Made By Design (Blood Bound Series Book 2) (22 page)

I shot up the stairs and almost collided with him. He’d somehow gotten board shorts and a shirt on and was clutching the railing for dear life. His skin was flushed, and sweat speckled his face and dotted his shirt. The damp patches mixed with red stains on the white material.

“Where have you been?” he grated out. His face twisted with pain as he tried to stand on his own. There was a sickening wet sound of skin tearing and a fresh red line bloomed across the front of his shirt.

Tingles pierced my gums as my fangs shot forth. My arms came around him and I pushed him back up the corridor. Being this close had the animal inside me fighting to break free. Just like the song
Animal I have become
by Three Days Grace. I cursed and swallowed, holding back my violent urges. “Ty, you shouldn’t be out here.” Thank God it was after 2
AM
. The corridor was clear. But any surprise visitors catching Ty bleeding out, or worse…seeing the animal in me taking him like prey, was bound to create a total shit storm.

“You…” I punctured my own lip, letting the blood swell and fill my mouth. “You need to lie down.” I snatched his room card and kicked open the door to our cabin, hauling him in.

“Tell me where you were.” Ty pushed back out of my hold and I heard another tear. Fresh blood swelled across his shirt like he’d just been shot. “Shit…that hurts.”

He swayed and fresh streams of sweat poured down his pale face. I caught him, stringing my arms around his body. Holding his entire weight, I edged him back onto the bed. I tore open his shirt and snatched a stray piece of shredded towel, dabbing at the oozing wounds. They weren’t streaming scarlet like earlier, but they were still ugly and raw.

“The bleeding’s not too bad.” I tried to sound convincing.

Ty’s chest rumbled as if to laugh. Then he grimaced, hands coming over mine to press against the wounds. He blinked up at me then closed his eyes. “Where. Were. You?”

Ignoring the instant demand in his voice, I pushed his hands away to inspect the openings. The blood loss had slowed. My blood was helping him heal. Still, a shiver crawled up my spine. The open wounds reminded me of the terrified woman I’d cleaned up. Her neck and chest had been a field of gruesome raw patches. Though a little of my blood at Kendrick’s instruction had closed them up, leaving nothing but small scars marking her once shredded flesh. A desperate attempt at compulsion had wiped the horror from her memory. “I was making sure we’re alone,” I said, answering his question.

Ty’s eyes shone with hardened gold. “You should have told me.” He stiffened, teeth grating. Every movement, no matter how small, was torture. His next words were throaty. “I would have come with you.”

“Like I would’ve let you. You shouldn’t have even left this room. You need to rest.” I sighed as despair crept in. Caius had ordered our attacks, which was more expected than a shock. But Marcus? What had his part in this been? Masking my inner turmoil with a smile, I ran a finger up Ty’s forearm, dodging the sores that marked him there. “Besides, everything is fine. There aren’t any more of them.”

Ty raised an arm to caress my face, clearly trying to hide the agony of the movement. “So why do you look so worried?”

Ty’s ability to read me had improved. I hadn’t particularly wanted to reveal everything until Ty felt better. Right now he needed to rest, not worry about being hunted or turned. Not that I could understand a reason why they’d want to turn him. What could they gain from it? But Ty was watching me with those eyes, the ones that would always accept me and trust that I would never lie to him.

I stared at our spattered bed sheets, not wanting to meet his eyes. With the blood drying, turning from vibrant red to ruddy brown, the scent wasn’t too overwhelming. “Okay, this is what I know.”

Over the next thirty minutes I covered everything: Kendrick’s and Dorian’s attack, the damned vampire’s cabin, the trunks from Alaska, the photos and the blood baggies. Then the human blood donor who’d named Lord Bathory as the instigator. Lastly I revealed the card with instructions to capture me and turn or kill Ty.

When I’d finished rambling and answering Ty’s rapid-fire questions, I felt shell-shocked and drained. Saying it all out loud forced me to accept things I didn’t want to believe.

Looking like rage was about to make him burst, Ty nodded at my iPhone on the bedside, next to the wastebasket and remaining shredded towel pieces. “Call him.”

I nodded and grabbed my phone. “Please stay here.” I had no right to demand anything of Ty. My trust in Marcus had almost gotten him killed. Not to mention my brother and best friend. Even so Ty remained still, watching me as I slipped out onto the balcony and dialed Marcus’s number.

