“Just a Porsche. Not even a good one,” said Vaughn.
Berta looked at her sister over her shoulder. “Iris, can you ride your horse home by yourself?”
Iris pouted. “But I want to ride with Vaughn too.”
Everyone fell silent when the scream of motorcycles filled the air. Three dirt bikes peeled up the road and spooked Iris’s pony. The riders jumped off and a skinny blond man dressed in a dirty sarong and flip-flops strutted toward Vaughn with a crooked smile on his sunburned face.
“What the hell are you doing out here? Won’t you catch fire?” The man pointed up at the sky as if Vaughn had somehow missed that he was out in daylight.
“That joke’s getting old, Joshua,” said Vaughn. “It’s time you moved on to stakes or garlic.”
Iris giggled and Joshua swung around to pin her with a menacing look, his eyes lingering on Berta. “So are you out here in mommy’s car to pick up a snack?”
“You know I only eat during the rituals,” said Vaughn.
Joshua ran a dirty finger over the polished hood. “Does mama know what you’re up to out here?” Vaughn didn’t answer. “She doesn’t? Well, well.”
“Leave him alone, Joshua,” said Iris. “Or you’re going to get your ass kicked again.”
A vein pulsed on Joshua’s forehead. He slammed his fist onto the hood, stomped over to Iris, and dragged her down off the pony. He threw the screaming girl over his shoulder and ran toward the beach.
Vaughn sailed through the air and landed in front of them. “Put her down.”
Joshua dropped Iris onto the sand and circled his hands around his mouth, belting out a loud whoop. Screeching tires filled the air and Vaughn’s car plowed toward them. It slid up next to Joshua who dove through an open door before it swerved back onto the highway and screamed away.
“You okay?” Vaughn asked Iris, who clung to her sister.
“I’m fine, but Joshua’s an asshole. I knew he wasn’t really going to hurt me. He just wanted your car.”
“Oh shit,” said Berta. “Here comes Max.”
A horse galloped up the highway and circled them. The rider's blue eyes scanned their faces before following the dust trail left by the car. “Maria told me Vaughn was driving one of Ruby’s cars,” he said in a rough voice. “Where the hell is it?”
They heard a distant buzzing sound get louder. The car hurdled toward them at over a hundred miles per hour and everyone jumped back as it whizzed by and went into a spin, coming to a screeching halt only a few yards away. Vaughn closed his eyes after taking in all the damage. Ivan was going to skin him alive.
Max’s lean face twisted with fury. “Joshua—get the hell over here.”
The car doors flung open. Joshua and his friends tumbled out onto the pavement laughing. “This is a piece of junk.” Joshua swaggered forward as blood dripped from his nose. “You can have it back now, Vampire.”
“What the hell are you doing?” hollered Max. “That car belongs to Ruby. You’re going to get us all killed.”
“I was just having a little fun with the monster, dad.” Joshua’s lopsided grin disappeared when Max climb down off his horse. Max was bone thin, but at least a foot taller than his son. Joshua didn't flinch as Max drove a fist into his jaw. He fell backward onto the pavement and when he tried to sit up, Max kicked him in the stomach and he curled into a tight ball. Joshua locked eyes with Vaughn as he coughed up blood. “Get her out of here.”
Vaughn helped Berta and Iris onto the pony while Joshua’s gang remounted their dirt bikes parked along the road. Within minutes, only Vaughn stood watching as Max beat his son until he lay motionless in a pool of blood across the highway’s faded centerline.
“That’s enough, Max,” said Vaughn.
The old man whipped around, unaware that Vaughn was still there. He was breathing heavily and rage burned in his hollow eyes. “This no longer concerns you, monster. Get in that car and go wherever the hell it is you’re going.”
“If you don’t stop, you’ll kill him.”
“He’ll never die.” Max swung his arm down with such force that Joshua’s body buckled up in the air and blood spouted from his many wounds. “No matter how much I beat him, he never dies.”
Vaughn’s arm shot out and he lifted Max off the ground by his neck where he held him choking. “I said, that was enough.”
