Page 1 of Requiem
Chapter one
JUDE GRAVES
Ugh,fuck. Something iswrong.
I’m so hot, and my shirt is damp and sticking to me like I’ve been dragged through a goddamn swamp and left to dry. My hands won’t stop shaking, rattling like my body is trying to tear itself apart from the inside out.
No dose.
My tongue drags across the roof of my uncomfortably dry mouth.How long has it been?Time is looping. I don’t—how long…
I don’t know if I’ve slept or passed out or died for a few minutes and come back. Has it finally happened?
Has my heart finally given up? Have I been…freed?
For a moment, I don’t open my eyes. I lie there breathing through my nose. My head is heavy, and my muscles twitch in small, erratic jerks that don’t really even feel like mine. My leg aches. And under it all, growing worse by the second…
Withdrawal. Fuck.FuckAlexei. That stupid motherfucker.
My stomach rolls, nausea rising fast, and when I shift, there’s a sudden metallic clink. The sound startles me, and my eyes snap open. Warm brown planks stretch across the ceiling above me, completely unfamiliar. I blink once, waiting for it to flicker back to cracked concrete and those buzzing fluorescent fucking lights, but it doesn’t.
A flash of white rips across my vision, and I wince. I blink hard, but it doesn’t fully disappear. It just…layers together.
Wood. Concrete. Past. Present.
I don’t know which one I’m in.
I push myself up, my stomach dropping as I look down and see steel cuffs circling my wrists, connected to chains that are bolted to the wall on either side of me. I’m chained to a bed? When did this happen? There’s a bathroom over to my right that I can reach, thankfully.
“Jesus—”
My voice comes out shredded, like I've been screaming. I don't remember screaming. Hell, I don't really remember anything. For a split second, the room flickers, the wood bleeding into gray. Damp air fills my lungs, thick with mildew and the coppery scent of blood soaked into concrete.
Itasteblood.
I’m back here. I thrash against the chains with a blind and desperate need to get the fuck out before he starts hurting me again.
Don’t. Please stay the fuck away from me—
“Calm down.”
I freeze. That’s not his voice. Or Erik’s. Or even Aiden’s.
Wait…Aiden’s dead, right?
Yes, I shot the motherfucker.
My head jerks, scanning, and that’s when I see a man sitting beside the bed. My entire body jolts. I didn’t hear him come in. Didn’t even feel him there.
How long has he been watching me? Why is he watching me?
He leans forward, elbows on his knees, posture casual, but his vivid blue eyes are focused. Black hair falls across his forehead, slightly disheveled, but everything else about him is precise.
My lip curls on instinct like a wild animal, my muscles coiling despite the restraints, like I might lunge even though I can’t. “You—”
The word catches, and memory slams into me.
Music pounds through my skull, lights fracturing into shards. A ballroom, bodies moving—
