Free Synthetic: Dark Beginning by Shonna Wright Page B

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.”
    Ruby pursed her lips as she turned this information over in her head. “Is that all?”
    Joshua shrugged. “That’s enough, isn’t it?”
    “Plenty. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get on with my work. You’ll find your own way out?”
    His crooked grin disappeared. “I can do that, but it would be great if I could use the front door.”
    “We haven’t used the front door in ages. I’d prefer you slither out the same way you slithered in.”
    Joshua shivered as he nodded his head. Then he disappeared down the hall, leaving a trail of wet footprints. Ruby swept her script off the desk sending an explosion of paper into the air.  She stormed down to Kora’s lab where she found Gus meticulously cleaning the coffee machine with an old toothbrush.
    “Back to your cage.” Ruby’s heels clacked