Made By Design (Blood Bound Series Book 2) (8 page)

I rushed forward and Kendrick called out for me to stop. I spun past his extending arm to land in the center of the ruins. Charcoal dust puffed up from my Vans, making me want to cough. I screamed instead, throwing myself against the fireplace and belting my fists against the stones. Each hit sent throbbing waves through my knuckles and up my arms. I felt the stinging of the cuts first, and then the wetness of blood as it left spattered marks against the rocks. I went to hit harder, needing to let the rage in me out. It wasn’t just about this, another dead end in our quest for why, but everything before and since our return.

As my fist drove forward with enough force to crack bone, Ty’s hand shot out to wrench me back. Kendrick caught me around the waist, hauling me back too.

The rational part of my brain knew they were helping, but I didn’t care. Holding onto my rage, I tried to pull free. When that didn’t work, I kicked out, my feet hitting the fireplace one last time.

Rumbling rose all around us as the rocks began to fall. The ground below quaked violently, as if earthquake tremors were ringing out. The capturing hands holding me back let go. Caught off balance I fell to the ground. Between the crumbling rocks and the creak of charred wood, I heard a splintering crack. Complete quiet followed for an eerie second.

Then the ground beneath me opened up like the jaws of hell.

~

“Amelia!” Ty shouted above me somewhere, his voice muffled by debris being ripped away. “Amelia, can you hear me?”

“I’m—” I gasped in a breath and felt weight push back against my chest, crushing my lungs. Everything was dark and the air tasted of charcoal. My lids fluttered through the dust, and I felt grains across my eyeballs. There were more shouts from Ty and Kendrick. My lips parted to call out, but choked closed as sharp pain struck my chest.

“Screw this,” I heard Kendrick say. “I’m going down.”

Creaking vibrated around me, the debris threating to release as more than one person descended into this dark cavern. There was a sharp crack, and I followed the sound. In the darkness, I saw Ty had half fallen through the staircase’s decrepit remains. Ty grunted, but couldn’t lift himself from the small landing he’d fallen through.

Kendrick stepped before him and held out a hand. “Here.”

Even in the lack of light Ty’s grimace was clear as he swung a hand up to clasp Kendrick’s. “Don’t think this means I owe you,” Ty grunted as his body came free.

The aroma of his blood bloomed on the thick air. A second later I knew why. The jagged wooden planks he’d fallen through had rent a long gash in his side.

“Ouch,” Kendrick said. His mouth watered and he almost ran down the rickety stairs. “Bloody werewolf.”

For a moment I laughed. Kendrick was drawn to Ty’s blood too. Not as bad as I was, but with how much he detested him, it was still funny. The silent vibration of my laughter caused me to cough. Fresh bolts of pain tracked outward from my chest.

“Amelia?” Ty called out again, but it was Kendrick who reached my side first, feeling his way through our bond to the heap of debris I was prisoned beneath.

“Found her!” Kendrick began tearing the concealing layer off me. A split second later Ty was there, his hands helping to make light work of the debris. With each piece removed, the weight against my entire body lessened. Still the pressure against my chest didn’t fade.

When my body was free Kendrick frowned at me. “Are you okay?”

I reached for my chest and gasped. A splintered plank of wood protruded from my ribs, poking up and underneath them. “I—” I coughed and winced at the lance of fresh pain.

“The wood’s pierced your lung,” Ty said, kneeling at my other side. “We need to get it out so you can heal.”

I nodded through the pain as Ty leaned over me. My free hand found Kendrick’s. “Squeeze as hard as you want. Break a bone or two if you need.”

Ty watched me as I glanced back to him, his face a stiff mask. I bit my lip and nodded, as if to say,
I’m ready.

Ty wrapped his broad hands around the thick splinter of wood as it rose and fell with my uneven breaths. Then he yanked it free. Crimson spurted from the gaping hole, spraying out to splatter across Ty’s T-shirt. His hands came down to press against the opening.

I gasped at the jagged bolts striking through my chest, and pinned my lids shut. Red and white flashes danced across the backs of my eyelids as my vision rolled, my head becoming light. I was about to faint.

Willing against the sensation, I focused on the smells of my own blood mixed with Ty’s in the air, fighting my way back to consciousness. My gums prickled and my mouth became as dry as hot sand. Then there was nothing but the smell of
his
blood.

