Page 13 of When Kings Fall

And a whole lot of bloodletting.

All in the name of justice and protection.

Of safeguarding those who couldn’t safeguard themselves.

This gang of assholes tonight had already maimed, assaulted, and dealt in dirty dealings as it was. I’d made sure I’d stopped it from going any further.

I’d stopped them from becoming like the demons.

They’d been on the same path.

And now they weren’t.

I had one target left to deal with—the big boss of the outfit—and then my mission would be complete.

He was staggering a few feet in front of me, looking back fearfully every now and then as he saw me still coming, still pursuing like the predator I was tonight.

I watched him disappear into the last door along the corridor.

Trapped prey.

Invigorating.

The thump of my boots echoed hauntingly through the deathly still mansion.

My combat pants swished and squelched, drenched in the blood of my enemies.

My black tee too. My face, my arms, my hands, even my hair.

Some was mine, I hadn’t gotten out of this without taking some hefty hits myself, and I hadn’t expected to. My training had taught me well where that was concerned. And because of that, I’d been able to take the hits I’d been dealt.

That was half the battle, being able to get back up after taking a brutal hit—or several.

Sixteen years old and I’d murdered for the first time.

No, more than that… massacred.

I should be disgusted.

I should be plagued by a shit-ton of shame.

I should feel remorse.

But I didn’t.

A sense of victory rolled through me.

A feeling of unadulterated power.

“Lev!”

I spun and looked to see Mason striding up to me, his arm around a trembling Colt with his hand shielding his eyes from the horrors we’d just committed.

What Mason saw as unnecessary but I saw as essential brutal justice.

Him showing up suddenly after I’d thought he and Colt were heading out, while I dealt with the remaining guy, and then the cleanup, drew too much of my attention.

The distraction of it had me caught off guard when the door that my final target had disappeared into flew open.

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