Page 15 of The Golden Receiver

About fifteen minutes into the trail, I noticed that I was getting better at anticipating obstacles. I didn’t know if it was just the fact that my eyes had adjusted to the dark or if it was like Evander had said when he’d suggested this thing: my reflexes getting better. I figured it was more the former than the latter because I was pretty sure reflexes took time to hone. They weren’t something that you saw a marked improvement in with fifteen minutes of running on unfamiliar terrain.

The entire trail took about forty minutes to run. When we broke back through the tree line, only about five yards away from where we entered, I was dripping sweat. The sun was starting to peek over the horizon. Evander was doubled over, hands resting on his knees. His skin was flushed red and shining with sweat. His shaggy blond hair fell over his eyes, but when he looked up, he gave me a smile that lit up the dark area we were in.

I felt my own lips curve upward in return.

“Good run?” he asked as he straightened back up and started striding back around the library.

I nodded. Then I realized that his back was to me. It wasn’t like he could hear my response. “Yeah. Didn’t even know that trail was here.”

“It’s one of my favorites. Usually takes me less time to run it though.”

He tossed it out so casually, but the words made my blood boil. What the hell did he mean it took him less time to run usually? “Were you holding back so I could keep pace?” I asked him.

I figured he could hear the disgust in my tone, based on the way he turned and looked at me. “You’re used to running on a track,” he pointed out.

“And I’m human,” I spat. “You probably have some night vision bullshit.”

He turned around to look at me, walking backward. “Night vision bullshit?”

“Yeah,” I doubled down. “You probably have some monster ability to see in the dark.”

He paused, his head cocked to the side. I noticed the way his nostrils flared. Then he did the weirdest fucking thing. He smiled, like he was amused at something. No, not at something. At someone. At me. “I do,” he told me plainly. “Not in pitch black. My vision’s no better than yours in pitch black, but low light?” He nodded. “Yeah, in low light, I’ve got better vision than humans.”

He kept walking backward without looking behind him to see where he was going. I guessed that had to do with his monster side too. “And the ability to sense tripping hazards?” I asked. I wished I would’ve kept my mouth shut, because he proved me wrong on that front immediately. He bumped into a bench behind him and stumbled backward. I reached out and grabbed his hand on impulse, pulling him to keep him upright. He tumbled forward against me, landing smack dab in the middle of my chest. I dropped his wrist like it burned and took a large step back. “Guess not on that one.”

He laughed. He didn’t look embarrassed at all by his near fall. He didn’t look put out by my attitude either. He really was some kind of morning person. He turned around and started up the steps of the library, back to where we’d hidden our bags. “You can ask, you know,” he told me as he lifted our bags one-handed from behind the potted plant we’d hidden them behind.

“Ask what?”

“You can ask what species someone is. I didn’t know if you thought it was rude or something,” he chirped as he jogged back down the stairs to hand me my bag. “I ask people all the time when I can’t figure it out. Most of them don’t mind answering. It’s not like you can tell with everyone, you know? I mean, sure, some of them you absolutely can. Like there’s this one guy I had a class with last year, snakes for hair. Couldn’t miss that he was a Gorgon. But the ones that walk around without much sign of what they are? You can ask them.”

He was rambling, and I wanted him to stop. So, I did the only logical thing. I asked, “What are you?”

“I’m a werewolf.”

I blinked. A werewolf? An actual werewolf? “Like shift on the full moon and howl werewolf?” I asked.

“I mean, we don’t need the full moon…”

I wasn’t sure why I was shocked. I had a class with a girl with green skin. My new roommate was a gargoyle. One of our teammates was literally seven feet tall, and I still didn’t know what exactly he was. I hadn’t asked. Figured it wasn’t my business, and okay, maybe a part of me knew I’d react like this. I didn’t know why I was blindsided either. It wasn’t like a werewolf was that far out of the realm of possibility.

I’d heard of them. Not just in popular media, but in the news and stuff. They were some of the most common monsters that people got turned into with the Halloween Wave.

“Do you have any questions? About being a werewolf? About me?” He jerked his head toward the path in front of us, the one that would lead us across campus to the training facility for practice.

I shook my head. I had a ton of questions, but I didn’t want to hear him yammering on about being a werewolf right now. It was too early to process any of this, even with the post-workout endorphins. Maybe later.

Probably not.

Chapter Six

Evander

Kieran started to run with me every morning.

The first morning, he’d been pretty monosyllabic, especially after the whole werewolf reveal. I thought he might ask some more questions at some point, but he didn’t. He did have a small conversation with me the next day and every day after that. They were all surface level, but it was progress. I was pretty sure, when we finished running some paths around campus on day three, I actually saw him smile.

It transformed his face, and I kept thinking about it all day.