Live Free or Die Complete Series Boxed Set: Age Of Madness - A Kurtherian Gambit Series Hayley Lawson (ebook reader play store .TXT) 📖

Ryder even though she had refused his aid. But she did need his support, since her head was killing her. Not as much as Yegor’s, she thought with a smirk that hurt her aching jaw.

The others headed toward them to see if Ryder was all right. Byrant had told them she had been taken, but they had been fighting off the Mad, which had made it hard to get to her.

Ryder reassured everyone that she was okay, even though she felt like shit.

“Nice to have you back. It’s hard work keeping all these men in line. I’m not sure there is a brain cell between them.” Vicky grinned as she threw her shovel over her shoulder. “Only joking, boys.”

“It’s nice to be back. Did you get them all?” Ryder asked, looking around. There were dozens of bodies on the ground and a few people looked confused—probably family members of those who had gone Mad.

“Yes,” Graham answered.

“Two taps,” Kelvin added.

Carter’s shoulders dropped, making Ryder smile. Everyone was stealing his thunder.

“Graham, you want to join a gang to kill more fuckers?” Ryder asked.

Graham looked at his blood-covered axes, and pushed his lips together like he was thinking. “I think we’ll need some more weapons, and you need some more arrows. I’ll get to work on the weapons. Where are you all based?”

“Don’t you want to know why we’re going after the people?” Ryder asked.

Graham smiled. “I guess you’d have a good reason. To be honest, this is the most alive I’ve felt in years, so fuck it—I’m in.”

“Everyone will be at my house,” Massimo told him.

“Cool. I’ll be up once I’ve got everything I think we’ll need.”

Graham paused before leaving. “Any special requests?” he asked.

He was bombarded with them.

I bet he wishes he hadn’t asked, Ryder thought.

“He’s mine,” Terrier yelled when everyone became aware that Shane had turned. Terrier had hoped he would, since it meant that he could kill the stalker of the weak and innocent. He’d wanted to kill Shane for a long time.

“Please use this,” Jasmine offered, passing him her metal pole. Other women tried to give Terrier their poles too. A lot of the women felt the same as Terrier—they wanted the bastard dead.

Shane advanced on the group.

Terrier swung the pole at Shane, but Shane grabbed it before it could connect with his head. Shane felt strong; stronger than he had when they had fought earlier. Terrier pulled the pole out of Shane’s grip. Terrier hadn’t anticipated that, and he also didn’t give two shits about it.

He was going to kill the jerk.

Shane went for him, and Terrier punched him out of the way.

Terrier would thank Jasmine later, but right now he put the pole to good use. He cracked Shane over the head twice, then again, and again after he collapsed. Shane’s eye popped out and blood seeped down his face, making it look like he was crying bloody tears.

Terrier didn’t stop hitting Shane. Each strike was for a person he had killed, tormented, or tortured. Each time Terrier had been powerless to prevent it from happening.

“Terrier, he’s dead. He’s dead,” a voice called.

He sat on the floor for a moment to steady his breathing. He had a feeling time was going to go by very slowly until Ryder arrived.

A black shadow from above shrouded Terrier.

Afana was on Level Five.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Afana dropped onto Level Five, much to the generals’ relief.

Afana killed the infected like they were toys the kids on Level Six played with. He flung them around like they were nothing. Some groaned and got up, only to get another beating. It was clear that these men had no sense.

Some of the men didn’t get up after their bodies crashed against the wall, but it wasn’t because they were playing dead. They were dead.

Afana was making the generals look like fools. He didn’t need them to exterminate the infected. One man could do it on his own; but to be fair, he wasn’t just one man. He was a mutated vampire who had drained the blood from victims of his choosing, and he’d kept hundreds if not thousands of people trapped against their will in a bunker so he could have a snack whenever he wanted. So, not really a normal man. This all made the generals feel a lot better about their lack of ass-kicking powers.

Their admiration for their leader quickly changed when Afana went for one of them. Afana twisted the head off a general, and his body landed on the floor. There was a bite on his face.

The other generals checked themselves to see if they had been bitten and started pushing one another, trying to get away from a general whose face had completely turned white. He’d been bitten too.

“Move,” Afana growled, his breath smelling like death or old rotten meat. Afana had cleared the level. He’d killed all the infected except the one who hadn’t turned yet.

“It’s…it’s just a scratch,” the general told Afana.

Afana bounded up the stairs four at a time until he was in front of the general, and in the blink of an eye Afana had ripped the general’s head off.

The level was littered with bodies, and it smelled like everyone in the bunker had eaten rotten meat then shit themselves.

While everyone was placing their weapons request with Graham, Leandro went back into the woods to change. He laid down on the ground and thought about becoming Leandro again. He stayed there until he heard people calling for him.

Carter’s voice was the loudest. He was calling for Fluffy, which made Leandro want to bite his neck. He couldn’t think like that, because he wasn’t a wolf. He was a Were, part human, who was having problems turning back.

Deep down, Leandro knew he couldn’t change back. Something in his mind was telling him it was a pointless effort, and part of him wasn’t sure he wanted to try anymore. He loved the feeling of running free.

Massimo entered the woods. Leandro could smell him, and