingers like some gallant of old. It would have been a graceful gesture had his gaze not been on Sera the whole time. Tess, however, seemed enchanted, smiling mistily into the back of his head—besotted or mesmerized?
    Sera pushed