Serafina and the Virtual Man - By Marie Treanor Page 0,41
both hands on her shoulders. “You were never fleeting. You were always different, and I will keep you.”
Her heart, her whole body surged with warmth. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t an object to be kept like a favourite book or a pet. She wanted to be kept by him. Oh Sera, Sera, where have you gone wrong?
Perhaps misunderstanding the distress leaking from her expression or her mind, Blair said firmly, “The Founder will not hurt you.”
Her breath caught. “Shit, Blair, would he hurt you for this? For me?”
Blair shook his head. “Why should he? You’re already up to your neck in the paranormal. You’re not a normal human, and our being together is no threat to vampires. Maybe we attracted his attention, briefly—probably by killing all those banking vampires last year—but trust me, he’s got better things to do.”
Sera felt her eyes widen. “The banking vampires. Would he regard them as his people too, however they were made? Is he pissed off with us for that?”
“Of course not.” Blair’s voice in her head sounded affronted. “We did the right thing for vampires. There were never intended to be such numbers and certainly not such mingling with humans. And we’re trying to look after the ones that are left. Besides, if he was angry, I suspect we’d know. In fact, we’d have known four months ago.”
“Okay… But if Mel’s also attracted his attention because of her part in all that, and there’s a connection between us, which there is, isn’t that going to worry him?”
“Why should it? We’ll all be fine if Melanie pulls back on her obsessive searching. He’s just looking, Sera. We probably weren’t even meant to notice. I probably wouldn’t have if you hadn’t picked up on an extra presence.”
Sera reached up and kissed him, hard. “Stuff him, then. I’m going to kick some poltergeist arse.”
****
Since Jilly didn’t want Adam to know she was checking up on him—if he was still around and if he really was Adam—Jilly pushed Jack off his computer and used his instead to track down Roxy May. As if relieved, Jack went to the library to do his research there.
Jilly had just discovered Roxy’s registration at the Scotsman Hotel when Alex McGowan breezed into the office like a ginger tornado. “Where’s Sera?”
Since Elspeth was the only other person present in the office, Jilly opened her mouth and yelled, “Sera!”
Alex blinked. “Wow. You’re so…unexpected.”
“You mean common,” Jilly said dryly.
“Oh no,” Alex said with enough fervour to widen her eyes with surprise.
“Where’s the fire?” Sera demanded, emerging from her inner office.
“On his head,” Jilly said unkindly.
Alex sniggered, and the unlikely thought crossed her mind that it wasn’t just Sera he’d come to like since their first inauspicious meeting last autumn.
“I’m in a hurry,” Alex said. “So here it is. If I give you this, you keep me in the loop about anything else—anything at all—that you discover in this case.”
“Deal,” Sera said promptly.
Alex rested his hip on the edge of Jack’s desk. “We’ve ID’d your body. One James Killearn, tough boy, hit man and all-round villain, associated with drugs gangs among other unsavoury organizations. Disappeared off our radar around August last year.”
Jilly met Sera’s stunned gaze with her own.
“Someone hit the hit man?” Sera said faintly.
“Looks like it. Initial examination shows he was strangled.”
“Not shot?” Jilly said quickly.
Alex frowned. “No signs of gunshot wounds. Why?”
“More of my visions,” Sera said hastily. “Anything else?”
“What, apart from the fact that we’ve also discovered his killer?” Alex said casually.
“You have?” Sera brightened. “That should make things easier.”
Maybe, Jilly thought. Maybe not.
“Who?” Sera demanded. “Who done it?”
“Genesis Adam.”
Jilly’s ears sang. She knew she sagged in her chair but seemed incapable of self-control. It should have been relief at having George and Andy in the clear—although the bastards should really be sent down for something. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t.
“Well,” Sera said at last. “That’s astonished us. I suppose it explains his sudden urge to leave the country. And why the body was buried in the Ewans’ garden.”
And possibly why the Ewans had covered it up. If they did. And why Adam hadn’t been welcome anymore in their house.
“By all accounts, Adam was into drink and drugs. Which would explain his association with a lowlife like Killearn.”
“But not why Killearn came after him,” Sera argued. “It’s not as if Genesis Adam couldn’t afford a drug habit. Financially speaking.”
“Doesn’t mean he paid his bills,” Alex pointed out.