Free Release, book 3 of The Angler series by Annie Nicholas

people in all those places?” Impressive. Most slayers worked in small cells. Easier to train, move quickly, and strike. What Anthony described sounded more like a small army.
    “Yes, at the port too. I have men who remember your arrival with this vampire .” He continued to stare at me as if expecting a response.
    I didn’t have one. Would the slayers kill me if they knew I came voluntarily? I didn’t know. I had worked for Colby , who held high standards when it came to slaying vamps. He wanted proof they were killing humans before he hunted them and now worked for Tane sometimes. What about Anthony? Some slayers didn’t even discriminate between vampires and shifters. I treaded rough waters.
    Anthony pulled out a black and white picture of me at the port from a surveillance camera. “Have you no memory of this?”
    I did a slow blink and took the picture. “No.” Thanks for the idea, buddy. “The last thing I remember was being in Monte Carlo.” I took Kam’s advice and stuck as close to the truth as possible. “How long do I have—can I stay here?”
    The guy running my blood test glanced our way and held up two fingers. “She needs two bags before she can go.”
    “We’ll transfuse you then in the morning we’ll find you transport home.” He rose and nodded to a tech who came to hang my first bag of blood.
    I watched him plug me in without a question. Most slayers donated to their own, so sources tended to be clean. Who knew with such a large group how they ran things? My bond to Tane kept me resilient to disease though.
    What the fuck was I going to do about Rurik? He had the city of Rome hunting him and the Nosferatu. How long before Tane’s clan heard about this fiasco and came to join the search? Ugh, helping someone who refused to help himself was impossible. This change would kill Rurik. Not from getting ill but from him acting foolhardy. Time was running out and I had to find him before anyone else but first, I needed this transfusion. Otherwise I’d end up passed out before I made it down the street.
    Once they released me , how would I find him? I closed my eyes. Shit. I wouldn’t have to. He’d find me. For some reason he seemed fixated on my blood. Would he try to break in here? I groaned. I hoped part of the real Rurik remained aware enough to keep him from doing something that stupid.
    “Well, I’ll be damned. It really is Connie.” Red’s familiar voice boomed inside the large room I occupied.
    My eyes sprung open and I rubbed them to make sure they worked properly. “What are you doing here?” I scanned behind him for Anthony. Red, Colby’s right-hand-man, could blow my cover as the ‘little slayer.’ He knew my role as Tane’s blood slave and didn’t approve. He was also one of the few people I missed from when I worked with Colby’s slayers. Big as bear, swift as a fox, and skin so pale he could be Tane’s redheaded stepbrother. Even though my question came out sharp, I reached out to him for a hug.
    He engulfed me in arms thick enough to wrestle alligators and squeezed me tight against his chest. “I can’t believe my eyes, kid.” He buried his face in my hair. “I wanted to ask you the same question.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “The others don’t know, but you’re on the vampire’s most wanted list with your boyfriend, Rurik. Colby sent me a text about it this morning. What the fuck have you both been doin’?”
    “How did Colby get that information ?”
    “He’s hooked up with Gwen. She’s helping with a vampire problem in New York City. Avoid going there until they get a handle on the problem. Anyway, she still gets news from her pack. They asked me to keep an eye open for ya.”
    “Fuck a duck.”
    “I doubt the duck would enjoy it.”
    “Not as much as you.” The response came out automatically. Nothing like insulting the person I needed help from the most.
    He laughed , then grimaced as he rubbed his side. “I miss you, sweetie. Our