Chase the Dark Read Online Free PDF Page B

Ash, Lyre trotted back across the living room and vanished into his room. He came out almost immediately, a bundle of clothing in one hand. Piper watched him, her heart pounding. The house was silent—too quiet. Why hadn’t someone come to tell her everything was okay?
    Lyre untangled two hoodies and tossed the red one to Ash. The daemon pulled it on and zipped it halfway, his motions jerky and somehow dangerous. If she hadn’t had other things to worry about, she’d have been shocked to be alive after attacking Ash.
    Lyre pulled his hoodie over his head before turning to her. “I think we need to go down, Piper,” he said gently.
    Shaking her head mutely, she slid closer to Ash to better grab him if he tried to make a break for the stairs. He hissed at her, his eyes darkening again. Fear stabbed her. He wasn’t even bothering to act human anymore. He was shading—dropping the veneer of civilized human behavior and going all-out daemon. Dangerous or not, she’d thought he had way better control. Daemons usually only shaded when they were exceptionally angry or afraid.
    Lyre looked shocked at Ash’s behavior too. He shifted in until the three of them were crowded in a tight little knot in the hallway.
    “Piper,” he began again.
    “No,” she said shrilly. “You can’t. He said no exceptions. If I let you go down there, I’ll be—”
    “Possibly saving your father’s life,” Ash growled. “There’s a time and place for blind obedience. This is not it.”
    She met Ash’s eyes, still dark with his gathering power—the air was starting to crackle—and felt a flash of dread in her chest. Her father was down there. The house was too quiet. He’d been way closer to the explosion than her. The image of him lying in a bloody puddle made her knees go weak. She spun and lunged for the stairs, forgetting the two daemons entirely.
    Hands grabbed her waist and yanked her back. Someone shoved her to the floor before she knew what was happening and weight came down on her back. Her breath whooshed out in a furious yell and she slammed an elbow into her attacker’s kidney.
    A grunt of pain. “Hold still,” Ash snapped above her, his voice no louder than a whisper. “Can’t you hear that?”
    She realized, belatedly, that Ash was crouched over her, defending rather than attacking. Lyre hovered beside them, fear on his face but his body tense and ready.
    “Hear what?” she whispered furiously.
    A soft thump came from somewhere below them, followed by a muted crash like a door being thrown open into a wall.
    “Father?” she gasped. She squirmed and Ash shoved her shoulders into the floor. “Let me go! What if he’s hurt?”
    “Be quiet,” he hissed, then muttered, “Wasn’t that my argument?”
    “What is it?” Lyre whispered. “I don’t like this.”
    “Like what?” Piper snapped. “Let me go.”
    “Quit panicking and use your senses,” Ash said. “Whatever that is, it’s not your father.”
    “Huh?” She blinked at the carpet right in front of her nose and tried to slow her racing heart. Her skin tingled and her stomach twisted like she could smell something rancid but all she smelled was dusty carpet.
    “What is it?” she demanded.
    “I don’t know,” Lyre answered tersely. “Be quiet.”
    The three of them made like statues as they listened to the thumps and crashes from the main floor. It sounded like someone—something—was tearing the house apart. A sudden skitter of fast steps on the stairs made Piper gasp. Ash’s dragonet whipped around the corner where the stairs waited out of sight. The little creature tore up to her master and threw herself into him, grabbing his shoulder and burrowing into the back of his neck. She chittered with unmistakable terror.
    Then Ash was off Piper and hauling her to her feet. He lifted her right off the floor, spun her around, and dropped her facing the opposite direction.
    “You need to get out of here ,” he said, his tone unexpectedly