On the side of the boat in the pre-dawn’s darkness it was even windier than the Oasis deck. I gulped, remembering those blood-red eyes. Dread-poisoned anger coursed through my veins as the phone rang in my ear. The guy I hardly knew but had inexplicably trusted was about to learn he’d failed. That we were all alive, and that I knew the truth.

The ringing stopped as the line picked up. “Amelia, hey. How’s it going?”

Tears blurred my vision and I caught at my flailing hair and twisted, tugging it down over my shoulder. “Alive, no thanks to you!”

“Whoa, what’d you say?” Panic tightened his deep voice. “What’s going on?”

“Your goon failed. We killed him!” I began pacing, fighting the boats sway against rough waves. “He’s nothing but dust, incinerated. Kendrick and Dorian killed theirs too.”

My rant would have gone on, but Marcus cut in. “What goon? Amelia, what’s happened? Did they come to your home?”

“Don’t play innocent with me, you prick. You know they didn’t!” I laughed mirthlessly. “But what a great plan. Send Dorian and Kendrick to the snow and me half way around the world on a tropical cruise, just to have us attacked by the freaking dead!”

“Send who where? The dead?” The surprise in Marcus’s voice seemed so real. “Amelia, what are you rambling about?”

I wavered. The part deep down inside me that wanted to trust Marcus reared its stupid head. “The vacation itineraries you sent. The ones with the printed card claiming Caius was planning something. You sent us away so we’d be safe.”

Marcus’s next words stunned me, stripping any words from my mouth until he’d stopped talking.

I took a deep, shuddering breath. “I gotta go.” I hung up, opening the door and stepping back inside.

Reclining back against the pillows, Ty’s gaze locked on me. As mine lifted he lurched upright, grunting at the effort. “What’s wrong? What’d the bastard say?”

I slid the door shut behind me. “Marcus isn’t working with Caius. He wasn’t behind any of this.”

“Amelia, come on.” Ty tried to swing his legs over the side of the bed and froze as another wound cracked open. His teeth grated. “He’s lying.”

“No, he’s not.” I crossed the short distance to drop onto the bed beside him. Thinking back now I should have been more suspicious. Because if I had, none of this would have happened. Dorian and Kendrick would never have been attacked, and Ty wouldn’t have almost died. “Marcus didn’t send the vacation bookings. He didn’t even know we’d left. He’s been too busy investigating other deaths. Vampire deaths.”

“Vampire deaths?” Ty sounded skeptical.

“Full consumption, and the numbers are rising. He even suspected the damned too, but The Council doesn’t want to believe it. There have even been a few royals taken out.” I touched Ty’s knee, minding the gash up his thigh. “We’re not the only ones being hunted.”

I breathed through my mouth as I scarfed down the food I’d brought back to our cabin from the lunch buffet. Ty sat up on the bed against stacked pillows, finishing off a croissant. He reached for a blueberry muffin, his face twisting as he bit back the need to grunt. “Damn, I’m hungry.”

Me too.
That thick vein along his neck throbbed, demanding attention. It had been over twenty-four hours since I last fed from Ty. Normally that wouldn’t have been so bad, but after feeding him my blood to heal, I was deprived and starving. I forced my eyes away and chugged down some orange juice. It tasted like poison. “Well, you do need your energy. A full tank should help you recover.”

Ty laughed, then coughed, trying to hide his discomfort. “I never imagined the day where a vampire would be tending to me.”

Feeling hangry—a collective mix of hungry and angry as a result—I crossed my arms over my chest. “This isn’t funny, you almost…” My face pinched, unable to say the word let alone allow myself imagine Ty dead.

“But I didn’t.” Heat settled across my thigh, coming from Ty’s hand. His scent swelled at the movement. “Hey, are you alright?”

I slid off the bed, putting space between us. Telling Ty I needed blood wouldn’t do either of us any good. He was still healing and badly injured. Taking his vein wasn’t an option. Plus with the dried blood all over the sheets, thinking beyond the smell was impossible. “I—uh. I need some air. It’s been a really long night.”

“I’ll come.” Ty reached for a clean shirt and a gash across his ribs split.

I shot forward and shoved him back against the pillows. “The hell you will,” I tried not to hiss while covering my fangs. “You’re in no shape.”

