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GRIFFIN
My head was pounding by the time Cassian left. I was dreading another night with Morgan, not because I didn’t like her company, but because I’d started feeling worse in the past few days. I could no longer keep up a simple conversation without developing a throbbing headache. Morgan just wanted to talk shit about everything, and I just didn’t have the energy for it today.
In the span of a week, I’d started having cold sweats, my eyes burned, and the headaches—God, they were a nightmare. Anger and irritation beyond my normal moods were a constant, and I was really starting to freak out. But I forced myself to keep it under wraps. I didn’t need Morgan fussing over me, and I didn’t need Cassian keeping his distance because I wasn’t feeling well.
I chalked it up to the curse. Maybe I was going feral and these were just the symptoms. Did wolves feel it before it happened or did they just snap? Not that I could ask any of them—it’s not as though they ever returned to normal afterward.
I pushed my helmet under my arm after returning home from a quick trip to the store and breathed through the thick exhaustion. I made the decision that I would just walk past Morgan, make some excuse, and curl up in bed until tomorrow night when Cassian and I took our little trip into the Black Hole. It was an effort to take the stairs, my feet felt like they had concrete slabs tied to them and each step took more energy to move to the next.
After what felt like forever, I shoved into my apartment, barely noticing anything around me. I mumbled something about taking a shower to Morgan and without waiting for an answer, I closed the bedroom door and collapsed onto the bed, dropping the bag of medicine on the floor.
Sleep wrapped around me in an embrace and my last thought was that my pillows still smelled like Emily. A pang of sadness ran through me, and I whispered her name before giving in to the exhaustion.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
I groaned and slapped my hand on the side table to kill the alarm.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
No, not now! A growl escaped my lips, and I tried to pull myself from the deep sleep I was in.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound became urgent, louder, and finally pierced through the fog in my mind. Why would Morgan be banging on my door? I’ve only been asleep for about an hour and all I wanted to do was get a few more hours of bliss.
“I’m coming! Stop!” I yelled groggily and pulled myself to my feet. My room was dark and cool, and I tried to remember when I closed the curtains. I also wondered why I was naked.
Yanking on a pair of sweatpants, I stumbled to my door. When I pulled it open, ready to give Morgan a stern lecture about waking people up when they were comfortably asleep, I was confused to find that no one was there. Scratching my head, I considered that I was going crazy when another set of knocks came from the front door. I shook my head, puzzled, feeling certain it was coming from my bedroom door.
“What?” I snapped as I opened the door and Cassian paused with his fist in the air, ready to knock again.
“You look like shit, man,” Cassian said simply as he dropped his hand.
I stopped myself from snapping at Cassian again and ran a hand through my sweat-dampened hair. “Yeah, well, someone woke me up. I just fell asleep.”
“Terrible timing, we’re supposed to go to the Black Hole, remember?”
Shaking my head, I pinched the bridge of my nose. “That’s tomorrow, Cassian. You told me earlier that you wanted to wait.”
“Uh, that was yesterday,” Cassian stated and frowned in concern. “Are you okay?”
I tried to gather my thoughts. Surely, he was kidding? But why would he joke about something like that? I looked around and the sun had set. Strange, I fell asleep at, like, 10 a.m.…
Snatching my phone from the table, I checked the time. Did I leave my phone there?Weird, I thought I took it with me to the bedroom. Sure enough, it was time for our trip. But that meant that I had slept through the change and for more than 24 hours.
“Oh, yeah. I must’ve lost track of time. Let me pull on shoes and a shirt quickly and we can go.” I turned back inside and grabbed a shirt and slipped my feet into a pair of sneakers. I ignored the confusion and the feeling of still being tired, even though I’d apparently slept for so long.
Why didn’t Morgan wake me when she left? Why didn’t she try to talk to me or check if I was okay? How did I sleep through the change and how did my wolf not break out of the apartment and wreak havoc? I rolled my shoulders, my muscles felt painful and stiff. A visit to the Black Hole seemed like the worst thing to do, especially when all I wanted to do was curl up in bed and go back to sleep.
Cassian was leaning against the doorframe when I returned. The concerned look had vanished, thankfully, and he pushed up as I approached him. I walked past him wordlessly and climbed into his truck while he followed. We drove in silence and stopped a block away from the entrance to the criminal hub.
“We need to be inconspicuous when we’re in there,” Cassian warned and glanced at me sideways. “You sure you’re okay?”
I rolled my eyes and huffed. “I’m fine; let’s just get this over with. There’s a guy at the market who has connections. He’s probably our best bet.”
Cassian nodded, and I walked past him toward the Black Hole. I’d never been into the dive. Fear and excitement swirled through me—thick anticipation filling up every crevice of my mind, wondering what we would encounter.
Pushing into the rusted steel doors that marked the entrance to the Black Hole, I walked inside. It was made to look as uninviting to the human eye as possible. On the outside, it appeared to be an abandoned building with a danger notice across the doors. I could only imagine what would happen to a human in here. It was dangerous for supernaturals, but for them, it would be a death sentence.
The stench hit me as soon as we cleared the doors. It smelled like blood, mold, urine, and something rancid had been boiled into a cauldron and dumped onto the ground. Mixed together with the stench of saturated alcohol, there is no way anyone from the human world could be comfortable here.
People were pushed up against one another and made a few people stumble into others, causing fights to break out. Cassian jogged up beside me and fell into step.
“Who do we speak to first?” he asked, and I scanned the huge room.
“Those guys.” I pointed at the entrance to the Black Market to two burly guards who stood on either side. They watched each person that walked in with emotionless looks on their faces. “They should know who is in charge.”
