Synthetic: Dark Beginning (10 page)

She heard a whooshing sound and a loud thump. She raised her head to see that Vaughn had landed with a panther’s grace beside a young girl who’d watched the feat without surprise. “Berta sent me to get you. She’s mad that you didn’t chase after her and Joshua is harassing her again. She’s just trying to make you jealous, but she won’t take me home to bed until you come beat him up.”

“I’m tired of your sister’s games.”

“So am I, but you know how everything with her is total drama.”

Vaughn lifted Iris into his arms. “I’ll do it for you.” He took one last look at the dark hill before he walked off between the tents.

Chapter 10

Kora brushed herself off.  Never in her life had she gotten so dirty and something about it felt good.  Even familiar.  She’d seen enough to know that her vampire was a slut with commitment issues. That was enough. She climbed the hill leading up to the highway but her eyes kept wandering down to the platform where Vaughn swayed through the crowd with Iris asleep on his shoulder. Next thing she knew, she was standing on her tiptoes so she could track him as he waded through the dance floor.  He emerged a minute later at the west end of the platform. Kora slipped after them and hid behind a collapsed lifeguard station. They were headed toward an abandoned beach house with ragged drapes still waving in the shattered windows. Kora slunk along the wall until she saw Berta before a bright fire in the center of a garden patio. A pile of freshly broken plant pots lay near the door as if hurled at some recent target. To the far left was a young man with a thin, beaten face and blond hair pulled back in a ponytail.

“Take Iris home to bed,” said Vaughn, placing the sleeping girl in Berta’s arms.

“I sent her to find you for a reason,” said Berta, who seemed aware that she was in grave trouble. “Joshua followed me up here and started bragging about how he plans to kill Max.  He’s plotting something.”

“Just go.”

“But I—”

“Go!”

Berta walked away, gazing at the two men over her shoulder. Vaughn waited until she was a good distance away before turning to face Joshua. “Didn’t I pound on you enough this morning?”

Joshua spat in the sand at Vaughn’s feet. “My dad did, but you punch like a little girl.”

“I just need more practice.” Vaughn reached down, grabbed Joshua by the arm, and hurled him across the patio where he smashed into a rock wall.

“I didn’t do anything,” he croaked as Vaughn wrapped a hand around his throat and lifted him into the air like a limp scarecrow.

Still tucked in her hiding spot, Kora watched Joshua struggle to breathe, his feet kicking high above the ground. She jumped out from behind the wall into the firelight like a wild apparition. “Let him go.”

Both Joshua and Vaughn stared at her with equal amazement. Vaughn dropped Joshua, whose bewildered expression didn’t change when he hit the ground.

“What the hell is that?” he asked Vaughn.

Kora felt as if she’d interrupted them while they rehearsed a play. Vaughn slunk toward her, careful not to stir the air in case she flickered out. “Are you who I think you are?”

He knows me!
  Kora panicked and took off down the beach with Vaughn right behind her.  She was fast, shooting over hills in a wild blur. Kora never ran around at Mirafield. She was sure she was some kind of athletic prodigy until she leaped over a small streambed and went tumbling headfirst onto the sand. Vaughn caught up with her and when she felt his hand on her shoulder, she swung around, caught him under the jaw with her left fist, and sent him flying backward about thirty feet. 

He landed on his feet like a cat, crouched down with his eyes fixed on her. 

Kora's heart had never pounded so hard. She bent over to breathe deeper and felt herself gently lifted.  She opened her eyes to see Vaughn smiling down at her. For a split second, she floated in some ancient dream: a perfect moment she’d imagined a thousand times over in another life.
“You can put me down now.”

“You look like you're sick. How the hell did you do that?”

“I guess that's what happens when assholes tackle me.”

“So you did it on purpose?”

Kora hesitated.  “You're the first asshole I've encountered so I don't know—must have been adrenalin.”

“I just wanted to talk.”

Kora struggled out of his arms and onto her feet. “You could have said so.”

“And would you have listened?”

She stumbled and he caught her arm. “Probably not.  I've never had that sort of speed before.”

“I inspired you.”

“Frightened me is more like it.” She jerked her arm away from him and sat on a nearby rock.

Vaughn crouched down beside her. “Any broken bones?”

“I’m fine. What do you want?”

