Chase the Dark (Steel & Stone Book 1)

by Annette Marie

  “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 touc
hed 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

  THE 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.

  “Micah told me all about you. But that’s not why I’m here. I want the Sahar.”

  “Doesn’t everyone?”

  “Where is it?”

  “No idea. Go find a mirror to admire and leave me alone.”

  She smirked. “No, I don’t think so. You see, I’ve been waiting here for quite a while, without the knowledge of those imbecile haemons, of course. While my kin have been hunting you, I chose to lie in wait instead. Much more my style.”

  “Uh-huh. Admit you’re a lazy ass.”

  Her mouth flattened. “Give it to me and I promise to kill you quickly.”

  Piper snorted, trying to hide her panic. Her chances of winning against the daemon weren’t good, especially not when her head hurt so badly she was about to toss her dinner. She nudged Lyre with the toe of her boot but he didn’t so much as twitch.

  The daemon curled her fingers and claws glinted at the tips. Time was up. What did she do? She stepped back from Lyre, out cold and helpless. She had to get the daemon away from him.

  “All right, I do have it,” she said loudly. “But you can take it over my dead body.”

  She turned and ran. The daemon yowled like an angry cat and charged after Piper. How was she running in that skirt? Piper bolted to the stairs and jumped them two at time, leaping the last five at once. She hit the floor and went into a roll. She came up on her feet and darted down the hall opposite the one where she’d beat up the haemons. The daemon came tearing after her.

  Piper whipped around a corner, down a smaller hall, and saw the door she wanted. She ran right into it, managed to turn the handle, and fell onto the mats on the other side. She rolled as the daemon pounced, landing right where Piper had been. She scrambled up.

  The sparring room was the size of a swimming pool, two stories tall, and covered in mats. The far end had punching bags, a climbing rope, a rock wall, human-shaped dummies, and a pulley system with moving bull’s-eyes. The opposite wall was lined with various weapons and sparring tools. The rest was wide-open space.

  Piper lunged for the wall of weapons. She reached for a bladed staff but the daemon pounced again. Piper dove, rolling away, and came to her feet right beside a row of practice swords. She grabbed a bokken and whirled to face the daemon.

  The woman stopped a few feet away, eyebrows shooting up at Piper’s choice. “A wooden sword?”

  “A wooden katana,” Piper corrected. She hefted the polished, narrow weapon. It might not cut but it was solid, heavy wood. Better than nothing.

  “Hmph. Foolishness.” The daemon raised her hand and flicked her fingers casually.

  Piper threw an arm in front of her. The diluted spell knocked her several steps back but she kept her footing. Hoping for the element of surprise, she charged. The daemon smirked and lifted one hand to catch the bokken. Piper changed direction and swung low, slamming the wooden blade into the top of the daemon’s thigh. The woman yelped and staggered back. Piper swung again, aiming for the woman’s head.

  Unfortunately, daemons have impossibly fast reflexes. The woman ducked and snapped out an arm. Her fist hit Piper in the shoulder, knocking her sideways. Before Piper could recover, the daemon kicked the back of her knee. Piper fell into a roll and came up again facing the daemon. Blondie smirked.

  “Not good enough.” She slowly advanced.

  Piper silently agreed but twisted her mouth in a sneer. “What would you know? Probably never had a real fight in your life.” She made her voice go high-pitched. “What if you broke a nail, oh no!”

  Blondie stopped. Smiled slowly. “You don’t know much about us, do you? Well, let me show you something before you die. What we truly are.” She spread her arms out wide.

  It would have been the perfect opportunity to attack but Piper was frozen with shock as the woman’s body shimmered. And then her glamour was gone and it wasn’t a woman standing in front of Piper.

  It was a really big cat. Sort of.

  Her face was almost the same except her icy blue eyes were huge and had slit pupils. Her hair was coarser, exactly like the yellow fur that had sprouted over her entire body. Her clothes were gone. Her legs had warped at the joints into something hideously feline, yet her furry arms were mostly human but with huge nasty claws. A tufted tail flicked back and forth behind her.

