Live Free or Die Complete Series Boxed Set: Age Of Madness - A Kurtherian Gambit Series by Hayley Lawson (pdf e book reader .TXT) 📗

knocking him out in one shot. Sergei’s gun went off and the bullet hit a tree. Massimo moved on to Pavel, but Pavel’s behavior took Massimo by surprise.

He didn’t fire. He just laid his gun on the ground and stepped away from it.

“I... please…” The words caught in Pavel’s throat. “I don't want any trouble.”

He backed away and ran off.

Massimo was a little disappointed. He’d geared himself up for a good fight. Well, that was anticlimactic, he thought.

Pavel took off running as fast as he could away from the vampire, but if he was anything like Afana, running wouldn’t save him. Sergei had been a cocky shit as always, thinking he could fight a vampire. There was no way that fool could win.

Good riddance, Pavel thought. He’d only put up with Sergei because it was easier than arguing with him.

Now that the vampire had taken care of Sergei, he could find Ryder and take his head back to Afana. He’d get the bounty instead of Sergei, who always got it. It was his turn, and he was going to take it.

Pavel looked over his shoulder a few times to see if Sergei or the vampire were coming after him, but neither came.

A man bolted past him in the opposite direction. He looked like he could run faster than Pavel, which was saying a lot since Pavel was one of the fastest men in the bunker.

The man didn’t stop, to Pavel’s relief. There were a lot of fucking weirdos out here, outside the safe walls of the bunker. He didn’t like it one bit. Pavel had been born and raised in the bunker, and that was all he knew. Sometimes in the past, he’d dreamed of more. He’d wondered if life away from the bunker was better.

Now he knew the answer.

Fuck the outside world, he thought. Pavel was getting pissed off that he was even out here, so far away from home. He directed that anger toward Ryder. He’s the reason I’m out of the bunker.

Pavel was out of breath by the time he got to the edge of town, but he was healthy and was soon able to catch his breath. Now, he was ready to catch his prey.

He wished he hadn’t laid his gun on the ground, but that might have saved his life. Pavel still had his knives, and he’d have better luck with blades anyway. He’d hunted with them all his life.

Smoke was rising from behind one building and music was playing in another. He could also hear voices coming from the building with the music. If he were Ryder, that was where he’d go, so Pavel headed toward the music. He kept his hands poised over his knives.

He was ready to get Ryder’s head and get the hell out of here.

Terrier looked through the glass ceiling at Coby’s body. Coby’s eyes were open, staring blindly at Terrier through the glass.

If Neil had the disease then everyone on Level Five was royally fucked. He was up on the Traitor Board, and he had loved to tell everyone he was up there near the top of that sick invention.

Neil and his friends specialized in hunting down the people who tried to escape from the bunker. Those twisted bastards kept a running tally of how many heads they’d collected, and they’d made an actual display board, listing the top ten names of the men with the most heads. Neil was high on the board, but Shane was even worse. He was at the top of the list.

Terrier hated those bastards. If Neil and his friends had any balls, they could have freed everyone, but they sided with Afana and the generals instead of the people of the bunker.

Terrier loosened his grip on Natalie, and she instantly looked up at Coby’s body, unable to help herself.

Coby blinked.

Neither of them could believe what they were seeing. They’d both thought he was dead a few seconds earlier, but now, his eyes turned red and began to glow. His hand slammed into the pool of blood he was lying in as he tried to get to Terrier and Natalie. When he couldn’t, he awkwardly got to his feet and stumbled away.

She gasped in horror and went right back into Terrier’s arms.

“What the hell was that?” Natalie asked as she looked up at Terrier.

Terrier shook his head as he held her close. “Madness.”

Leandro heard a gunshot and took off running in the direction it came from. When he got there, his dad was looking down at a body. His glowing red eyes looked disappointed, and his fangs barely protruded from behind his pursed lips.

Leandro had never seen his dad’s eyes look like that, since it usually took Massimo only a few seconds to lose his vampire glow.

Massimo hadn’t been sure how Leandro would react to seeing him like that, but Leandro gave his dad a big hug. He was strong and almost crushed him, but Massimo didn’t complain because Leandro’s heart was filled with love. He’d been showing his dad affection like this since he had been a child, and Massimo would never tire of it.

Massimo pulled away from the embrace and looked up at Leandro. “Are you okay?”

“Old fool! I was going to ask you the same thing.” Leandro smiled. “What mischief have you been up to while I’ve been away?”

They both looked down at the body on the ground. The man was sprawled out and snoring. He would probably be out for a while.

Massimo nudged the man with his foot. “These stupid rednecks wanted to steal my alcohol, but I took care of them.”

“You did? Wait, them? Where are the rest?”

“They ran off. They said they were going after a guy called Ryder next.”

Leandro realized these were Afana’s men, coming to hunt her just as she’d feared. “We have to go back to Pinewood and make sure they don’t get to Ryder.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Ryder watched the people in the Old Dog. They looked happy, and she