Max’s eyes bulged but he nodded his head. Vaughn set him back on his feet and they both watched as Joshua dragged himself up with a dazed grin on his butchered face. The kid was an idiot but he was incredibly tough. Vaughn had a hard time getting the crushed door open and once he did, the stench of sweat and urine rose up from the back seats. He accelerated past Joshua and Max, who were already going their separate ways, glad to finally have that scene behind him.
Half an hour later, Vaughn pressed a button on a device Ivan had given him to disrupt the force field. He careened through the border that marked the northern end of Ruby’s property and came to a stop in dense traffic. After inching his way along for nearly an hour, he finally reached Santa Barbara and wound his way up through the hills until he reached a pristine housing development with ten-foot walls topped by razor wire. He pulled up to the gatehouse where the guard took in all the damage to his car. “May I help you?”
Vaughn should have anticipated that there'd be a guard. He smiled until he noticed the guard's eyes focus on his fangs. “I'm here to see someone, but she doesn't know I'm coming.”
“Sure you are.” The guard leaned back in his chair. “Turn around and go before I beat the shit of you.”
“Excuse me?” Vaughn hadn't expected such a hostile reaction from the human, especially when he'd made an effort to be polite.
The guard came out of the booth holding a heavy police baton. “Get out of your car. A synthetic should know better than to give me attitude. I'm going to teach you proper behavior”
It took Vaughn a minute to get his crushed door open. When he stood up, he was a foot taller than the guard but the man seemed unintimidated. Vaughn was curious. He didn't get out into the wide world very often and aside from Ruby, Gus, and the Food, he didn't know many humans. “So is there a certain greeting I'm supposed to say?”
The guard scrunched up his face in disbelief. “Yes, there is. Let me show it to you.”
He swung the baton at Vaughn's head, but Vaughn grabbed it before it touched him. He easily pried the weapon from the man's hand and tossed it away. “I don't like your way of saying hello.”
“What the fuck,” said the man, his eyes full of terror as he backed away from Vaughn. “How the hell did you do that?”
Vaughn glanced at the clock in the booth. It was almost noon. He'd wasted too much time already. “I think you should be nicer when synthetics drive up to your gate.”
“Okay. Sure,” said the guard, raising his arms in the air.
Vaughn needed to knock the guard out for an hour or two and though he was breaking the rules, he was hungry and no one would find out. He pressed a hand over the guard's mouth and sank his teeth into his neck. He drank deeply until the struggling body slumped in his arms, and then yanked his teeth out. He dragged the unconscious guard behind the gatehouse and got back inside of his car. Vaughn leaned forward in his seat, checking the address numbers on the Tuscan houses until he found the place tucked back off the street surrounded by newly planted olive trees. He pulled the car up beside a modern contraption and lurched back into a tiny parking spot, hitting the bumper behind him. He checked his face in the rearview mirror to make sure there was no blood around his mouth.
He hadn’t bothered to call Dr. Kimura in advance. Ruby hated phones and frowned on all forms of external communication so this was his only shot. If Dr. Kimura wasn’t home, he couldn’t risk taking the trip again. To his relief, a brightly dressed woman in her early sixties opened the door. At first she smiled at him in confusion, but then her eyes opened wide and she dropped a pair of pruning shears. Vaughn bent down, picked the shears up, and handed them back t
o her. “My name is Vaughn Lazar.”
“I know. Please come in.” Dr. Kimura closed the door behind him but continued to stare. “This is a great honor.” She waved him into her living room with the pruning shears. “I’m sorry for my odd reaction, but I can’t believe you’re here.”
“How do you know who I am?” Vaughn gazed around at the odd furnishings. He was accustomed to dark rooms crawling with antiques, but Dr. Kimura’s house was modern and white. She directed him to a rectangular couch and gestured for him to sit. He noticed it faced a window with a broad view of a colorful garden.
“You are a legendary figure in the world of synthetics. May I get you something to drink, Mr. Lazar?”
“No, and please call me Vaughn.”
“Vaughn, what brings you to my home?”
“I found your name a while back and I thought you might be able to help me.”
