She nodded, her hair—devoid of any extra color, and as plain as her torn jeans and black T-shirt—cascading forward to hide her face.
“He knows someone who might be able to help us. He’s telepathic, you know.” She looked up at that, the fear still on her face, but now mixed with surprise. “Yeah, it was kind of a shock for me, too,” Cooper added. “Maybe that’s how he could see you in the library, or how you could talk to him in his dreams. You can’t normally do that, can you?”
“I don’t know. It was the first time I tried it,” Samantha mumbled. “He kind of heard me when he was awake. I thought maybe he’d be able to hear better when he was sleeping. I’m not going to do it again, though. It was—” Her breath hitched, but she still couldn’t seem to cry. Through all this, her eyes had remained dry.
He put a hand out, and she put one of hers carefully on top of his. He couldn’t feel her, and was pretty sure she couldn’t feel him, but there was something comforting about at least trying to make that kind of contact.
“Brent said this guy he knows believes in magic and supernatural stuff,” Cooper said. “He and I are going over there later today. With more people working on it, I’m sure we’ll be able to figure out who you are and how to help you.”
“A golem?” she said, before sticking out her tongue.
“Who knows?” Cooper watched as her mood lightened, and color literally seeped into her. Green and blue streaks appeared in her hair, and her clothes picked up swirls of color, tonight a fuchsia paisley pattern.
“You look like hell,” Samantha observed.
“Yeah,” he said, his relief at her reappearance finally allowing his body and mind both to relax.
Samantha looked like she was going to say something sharp—probably complain about his being half conscious after she had had such a scare—so Cooper tried to rouse himself, but instead she just shook her head. “You should lie down. You act like you wish it weren’t true some nights, but you keep telling me you need sleep.”
He tried to follow her advice. He thought he might even have drifted off and dreamed for a little while, judging by the bitter taste of adrenaline in his mouth when he woke at three-thirty. That’s when he gave up, stumbled into the shower, and headed to the shop.
Samantha followed closely. He wasn’t even sure she had left his room while he tossed and turned in bed. She obviously didn’t want to be alone. He recalled his nightmare from the hospital as he sat at a corner table after his shift, watching people come and go while he waited for Brent. He remembered the dark creatures coming and tearing her into pieces. She had fought to gather herself back together. She had wept then, but now she had no tears.
Had the darkness devoured her tears? Had it taken her memories?
“Hi, Brent,” Samantha sighed, causing Cooper to jerk his gaze up. He hadn’t noticed Brent come in.
Samantha prepared to scramble out of the way as Brent grabbed the back of her chair and seem poised to sit down.
Instinctively, Cooper said, “Sam’s there.”
Brent hesitated and looked at the chair, which had to appear empty to him. Then he stepped back, anyway, mumbling awkwardly, “Sorry, Samantha. Um. And good morning.”
She waved, but it was obvious Brent couldn’t see her as he circled widely around the chair to drag one over from another table.
“Mind if I get a coffee before we go?” Brent asked. “I didn’t sleep well.”
“Sorry,” Cooper said to be polite. Then he realized he probably was to blame for Brent’s sleepless night. “I’ll get it for you. Black, right?”
Brent nodded, again looking around for Samantha.
She waved both hands in front of his eyes, and said, “Anything, Mr. Telepath?”
Cooper left them there and headed behind the counter.
On his way back to Brent, though, he stopped. Those creatures were writhing around under the table, brushing up against Brent’s legs like some kind of feral cats. Some had scrambled higher and hooked their claws into Brent’s legs, but instead of seeping blood, the wounds emitted a flickering light.
Cooper blinked, and Brent and the table and Samantha were back to normal. Samantha hadn’t seemed to see the creatures this time. Brent hadn’t even reached to brush them away. Was Cooper hallucinating? Sleeplessness could do that.
He swallowed and forced himself to continue walking calmly toward Brent, who was looking at him with concern.
Cooper handed over the coffee silently. Brent took a sip, then cleared his throat and asked, “What did you see, just then?”
“I don’t know.”
Samantha frowned. “Was it them again?”
He nodded reluctantly.
“Right,” Brent said, “then we should get going.”
It took nearly an hour to get to Ryan’s house by public transportation, though Cooper suspected it would have been a fifteen-minute ride by car. They had to walk a couple of blocks after the bus let them off in West Roxbury, and when they got to the house, Cooper was ready to keep on walking.
He had expected … well, he wasn’t sure. Some little shop with a woman doing tarot readings, or a seedy apartment filled with incense and candles in the windows. West Roxbury had some pretty impressive houses, but Ryan’s put the ones around it to shame. It was surrounded by a wrought-iron fence that concealed a large front yard and some kind of funky tree with low, gnarly branches and red leaves.
Brent banged an antique-looking knocker in the shape of a three-headed monster against the door. The sound seemed to echo.
“Is this guy some kind of millionaire?” Cooper asked.
“Inherited money,” Brent answered. “He says his family was among the country’s founders, and they’ve done well since. He can be a little arrogant about it, but mostly he just doesn’t think in terms of money. It’s fun sometimes and annoying at others.”
The person who answered the door was not an old-money sorcerer. It was Delilah. She wasn’t quite the last person on earth Cooper wanted to see, but he wasn’t happy about it, either.
“Cooper,” Delilah said as she gave him a lazy smile before eyeing Brent coolly. “I overheard someone telling Ryan you two were coming by this morning.”
“I …” Cooper looked at Brent, feeling both panicked and confused now. “We’re just here to …”
“I know you’re here for Ryan,” Delilah said. “If you want me to stick around, Cooper, I can blow off the car wash.”
“What are you doing here?” Cooper finally managed to blurt out.
“I could ask you the same question, Mr. Dropped-off-the-map-all-summer,” Delilah answered with another smile.
“Why don’t you answer him first?” Samantha snapped. “And put on some clothes!”
Startled by Samantha’s retort, Cooper tried to turn a laugh into a cough. Delilah was wearing very short cutoffs and a silky, clinging tank top. It wasn’t unusual for her. What was unusual was the fact that she looked toward Samantha at that moment, before turning back to Cooper to say, “If you were coming here for help, I figured there was probably a reason you were avoiding all of us. I thought—”
“Delilah, didn’t you say you had a social obligation to attend?” The polished, male voice that came from behind Delilah made Cooper breathe a sigh of relief.
Delilah rolled her eyes. “You sure you don’t want me to stick around, Coop?”
“I’ll see you later,” Cooper replied firmly. He didn’t know what she was doing at Ryan’s place—maybe there was a perfectly reasonable explanation—but he knew he couldn’t handle his old life and this weird, paranormal nightmare mingling just yet.
“I’ll hold you to that,” she said. “Come by the car wash?”
“Maybe.”
“No maybes,” Delilah responded. “Just be there. See you, Ryan.”
She brushed past him and walked toward the driveway.
“Skank,” Samantha mumbled. “Seriously, could she be any more all over you? I thought you said she didn’t
