Token of Darkness (13 page)

“Take a day,” Ryan suggested. “Ask Brent and Delilah what it’s like to study with me. Look around and see if you can recognize which people near you have your shadows clinging to them, and how it’s affecting them. And,” he concluded with a cool smile, “maybe you should see what Samantha thinks of the plan.” He shrugged. “Or maybe you shouldn’t. If she
is
the one keeping you alive, and she thinks you might not be useful anymore, it could end badly. Either way, be here tomorrow morning if you want my help.”

Cooper wanted to defend Samantha again, but couldn’t seem to find the words as a shiver ran down his spine.

C
ooper rubbed his jaw as he and Brent climbed onto the train going back to town. “I’m wondering if Ryan and I would both survive it, if I accept his offer to teach me anything.”

“I don’t know of anyone who’s died there yet,” Brent assured him. “Ryan is always pretty abrasive, but he gets easier to work with once he believes that you’re willing to put in the effort.”

“How hard is it to convince him of that?”

Brent seemed to ponder that one for quite a while, before saying, “As you might have guessed, you’re not the first person to try to hit him. I’ve never seen anyone connect, though I tried my best. More importantly, I’ve never seen Ryan get angry about it. He says that it’s easiest for most people to tap into their power when their
emotions are running high, so I think he baits people on purpose.”

“Oh, fun,” Cooper grumbled.

“Speaking of which, is Samantha angry about being locked out?”

Cooper nodded. “She said she was going to follow Delilah, so she’s probably at the car wash now.” He wasn’t sure what to make of her abrupt about-face on her opinion of Delilah. Was she as unsettled as he was by finding Delilah at Ryan’s?

“Do you want to swing by after we get back to town?” Brent asked. “I think the flyers I saw said the car wash would run until five, so we could get there half an hour or so before they shut down.”

“I don’t know,” Cooper said. “If Ryan’s right, my being around them could hurt the other guys, too, couldn’t it?”

“I don’t know,” Brent said, before he blurted out, “You have to have
some
thoughts on what Ryan said about Samantha. What if she
isn’t
what you think she is? Maybe she isn’t even what
she
thinks she is, and that’s why you two haven’t been able to figure out
who
she is.”

“I just don’t believe she would hurt anyone,” Cooper said, recalling too vividly how scared Samantha had seemed after having been “lost” last night. No matter what Ryan said, Cooper had a hard time believing it was really all an act.

Of course, her fear made him more afraid, which was what those shadow-creatures were supposed to—

No. He didn’t believe that. Even if Ryan was right and Samantha couldn’t be a ghost, that didn’t mean she was evil. Maybe Samantha didn’t mean to lie to anyone, but was deceiving herself, like Brent said.

Despite his reservations, when they left the train, Cooper found himself heading toward the grocery store parking lot where he knew the team would be. He wanted to see Samantha again to make sure she was all right.

And he wanted to see the guys. He had been so nervous about even calling them all summer, but if part of that nervousness had been caused by the shadows, then he should seize the moment before they came back. Ryan had said that healthy people weren’t at risk, so Cooper didn’t think he’d actually be endangering them. He would say a quick hello, and hopefully find Samantha in the process.

Brent was following quietly beside him, “Going to check out the car wash after all?”

“I guess I am,” he said. “I mean, I should, right?” He felt as if he could breathe easier than he had been able to in months.

Brent shrugged. “You want company or should I ditch?”

“Would it be absolutely pathetic if I asked you to come?” Cooper asked. John had seemed willing to forgive and forget that he had abandoned him for months, but their conversation had still been awkward even before the shadows came. Cooper didn’t know how the rest of the team would react. They had a right to be pissed at him.

“No problem,” Brent said. “I can provide an excuse and drive the getaway car if we need to make our escape.”

Cooper laughed a little at the image, but it was mostly forced.

John looked up just then and did a double take. Cooper froze like a rabbit as the 227-pound linebacker ran at him. If John actually hit him with any force, he was going to go down,
hard
, before John even realized that Cooper had lost most of the bulk and muscle that would enable him to meet that kind of greeting.

Thankfully, John stopped, grinning, a couple feet in front of Cooper. If the shadows that had harassed John back at school had done any damage, it didn’t show.

“It’s good to see you up and about and not looking like hell,” John said bluntly, his smile not fading.

“Yeah. I’m sorry I haven’t called or anything.”

“I figured you’d get in touch when you felt up to it. I told the guys to leave you alone until then … though I don’t suppose you’ll be coming back to the team?”

Cooper shook his head, relief at the warm greeting actually making his head spin. When the doctors had first told him that it was a very bad idea for him to go back to football, it had seemed like a death knell. Now, months later, he managed to smile as he said, “I’m going to have to watch this season.”

“Well, you two look like you need to catch up,” Brent said, apparently having decided he had stood awkwardly nearby long enough. “I’m going to bail. Unless you still need help with that thing, Cooper?”

Cooper recognized the offer as an excuse to leave, in case he needed or wanted it, and was grateful.

“You should stick around, Coop,” John said. “Hang with us. We’re all going over to the beach after we’re done here if the weather holds, and then we’re going to hit Frank’s Grill for dinner.”

Cooper was shaking his head before he even realized it. “I’ve got work in the morning,” he said, even though he knew perfectly well that his father would let him off work in a heartbeat if he asked, and his mother would be delighted he was going out with the guys from the team. Unless he could find a swimsuit that didn’t show his arms, torso, or legs, he wouldn’t be hitting the beach anytime soon. Maybe someday, but he wasn’t quite ready to show off the extent of the damage to the world yet.

