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

able to get him under control.”
    Red closed his eyes and hung his head. “I feel like I’m at your funeral.”
    I lay my small hand upon h is huge one. “Don’t let me down.” We’d been in some tough scrapes together and he had always had my back. “Please.”
    “You finish the transfusions first.”
    “That can take hours.” I released the clamp that controlled the rate and let the blood pour into my vein.
    “You ’ll have a bad reaction doing that.”
    “I’ll have a worse reaction if they get to Rurik before I do.” My blood-slave-boosted immune system should be able to handle the blood faster than a regular human’s. Part of me knew the transfusions could be futile. If Rurik caught me unprepared, he’d just drain me again. I needed to return to the orphanage and find out what happened to Kam. From there I could devise a plan. I glanced at Red.
    “What?” He scowled at me. “You have that I need a favor look on your face.”
    “Can you get your hands on a light grenade for me?” It was a fallback plan in case everything else failed. Everyone thought I was a patsy for my vampires, but the rules of the game had changed. If nothing remained of the person I loved within that body, I’d take care of business before I let him kill anyone. Including me. I prayed it never came to that. Life without Rurik didn’t seem worth living. He wasn’t just my lover, he was my best friend. But killing might be for the greater good if he turned into a monster. He’d be anguished if he knew he had hurt people.
    It also ate my soul that I might have sent Kam to his death. How could I have guessed that Rurik could take on a full-grown male shifter? As far as I knew, only vampires of Tane’s caliber could match their strength and agility. Maybe Rurik had escaped before Kam had returned. That was my only hope.
    He lea ned toward me. “You ever use a light grenade before?”
    “It was part of my initial training. ” I didn’t mention that I’d sustained second-degree burns to my hand and singed Colby’s eyebrows off. Some things were just too private to share. Light grenades sent a burst of UV light, kind of like a sunlight bomb. It fried any vampire in the area and could burn any humans too close to the detonation.
    Rising from his spot, he gave me a grave look. “Ya really have the gonads to pull the pin on your boyfriend?”
    I pointed to my stake at my side. “I haven’t so far.” I stared at the empty transfusion bag. “Hook me up to the second?” Just because I’d be armed didn’t mean I would use the weapons. It only meant I’d have a hard choice.
    Red switched the blood bags. “How do ya convince me to do t hings that are against my better judgment? Is that some kind of power you’ve developed?”
    “Nah.” I smiled. “I’ve always been able to do that. You of all people recognize that if you try to stop me, I’m going to do it anyway. It’s better to help me than work against me, Red.”
    He snorted and pulled something from his backpack. Holding up the light grenade, he pointed at the pin. “Pull this , and you have fifteen seconds to toss and find cover. It works better if you find cover before you pull it.”
    Duh, I learned that the hard way the first time I ’d used one. After that, Colby never let me touch a weapon again.
    “Got it.” I caught the grenade when he tossed it to me and tucked it in my front pocket of my loose pants. “So how do you plan to smuggle me out? No duffle bags this time.” He had actually carried me in one when we’d been in Budapest to transport me to their secret slayer lair.
    He shrugged. “Let you walk out the front door.”
    “That’s it? I thought you liked to keep your locations secret.”
    “Not here. It’s suicidal for vamps to come to Rome.” His frown grew deeper. “Connie, I can’t keep them from hunting him. He’s as good as dead.”
    I glared at the blood pouring into my body, urging it to go faste r, and tempted to cut it short