Synthetic Dreams by Kim Knox Read Free Book Online Page A

held back a sigh. “The Corporation only paid for so much. They said my skin didn’t respond well to the treatments. I got the distinct feeling they wanted the evidence to remain on my skin. For Andrew and David to keep their demonic little rite.”
    “So you took to wearing glamour.”
    “It was…expected.” Her mother had insisted. No daughter of hers—one already too small, skinny and dark—would venture out into the Mind so disfigured. “When it didn’t fit right, I tweaked.”
    “More than tweaked, Vyn.”
    “All right, I flooded my college with illegal glamour. My heinous crime.” She let a wry smile lift her mouth and reached for the cedar-and-apple-scented bar of soap on a dish. It eased over her skin. “I had a technical talent. Such a thing is…distasteful in a woman of N-District.”
    Paul’s soft laughter surprised her. “So I’ve seen.”
    Liam had come from an executive family, which meant Paul moved in the upper levels of society. With his looks he no doubt snared the attentions of the plastic women. It was none of her business. He’d seen her naked—she ignored the little frisson that gave her—and shown not the slightest interest. And why would he be interested, when women like her simulacrum were his normal fare?
    Vyn eased the soap over her thigh, her knee, and rubbed lather into her grubby toes. She’d slipped into forgetting again. His smooth, calm persona was a lure. He would most likely kill her when he’d made use of whichever of her skills he wanted. But his questions had dredged up old feelings, old memory and guilt.

    “My family?” Her hand paused over her other knee and she couldn’t look at him. “How…how are they?”
    Paul was silent for a moment. “Your father retired. He and your mother are comfortable.”
    The soap slipped over her thigh. Had they missed her? Wondered about her? Even tried to find her? She’d never been a favoured child, but she was their flesh and blood. Or she had been. “Comfortable?”
    “They spend a lot of their time in the upper tier.”
    His calm voice flowed around her, deep and smooth. Goosebumps ran over her skin and she imagined his gaze travelling over the length of her thigh. A sliver of need pushed up from her belly, but she willed herself not to let her fantasy overtake her. She was in the cold-world. Reality was bitter.
    So her parents were still rich and could enjoy the dubious pleasures money bought them. A sour smile tugged at her mouth. They could’ve been the glamour-filled people she’d seen in the club, unknowingly wearing touches of their lost daughter’s product. “And Richard?”
    “Based in Scotland. Has a daughter, Natasha. Six.”
    Her fingers gripped her calf and she ignored the pain. Six. The age they’d taken her.
    Vyn’s heart drummed too loud in her ears and she willed herself to breathe through the sudden surge of panic. She forced out the words. “And she’s safe? The Goodmans haven’t taken her, touched her?”
    “You think it goes by blood?”
    A short laugh escaped her. “Who knows? But maybe with the bastards dead, what they did to me dies with them.” She needed to believe that. The thought that the Goodmans would destroy another child twisted a tight pain in her chest. “The Mind corrupted them. When they created it, the fucking idiots thought they were gods.”
    She dunked her head, soaking her hair, wanting to put the dead men from her mind. As she surged out of the water, Paul was waiting and handed her a small tube of shampoo. The sharp scent of lime cut the warm air. She dunked herself again and found him sitting on a small stool beside the bath.
    “I do want something from you.” He undid the buttons of his jacket. “You’re my way into the Box.”
    Vyn frowned at him and dipped down into the darkened water. “The Box?” He might be unconcerned by her nakedness, but she didn’t want her nipples on show. Not when they were obviously peaked. Her arm snaked across her breasts,