“What seems to be the problem?”
“I haven’t felt well for a long time. My two brothers are actually much worse off than I am, but they couldn’t come. One is aging at an accelerated rate while the other is getting younger. At least his mind is. We’re worried that soon he’ll be like an infant.”
“I see, and you? What’s happening with you?”
“I just feel very tired.” Vaughn drew in a deep breath and gazed down at the plush carpet.
“Would you mind if I examined you?”
Vaughn shrugged and Dr. Kimura guided him to a small room that was dark and cluttered compared with the rest of the house. Machines filled the shelves and an old computer hummed away on a desk facing an office chair stacked with papers and folders. “I don’t allow the maid into this room.” She pointed to a low file cabinet and Vaughn removed a stack of books before he sat down. Dr. Kimura pulled down a yellow box and removed a device that was neatly packed in protective foam.
“May I take a DNA sample? I'm afraid I do it the old fashioned way.”
Vaughn nodded and she ran a swab over the inside of his cheek. After cursing and banging on her machine a few times, an elated grin spread over her face making her look like a young girl. “You’re in exquisite condition—a fine specimen. Your tiredness might be caused by anything from a lack of nourishment to general depression. Are you getting enough to eat?”
“Probably not. Eating with me is…complicated.”
Dr. Kimura’s eyebrows went up. “I see.”
“Do you have any suggestions for my brothers? Should I bring them here as well?”
Dr. Kimura’s face snapped shut. “I don’t need to see them to know what’s going on. I’m surprised you don’t know that you and your brothers were created by two different people.”
Vaughn felt as if he was suddenly adrift at sea. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that Ruby made your brothers, but not you.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Of course it is. Ruby is noted for her pioneering work in synthetic biology during the early part of the century, but her work is highly flawed and very controversial. In fact, Mirafield forbade her from creating any more sentient creatures without strict oversight. That’s why your brothers are degenerating and you are in perfect condition and will remain so indefinitely.”
“Indefinitely?”
“Synthetics of your quality live at least five hundred years. There’s even one now that will live forever. Or so I’ve heard through the grapevine.”
Vaughn tried to move his legs but they wouldn’t budge. He felt frozen. This was the last thing he'd expected to hear. “I don’t understand. If Ruby didn’t make me, who did?”
Dr. Kimura’s face lit up at the question. “Mirafield’s lead designer. A genius of a girl who came out of nowhere ten years ago and started making synthetics that blew everyone else's work away. There’s a rumor that she’s Ruby’s daughter.”
Vaughn laughed and shook his head. “I doubt it. Ruby hates children and she would never have allowed herself to get pregnant. What did this woman look like?”
“Mid twenties with medium-brown skin and turquoise hair. Amazing that a girl that young could be so accomplished.”
“I’m ten years old. Are you saying she created me when she was a teenager?”
“I suppose she did. You are Kora's first synthetic human. You should be proud.”
“Proud?” Vaughn rose from the file cabinet. He felt relieved to learn that this old woman was a nutcase because now he could disregard everything she’d told him. “Thank you for your time, Dr. Kimura, but I need to go.”
Dr. Kimura chased after him as he strode through the living room toward the front door. “Maybe you can return another time? I still have tests I’d like to run. Maybe you can alert me next time and I can have a group of my colleagues here to receive you?”
“Probably not.” He paused when Dr. Kimura laid a hand on his arm.
“I know you don’t believe me, but what I said about you and your brothers is true. I’m writing a book about Mirafield so I’ve done a great deal of research.”
Vaughn walked back up to his car while Dr. Kimura waved from her front porch. He dropped into the bucket seat and rested his head on the steering wheel. Dr. Kimura’s revelations didn’t seem possible. He had plenty of memories of Ruby during his first months alive—all of them unpleasant—but he couldn’t remember anyone else aside from occasional flashes of Caleb. Vaughn would certainly have noticed a brown skinned girl with blue hair.
