Token of Darkness by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

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