“You’re the one who was following me. I should be asking you that question. Dr. Kimura wasn’t kidding when she said you’d have blue hair.”

Kora spun the name Kimura through her brain until it stopped on a Mirafield scientist who’d requested to visit her several times over the years.  Kora didn't mingle with fans, but Dr. Kimura was fairly accomplished before she retired.  Not a total idiot like most of the scientists at Mirafield.  “You’ve spoken with her?”

“Just yesterday, strangely. Should we consider ourselves lucky that you’re here of all places?”

“I’m working on a project for Ruby.”

“Then I guess the answer is no, we shouldn’t be happy you’re here.” He collapsed onto the ground across from Kora and she did her best not to look at him. “Dr. Kimura said that you built me. Is that true?”

He chewed on a piece of grass as he drilled his eyes into her. Kora struggled to remain calm but his presence unsettled her.  “I think so. Gus found some notes about you and they were in my writing. That’s why I’m here.”

“Checking me out.”

“I wouldn’t put it that way.”

“That’s what it looks like to me.” Unlike her, Vaughn was enjoying himself. “So you don’t remember me?”

“My memory starts when I woke up at Mirafield ten years ago. I suffered amnesia.”

He digested this in silence, his eyes never leaving her face. “So what are you doing for Ruby this time?”

Kora shrugged. It was no use beating around the bush. “I’m building her a synthetic vessel.”

“What a romantic way to put it—a vessel.  I like that.  It’s another vampire, isn’t it?”

She wanted to think of something clever and sarcastic to say back to him, but ended up just nodding her head.

“From the look on your face, I’d say you’re not into this plan?”

“It’s a total nightmare.”

Vaughn laughed.  “I think it’s kind of sweet, you coming back here every ten years to add another member to the coven. I haven’t even introduced myself.  I’m Vaughn.” He held out a hand with long fingers. Kora pulled her own hand out of her pocket and moved it through the air until it hovered before his. He took it gently and a knowing smile spread across his face.
“You were watching me from up on the hill, weren’t you?”

“You knew I was there—I heard what you said to that little girl.”

“Did you like what you saw?”

She knew he was referring to how she’d spied on him and Berta, but she wasn’t going to let him intimidate her.  She tried to pull her hand away but he held onto it.  “Not really. I don’t like watching people get tortured and punched.”

He let go of her hand. “That was just Joshua. Everyone beats on him and most of the time he deserves it.”

“No one deserves to be choked and hit.”

“He’s a worthless asshole who does nothing around here but make a nuisance of himself.”

“And who are you to decide worth? Maybe Joshua is worth more than you.”

All the blood drained from Vaughn’s face.
“It's because he's human and I'm not, isn't it?”

That had a lot to do with it, of course, but Kora wasn't about to admit it. Unlike Mirafield, there seemed to be an unnerving equality among the humans, synthetics, and mutants at Ruby's prison compound. Kora didn't like it but she doubted anyone would sympathize with her, especially not Vaughn. “I hate violence of any kind, especially when it involves my creatures.”

Vaughn climbed to his feet. “I don’t think you should judge me from what you’ve seen tonight. It's not like I'm going around beating everyone up on a daily basis.”

“Even if you only harmed another once every fifty years, it wouldn't make a difference. It still means you're a danger.”

“Why do I have the feeling you were decided against me before you even came out here?”

“Maybe I was. I find it hard to stomach that I ever made something as out of control as a vampire.”

Before Kora could flinch, Vaughn’s face was level with hers. This close, she could clearly see his fangs, smell his skin, and see flecks of green burning through the brown in his eyes. “I’ve found that hard to accept myself, but then I didn’t have a choice, did I?” he snarled. “You made a deranged woman her fantasy vampire and then took off to Mirafield. I hope it was worth all the money they paid you.”

Vaughn turned without another word and disappeared into the mist rising off of the water. Kora wanted to call out to him, but forced herself to remain quiet.
In her gut she knew that she hadn't made Vaughn for Ruby, but the only alternative was that she had made him for herself; this possibility was even more horrifying. Was she really as tacky as some of her clients or even—
oh god, it was painful to think it
—Ruby?  She knew the answer was yes because if she was back in her lab, right this minute, she couldn't design a synthetic that fit her own tastes more than Vaughn. As much as she hated to admit it, Gus was right. Vaughn was delicious.

