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

in ten years, or thirty years (I’m waving my hand at you from the past…so time travel) to realize just HOW bad my goof up was.

Sometimes, I do worse than shoot myself in the foot.

THANK YOU for reading the FIRST book we started for the Age of Madness. Look for Book 02 coming soon and Daniel Willcocks’ series The Caitlin Chronicles arriving … well, soon too ;-)

I want to ‘officially’ thank you for joining us in this area of the Kurtherian Universe that I had NO desire to write – but the fans demanded it.

So, you asked for these stories (with boiling vats of Pepsi and rubber chickens) and we (and by ‘we’ I mean Hayley and Daniel) are delivering.

I hope you like these stories of the Madness.

Ad Aeternitatem,

Michael Anderle

Madness Rising

Live Free Or Die™ Book Two

Chapter One

Ryder awoke to the heavenly aroma of cooking meat, the sound of music, and an off-key Massimo singing, Here Comes the Sun.

Last night, Massimo had been in his element as he took Ryder and Carter on a guided tour of his extensive record collection, telling them about the history of each one he played while they drank his excellent beer.

Ryder thought that the song he was singing was by the Beatles. Ryder had quite liked them, but they weren’t her favorite. She smiled to herself, remembering Leandro’s disappointment last night when she had insisted that she liked ABBA even more.

Part of Ryder wasn’t sure if the main reason she liked ABBA was that it annoyed Leandro. It was fun yanking his chain, and Carter was proving to be very good at it. Carter kept asking Massimo to replay the songs Leandro hated the most. She had enjoyed the way Massimo changed the lyrics to make her laugh.

She hummed under her breath, remembering the one that had made her spray beer through her nose when the vampire sang it.

“Dancing bean, feel the meat on a tangerine…”

Ryder stretched out her legs and yawned. She had enjoyed having Leandro’s soft bed to herself. But although she had been comfortable, she’d still had a restless night thinking of everyone she’d left behind when she fled the bunker.

Ryder had escaped, but she wasn’t free yet. Not until her only family in this world were free, too.

Her mind ran over her plans to free her best friend Terrier and the kids from the bunker-prison.

Ryder had already come to the conclusion that she would fail to save her friends unless she got the help she needed. She had to persuade Leandro to turn into Fluffy and convince Massimo to battle a super-strong vampire if she was to rescue everyone she cared about.

However the fuck she was supposed to do that.

She hoped that Leandro would be the easiest to convince, since he owed her big-time for not telling her that he was Fluffy the wolf. The weird thing was that Ryder missed Fluffy. There was something familiar about having him by her side. She felt like she did when Terrier was with her—protected, and safe.

Massimo’s singing got louder, and she heard the floorboards creaking outside Leandro’s door as he came to a stop. Ryder got to her feet, on her guard in an instant.

She’d grudgingly changed into the night clothes Leandro had offered her the night before, but she’d kept her weapons next to her pillow as she slept. No matter how comfortable Ryder was, she was still always ready for a fight. That was what had kept her alive this far, and she had no plans to change a successful habit now.

There was a gentle knock on the door. Ryder tensed and waited for it to fly open, but it didn’t.

Instead, Massimo coughed politely before calling to her through the door. “Ryder, rise and shine! Breakfast is in the kitchen if you’re hungry. House meeting in ten minutes,”

He sounded like a sweet old man, not an evil vampire. Ryder decided to give him a chance. After all, he hadn’t tried to suck blood from her last night.

Maybe he sucked the blood out of Carter while he slept, instead? The thought brought a smile to her face. Nah, I’m not that lucky.

Ryder didn’t like the idea of talking through a door, it was very impersonal. She headed over to open it and nodded to the vampire in the hallway. “Morning.”

Massimo beamed at her. “Good morning, my dear. Did you get all that?”

“Breakfast and house meeting in ten, got it. Thank you, Massimo,” Ryder replied. She wondered what the house meeting was going to be about. She guessed it would be about how they would help her. Well, at least she hoped it would be.

“You’re welcome. Help yourself to any of Leandro’s clothing, I know he won’t mind. Well, that’s if you want any of it. He does have terrible taste, and his stuff might be a bit too big for you. There’s a store in town where we could pick something up for you if you’d like?” Massimo smiled again, nodding the whole time. “Yes, I think that would be a better idea,” he muttered, answering his own question.

“I’ve washed your clothes. They’re just drying outside,” Leandro told Ryder, appearing behind Massimo.

Ryder gaped at him, shaken. He actually washed my clothes? No one has ever done anything like that for me before. “Thank you,” she stuttered. “You didn’t need to do that.”

Leandro shrugged. “It was no problem. It was laundry night anyway.”

Massimo nodded, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he regarded Leandro proudly. “My son is very domesticated.”

“One of us has to be, Pops,” Leandro replied with a sideways look at his father.

“Come now, son,” Massimo shooed Leandro in the direction of the kitchen. “Let’s leave Ryder to wake up.”

Ryder watched them leave with a wry smile touching one corner of her lips. Their double-act warmed her heart, and she decided to trust her gut feeling. She saw the love they had for each other in their every interaction. There was no way that these two could be