Falling Apart Read Free

not like him. He … he says he can feel me … inside him.’ I left the obligatory pause that Liam had trained me into after five years of office sharing but, of course, with Zan no innuendo dropped into the gap. ‘So he knows when I’m thinking about him. If he … feels me …’—another tiny unentendre-filled space, just to make sure—‘he usually phones, or texts or something. But this time’—my throat tightened—‘he just went.’
    Zan finally turned to face me, cross-legged in his chair, like a male model turned Bond villain. ‘And you think …?’ He slotted his fingers together and held them under his chin, eyes interrogating me.
    But I’m immune to the vamp-glamour. In fact, to blow my own trumpet just a bit, I’m better than the five per-centers who can tell a vampire just by looking at them, I can not only spot them, I can react almost as fast as they can to a situation. It means that I’m really good at my job: when an out-of-area vamp shows on our system I tranq them and send them back. I’ve also got blood that’s pure vampire-heroin, but we keep quiet about that. If York Council find out about it they’ll think of a way of using me for something else. And
still
not paying a proper salary. ‘I’ve thought lots of things, Zan, but now I’d really like some actual answers. So, come on. Where is he?’
    Zan spun the chair back around to face the screen. ‘Sil is a free agent. With the fiction we uphold of his being the City Vampire in charge of Otherworld York, he is perfectly at liberty to move around without being subject to the permits and paperwork that the Others would normally require.’
    â€˜You don’t know where he is.’ Sudden panic buzzed behind my eyes. ‘Even
you
?’
    In reflection, his eyes met mine. ‘Now, what gives you that idea, Jessica?’
    â€˜Because you
love
to know more than I do. If you had so much as a whisper about where he was, this place would be more full of hints than’—I glanced around for a really good metaphor—‘than it is of anything else,’ I finished, rather feebly.
    A shrug. ‘He told me he would be away from the office for a few days. That there was some work he wished to do that necessitated his travelling. I have perpetuated this story for the sake of the press and all public agencies; we wouldn’t wish to spread the rumour that we cannot keep an eye on our City Vamp, now, would we?’
    â€˜Okay, so what’s “a few days” in vampire-speak? Is it “I might not be back for breakfast” or “don’t expect to see me for six months”?’ My voice was a bit high-pitched and the words came out rushed and jerky, like sheep herded by a collie on amphetamines.
    â€˜I am … concerned.’ Zan pushed his chair away from the desk and stood with the smooth speed of the vampire. ‘Not that he has gone, but because he has been gone for so long without word.’ He came towards me, his tall, slender figure crossing the beech laminate flooring silently. It was like being crept up on by an egret. ‘And that it may be something to do with you, Jessica.’
    â€˜Oh, now, wait, you’re not pinning this one on me! Okay, fair enough, things are a bit … well … awkward between me and some other people’—like just about every human who’d found out that my father wasn’t really a retired English teacher but a semi-immortal demon—‘but Sil and I are good. We’re strong together, Zan, we …’ No, I really wasn’t going to go into detail about our relationship, particularly with someone who regarded sitting on a seat previously occupied by another as being too much physical contact. ‘He wouldn’t run out on me. He
wouldn’t.
’
    â€˜I agree.’
    â€˜You