  “Umm,” Piper breathed, licking her lips. “Sphinx?”

  “Good girl.” The daemon ran her hands down her front, smoothing the fur. “Do you think now that I cannot fight?”

  Uh, no. Definitely not. Sphinxes were notoriously vicious. “You haven’t told any riddles.”

  “What?” the creature spat.

  “Riddles,” Piper said, blinking away her shock. Lyre hadn’t been kidding that some daemons did not look good without glamour. Blondie wasn’t so pretty anymore. “Sphinxes and riddles, you know. Aren’t they kind of your thing?”

  “Ugh,” the sphinx snarled. “No! I hate riddles. Whatever stupid human came up with that nonsense needs their spinal column removed.”

  “Right,” Piper said. “You’re too dumb and blond to come up with any, aren’t you?”

  The sphinx hissed like an angry cat and dropped into a crouch. “Here’s a riddle for you then, idiot girl. What has no magic, is an incubus slut, and is about to die? Hmm?”

  Piper tightened her grip on her sword, trying frantically to think of a plan—any plan. “That was just lame,” she told the sphinx.

  The creature sprang. Piper swung her sword, slamming it into the sphinx’s shoulder, but the cat-woman’s momentum sent Piper flying anyway. She landed hard on the mats and rolled to her feet. She scoured the room for an idea because if she didn’t get one soon, she would be shredded into ribbons. Blondie was toying with her, probably hoping Piper would give up the Sahar after a few bruises.

  The sphinx stood between Piper and the real weapons, leaving her with access to nothing but practice weapons. As she backed away from the sphinx’s slow prowl, her gaze darted from the punching bag to the climbing rope.

  “I have a riddle for you,” Piper said, skittering backward. “Want to hear it?”

  The sphinx’s lip c
urled. “No.”

  “You sure? Bet mine’s better than yours.”

  The creature hissed and leaped six feet to crash into Piper. She managed to deflect the claws with her bokken but her aching head smacked the mat when she landed on her back. Shadows crowded her vision. She kneed Blondie in the gut and flipped the woman off her, then staggered to her feet. Oooh, woozy. Not good.

  “What’s your riddle then, clever little slut?” the sphinx hissed. She flexed her furry, clawed fingers.

  Piper backed toward the far side of the room, nerves twisting in her belly. Her plan had better work or she was kitty meat. “It’s definitely better. It goes like this . . .” She stepped behind a punching bag and poked her head around the other side. “Three parts. First part: What’s made from a living thing but was never alive?”

  The sphinx blinked stupidly, then lunged at the punching bag. Piper danced away and ducked behind a foam man on a pole. “Second part: What binds, burns, and chokes all at once?”

  The sphinx leaped on the foam man and ripped his head off. Piper jumped out of the way and grabbed the climbing rope. The sphinx growled, slowly approaching, her eyes darkening to black. She was about to start using magic again. Piper sucked in a sharp, nervous breath.

  “Third part,” she said slowly. “What triumphs and defeats in the same instant?”

  The sphinx went still. Piper could practically see her brain straining. “That’s not a riddle, it’s nothing but nonsense.”

  “No, it’s—”

  With a furious yowl, the sphinx sprang.

  Piper threw herself into the rope. She swung away as the sphinx skidded on the mats. Piper swung back. She jabbed with her sword on the way by before landing behind the sphinx. She dropped her sword. With the end of the rope still in one hand, she jumped on the sphinx’s back. The creature spun wildly. Piper rolled off the sphinx’s other side, passed her end of the rope over the main length, and threw all her weight against it.

  The loop of rope around the sphinx’s neck snapped tight. When it jerked taut, it momentarily lifted the sphinx right off her feet. Her eyes bulged. Piper strained against the rope until her legs gave out and she collapsed to her knees, aching and exhausted. Her right arm was bleeding with shallow scratches she didn’t remember getting. The sphinx crumpled to the mats, clutching her neck.