Read Synthetic: Dark Beginning for Free Online

swished up to him with a playful look on her face. “I’m not making any new creatures if that’s what you’re worried about. I have enough worthless monsters roaming the castle. I’m simply making an effort to fix myself up a little.  The ultimate spa retreat.”
    Vaughn relaxed and felt the blood coursing through his veins once again. Packing Ruby off for a few days of solitary pampering would give him precious hours of freedom. “Sounds like a good idea.”
    “I'll also be finishing up a new script for a show I'm pitching to Fox.  Which brings me to ask you for a big favor.”
    Vaughn knew from experience that a favor was simply a veiled term for an order. “I want nothing to do with another show.”
    “But you're the star, my blood drinking knight.  Let me practice my pitch.”  Ruby’s eyes glazed over and her voice rose as her hands fluttered into the air.   “A gorgeous vampire swims ashore after two hundred years buried at sea. He's starved for blood and wanders into a quiet beach village where he slaughters—”
    “I don’t swim and I don’t act.”
    “There will be no acting, my dark one. It will all be real. Don’t you see? I’ve written this whole thing for us. We’ll star in it together.”
    “The hell we will.” Vaughn headed for the door.
    “It’s time you got over this stupid fear of the water,” Ruby yelled before he slammed it behind him.
    Halfway down the hall, Vaughn ran his hand over a smooth oak panel then gave it an angry whack. A slender rectangle of wood slid open to reveal a narrow spiral staircase. He wound down two floors and burst through a pantry into a large kitchen.  A line of windows opened out to sea and Vaughn drew in a breath of sea air mixed with the pungent odor of raw meat. Ivan stood on a tall stool behind a brightly tiled counter wearing a silver apron with a large knife in his hand.
    “What are you making?” asked Vaughn. He watched carefully as Ivan hacked the leg off a decapitated bird.
    “Herb seasoned roasted chicken. It’ll be delicious for those of us who can eat.”
    Vaughn hated Ivan’s constant jabs at his eating disorder. He tried not to let it show but as Ivan knew too well, it was the only taunt that really got to him. Vaughn slouched into a chair across from Caleb who was busy feeding two stuffed animals tiny teacups of water. After each sip, the giant carefully wiped their furry faces with a clean napkin. For as long as Vaughn could remember, Caleb had performed this same ritual every afternoon. At one time he’d been curious about the event, but the regularity of it had worked its way into the daily routine so now it seemed as normal as watching Ivan wind up all the clocks in the living room.
    “If you’re here to avoid Ruby you better shove off,” said Ivan. “I don’t want her coming in here after you.”
    “I’m not hiding. I just came down to ask you something.”
    “The answer is no.”
    “I need a car.”
    Ivan slid the knife under the chicken’s skin, flaying the taut layer from the body in one piece then holding it up before Vaughn on the tip of his knife. “Forget it. You’ve already wrecked five. You’d have better luck asking me for a kidney.”
    “If I wanted one of those, I’d just sneak into your room while you were asleep. And I only wrecked three. There are over fifty cars in that garage so I think you can give me one for a few hours.”
    “I said no.”
    “They’re Ruby’s cars. Not yours.”
    Caleb stopped feeding his stuffed toys and looked up like a deer sensing danger. Ivan raised the knife high over his head before plunging it deep into the bird’s breast. “I’m the one who fixes them, polishes them, and protects them from idiotic vampires who can’t drive.”
    “I need to go to Santa Barbara. It’s only an hour away and I can be back in three.”
    “You want to leave? You want to steal a car and drive off the property?”
    “Ruby told me she’ll be getting some kind of spa treatment