And I was starving.

Without thought my body took over, needing blood to repair itself. The desperation was similar to waking after Caius had drained me at the Armaya. But this time I knew what I was doing, and what I was about to do. Still, I didn’t care. Instinct had taken over.

I flung Kendrick’s hand away and sprung, blindly knocking Ty down and trapping his warm body with my hands. My fangs closed in on their destination, but they never met flesh. Kendrick took hold of me and hauled me off Ty. His arms were like bars around my body, and with my unhealed injuries and inability to breathe properly, he had the upper hand.

“Amelia, stop it,” Kendrick rasped in my ear, fighting to contain me. His next words were only for me to hear.
Do you want him to see you like this?

Before me, Ty had gotten to his feet and was taking slow steps toward us. His expression wasn’t horrified, as I guess I’d expected it to be. Instead it was surprised, and maybe a little disappointed. “It’s okay.” He wasn’t looking at me but at Kendrick. “If she needs my blood to heal…”

“Are you kidding?” Anger flared from Kendrick through the bond. “She just…and you?” He shook his head and glanced up to the edge of the cavernous hole we stood in. “Never mind. There’s another full bottle in my backpack. It’s up there. Go get it.”

Given his condescending and demanding tone, I expected Ty to argue, but he didn’t. “Sure. Whatever.” He shrugged then leapt, clearing the debris and landing on the opening’s edge. In seconds he maneuvered his way back through the obstacle-filled descent and held out the full bottle, an unreadable expression blanketing his face.

Kendrick released me and took the bottle, thrusting it into my hands. “Drink it.”

I took the bottle and turned my back. I didn’t think Ty seeing me drink blood like this would turn him off, but after attacking him I just felt too exposed. With a few pain-filled gulps, the glass bottle was empty, the hunger sated. The sharp lancing of my breaths began to ease. The flesh below my ribs and that of my own lung rushed back together in a thatch-work that stretched and bound. I gasped at the sensation, able to breathe again. All my wounds had healed.

I ran my tongue over my teeth, still able to taste the blood. It was peppery and somehow familiar. Suspicion dawned on me. “What kind of blood was that?”

Kendrick crossed his arms over his chest and shifted his weight from one leg to the other. “I brought it as backup. I never thought you’d need it.”

Ty looked from me to Kendrick in confusion. “What’s going on?” he asked. “What’s the problem?”

I invaded Kendrick’s thoughts to find the answer. My jaw clenched and I hissed through gritted teeth. “Say it.”

Kendrick stared at me, half apologetic and half irritated. “It’s mine.”

“You ulterior motive dick.” Ty grabbed a fistful of Kendrick’s shirt. His free hand was tense at his side, trembling as canine-like nails grew from his fingers. “It’s not enough that you’re in her head every second of every day, you have to trick her too?”

“It wasn’t a trick.” Kendrick tore Ty’s fist from his shirt and pushed him back. “She needed to be healed, and we already know what my blood can do for her.”

I wanted to step in and put an end to this, but I was pissed too. Kendrick deserved the backlash, and Ty was giving enough steam for the both of us. Besides, I was so over the complication of our threesome that I just wanted to ignore the issue. “No punches. No drawing blood.”

With a hard look at them both I strode away, focusing past their continued arguing and at the cavernous space we stood in. Most of the room was charred from the fire. Still there were remnants of what had been here before. Shackles lined the sooty walls, much like the ones that had entrapped me at the Armaya. A shudder ran through me and I picked up the closest one, studying it. There was an engraved marking, a symbol that was crossed through with a single line. An alchemist mark.

“You just couldn’t stand to see her drinking from me.”

Ty’s venomous words drew my attention. He kicked debris from his hunting boots, clearing a path between him and Kendrick. Through the dust settling at Ty’s feet, I saw something that wasn’t entirely blackened with the charcoal dust left from the fire. Something had semi-survived the flames.

“And you know this wouldn’t have been the first time,” Ty added. “She’s tasted me before, and it wasn’t because she was dying.”

Kendrick let out a scream and ran at Ty. I leapt between the two, strength renewed by Kendrick’s blood as I shoved a hand at either guy’s chest. The connection was so strong they flew backwards, hitting opposing walls before falling into a puff of ash.

