Chase the Dark by Annette Marie Read Free Book Online Page B

Anyone could have smashed the furniture.”
    “I saw it,” Lyre said loudly, anger finally giving him a voice. “It tried to kill Ash. We fought it off.”
    “ You fought it off? A choronzon?” The man snorted. “Try something more believable.”
    “We did! It wasn’t very strong—its power was limited and it was acting strange, but—”
    “I’m not questioning you , rake. Speak again and we’ll gag you too.”
    Lyre paled at the same time his eyes flashed to near black. He flexed his jaw but said nothing more. Ash’s head came up, his eyes briefly focusing as they cut across the sergeant like a knife on flesh.
    “Now, Piperel,” the man went on, “quit with the games. Quinn is gone. So is the Sahar. You and these two daemons are the only ones still alive on the property—with the exception of Calder Griffiths, who was left for dead. Do you really expect me to believe you had nothing to do with this?”
    “You should believe it, because it’s true.” She glared, tears threatening to spill over. “And my father didn’t steal it. Something else must have happened, and you can’t figure out what.”
    “You’re a liar, Piperel Griffiths,” the sergeant said. “If I were your father, I would have shipped you off to a human boarding school years ago. You don’t belong here.”
    Piper gasped and hunched like she’d been punched in the gut. “I’m a haemon,” she retorted weakly. The man snorted again as four prefects stumped down the stairs and joined their sergeant in the foyer.
    “Sir,” the first one said. “The entire house has been searched. The Sahar isn’t here, and we found no clues as to where Quinn may have gone to ground with it.”
    The sergeant nodded like this didn’t surprise him. Piper stared dully at the floor between her feet, aching inside and shaking on the outside. This was so wrong. Everything about this was wrong. The police, even the daemon police, were supposed to be the good guys. Why did she feel like she was in enemy hands?
    The cold voice of the sergeant spoke the next order with no emotion. “Search them.”
    She looked up as a prefect descended on her. It was the scrawny-looking one who’d watched the entire interrogation with a nervous, uncomfortable tic to his eyebrow. He gave Piper a subdued smile as he asked her to stand. She pushed to her feet, wobbling on weak knees, and tried to stare at nothing as the man patted her down. Beside her, Lyre glared straight ahead while another prefect turned his pockets out and checked inside his mouth.
    Two more heaved Ash to his feet. The draconian leaned heavily on one while the other checked him over.
    “I think the collar is too strong for him,” the man acting as a prop told the sergeant. “I would have figured he could handle it, but he’s gone semi-comatose.”
    “It’s not the collar,” the sergeant replied dismissively. “Well—yes, it’s the collar, but only because he’s lost so much blood. Keep it on him. Dragon-boy can handle it.”
    Piper jerked her head around, staring at Ash. Blood loss? Where was he bleeding? One of the sleeves of his borrowed red hoodie was torn off, but—
    His glamour shimmered again, and focusing this time, she saw the red stain running all the way down his left arm. It looked like he wore a wet, crimson glove from his bicep to his fingertips. She gasped, half reaching toward him before the cuffs cut into her wrists.
    “What . . . ? When . . . ?”
    “The choronzon,” Lyre muttered out of the corner of his mouth. “He hid it because you were already hysterical when we found you. Didn’t think you needed to see any more blood.”
    She clenched her hands. “Is he . . . ?”
    “He’ll be fine. Bleeding’s already stopped. He’s tough, don’t worry.”
    The man checking Piper finally got her boots off to check the soles. She made no effort to help as he tugged on her socks, then worked his way back up, patting every inch of her. She went rigid when he checked