Free Made By Design (Blood Bound Series Book 2) by J.L. Myers Page B

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