“Whoops.” I almost felt bad, except I knew the force hadn’t really hurt either of them. Still, I retained a crisp edge to my voice. “Enough with the pissing match.”

Kendrick and Ty got up, glaring past me at each other. They moved closer but it was clear the threat of physical violence was over.

“Tick magnet,” Kendrick sneered.

“Third wheel,” Ty rebutted.

“Seriously?” I demanded. “Name calling? I think I liked it better when you were silently loathing each other. At least I didn’t have to deal with
this
.” Ty’s jaw parted as if he were about to speak, and I could already feel an apology brewing through the bond from Kendrick. “No. I don’t want to hear it. And we’ve got better things to do than kill each other.”

I bent to grab the thing I’d seen at Ty’s feet, a book. The front cover was missing and many of the pages had been burned away. The back cover was leather that was split in various places from age, and the binding was cracked and separating. It looked and felt incredibly old. Of the remaining thick and discolored pages a handful were left marginally singed. Patches of handwriting had survived, but were messy, making it difficult to read in the darkness.

“This should help,” Kendrick muttered. A light beam flared over my shoulder, coming from his boarding cased iPhone.

We all studied the page. Scrawling calligraphy written with the inked tip of a quill stood out in the sudden light. Most of it seemed to be notes of experimental procedures, exposing subjects to UV light, silver, and other various substances. It went into detail on the rate at which each subject deteriorated in physical appearance. In the case of silver powder applied to the skin, it detailed how long subjects lived before either regenerating or dying from blood poisoning.

I panned around the room, imagining vampires trapped by chains and screaming out as their flesh was eaten away. I swallowed bloody acid, remembering the desperate cries I’d dreamed as Caius forced another prisoner down into his secret death chamber.

Kendrick flicked ahead, nearing the book’s center. My eyes widened.

Test subject 1/Day 7 – Any physical signs of vampirism are still undetectable. The infection of solution 1 seems to have a continued nullifying effect. Any need for blood, human or otherwise, is still controlled. Preparing the blood through exposure to UV rays prior to infection seems to have achieved optimal results, with the subject still displaying no signs of discomfort when exposed to direct sunlight.

Test subject 3/Day 7 – Infection minutes after birth seems to have influenced the solution’s effectiveness. Although signs of bloodthirst and fangs seem dormant, the infant screams when exposed to direct sunlight, though is not physically burned.

There was a space between subjects
one
and
three
that was too burned to make out, but something about what I could see captured my attention. “Caius wrote this,” I said, certain beyond a doubt.

After that followed a stack of charred pages, too singed by fire to be legible. I flicked ahead finding more of the same, until I hit the back cover. A glossary was printed on the inside in the same inked handwriting. The writing confirmed my fears that Dorian and I were subjects one and three. Marcus was subject two. Capital letters were jotted next to each of our names.
IBB
was next to Marcus’s and mine. I wondered if that somehow explained the connection I felt toward him, but kept my mouth shut. With Ty standing over my shoulder, bringing Marcus up after what he’d learned would just be stupid. Next to Dorian’s name was
IAB
. Following that were two sentences.

Solution 1 – Combination of ingredient X and silver nitrate, exposed to ultraviolet light then mixed with Pure Blood.

Solution 2 – Combination of Pure Blood boiled with silver nitrate then mixed with ingredient X2.

“This is rubbish.” I sighed. “It’s the same as the vial substance report. It still doesn’t tell us what the third ingredient is.”

“What vial substance?” Ty asked, snatching the book from me. “And how can Marcus be a test subject?”

Fan-freaking-tastic. Not only had I not mentioned the report to Ty, but I’d also kept my suspicion of Marcus being an experiment subject from him too. “Uh, yeah. Marcus gave me the empty vial that Caius used to drug me before we fled the Armaya. There was a card for an analyst to test the residue. Plus I found a photo,” I kind of lied, knowing Marcus had given me the photo with the manila folder. “An experimental memento of Caius with Marcus and me as infants.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Ty dropped the book, looking wounded.

“Ty, I’m sorry.” I reached out to take his hand. He took a step back, avoiding my touch. I instantly felt cold. “It wasn’t intentional. There’s just been so much going on.”