With Ty’s lids closed at the pain, he missed my dangerous expression and sighed. “Fine. I’ll stay. But today is our last port, isn’t it? Villa? I hear it’s great for cheap shopping. You should make the most of it.”

I wanted to stay and clean his newly open wounds. I cringed. With my tongue… I backed up and hit the door. “Sure, shopping. Just stay here.”

I shot out the door and doubled over, sucking air. Then I headed for the stairs. Shopping wasn’t a bad idea, but I wasn’t leaving the boat. No, instead I was going to steal some new linen—right after I commandeered a stack of first-aid supplies. Covering Ty’s wounds and removing the sweet aroma of his blood was the only way I’d be able to re-enter our cabin…without turning into ‘Psycho killer monster.’ Plus I hoped to find maybe a pack or two of stored cold blood. It was my only hope.

My stomach gurgled as I made my way to level six, heading for the medical center. Absently I noticed blue veins spider-webbing across my hands and up my arms. Every time a person passed me my stomach clenched. The smell of their blood enticed and allured, making my dark internal voice grow louder. I shook it away, struggling to hold back the dark desire to feed as I entered the glass door to the medical center. Thank God the place was empty.

I stepped around the counter and shot down the hall, breaking the locked handle to get into the storeroom. The room was stacked with syringes, needles, gauze, tape, ointments, and medicines. Lucky for me, it was also free of people. My relief dwindled. There was no fridge, and no blood.

I heard a slight noise outside, perhaps someone in a consult room down the hall. The faint beat of a human pulse and the scent of their blood reached me.

I hurried my movements, finding a plastic bag and shoving gauze, tape, and ointment into it. As I was about to fly out the storage room, a man’s voice stopped me short. The smell of his blood almost floored me.

“Hey, what are you doing in here?” He was in his thirties, and wearing a white coat. The on-board doctor’s heart raced with surprise at finding someone lurking in what had been a locked storeroom. He caught sight of the gnarled door handle. “Did you break in?”

The man began to move back. I shot forward, yanking him into the storeroom and slammed the door shut. I pinned him against the wall, eyes trying to hold his. “Don’t scream.” I almost expected Kendrick to appear in my head, demanding I stop. But there was nothing. I couldn’t even feel him. Was he asleep? “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Let me go,” the doctor demanded, fighting against my strength. The vein along his neck bulged from strain. “How are you this strong?” His eyes widened. “Are you high?”

Dammit! The compulsion wasn’t working. I was too blood deprived.

My hand clamped over his mouth before he could scream out. Without thought I zoned in on the thick vein along his neck, pulsing and plump. That wicked voice in my head came alive.
Vampires need blood.
You
need blood.

I thought of Ty, injured and in pain. More of my blood would help him heal. Wouldn’t it? But I couldn’t give him my vein if doing so swelled my thirst and made me attack him. No, I needed blood, now. Right now.

“This will only hurt for a second,” I whispered, staring as my fangs ached, closing in on his neck.

The man fought with sudden renewed strength, that adrenaline spike people experience when they think death is imminent. But it was no use. He was still human.

A split second later it was too late. My fangs found their mark, puncturing flesh as my lips pressed to create a seal. The doctor’s fighting stopped as my bite delivered a flood of dopamine to his system. His body became limp, his blood feeding my thirst and taking the edge off.

After a few more long pulls I drew back, satisfied and surprised. I’d just drank from a human for the third time since I’d become a functioning vampire. Being a lycan, Ty didn’t count. The first time had ended in disaster and the almost death of Joel, a rock-star footballer from my high school. But this time, I hadn’t even come close to taking life. I had been in complete control. It had been more like my chaperoned drink at
Bite
with Marcus.

Lifting the doctor’s chin with my finger, I took control of his eyes, feeling strong and capable. “You never saw me. No one attacked you.”

Like with the damned’s victim, I pricked my finger on my fang before letting them slide back. Then I pressed the swelling scarlet drop to the two punctures along his neck. The holes closed up before my eyes, removing any and all trace of my feeding.

~

With my bagged supplies and my body humming, I skipped back to the cabin. My veins rushed with the doctor’s blood, making my skin feel alive and my senses alert and sharp. The reaction was nowhere near what Ty’s blood did to me, but it was still illuminating. The fact that I took from a living person without even coming close to killing them, and had compelled the whole attack away, was more than exciting. It was progress. Now I was becoming who I was meant to be. A living vampire who was in control. Not a monster
or
a killer.