Jamal's POV
I woke up that morning, with a slight headache and the bitter taste of sewer water in my mouth, the events of the previous day coming rushing back like an unwanted ex.
The taste of sewage in my mouth, the screams of the rats, each almost as big as a small dog. The taste of their blood in my mouth as I ripped them apart one by one.
I groaned, rolling over to one side, wincing as I realized the wounds of the previous night had not healed entirely, leaving me with a dull ache all over my body. It was weird, the wounds were supposed to heal faster, I had never before since I started shifting woken up to injuries sustained the previous night, unless they were inflicted by magic.
I sighed, rubbing my temples with my fingers. Maybe the Watcher wasn't so crazy after all, maybe there was something going on in those sewers that was unnatural. Maybe those rats had been enhanced by some kind of magic, either from direct contact with the staff or from its general presence in the said sewers.
But then again, maybe I was finally getting too old for this shit.
Either way, the thought of having to go back to that place another night didn't sit well with me at all and put me in a bad mood for the rest of the morning.
The sooner I got this over with, the happier I would get.
* * *
As I pulled up into the dark alley. I parked my car for a bit, considering what I was about to do.
I was about to descend into the nastiest place in the city to find a supposedly magical staff that would supposedly help me against an ancient dragon spirit who was vying for the affection of the mother of my children with me. A woman whom I had willingly and stupidly kicked out of my life, all at the advice of a supposedly magical old man, who could very well be a crazy fellow having a laugh at the very thought of having a werewolf Alpha do his bidding.
For the second, freaking time!!!
It was very absurd.
Shaking my head, I stepped out of the car, shutting the door behind me.
I couldn't believe this was what it had come to. Snooping down the city sewers like I was a bloody rat.
I had to wait till sunset, to avoid any prying eyes wondering why a well-dressed man in a Maserati would be sliding down man-hole covers into the nastiest, most disgusting place in the city.
The very thought of having to explain what I was going down there to do to a bunch of curious people and possibly the police amused me so much that I let out a chuckle. The things we do for love, I guess.
I parked the car next to the pack and approached the nearest cover with the backpack. Just like the previous day, I didn't have a map, I didn't need one, anything magical as long as it wasn't cloaked by some cloaking smell should be easy for me to sniff out. Plus it wasn't like a map would help anyways, there was no "X marks the spot" on it for magical objects that may or may not be used to slay dragons.
I was on my own on this.
I squatted over it, first looking around to make sure that nobody was around at this hour. It seemed deserted at least, there was no scent of any human in the immediate vicinity. I was alone, for now.
Grunting, I lifted the cover, immediately hit with a wave of nausea as the smell of rot and decay and the waste product of about 5 million people living in this god-forsaken city hit my nostrils, nearly knocking me out as my smell was primed and hypersensitive. I struggled to concentrate, flinging away the heavy cover with landed with a loud "Dud" in the distance as I coughed and spattered on the floor, my eyes tearing up.
The sewers at the Northside I had explored the previous day were bad, made worse by the presence of the rats but this? This was nasty, even worse than I expected. I found myself missing the comparatively mild discomfort of the previous night. At least the rats were the only serious problems there. Here, it felt like the stench was going to take me long before any rats.
"Don't be a pussy, Jamal." I thought to myself, "Fucking get up and do your job."
What a shitty job it was. But then again, it had to be done. Shaking off the nausea, I swung the backpack behind me and started descending down the rails into the sewer.
The sewer walls echoed with the shuffle of my tired footsteps. I'd spent the whole night trudging through the murky depths, chasing the elusive staff that seemed to be playing a game of hide and seek. Frustration clung to me like a second skin as I pondered my next move.
Maybe the staff wasn't in this gloomy place after all. I sighed, wiping sweat from my forehead. Time to call it a day, I thought, deciding to head back the way I came.
Once again, no magic was detected. Which checked out, this was the human realm, magic SHOULDN'T exist here. The old man was delusional and I was an even bigger fool for taking him seriously. I was going to go back there, call him out on his scam and very possibly beat the living shit out of him for wasting my time.
But as I retraced my steps, something caught my eye, and my nose— this place... I was here before, I was here the previous night.
That didn't make sense. I had driven for an hour and thirty minutes past my entry point the previous night to find this place and I hadn't even explored for up to thirty minutes on foot. I should have been nowhere near my location the previous night.
Something was wrong somehow.
But as I glanced at the walls, I realized I was right. Or at least my senses were, this was exactly where I fought the previous night, they were scratches on the walls, where my claws and theirs had met and as I shone the flashlight, I found the cracks and holes where I had punched through, the broken pipes, the holes in the wall, they were all here!