Chase the Dark (16 page)

“I’ll go to the kitchen and get some food,” he whispered. “Meet me there.”

He continued on as she stepped into the office and closed the door.

The familiar, wonderful smell of home engulfed her, but the sight of the room cut her. It too had been searched with no care for anything. The desk had been broken in half, probably in a search for hidden compartments. The leather chair had been cut open and the stuffing scattered everywhere. Papers covered the floor like a white carpet.

Lips pressed tight, she strode across the debris-littered floor to the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, the contents of which were piled at its base. The painting that used to hang beside them was three feet away with a great slash through the canvas. She knelt and pressed the tiny catch in the corner above the baseboard.

A soft pop told her it had worked. She swung an entire panel of wall open like a door. Behind it, a huge steel safe was embedded in the wall. The metal gleamed, the lock lined up perfectly at 0. She took a deep breath and began to turn it. When she spun the dial back to finish at 9, she lifted her fingers from the cool metal and said a silent prayer. Grabbing the handle, she pulled.

The door swung silently open.

The safe had two shelves inside full of file folders. Which one did she need? She didn’t have time to search them. She looked around wildly and spotted her father’s favorite briefcase half buried under the remains of the desk. She grabbed it and pulled. It came free all at once and the desk hit the floor with a loud thump. Piper swore under her breath and rushed back to the safe. She grabbed handfuls of folders and stacked them in the briefcase. When the safe was empty, she forced the case shut and picked it up.

The ceiling creaked over her head.

She looked up sharply—there was someone there. It wouldn’t be Lyre; he was in the kitchen. Had the amorous couple heard the desk hit the floor? Knowing she had less than a minute, she rushed to the window and slid it open. When she couldn’t get the screen off, she pulled a knife and cut it. Watching the door out of the corner of her eye, she forced the briefcase through the gap in the screen, letting it fall into the shadows at the side of the building. Then she lurched away from the window, shut the safe door, and swung the panel closed to hide the compartment just as the office door flew open.

Piper spun around, her back pressed to the panel.

“Oho,” exclaimed a man she’d never seen before. He grinned. “She was right. The girl did come back.”

“Of course,” said his companion. “That’s what scared kids do. They go home.”

Both strangers were middle-aged men. One was tall and wiry, the other tall and beefy. They were dressed casually in jeans and jackets with stubble on their jaws that said they hadn’t been home in a while.

“Who the hell are you?” Piper demanded. Not daemons, she was sure of that.

“Good question,” the skinny one said. “We know who
you
are, Piperel Griffiths.”

Uh-oh. “I know who you are too,” she mocked, hiding her consternation. “Trespassers who are going to get their asses kicked.”

“Mouthy,” the heavy one remarked dispassionately. He gave her a considering look. “This is how it’s going to work, Piperel. You will come with us quietly or we will use force.”

“Come with you?” Piper repeated, taken aback. If these guys were after the Sahar, they didn’t need to take her anywhere. “
Where?
”

Beefy smiled a slow, shark’s smile. “To your father, of course,” he said.

Whatever Piper had been expecting, that wasn’t it. Her brain short-circuited. “To . . . my father?”

“Yes. You do want to see him, don’t you? He’s not in great shape. He could use a loving daughter’s care.”

Her shock shattered into fury. “Where is he?” She barely managed not to shout.

“Now, now, Piperel.” He wagged a fat finger. “Let’s keep things polite. Your dad is alive, and really not even injured, all things considered. We’ll take you to him. Just promise to cooperate.” He spread his hands. “Maybe you can even save your dad some suffering. He doesn’t want to tell us where the Sahar is. We’re starting to think he doesn’t even know and that would be very bad for him.”

“I don’t know where it is.”

“You could convince him to tell us.”

She snorted. “That’s a great idea. Then you wouldn’t need either of us alive.”

His hands dropped to his sides as he lost patience. “Come with us. Now.” He forced a smile. “You belong with us, Piperel.”

She clenched her hands. Her creepy meter was off the scale. She
belonged
with them? What the hell?

“I don’t think she’s going to come,” Skinny said, grinning.

“Doesn’t look like it,” Beefy seconded. “Shall we?”

“Hell yes.”

From across the room, Skinny flung a hand in the air. For a second Piper was confused. Was she supposed to be scared of his dirty fingernails? Then the air crackled with electricity.

The spell smacked her in the face and snapped her head back into the wall. Agony exploded in her skull and her vision went black. She didn’t realize she was on the floor until someone rolled her over.

“You fool,” the fat one barked. “We weren’t supposed to hurt her.”

“She’ll be okay,” the skinny one grumbled. “She’s not bleeding that much.”

“She’s unconscious.”

“That’s a good thing.”

Piper struggled for coherent thought through a groggy haze. Haemons. Stupid haemons with stupid magic attacking her. Jerks. Her eyelids fluttered as the room steadied. The haemons came into focus, leaning over her warily. She wiggled her fingers to make sure they were working—then punched Skinny right in the nose.

He jerked back with a howl. Before Beefy could react, Piper’s boot hit him square in the groin. He sank to the floor without a sound, his eyes bulging and his face purple. With her head throbbing, she rolled to her feet and promptly staggered into the wall.

Skinny pulled a hand away from his bleeding nose and made a punching gesture. Piper threw up her arms. The spell collided with her, pushing her back into the wall, but her magic-blocking armguards softened it. He stuck his hand out for another spell but she jumped forward and grabbed his wrist. A twist, a shove, and down he went, roaring in pain as his elbow popped out of joint.

She jumped over him but staggered again. Her balance was shot and every beat of her heart made her head throb mercilessly. Blood was tricking down the back of her neck. She stumbled to the door and stepped into the hall.