“C’mon,” John said. “You can come out for a while. Who needs sleep, right? You don’t even need to do suicide drills at practice tomorrow. You can handle—”

“I can’t,” Cooper said, more sharply than he had intended.

John went quiet.

“Sorry, man,” Cooper said, dropping his head as he tried to push back the anxiety that was starting to spike again. “I’m still a little … off. I don’t know. Say hi to the guys for me, though?”

“Say hi to them yourself?” John suggested, gesturing over his shoulder to the rest of the team, who were manning the car wash when they weren’t glancing not entirely subtly over at John, Cooper and Brent. Delilah wasn’t with
them; either she had decided not to come back to the car wash, or she was promoting the car wash somewhere else.

Cooper was glad not to have to face her again yet, but disappointed to see that Samantha wasn’t here, either.

“Might as well say hello,” Brent encouraged him.

Cooper looked skeptically, wondering if Brent was trying to help or get rid of him.

John seemed equally confused, as if he were trying to figure out who Brent was and why he was involved. “Do I know you?” he asked.

“I went to a couple parties with Delilah,” Brent answered with a sigh.

“Oh,” John said, his eyes widening in surprise. “Well. Um. Huh.”

“Let’s go say hi,” Cooper said, changing the subject. Cooper wondered how recently Brent and Delilah had broken up, and what she had been saying to the guys since.

He started across the parking lot, acutely aware that the rest of the team had dropped any attempt at discretion and had turned to smile at him. He tried to remind himself that these were his
friends
, and not to be feared.

But when Reggie, one of the biggest guys on the team, clapped him on the shoulder, he remembered one of the reasons why he had avoided these friends in the first place. The friendly gesture, once so familiar, not only made him stumble but sent a shard of pain from his shoulder, past his once-broken ribs, and into his recently fractured hip.

He managed to bite back what would have been a very
loud curse, but couldn’t hide his pain or the way it made his skin pale.

Not all of his issues were supernatural or in his head.

“Oh, God. Sorry, man,” Reggie said.

“You okay?” John asked, immediately at his side.

Pity. Yeah, that was the other thing he had really
not
wanted to deal with. Just thinking about it made the world around him seem to darken, and he had a feeling that the shadows had found him.

He took a couple steps backward, trying not to limp but knowing he wasn’t completely hiding it.

“Good to see you all,” he said, “but I’ve got to get going.”

“Coop, I’m sorry,” Reggie said again.

If they had told him to suck it up, be a man, or laughed it off, that would have been normal. Maybe they would even have acted that way if Cooper hadn’t brought along his own little cloud of misery.

“It’s fine,” he answered. “I’ve just got to go. I’m late.”

He didn’t say for what, didn’t know for what.

“Hey, Cooper,” John called as Cooper attempted to walk away with some dignity. “Tomorrow afternoon, my place, opening-season game party. Hope to see you there.”

Cooper nodded acknowledgement, but not agreement.

He got out of eyesight of the team, rounding the block, and then had to stop and lean against the building and suck in deep drafts of air. Reggie had managed to hit him just the wrong way.

“Can you get home or back to the shop?” Brent asked him.

He had forgotten Brent was even there.

He started to nod, but then realized the answer was no. “Give me a hand?” he asked.

Brent didn’t hesitate, just threw Cooper’s arm over his shoulders and helped him limp back toward the shop. “My car’s right around here, if you’re okay with a short trip.”

“No highways?”

“We can do back roads.”

“Can you give me a ride home?”

“No problem.”

Tomorrow, Cooper knew he would have to swallow his pride and go back to Ryan, and hoped he would learn something useful. He couldn’t go on this way.

D
elilah tried to keep up a cool front, but she was almost as nervous as she was excited. The warded circle she had created in the woods kept the scavengers out, but that wouldn’t matter if she had misjudged and Samantha was actually malevolent. Then the instant Delilah summoned power and lowered her defenses, Samantha could just reach in and hollow Delilah out, stealing power and mind and leaving Delilah’s body an empty shell.

She had just pressed her hand to the edge of the circle when Samantha, still locked outside for the moment, asked, “How powerful
are
you, anyway?”

Truth? Lie? Bluffing about the strength of her abilities might make her seem too dangerous for Samantha to mess with. On the other hand, if Samantha was really as powerful as Delilah thought she could be, then she might
know perfectly well that she could overpower any firstgeneration sorcerer, in which case it would be more valuable to downplay her own power and its worth.

“Powerful enough that I think I can help you,” she finally answered.

With a tight breath, she parted the edge of the circle. Samantha did not wait to be invited forward. It took some effort to let Samantha in while keeping the pacing scavengers around her out where they were harmless, but Delilah managed.

She turned her eyes from the shadows and back to Samantha, and jumped with surprise. Inside her own circle, Delilah could see Samantha more easily and more clearly. She understood now why Cooper had been convinced his ghost was harmless.

Samantha—no, the
illusion
Samantha projected—was a couple of inches shorter than Delilah. Her hair and clothing were a style that could best be described as punk or scene, with bright, mismatched colors. Her faded blue jeans with splashes of pastel orange and pink paint had enough holes in them to reveal the green-and-yellow paisley tights she was wearing underneath. Her T-shirt was neon purple, with a cute line-art version of the Lenmark Ocelots’ logo. Delilah was pretty sure that if she copied it, she could get all the girls on the squad to buy one.