Serafina and the Virtual Man - By Marie Treanor Page 0,66

the others, glass and wood shards and all, resting on her thighs. Her eyes were closed; her lips moved in silent plea.

Quietly, Jilly crossed the room and set down both cups. To her surprise, Sera reached up and took her hand, drawing her down on the sofa beside her. Jilly sat, staring at her friend in hope until Sera opened her eyes.

“Tell him I’m still looking,” Jilly blurted. “Tell him I won’t give up. Tell him I’ll remember.”

But Sera only squeezed her fingers and let her go. “I can’t, Jilly,” she said finally. “I can’t reach him. I’m sorry.”

Sera could reach most spirits. In fact, she tended to take it as a personal failure if she couldn’t, so Jilly tried to smile. The effort stopped her crumbling again. “It’s okay. Thanks for trying. It was just too sudden. I wanted to say good-bye.”

“You really liked him,” Sera observed.

Jilly nodded, fighting back the onrushing tears all over again. “First nonwanker in a long time,” she said with an effort at lightness.

“Plays a mean VR game?” Sera guessed.

“Well, he should do, since he writes them.” She swallowed convulsively, tried to explain without really explaining. After all, this was Sera. “I just felt—a connection. You know?”

Sera nodded, as though she did know. For the first time, Jilly really considered what connection lay between Sera and Blair, whom she’d once so thoroughly disapproved of. She wondered how much Sera would grieve now if someone stuck a stake in the vampire’s heart. She wondered if she would.

Stupid thoughts. Stupid emotions.

Jilly lay down on the other sofa and closed her eyes. Think and plan through the pain until you fall asleep. That was what she’d always done before…

It seemed only moments later that her eyes sprang open. Her heart leapt painfully in her breast.

“Fuck,” she said and stumbled off the sofa. She ran through the house, with sudden, definite purpose, making for the gallery steps. She was at the top before she heard Sera’s urgent voice calling after her.

“Jilly? What are you doing? Blair’s just told me the Ewans’ car is coming up the drive!”

“Stall them!” Jilly shouted over her shoulder and burst into the study. She keyed in the numbers to the lab pad, her heart throbbing like a rabbit’s. “Come on,” she muttered, waiting for the click before she tapped the rest of the numbers. Then the door slid open, and she was in.

“Shit,” she whispered, staring at the nearest computer. She’d been right. It was switched off. Adam’s program had gone with the power. Hastily, she hit the button, listening with half an ear for the arrival of the Ewans. Was that their car?

She threw herself into the computer chair, drumming her fingertips on the desk as the computer came back to life. Apart from anything else, if Dale had discovered it switched off, he might well have suspected they were in here.

The computer desktop came up. Jesus, how did she find the right files? The car engine outside switched off. Voices emerged. Dale’s and Petra’s.

Jilly clicked Recent and found three folders. Interesting—Dale had been in here between her visits. Had he seen Adam too? Why wouldn’t he tell them? Because he knew he was responsible for his partner’s death. This time, he deserved to be haunted. Hell, if he’d hired Killearn, he’d deserved that too and more.

“Sera?” came Dale’s voice.

Fuck, they were in. Fortunately, Sera didn’t seem to answer, and the footsteps went off into the bowels of the house in search of her.

Jilly opened all three folders, scanned the contents of each. Shit but Dale was a secretive bastard. All the files in every folder were identified only by numbers.

In the end, it was the pattern of the list she recognised. And only just in time. Sera’s voice shouted, “Jilly, are you finished up there?”

Jilly brought up the files, closed down the other two folders, and straightened. For an instant, she hesitated. She could step over the trigger point, see if he was back. She needed to. And if he was, she could confront Dale…

With a silly, unbelievable story and no evidence? Before Sera got paid?

Forcing herself, she backed toward the door, then, listening to the footsteps marching along the gallery, she hit the Close button and leapt toward the big desk just in time to be pretending to reattach the monitor to the computer when Dale strode into the room, Petra and Sera at his heels.

“Sorry,” Jilly said apologetically to the Ewans. “I wanted to get this completely cleaned up