Serafina and the Virtual Man - By Marie Treanor Page 0,65

him. And there was no denying that he needed more blood than he could continuously take from Sera. So she lived with the downside in her relationship. Everyone did.

As Sera went downstairs, she heard Jilly sifting through stuff in the spare room. Looking for evidence. She really wasn’t going to leave this alone.

Flopping onto the sofa in the downstairs sitting room, Sera left a message on both Dale’s and Petra’s phones to say their problem was dealt with, but that Sera would wait at the house until they came home. It was nearly two o’clock in the morning, and Sera was knackered, so she stretched out on the sofa and closed her eyes.

She hoped the Founder had fucked off for good. Why did he keep hanging around?

****

Raking through the chaotic mess of the spare bedroom once more, Jilly had no real idea what she was looking for. She just knew there had to be something they’d missed the last time, something that would prove what Dale had done to Adam.

Feverishly, starting at the door, she dug through it all, tossing the useless bits of rubbish aside one after the other and grabbing the next handful or armful. There had to be something, anything to give him away.

She knew Dale had betrayed his friend, paid someone to murder a fascinating, brilliant, funny man who could never ever be replaced. And now even his ghost had vanished, and she wanted to punch Dale’s face in for that too.

She shuffled forward on her knees into the tiny space she’d created and raked through a scattering of pillow feathers to a mattress spring. She flung that aside so hard it hit the wall behind her, and delved deeper, chucking things over her shoulders as she went. But she could no longer see the splintered, broken objects in her hands or anything in front of her at all. They were blurry with the tears she suddenly realised were streaming down her face and dripping onto her hands, onto the mess beneath.

“Oh Jesus.” Jilly gasped, threw herself back against the wall, on top of God knew what, clutching her face in both hands, and let the tears come because she couldn’t stop them. They flowed over her fingers and into her hair while her body shook with silent, heaving sobs.

It was a long time since she’d felt this desolate. If ever. Loneliness, emptiness crowded in on her, drowning the pointless anger. There was only despair and loss. Loss of a spirit that had made her laugh and live and love. And right now it didn’t matter a fuck that none of that was real. It was real to Jilly, and she knew it had been real to Adam. On some level, Adam was real, and he’d been shut down like a machine, cut off, and killed. Again. How unspeakably tragic to be killed twice…

Shuddering, Jilly dug the heel of her hand into her eye, threw her head back against the wall, and heard it crack. She wanted to hurt herself just to break into the relentless pain of knowing it was over, that she’d never see his infectious, crooked smile again, never speak to him again or even message him again. Because he was dead. He really was dead.

Slowly, she dropped her soaking hands from her face. She’d get the bastard who did it; she would. But that wouldn’t bring Adam back to her…

Only Sera could do that, for a few moments at least.

Then he’d know she was still trying, that she wouldn’t forget about him or what had happened to him. Abruptly, Jilly stood up, took a deep, determined breath that wasn’t quite steady before she wiped her wet face on her shirt and went to fetch the photographs they’d found earlier. Then she ran downstairs and discovered Sera lying on the sitting room sofa, eyes closed. How could she sleep at a time like this?

“Sera?”

Sera’s eyes flew open, focused on the plastic bag full of broken photos clutched in Jilly’s arms.

“Can you reach him?” Jilly asked bluntly.

****

Sera looked exhausted. Jilly almost felt guilty for asking, but she couldn’t leave it there, and they’d never have a better chance of trying to reach Adam than here in the house where he’d died. Sera didn’t complain, just demanded coffee, and Jilly went off to rake in the Ewans’ kitchen.

When she came back with two huge designer cups full of strong coffee, Sera was sitting cross-legged on the sofa with Adam’s childhood photo in her hands, and