Veiled Spirits - Page 66

We veer to the left toward a wooden dock. Archer walks us to the end of the dock, then drops my hand to kneel down and unlace his black skate shoes. Once he peels off his matching black socks and rolls up his jeans, Archer sits on the edge of the dock and dips his feet into the water.

“Isn’t it cold?” I ask. It is October. While the days can be warm enough, the nights get chilly. I’d imagine the water isn’t balmy, like it would be in the summer.

He tilts his head back to grin at me. “Shifters run hot, so it’s not cold to me. If you’re not too much of a scaredy-cat, you can try dipping your feet in to see.”

I glare at the frustrating wolf because he knows exactly what he’s doing. I have a really hard time backing down when I’m challenged. While I’d like to blame that personality flaw on my magic, I’m pretty sure most of it’s just me.

After I toe off my unlaced white Chucks, I pull my white ankle socks off and hesitantly approach Archer. Sitting down on the edge, I reluctantly lower my legs until my toes dip into the chilly water. “Fuck me, that’s cold!”

Archer snorts at my reaction. “It’s not that cold, sunshine.”

I’m too busy tucking my now freezing toes under my legs to say anything. For a few minutes, we sit quietly, absorbing the peace of the water and the nature around us. The sun is sitting low on the horizon, making the sky bleed orange, yellow, and purple.

I break our peaceful quiet when I ask, “You’re not going to try to pry into my feelings about the whole ghost debacle?”

He huffs out a laugh. “Nah. I figured you got enough of that from Luca and Bishop.”

“And Cain,” I mumble.

“Really? Cain?” When I look over at him, Archer’s brows are sky-high in surprise.

“Yeah. I don’t know why you’re surprised. Cain’s the sweet one who always wants to talk about my feelings.” My lips tip up slightly, thinking about the thoughtful wolf. While he’s gruff and quiet on the outside, he has a gooey marshmallow center.

Archer looks at me for a moment before bursting out laughing. He doubles over, he’s laughing so hard. I just stare at him, wondering if he’s lost his mind. Eventually, Archer gets his laughter under control. He turns to me with a wide smile. “Cain, sweet? That’s fucking hilarious. I don’t think he’s ever been called sweet in his life. Unhinged? Definitely. Terrifying? That’s more like it. Sweet? Absolutely not.”

“What’re you talking about? He’s definitely the sweetest out of all of you, no offense or anything.”

“Oh, babycakes, you’re adorable. I’m not sure how he convinced you he’s sweet, but he’s not. You can ask anyone in the pack who the most unhinged member is, and they’ll all say Cain.” I look at Archer skeptically. While I don’t have a problem with Cain being unhinged, I don’t really see it. Archer sighs. “You heard of the Reaper?”

“Yeah.” I only know of the Reaper because I do stuff for Elemental.

The Reaper is some psycho who goes around dolling out vigilante justice in extremely violent and gruesome ways. Rhys and Bishop are so jealous of him. While the Reaper gets to annihilate any supernatural scumbags they want, my brother and Bishop are stuck taking clients that pay. Elemental is a business, after all.

“That’s Cain.”

I whip my head around to stare at Archer in surprise. “No way. Cain’s not old enough to have been doing that for, like, fifteen years.”

“Cain’s the same age as Luca, but he started taking out shitty people when he was fifteen.”

“Why?”

Archer blows out a breath and turns to stare at the rippling surface of the lake. After deliberating what to say for a moment, Archer tells me, “Cain was going through some stuff. It’s not really my place to tell you about it, sunshine.”

“That’s fair.” Even though I want to know everything about Cain, I respect Archer not telling me things that aren’t his to share. My heart hurts for Cain, though. He must’ve been full of so much anger and pain to start taking out bad guys as a teen.

“Summer or winter?” Archer asks me out of nowhere.

“Fall.” I can’t help the grin at picking neither of the answers. It’s fun to be difficult.

But fall is my favorite season. I love the chilly mornings and warm afternoons, the colorful leaves, any excuse to wear one of Bishop’s flannels, and all the pumpkin things I can bake.

“Movies or TV shows?”

“Books.” I’ll happily watch good TV or movies, but I love reading. Books transport you to another world in a way nothing else really can.

“Batman or Superman?”

“Iron Man.” I’d choose Tony Stark over Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent any day. Archer grins at my answers.