Serafina and the Virtual Man - By Marie Treanor Page 0,35

her thighs, so dizzy with lust that she didn’t even notice when the German shouting stopped. She didn’t notice anything at all that wasn’t him until his mouth loosened on hers.

“Death has its charms,” he whispered against her lips. “Thank you, JK. It’s been fun.”

Her eyes flew open. They were back in Dale’s secret study, and Adam was letting her go. Her body felt cold, her mind numb.

Sera. I have to get to Sera.

She nodded, dumbly, grabbed up her laptop, and ran for the door, where she skidded to a halt and spun around. “I’m sorry, Adam,” she blurted.

But the room was empty. He’d gone.

Chapter Eight

She found Sera sitting on a pile of earth, clawing more up out of the ground with her bare hands. “Sera, we need shovels,” she pointed out.

Sera paused. “I know. Just passing the time. I didn’t want to leave in case I lost the right place.”

“You’re sure about this? Ewan’s going to kick our arses from here to Glasgow if we dig up his roses for nothing.”

“Oh, come on, Jilly. It’s not his roses he’s really going to mind us digging up!”

She had a point. Who but Ewan would bury a body in his garden? Jilly swallowed. “You think he shot Adam by accident?”

“Accident or design, it certainly explains his reluctance to talk about the burglary or gunshots,” Sera said grimly. “Although not my vision. This is a mess, Jilly.”

Jilly nodded, prepared to wait until her friend was ready to tell. Visions of violence and death upset Sera far more than she let on.

A quick scan had revealed a dark, square shadow that Jilly hoped was an open garden shed. “I’ll get a shovel.”

“Get two, but we shouldn’t have to dig for long. Blair’s on his way, and he can go a hell of a lot faster.”

****

Leaning against a nearby tree trunk ten minutes later, Jilly had to admit that Blair had his uses. The vampire, tall and muscled, dug in a blur without even raising a sweat and in no time at all threw down his shovel and reached down into the hole. He was horrendously strong and lifted out the dead body as if it were a child’s doll.

Show some respect, you bastard.

She didn’t want to see it, but she couldn’t stay away from the body. She dragged herself over, feeling like a zombie. Blair laid it out on the ground, then stood back, putting his arm around Sera. She leaned her head on his shoulder, which at least gave Jilly a push to look at the body instead.

He was wearing a black track suit, and there was mud all over what was left of his face. There didn’t seem to be much skin, so far as she could tell. There were insects everywhere, undulating in the dirt. Her stomach heaved.

Oh Jesus.

At least the smell wasn’t so bad. Yet…

Her torch wavered, catching a tuft of hair sticking out of the mud. It glinted in the beam of light. Jilly steadied her torch and shone it again. Her breath caught.

“Blair,” she said hoarsely. “Lie down beside the corpse.”

“What?” Sera demanded. “Jilly, for f—”

“No, look at him!” She could barely contain her excitement. It made her voice tremble. “I don’t think it’s Adam. Adam’s hair’s black, this guy’s is much lighter. And Adam’s as tall as Blair is.”

“Lie down beside the corpse,” Sera repeated, tugging at Blair’s hand. “Please?”

With a sardonic twist of his lips, Blair lay down beside the corpse, which was a good foot shorter than him. For a moment, he looked as if he was going to roll into the grave, just for a lark—or perhaps because it was his natural habitat—but Sera lunged to stop him.

“Wait,” she cried, grabbing him and hauling him to his feet. “Don’t spoil the crime scene any more than we have. How are we going to play this?”

“We’ve got to call the cops,” Jilly said. “It’s a body. That goes beyond Serafina’s discretion promise.”

“Way beyond,” Sera agreed ruefully. “Only how the hell do we explain why we were digging up the Ewans’ garden at nine o’clock in the evening?”

Only nine? It felt like the middle of the night. It was certainly cold enough.

Jilly stamped her feet to keep warm while she thought. “We could tell them the truth,” she suggested at last and flung up her hands as Sera opened her mouth to reply. “It’s all right. I realise I’ll be the first of my family ever to have knowingly told the truth to the police,