Token of Darkness (20 page)

“I didn’t really understand that the body mattered,” Samantha said, her gaze focused on a distant memory, her voice hollow. “Margaret’s body held on to enough power that even when it should have been torn apart it kept going … trying to flee. It crept back into the woods to die, like an animal does, and I tried to pick up the pieces she left behind. Bits of who she was. Bits the shadows didn’t get. But I couldn’t hold on to it all. I never had memories before. I was overwhelmed. Someone else helped me fight the shadows away, and I held on to him as tightly as I could.

“And then you woke up,” she said, looking at Cooper, “and I was Samantha, and that was all.” She shivered, and then said, “Ow.”

“You might have been immortal, but Margaret’s body is still weak,” Delilah said. “Your power will probably help it heal and get stronger faster, but for now maybe you should rest a little while?”

“Margaret remembers being hurt,” Samantha said. “She broke her ankle when she slipped on a frozen step once. And she sprained her wrist playing … oh my
God.”

“What?” Cooper asked, concerned.

When she looked at him next, her wide-eyed expression was the same one the Samantha he had come to know often used.

“I have
friends,”
she said. “Or, I mean, Margaret does, but she’s me now so I do. I have—oh.” The sudden elation turned to sorrow, and Cooper didn’t need her to say anything more to know she had just remembered that her family was gone.

“Maybe we should leave her alone a while,” Delilah suggested. “It might take her some time to work through all of Margaret’s memories. She’s used to being something without history or emotion or sensation, and now—”

“And now she’s human,” Cooper interrupted. “You can leave if you want. But if you don’t mind, I’ll stay with her.”

“Yes, please,” Samantha said softly. Cooper took her hand, for real this time.

“C’mon, Delilah,” Brent said. “I can give you a ride back.”

After a moment of hesitation, she replied, “Thanks.”

They left together with an uneasy silence hanging between them, which Cooper heard Brent break as they stepped into the hall. “You did good work back there.”

“You’d better believe it.” Delilah tossed her hair with a laugh. “Though … you did, too.”

They passed out of earshot, and Cooper’s attention returned to Samantha.

A nurse came in to check on them once, and Ryan came
in to let Samantha know that the le Coire family were legal guardians for Margaret and that any necessary medical bills or other expenses would be taken care of, but Samantha just nodded silently to the nurse, and said a quiet thank-you to Ryan.

She spent the rest of the day talking, laughing, and crying. As the evening passed, she seemed to solidify into the girl he had come to know over the summer—just, with a memory of who “she” was.

“I’ll have to call my … her …” She hesitated, and then settled on one. “My friends. I don’t have any other relatives, but there are some people besides Ryan who would like to know I’m … alive.” She shook her head. “That’s the right thing to do, right? Even if I’m not quite who they knew?”

Cooper nodded. “I changed a lot because of the accident. But my friends still wanted to see me.”

“I guess Ryan will let me stay with him, and help me figure out how to use this body. You’ll be around, right? I mean, you’ll stay in touch?”

“Of course,” Cooper assured her. “I wouldn’t have gotten through this last summer without you. It’s my turn to be here for you now. And I guess I’ll still need Ryan’s help, too, so I’ll be over there a lot.”

“Will you take me out to dinner?” Samantha asked, her expression brightening.

“Sure, as soon as Ryan or the doctors say you’re up to it,” Cooper said.

“No, I mean … will you take me
out?”
Samantha said,
the emphasis clear this time, especially when she blushed, and mumbled, “Their mother would have said it’s improper for a girl to ask a boy on a date.”

Startled, Cooper blurted out, “I guess you owe me dinner, since I’m pretty sure you’ve watched me shower.”

She laughed—and then winced. Her physical recovery would doubtless take a long time.

“Only the once,” she replied innocently. She smiled widely. “I’m not going to ask again, Cooper Blake, so as soon as I’m pronounced fit, I expect you to be a gentleman.”

Yes, she had watched him shower, teased him mercilessly, hit on him while possessing the body of a friend of his, and was, if he understood it right, not even quite human. Then again, he was a little less than normal himself.

He wasn’t an expert on magic or supernatural powers. He couldn’t begin to fully comprehend everything he had seen and done recently. But this much was simple. It didn’t matter what she was. She was Samantha.

“It’s a date,” he promised.

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
grew up in Concord, Massachusetts. Born in 1984, she wrote her first novel,
In the Forests of the Night
, praised as “remarkable”
(Voice of Youth Advocates)
and “mature and polished”
(Booklist)
, when she was thirteen. The other books in the Den of Shadows series are
Demon in My View, Shattered Mirror
, and
Midnight Predator
, all ALA-YALSA Quick Picks for Young Adults. She has also published the five-volume series The Kiesha’ra:
Hawksong
, a
School Library Journal
Best Book of the Year and a
Voice of Youth Advocates
Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Selection;
Snakecharm; Falcondance; Wolfcry
, an IRA-CBC Young Adults’ Choice; and
Wyvernhail
. Her most recent book was
Persistence of Memory
.