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

Leandro cocked his head and folded his arms. “What’s Friday got to do with it? You don’t like rabbit on any other day, either.”

“Then why do you make me eat it?” Massimo complained, shaking his head at the plate.

Carter scooped in more food onto his plate as he watched the men go back and forth. At the speed Carter was eating, there’d be no food left. Ryder took a plate, piled it high and began tucking in. It looked delicious and tasted even better.

Leandro pushed the plate with the rabbit back toward Massimo. “Pops, just eat it. I’m not going out to catch you another one. It took me long enough to get this one.”

Massimo huffed. “You sure know how to send someone into a bad mood. You’re a right Debbie Downer.” Massimo picked up the plate with the rabbit on it. “I’ll eat it on the porch.”

Leandro narrowed his eyes. “Pops, please don’t hide the rabbit again. You need to eat it.”

“Me? Would I do that?” Massimo smiled at Ryder. He held the plate as far away from himself as possible, muttering to himself as he headed outside and the screen door clicked softly behind him.

“I’d best watch the old fool,” Leandro old them. He followed Massimo out onto the porch.

“Those two are weird, aren’t they?” Carter remarked when the door had closed. As he said it, he flashed Ryder with the contents of his mouth and the food stuck in his teeth. He looked like he had more food in his beard and teeth than on his plate.

Ryder grimaced at the sight. “You need to look in a mirror and see who the weird one is,” she told him. “I think they’re sweet.”

Carter raised his overgrown eyebrow at her, but he wasn’t fazed. He just continued to eat.

Ryder pulled out a spoon from a transparent glass jar. The spoon dripped with a clear, golden, viscous liquid. “What’s this?” she asked. She held the spoon above the jar and watched the gooey stuff ooze back into it.

Carter shrugged. “I don’t know, but it’s good,” he told her. He ran his finger through the stream and then licked it, closing his eyes as he savored the taste. “Mmmm.”

Ryder did the same, and syrupy sweetness filled her mouth. “Oh, that’s good. It’s really good.” She picked up the jar and spooned the golden goodness over her food. This was the best meal she’d ever eaten in her life.

What a great way to start the day! Ryder hoped that the rest of it would go this well. All she had to do to make it happen was round up a group of people that didn’t know her and convince them to risk their lives for her and a bunch of other people they’d never met.

She licked the sweet liquid from her spoon. No sweat.

Sergei and Yegor had spent an uncomfortable night sleeping in the woods by Massimo’s house. Their motivation to stick around was easy. They knew if they didn’t return to the bunker with Ryder’s head, then it would be their heads that Afana ripped off.

Neither of them wanted that, so they watched the house, waiting for the people to leave so they could snatch Ryder without having to fight the vampire.

Even without the threat of the vampire, there were too many people inside the house for them to storm in and take Ryder by force. They’d listened at the windows for a few hours last night, and it had sounded like there was a party going on, complete with singing and dancing. The songs were weird ones they’d not heard before.

The morning found them crouched, wet and miserable in the damp undergrowth. Their bellies were empty and growling, and they had almost been driven insane by the smell of meat cooking when the door opened and two men came out to the porch.

They’d figured out the names of the people living in the house while they were eavesdropping last night, so when they looked closer they quickly figured out that it was Leandro who had the rabbit in his hand and Massimo who took a seat in the rocking chair. Leandro passed the rabbit to Massimo, and he unwillingly took it. Massimo sank his fangs into the rabbit and drained the blood from it. There was a tense moment when Leandro looked right over at their hiding place.

Sergei froze and held his breath until Leandro went back to watching Massimo drink from the rabbit. Why is he drinking from a rabbit and not a human like Afana does? Is that why he looks weak? Is that why he couldn’t kill me? He narrowed his eyes and a cold smile slipped over his haggard features. Perhaps it will be easier than I thought to capture our little runaway, after all…

Afana glared at the blank computer screens in front of him. Every second that flicked by his blood raced quicker through his veins, his rage pumping to greater heights with every staccato thump of his heart.

He kicked a chair across the room. It slammed into a glass wall, startling the advisors. Some of the advisors panicked but they hid their fear, knowing the penalty for drawing Afana’s attention to their terror.

Afana hated weak people.

The glass wall didn’t crack, since all the glass in the bunker was shatterproof. Afana had made sure even he couldn’t smash it, which just pissed him off more. He should be able to break his own shit if he wanted to.

He snarled at the gathered advisors. He wanted to break something…or someone.

Afana grabbed the nearest advisor by the throat and lifted him off his feet, relishing the speed at which the advisor’s face went red as the blood was cut off from his brain. “Since I can’t watch the screens, I’ll have a snack.”

Afana opened his mouth and bared his fangs at the unfortunate man.

The advisor screamed and begged the vampire not to kill him. “If you let