“Ugh,” she said when she saw who was waiting for her: the passion duo. Their clothes were back on. The woman had a stunned, slightly appalled look lingering on her face.

“It’s her!” bad-kisser dude exclaimed. “Shauna, look!”

“I’m not blind,” the woman muttered. They were four paces away. Piper wasn’t sure she was coordinated enough to run away. They were too far to attack easily.

Before she could decide, Shauna made a sudden circular motion with her hand. The air buzzed with power and invisible bonds snapped around Piper’s arms, binding them against her sides. She wrenched at the spell but it was too far above her armguards for them to help.

“Okay, girlie,” the wannabe-Casanova said, his tone patronizing, “we got you now. You—”

“Got me?” she hissed. “You think?”

His mouth hung open stupidly. Piper strode forward. So her hands were tied with magic. Not for long.

She bore down on him like a bull, then at the last second, swung into a full roundhouse kick that slammed right into Shauna’s side. The woman crashed into the wall. Piper’s arms came free. She whirled around and grabbed Romeo’s arm as he tried a spell of his own. Before he could finish it, she yanked him forward, ducked, and threw him over her shoulder. He landed on his head behind her.

Piper straightened. Haemons. Jeez. Just because they had magic, most of them never learned proper physical defense. They spelled their way out of everything. Well, Piper had no magic to rely on and she could kick a haemon’s ass nine times out of ten. It was the daemons who gave her trouble.

She jumped over the moaning loser and trotted into the kitchen. It was empty. “Lyre?” she called.

Fingers whispered up her sides and a voice cooed in her ear, “Hey there, pretty thing.”

“Lyre,” she growled, spinning around. He grinned and managed to slide his fingers down her hips before she slapped his hands away. “Where have you been? I was almost kidnapped.”

“Yeah, I heard but I was outside stashing the food. You seemed to have things under control.” His smile faded and he cupped the back of her head. His hand came away bloody. “You’re hurt.”

She shrugged it off. “We should—”

Across the kitchen, the back door swung open and hit the wall with a boom. Three more people fell over the threshold.

“Look,” a guy yelled. “There they are!”

“Shoot them,” bellowed another.

Someone raised a gun. Lyre grabbed her and they both dove behind the island. Something whizzed over their heads and hit a cupboard.

“Was that a tranq dart?” Lyre asked, looking puzzled.

“I did say they tried to kidnap me.”

“Why?”

“Beats me.”

“Come out now,” a newcomer shouted. “Or we’ll come back there!”

“What’s the plan?” Lyre whispered.

“Ummm.” She looked over her shoulder. The pantry door hung open behind her. “In here.”

They both ducked into the pantry and slammed the door. Lyre put a hand on the knob and the air went hot for a second. “Sealed it. Won’t hold for long though.” He glanced around and lifted his eyebrows. “I hope there’s a step two to this plan.”

“Of course. I don’t like closets
that
much.”

He snickered. She ducked and pushed a huge box of snacks out of the way. Under one of the shelves was a sliding panel, and beyond it, another secret passageway. She crawled in. Lyre closed the panel after him and they wiggled down the passageway. It opened into a vertical shaft. Unlike the last secret passage, this one had a metal ladder. On the second floor, the passageway came out in the linen closet. Piper pressed against the shelves and waited for Lyre to squeeze his way out, which then left about zero space to stand.

“Another one,” he mused, looking around. The light from the hall cast a stripe of yellow across his face, glinting on one golden eye. He smiled crookedly and his gaze wandered across her face.

She cleared her throat. “Escaping, remember?”

“Yeah,” he replied in a tone of voice that said he wasn’t even listening. He lifted a hand and touched her chin lightly. Then he pressed into her, pushing her back against the wall. She squeaked in surprise—then froze when his mouth brushed the side of her neck.

“Aha,” he breathed against her neck. “I knew it wasn’t only aphrodisia.”

“W-what?” she croaked.

He stepped back as abruptly as he’d pounced. “Just checking,” he said cryptically. His fingers were still under her chin. He let his hand fall, his touch trailing from her throat down to her navel.

“Lyre—”

“Shh.” He touched her lips with his fingertips. Then he leaned in, and his fingers were gone, and it was his lips brushing across hers. “You can yell at me later. We’re escaping, remember?”

“You—you—” She couldn’t put a coherent thought together.

“Yeah,” he agreed with a satisfied smile. Then he cracked the door open, peeked out, and stepped into the upstairs hall. Piper stalked out after him, seething. Sneaky, manipulative, hormone-stupid incubus. Of all the inappropriate times to try seducing her.

They tiptoed down the hall toward Piper’s bedroom. Angry, confused voices echoed from the main floor. With a little luck, they could sneak out the window, grab their things, and get the hell out without any more fun little encounters. Piper’s head throbbed like it was going to burst and she was starting to feel sick to her stomach.

A
pfft
noise broke the silence of the upper level. Piper spun around as Lyre jerked to a stop and his hand clamped to the side of his neck. He pulled a dart out of his skin, the feathered pink end looking silly in his hand. His gaze met Piper’s in a look of shared fear. He swayed. Piper lunged forward, catching him long enough to ease him to the floor.

“Well, well, well,” purred a soft, sweet female voice. “Isn’t that adorable?”

Piper jerked upright. Standing at the other end of the hall, a tranquilizer gun held casually in one hand, was a beautiful young woman. This time, Piper had no doubts at all: the woman was a daemon.

CHAPTER 8

T
HE
lady daemon was blond, buxom, and had a vicious predatory glint in her big blue eyes. She looked ridiculously out of place in a pencil skirt and silk blouse.

“The Head’s daughter.” She smiled, flashing perfect dimples. “My my, it seems you
do
have quite the weakness for incubi, don’t you?”

Piper bit her bottom lip against the denial trying to escape. It would only make her look stupid.