Page 152 of Santiago's Conquest (Four Dark Horsemen 1)

My shoes thump loudly on the concrete as I go down the stairs, the rusty walls greeting me while popping memories in my head of how, once upon a time, these walls knew nothing but my victims’ cries of despair.

Several even hold scratch marks of those who thought they could claw their way out of here just because I didn't strap them to the chair or table.

Sometimes, the hunter likes the prey to believe it can escape, only to trap it once again, watching agony flash on its face.

I let the familiar excitement rush through my blood, pumping adrenaline in my veins and awakening desires I’ve kept at bay for a long time.

Ever since I met my wife, who agreed to become mine, but only if I stopped killing as frequently as I’d done before meeting her.

One of the reasons we permanently moved to Chicago from New York more than thirty years ago, instead of living between two towns, so my past would never follow us.

Oh, how wrong we’ve been.

All my victims committed hideous crimes; they didn't deserve to live, and I just did this world a favor killing the pieces of shit.

But there was one more person who didn't deserve my kindness, a friend who became my companion in the nightmare we both lived, someone I trusted, because I never expected him to cross to the dark side.

Not after what was done to us.

I should have cut his oxygen supply too; however, by the time I got to know about his crimes, it was too late.

He fooled me enough to make me think he was dead, and that was my second mistake.

A mistake I paid for dearly every single day, seeing the horrors of my past reflected back at me in my son’s eyes.

Every time I taught him how to use a knife in this very room, how to torture all those fuckers, and how to distinguish between different kinds of poisons.

Not even in my wildest nightmares could I have imagined teaching my son that, yet I couldn't not have done it, because he needed this information. I preferred him to be safe rather than lose his head and start killing everyone around him.

My baby boy. My firstborn. My heir.

I held him in my arms minutes after he was born, bringing him closer to the window where night lights illuminated Chicago, and promised him a world at his feet where he would be loved so much, where no one would ever hurt him.

Where his Dad would always be with him.

I failed all my promises, because I forgot who I was.

A hunter cannot stop being a hunter; his instincts are what keeps him and his loved ones alive.

When you step on the dark path, you are stuck to it for life, because there will always be enemies waiting to destroy you or take away what you love most.

The monster residing in me believed in happily ever after when a magnificent woman fell in love with him.

He shouldn't have.

A whimper echoes through the space followed by a pained moan, and a smile shapes my mouth when I’m pulled back into the present, ignoring my regrets and instead focusing on my present, where I can finally do what I should have done thirty-five years ago.

I address the man pinned to the metal wall, chains wrapped around him and tugging him in different directions, leaving his chest open for any assault. “Andreas, just a few hours inside my torture chamber and you already moan like a little bitch.” His eyes focus on me as blood drips through the crown with sharp edges I placed on his head, his hair soaked in sweat while his naked body holds various injuries inflicted with my sword when we fought at the mansion.

Andreas became cocky and forgot everything life taught us, and he probably never expected to encounter me.

That’s why he always stabbed me in the back instead of facing me like a true man when, in his opinion, I betrayed him.

A man who is born a coward dies a coward too.

I should have never considered him a wolf in my pack; instead, he was a snake who I warmed on my chest only for it to inject venom inside me that almost killed my family.

His eyes pop open, his head lolls to the side, and he rolls his lips. “Kill me, Lucian,” he whispers, a slight smirk playing on his mouth as he continues. “I tortured him every day. He suffered and suffered. Kill me, Lucian. Avenge your son.”

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