Brent realized he probably hadn’t adequately prepared Cooper for Ryan’s style. Then again, there probably was no way to prepare someone for Ryan le Coire.
“All right,” Ryan answered. “Then you’re all set. No problem. You can show yourself out.”
“Brent … ?” Cooper said, imploring him to help.
Brent would have liked to say, Don’t drag me into this, but he was the one who had brought Cooper here in the first place.
“Just tell Ryan what’s going on,” he said instead. “He can probably help, but only if you bother to make an effort.”
Cooper obviously had to bite back a rude retort before he said, “Fine. I’ve been seeing a ghost. Her name’s Samantha. She doesn’t remember who she was, but she looks around my age and seems local.”
Brent noticed that Ryan hadn’t written a thing down yet, and knew that meant that so far, Cooper hadn’t said anything Ryan thought mattered.
“When did you first see her?”
Cooper tensed. Brent took a deep breath, now glad the powers in the house shielded him from Cooper’s thoughts.
“A few months ago,” Cooper answered.
“Anything particular happen then?”
This time, when Cooper froze, Brent took pity on him. “He was in a car accident. A nasty one.”
“How nasty?”
Cooper swallowed heavily before saying, “It was a close call for me. Other people died.” He added quickly, “Two men. No one who was killed was anything like Samantha.”
Ryan nodded slightly. “Anything else unusual since the accident?”
“Like what?” Cooper asked nervously.
Brent rested his head on the back of the couch and closed his eyes. Ryan would get Cooper to the answer eventually.
“Okay, fine,” Cooper admitted. “I sometimes … I don’t know how to describe it. Sometimes something happens, and people around me … I don’t know what happens. Brent, can you help me out? You have more experience with this stuff.”
Brent thought back, trying to remember exactly how he felt when Cooper had panicked in the library and seemed to throw him across the room. Instead of describing the sensations out loud, though, he put them together like a package, focusing until they became clear enough for Ryan to pick up on them.
He knew when Ryan had, because his eyes widened, and he said, “Well, that’s more interesting than Cooper’s … ghost, and might be the beginning of an explanation.”
“What?” Cooper asked.
Ryan didn’t bother to explain, just said bluntly, “I need to know more about the accident.”
“I don’t remember most of it,” Cooper said softly. “I was driving. Then I woke up in the hospital.”
“Any dreams?”
Brent winced, as something from Cooper’s mind got past le Coire’s shields. “Ryan—” he started to protest, but Ryan cut him off with a sharp look.
“You do remember the accident,” Ryan said. “You’re just too afraid to admit it. And I would bet you remember more, from when you were unconscious in the hospital.”
“I never said I was unconscious.”
“I’m not an idiot,” Ryan replied, standing to walk around the desk. “You said it was a close call. You would have been out for a while. What did you see then?”
“I don’t remember!” Cooper snapped.
“Ryan!” Brent shouted, this time more assertively.
Cooper had taken a step back.
“Were you the one driving?” Ryan asked, glancing at the notebook in his hand as he closed the distance between them again. “More important, were you the one who caused the accident?”
Cooper lifted his hands to push Ryan away. Brent tried to slam into place every mental shield he had, not wanting to experience this aspect of Cooper’s power again.
Ryan caught Cooper’s wrists. The instant they touched, the air gave a concussive shudder, and Cooper wobbled, stumbling back; Brent jumped up to stabilize him, while Ryan jotted something down in his notebook.
As Brent deposited a semiconscious Cooper on the couch, Ryan leaned back on the desk, and said, “That was pretty much what I expected.”
“What … wha—” Cooper opened his eyes, and his mumbled question was replaced by a wheezing gasp and a wash of fear so strong it knocked Brent to his knees despite Ryan’s magic. Cooper’s face was pale and his lips looked blue.
Brent was concerned the former football player was about to pass out until Ryan stepped forward with a sigh. He fearlessly touched Cooper’s shoulder, and said, “They came in with you. Many more of them would have come in, had I let your Samantha through the doorway. I can banish them for now, but they’ll find you again once you leave here.”
“What … are … they?” Cooper whispered, his eyes still darting around the room.
“In brief, they’re vermin,” Ryan answered nonchalantly. “They have no particular goal except to feed, which they do upon the power put out by emotions like pain and fear. A healthy human being has natural defenses against the vermin of the paranormal world, but injury or trauma can make a person vulnerable, allowing vermin not only to feed but to heighten the person’s negative emotions. The only remotely interesting thing about your case is that, with this many around you and no experience dealing with them, you should have descended into complete madness by now, unable to even step outside your own door. You might think your memories of the accident are stressful, but with so many scavengers magnifying and feeding on that terror, I’m surprised you’re not reliving the experience in your head every moment of every day.”
Brent shuddered, remembering the creatures he had seen in the library, in the shadows as he tried to sleep, and in his dream with Samantha. How many of them was Cooper seeing now? How many had been around them both all this time?
13
Delilah stretched out, sunbathing on the hood of her car, as the figure Cooper had called Samantha kicked repeatedly at the door to le Coire’s house. She had walked through Ryan’s bushes—literally through them, without disturbing a branch, bird or squirrel—and tried to peer through the windows before pounding her fists against the glass.
When Samantha’s hands had struck the edges of the le Coire manor, where Ryan’s magic gave off hot sparks, her form seemed to dissolve.
Delilah yawned and rubbed her temples. After learning Cooper would be here today, she had spent much of last night preparing, so she would be able to see the power connected to him more clearly. Doing so had left her exhausted, and watching Samantha now made her eyes water.
Instead of a solid body, Samantha deemed to be made up of bright colors in a vaguely human-shaped form that glistened and wavered as if reflected on the surface of a rapidly moving river. Delilah’s eyes couldn’t quite focus on it.
Samantha paced around the house for the second time now before she turned, frustrated, and then paused, apparently noticing Delilah.
“Hello,” Delilah said.
Samantha hesitated. Delilah had been more focused on Cooper and hadn’t heard everything Samantha said about her earlier, but she had not been unaware of the creature’s hostility. She was also, unfortunately, aware of the shadows that rose and pressed against her shields as soon as Cooper’s “ghost” turned toward her.
Keeping herself protected from the scavengers, but open enough to outside power to see Samantha,