Chapter 11

Ivan had just taken the first puff of his cigar when Caleb appeared in the doorway dressed in gigantic pajamas covered with smiling trains. He doused his cigar and dropped it in the tray for later. “You all ready for bed?” he asked in a high voice. Caleb nodded, lifted Ivan up, and carried him down the hall to his own room. Ivan noticed a crayon drawing on the floor that showed a stick-figure girl with a shock of bright blue hair sitting in a birdcage.

“I’ll read you five books and then its time to go night-night,” said Ivan, reaching for one of Caleb’s favorite stories about a naughty boy who sails to a land of huge, frolicking monsters. Ivan read for an hour, tucked comfortably into a crevice of Caleb’s mountainous arm. When the giant was asleep, he climbed down off the bed and turned on a nightlight shaped like a Ford Mustang.

He returned to his bedroom and had just relit his cigar when he heard a loud pounding in his closet. Ivan scrambled through the racks of clothes until he determined which wall was in peril, then furiously cleared away pyramids of shoeboxes. He ran back and forth from his closet to his bed with armloads of his most precious outfits. Then a loud mechanical sound burst from behind the wall and, moments later, a grinding saw blade tore through the wood, spewing bits of sheetrock in all directions. The saw cut a tall rectangular hole that fell forward onto the floor with a loud bang.

“Ivan,” said a gruff voice. A flipperish hand reached out and gripped the side of the rough opening and pulled through a tremendous flannel-clad body with a heavy tool belt cinched around its waist. Humphrey studied Ivan through globular eyes set high on a bulbous head. Though he didn’t have tusks, Ivan’s eldest brother resembled a walrus more than a man, with great flabby jowls that nearly hid a mouth that was constantly chewing on cookies he kept stashed in his pockets. “Someone blocked off the tunnel door.”

“I’m afraid I did,” said Ivan. “I asked Ramon to expand my closet several years ago.”

“Then I’ll just have to cross it off the maps.” Humphrey lifted Ivan off the floor and nearly drowned him in his vast, plaid shirt as he carried him into the bedroom and deposited him at the end of the mattress. Ivan watched in trepidation as Humphrey sank his thick body into the extra chair and prayed that the flimsy legs didn’t snap beneath the three hundred pounds of blubber.

Humphrey’s eyes sparkled as he stroked his bristly mustache with webbed fingers, two of which were missing on one hand due to an accident with a table saw years before. He claimed that a shark had bitten them off while he was defending a baby whale stranded near the Baja Peninsula, but Ivan knew better than to believe any of his brother’s tales.

“Thanks for coming. I’m in a crap load of trouble,” said Ivan, pouring them each a tumbler of whisky.

Humphrey drank his in one gulp and held out the tiny glass for more. “Do you have any of those peanut butter cookies? Last time you came to visit me, you brought a whole batch and they were so delicious.” He licked his pudgy lips.

“I’m afraid I haven’t had much time to bake lately.” Ivan offered Humphrey a cigar and lit the end for him. “I need some advice. Do you remember when I went insane several years ago?”

“How could I forget?” Humphrey shuddered and waves rippled through his flesh. “That was the last time I set foot in the finished part of the house. I was very worried about you, flopping around on the floor like a dying fish.”

“It’s a bad memory for me, too.  A memory I don’t want repeated.”

Humphrey raised his bristly eyebrows. “Has Ruby threatened you?”

“I have to spy for her or she’ll flip that hellish switch on me again.”

“What will you do?”

“I’m not sure there’s anything I can do but go along with it, at least for now.” Ivan looked over his shoulder as if afraid the walls might hear. “Do you know anything about this damned thing in my head?”

Humphrey leaned back in his chair and puffed on his cigar. “I don’t know the entire story, but I do know that Caleb made several of those devices for Ruby a long time ago.”

“Caleb? You must be joking.”

“I’ve avoided telling you because I didn’t want you to blame him, but he was an electronics genius in the same way Kora is with synthetics, I with architecture and you with…fashion.” Humphrey’s eyes scanned a pile of high-heeled boots and shimmering, sequined outfits Ivan had saved from his imploding closet. 

Ivan rolled his eyes but managed, for once, to hold his tongue. He was no more a fan of Humphrey’s spiraling, nonsensical construction than he was of Ivan’s outrageous style. “Caleb would never do anything to harm me.”

