Serafina and the Virtual Man - By Marie Treanor Page 0,29

it, so it’ll take some time to get past. If I can. Sera? Keep your phone at the ready. That thing could bury you, and I wouldn’t even hear from in there.” She pointed up to the gallery.

Sera waved one hand and wandered through the arch into the bowels of the house, trailing her fingers along the walls as she went. Adam stayed with JK as she turned and ran lightly upstairs to the gallery.

His heart was doing a steady but accelerated drumming, like when a game got interesting. Which was amazing. That VR program was fucking good.

“God, I was such a genius,” he murmured with derisive self-mockery and switched cameras so that he could see her entering the outer study. She looked at the camera above the secret door and sighed as she extracted the laptop from her bag. “So which way, JK?” he urged. “Try and hack into the alarm system? More satisfying to accomplish but harder. In fact, probably impossible in the time available. Or ask Exodus? Go on, ask. You know you want to…”

Or had he really scared her off? How creepy was he right now? The trouble was, being disembodied tended to separate you from the norm too.

Well, even alive, he’d never pretended to be normal. Come on, JK, just ask me. Five seconds, and then I’ll help you out…

Her fingers on the track pad hovered. She had elegant hands, small and slim, the nails shapely and beautifully painted. How would they feel on a man’s body?

You’ll never know, will you?

Fuck, I don’t want to be dead.

Two seconds, JK. Come on, you know it makes sense.

She opened a program he’d never seen or heard of before.

Oh well, can’t win them all. He ran his mouse over the chat icon. And before he could click, it flashed to life. “JK has invited you to chat.”

Yes!

Exodus: Ignore the camera. The alarm won’t go off until you touch the keypad. Make sure you hit # first, followed immediately by 9845. Wait for the click, then 7698.

A smile flickered across her face.

JK: I hate you.

While he grinned, she marched to the keypad without hesitation, laptop clutched in one hand in tablet form so she could check the numbers. With only a couple of glances, she hit the keys with swift precision, waited as instructed, hit the rest, and then she was in.

The door slid open, and he turned slowly to face her.

Chapter Seven

Jilly’s heart raced. She hadn’t hesitated to obey Exodus’s instructions, yet now that the door stood open, she had to force herself to go in.

Empty room full of exciting technology?

Or him?

The room was dark as before; light from the outer office penetrated only the first few feet of the lab. Beyond, everything looked shadowed, mysterious.

She gripped the laptop tighter and stepped inside, every sense on high alert. She couldn’t hear anyone moving or even breathing. The room smelled sterile, as if no one had been there since it was last cleaned. And yet the hairs on the back of her neck stood up in awareness. Like Sera’s in the presence of spirits.

I am not psychic. I am so not psychic.

She moved farther in, eyes darting to every corner of the room. And then, just as suddenly as the last time, the lights came on, and she was blinded by the dazzling green glow that zapped into her and seemed to consume her. At least it finished its scan—or whatever it was doing—faster than before.

Breathing deeply, she opened her eyes and saw him sitting by one of the computers watching her.

He slouched in his chair, untidy, unshaven, every bit as carelessly attractive as she remembered. And terrifyingly real.

Was this how Sera saw ghosts?

His lips quirked into a rueful smile, and he stood, walking toward her. She followed every move with fascination, the faint swing of arms and hips, the play of sinew along his wrist and hand as he held it out to her. Solid. Real.

“JK. I’m glad you came back.”

He’d touched her before, without permission, the faintest brush of his fingertips against her skin, and she’d liked it. Or, at least, looking back on it defensively, she hadn’t minded. It had been so quick and unthreatening. But this, this hand held out to her, loomed huge in her mind because of what she’d learned since the first time, since the first visit, not just about what he was, but who he’d been.

She stared at his hand. It was big enough, but hardly huge in this reality. The