He felt tired and his neck ached. Once he reached the empty highway that cut through Ruby’s property, he allowed his mind to drift from the road up into the yellow afternoon sky. His vision slipped into the warmth of a reoccurring daydream where he lay at the bottom of a deep pool, staring up at a perfect blue sky laced with fluffy white clouds. He watched as a familiar blur that always leaned over him came into startling focus. It was a creature with gray skin that was roughly stitched together like a handmade doll. It gazed down at him with shining dark eyes, the face distorted by ripples in the water. Vaughn lifted his arm from the wheel and reached out to touch it, but the vision evaporated before his fingers broke the surface.
Chapter 8
Ruby slid her legs off the desk and bent down to rub the tangle of veins that swelled just above her ankles. She knew she should order Ivan to install a comfortable bed in her office, but she didn’t want Gustavo to catch her lying down. At least propped up, she might fool the conniving hunchback into thinking that she was awake. Ruby rose onto unsteady feet, startled to see a figure looming in the doorway. “Who’s there?”
A lithe young man with wet hair stepped forward, his face ripe with cuts and swollen bruises. Ruby recognized him as Max’s troublesome son, Joshua, a shadow of a man whose only redeeming quality was his magnificent talent for swimming. Ruby had crossed him a few times during her nightly swim as he paddled his board out to meet the waves. He was built like a serpent and she admired the sleek strokes of his wiry arms.
“You’re Ruby?”
“What can I do for you?”
Joshua held out a damp hand but Ruby ignored it. “Are you writing a book?” He pointed at the pile of paper on her desk.
“It’s no concern of yours,” said Ruby. “It’s a script I’ve worked on for many years now.”
Joshua seemed impressed and Ruby felt a twinge of graciousness toward the wormy young man. She flourished her hand as if drawing a scene in the air around them and raised her voice to a dramatic pitch. “It’s about a vampire who awakes after many years buried at sea. He swims ashore and wanders across the sand until he finds a small village where he slaughters—”
“I saw that movie,” exclaimed Joshua. “It starred that old guy—Darius Windsor—who used to be a big heartthrob about a thousand years ago. But instead of a village, there’s this beach camp packed with hot teenage girls on a cheerleading retreat. Tons of blood and gore—dismembered babes strewn all over the place moaning in agony as the vampire laps up their blood like a goddamn dog. Amazing movie. You wrote the script
for that?”
Ruby sank into her chair and bent her plume as she gazed at all the handwritten pages strewn about her desk. Her memory drifted back to an evening, years earlier, when she’d invited Darius over for dinner and shown him an early outline of her idea for a new show. Though he didn’t make much of it at the time, he’d obviously liked it enough to steal it.
“Where did you see this movie? The Food doesn’t even have electricity.”
“You haven’t seen the compound in a while. A few years ago, Humphrey gave Ramon all these kick-ass solar panels you made him rip off the castle roof. Then we just downloaded it off some old website.”
Ruby dug a black nail into a soft pile of paper as she stared at the words scrawled across the page, many of them crossed out. “Seems there are a number of things I’m not aware of. I’ve been isolated for some time now, but that will soon change.” She sensed that Joshua was still hovering and turned to face him with her usual, cold smile set firmly in place. “So did you come here just to crush my creative endeavors, or was there something else?”
Joshua stared at her in confusion and Ruby rolled her eyes. “Why–are–you–here?”
“I just thought you might like to know what your lame-ass vampire has been up to today.”
“I’m sure if I asked him he’d tell me.”
“I bet not.”
“Then I guess you’ll just have to inform me, won’t you?” She drummed her fingernails on the desk while Joshua sucked in his cheeks as if struggling to tally something in his head.
“If I tell you, then you have to make him kill Max. Kill him in front of everyone.”
“Very well,” said Ruby. “I’ll sic my vampire on Max tomorrow night. Or is that too early?”
“No—that’s great.” Joshua seemed surprised, as if he hadn’t expected her to agree. “Tomorrow night’s good.”
“It’s been a long time since I watched Vaughn eat. Could be fun. Now tell me, what has he been up to today. If it has to do with those beach sluts our deal is off.”
“He drove one of your cars up north. I saw him myself.”
Synthetic: Dark Beginning Page 6