“I’m sure at the time he had no idea what Ruby intended to do with the devices.”

“But how can I get rid of the blasted thing?” Ivan poured himself another shot of whisky and his eyes bulged as he drank it in one gulp.

“It’s lodged in your brain, Ivan. I don’t think removal is a safe option unless you could get Kora to do it, but I’m sure Ruby has her busy on some tragic project.”

“I don’t trust that girl. She tried to convince Ruby to put Caleb and I out of our misery. I need to take care of this myself.”

Humphrey stopped chewing and stared. “Are you sure?  That doesn't sound like the Kora I knew.  Something must have happened to her.  I'd love to see her again before she goes back to Mirafield. My little sister. I feel as if I failed her years ago. Could you bring her up for a visit?”

“She doesn’t remember anything about her old life.”

“Not surprising. I’m sure Ruby shoved one of those devices into her brain as well.”

Ivan ground his cigar stub in the ashtray. “Ruby said she didn’t, but can we please get back to
my
messed-up brain?”

Humphrey blew a huge puff of smoke into the air, his eyes coming back into focus on Ivan’s irritated face. “You must find the transceiver.”

“The what?”

“There’s a separate piece that receives Ruby’s transmissions and relays them to you. I recall Caleb describing it to me one day as he was helping wire a fan in the Roman bath.”

“We have a Roman bath?”

“Oh yes.  A complete reproduction of the Great Bath in England. It took years for us to build, but when Vaughn refused to use it with Ruby—because he doesn’t swim of course—she closed it down.”

Ivan croaked with laughter. Humphrey often mentioned bizarre structures lurking in different parts of the castle, but Ivan knew the place like the back of his hand and had yet to find anything resembling a roller rink, an animal menagerie, or a catacomb.

“So if I find this transceiver, I can destroy it and finally be free of that witch?”

“Absolutely, but we get ahead of ourselves: you must find it first.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. I know this castle better than anyone…except you of course.”

Humphrey lifted his heavy jowls into a sad grin. “That’s kind of you to say, Ivan, but I’ve lost track over the years. I must be getting old because I depend on Ramon more and more to keep the work going.”

“Can you think of a place Caleb might have hidden it?”

“You just have to think like Caleb.”

Ivan collapsed back onto the mattress.  “Caleb’s a child. Back then I suppose he was different.”

“He was a child then too, though more like a brilliant twelve-year old than a toddler.” Humphrey leaned forward and laid his flipper on Ivan’s tiny shoulder that slumped beneath the weight. “You know him better than anyone. Ask him questions—make it a game.”

“Caleb can’t even put on his own underwear in the morning.”

Humphrey tapped his head with the hand missing two fingers. “The brain is a strange thing. He may no longer know how to dress himself, but I’m sure other things have stayed with him.”

“I can’t imagine what’s still there, but I’ll try.” Ivan set his empty tumbler down on the table beside his bed.

“The sun is setting and it’s time for me to retire to the ocean. You won’t mention to Ruby that I’m swimming again, will you?”

“Never.”

“I time my adventures so I’m far out to sea before the sun is down and back only when the light has returned. That way I never see her.”

A wicked grin crossed Ivan’s face. “Imagine how thrilled she’d be to run into you out in the ocean.”

Humphrey’s hand instantly slid around to rub his lower back. “I’ve only just started recovering from that woman’s voracious appetites, and now I’m much too old for all that nonsense.” He rose from the chair, which groaned with relief, and tromped back into the closet where the sheetrock dust had now settled in a thick layer over all of Ivan’s clothes. “I’m sorry about the mess.”

Ivan gazed mournfully at the mountain of hand washing he’d have to do over the next week. Humphrey was the only one in the house, aside from Caleb, who could wreak such havoc without pissing him off. “I’m glad you came. You’ve given me a good start on finding this damn transceiver. He stuck out his hand but Humphrey once again lifted him off the floor and buried him in his massive chest. “Take care of yourself, Ivan.  And I’ll send Ramon down to fix this hole tomorrow. Maybe we can put some kind of door here?”

“Sure, that way you can pop by any time without destroying my entire wardrobe.”

Humphrey climbed back into the hole and picked up his chainsaw, waving as he rambled back through the tunnel Ivan hadn’t even known existed.