Page 117 of When Kings Fall

And fuel to my bloodlust.

It was all a blur of rapid-fire violence and blood-red within moments as I gave into it, tearing into the motherfuckers like a wild beast.

Punish! Destroy! Slaughter!

It took me some time through it to realize that the two of them had stopped moving, and I looked either side of me to see them downed as I was crouched over them, smashing my bo-staff into each one in turn.

They were so bloodied and beaten, their features were barely discernible.

My staff and hands were slick with their blood.

A snarl sounded, pulling me from the carnage I’d wrought, and I pushed to my feet just as another soldier ran at me.

The moment he hit, I angled my body as I grabbed at his tie and used it as leverage to haul him over my shoulder and into a floor-length mirror. He crashed to the ground, disorientated.

I was about to move in to finish it when a cry from Brianna broke my focus and I instinctively spun around to see her being thrown onto the pool table, one of the guys about to leap on top of her. Fuck!

I went to start over there, only to see her snatch up a pool ball and smash it into her opponent’s face, shattering his nose and making him stagger back. Then she reared back and used the momentum to spring to her feet on the table. She spun into a spinning kick that smashed into the piece of shit and had him falling back against the double doors.

I didn’t get to see her finish him because me being distracted cost me as the guy I’d left conscious jumped on my back.

Roaring, I slammed all my weight backward into the kitchen door.

It gave way and his grip broke around me as he hit the floor.

I dove for the knife block on the counter to my left, ripped out a butcher’s knife, then drove it through his chest just as he was trying to get up.

Another one down.

I pushed out of the kitchen and frantically searched out Brianna.

Relief sung through me as I caught sight of her tossing a knife at a fucker running at her.

It plunged into his eye.

And that was the end of that.

He stilled, then dropped hard, dead instantly.

“Can’t keep your focus with the pretty princess around, huh?”

I jolted at the sound of Malcolm Lynch’s voice and spun to my left.

A fresh wave of adrenaline shot down my spine as I saw him standing there, a gun trained on me.

He grinned wickedly, then fired off a shot at me.

I cursed as it plunged into my chest, the force of it, and at close range too, blowing me off my feet. I grunted as I landed hard on my back.

“Levi!” Brianna screamed at the top of her lungs. “No! Levi!”

Before I could fully process it, he was there standing over me, taking aim at my head.

I saw Brianna running toward me in my peripheral vision.

But she was out of her knives.

And her screaming protests went completely ignored by Lynch who was staring down at me with twisted glee.

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