Chase the Dark (31 page)

A middle-aged man in the group of newcomers quickly took control. Minutes later, Lyre was led out of the trees, handcuffed and collared with a magic-depressor. Piper was handcuffed as well. She said nothing as Lyre was shoved down beside her, but she was only too conscious of the tiny bump in her pocket where the Stone was hidden. Five minutes passed before two guys dragged Ash out of the trees and dumped him on the grass. If he was conscious, it was only barely. Piper hoped he’d passed out. In spite of her begging, the Gaians had refused to turn the speaker off until Ash had been cuffed and collared too. The young guy held the speaker in a bear hug, grinning excitedly at the success of his toy. He kept glancing at Piper like he expected her to be impressed.

The group of haemons surrounded their prisoners. Two heaved Ash up by his arms. Piper stared at him frantically, hoping the sound hadn’t damaged anything in his ears. As their captors led them around to the front of the building, she tried to control her panic. Her arms were still bound with magic, but even then, what was she supposed to do against so many? They’d never planned to challenge the Gaians head on, and if they had, Ash would have led the attack. But with their cruel ultrasound attack, they could incapacitate him instantly.

Worst of all, she was taking the Sahar right into their midst. She couldn’t allow the Gaians to get it.

The middle-aged leader threw open the doors to the Consulate and strode into a foyer, once opulent but now dirty and sad. Piper followed silently, Lyre one step behind. They approached a set of double doors. The man opened both and gestured for Piper and Lyre to go first. The two men dragging Ash came in on their heels. Piper stopped in the middle of the huge room. It might have once been some kind of conference room but the remaining furniture had been pushed against the walls. Boxes were stacked neatly in one corner. It looked like the Gaians didn’t plan to stay there for much longer. Nice of them to steal what was left of the Consulate’s stuff on their way out.

The only furniture in use were two long tables at the far end, covered in stacks of papers and files, with an unbelievable three laptops sitting on top of them. Working laptops were harder to get hold of than a bottle of fifty-year-old wine. A woman stood at one of the tables, her back to the rest of the room as she studied the screen. Five people stood around her, watching the prisoners enter the room with interest.

Piper stared at the woman’s back. Her skin prickled.

The two haemons carrying Ash dumped him on the floor at Piper’s feet, leaving him sprawled uncomfortably on his stomach with his hands cuffed behind him. She dropped to her knees beside him, touching his shoulder.

“We have them, ma’am,” the middle-aged man announced to the silent room. “Found them skulking in the woods out back. Exactly like you thought.”

“Did the ultrasound work?” the woman asked without turning. The sound of her sweet-toned yet authoritative voice made Piper’s blood run cold. Her hands started to tremble.

“Yes, perfectly. The draconian has been collared and we can put him down at any time with the speaker.”

“Well done,” the woman said. She straightened from the laptop and turned around. Her face was lovely with high, aristocratic cheekbones and large hazel eyes. Her auburn hair was tied in a simple bun that matched her sensible gray pantsuit. Her gaze went straight to Piper as a smile stretched across her face. She radiated happiness.

“Piperel.” Warmth and welcome saturated that painfully familiar voice.

Piper couldn’t breathe. If she hadn’t been kneeling, she would have fallen.

“Mom?” she whispered.

CHAPTER 13

D
EAD
silence rang through the room. Piper gaped at the smiling woman, unable to think. It was impossible.

With a low, pained grunt, Ash pulled his head up and twisted it to one side to peer at Mona Griffiths. Piper’s hand, still resting on his shoulder, clenched and her fingers bit into his bicep. Ash turned his head the other way to meet Piper’s shocked stare.

“You said your mother was dead.” His voice was a low murmur but the room was suffocatingly silent.

“Dead?” Mona repeated, her brow furrowing.

“I—I—” Piper couldn’t speak. She just stared.

“Piper?” Lyre muttered, shifting to stand so close his leg brushed her back. “What’s going on?”

Mona stepped forward, cold anger melting from her face as she spread her arms in an unspoken request for a hug. “Piper, sweetheart,” she said. “I’m not dead. I’ve missed you so much. You’ve grown so much.” Her eyes shimmered with tears. “You’re such a beautiful young lady now.”

Piper slowly stood. Lyre hovered right behind her, so close they were almost touching. Her foot was pressed against Ash’s arm, another connection to keep her calm. She sucked in a deep breath. “I . . . don’t understand,” she finally managed.

Mona glanced at the other people in the room, all eyes watching mother and daughter.

“Gregory, take the two daemons downstairs for the time being. Piper and I need to talk.”

Panic jumped in Piper’s belly. “I want them with me,” she blurted.

Mona frowned. “Piper—”

“You can’t hurt them. They’re my friends.”

Her frown deepened. “They’re daemons, Piper.”

“They’ve both saved my life more than once,” she said stiffly. “That makes them my friends.” Now was not the time to mention betrayals. Whatever she felt about Ash, more than anything she wanted him right there with her.

Mona sighed. “Gregory, take them downstairs but be—careful—with them. They can wait there until Piper and I are done talking.” She gave the middle-aged man who’d brought them in a meaningful look.

Piper swallowed hard, knowing that arguing would be pointless. As two men approached, Ash rolled onto his back and lunged to his feet. He was standing so quickly everyone in the room froze.

In that moment where no one moved, Ash stepped up to Piper, brushing against her as he put his mouth against her ear.

“Don’t forget, Piper,” he whispered urgently, “we are prisoners in enemy territory. Your mother is leading these Gaians. Remember what they did in that vault. To your family.”

Piper went rigid as she realized the obvious. If Mona was alive and leading this sect of Gaians, then she was the one who, at the least, had allowed the attack on the Griffiths Consulate—the attack that had nearly killed Uncle Calder. And—her heart nearly froze in her chest—her mother must be the one holding her father prisoner, trying to force him to reveal the location of the Sahar.

Ash was jerked away by the two haemons. His stare didn’t shift from her as they pulled him away. She watched them steer Ash and Lyre back across the room and out the double doors. Cold shivered through her as the doors closed, blocking the two daemons from her sight.

She jumped when Mona touched her arm. She looked into her mother’s familiar hazel eyes, eyes she hadn’t seen in ten years and had never imagined she would see again. She said nothing as Mona led her to a door off the main room, struggling to reconcile the bombardment of violent emotions making her hands shake. Through the door was a barren office with a sitting area. Mona sat on the stained sofa and patted the sagging cushion beside her. Piper sat gingerly, reeling inside.

“Piper.” Mona took her hands and squeezed them. “I know this must be a shock. How do you feel?”

Piper stared into her mom’s face. “I don’t understand,” she finally said. “You’re not—you didn’t die?”

“No, sweetheart.” The cold rage hardened her features. “You can thank your father for that lie. He was determined to keep us apart. If I’d known . . .”

Another axis of her world shattered. Quinn had lied to her? Lied about her mother being
dead
just to keep them apart? It couldn’t be. He too must have believed Mona was dead. Someone else must have tricked him. He never would have lied to Piper about something like that.

Mona squeezed Piper’s hands again. “I tried to reach you for a year, Piper. I called, I left messages, I sent friends to try to talk to you. Quinn banned me from the Consulate and eventually threatened to have you shipped off to a boarding school where I would never find you.” She exhaled slowly. “I stopped trying then. I didn’t want to disrupt your life anymore than I already had. I always assumed you would try to find me once you were older. When you didn’t . . . I thought you must hate me for leaving you.”

“No,” Piper croaked. “I thought you died. I thought you were killed in a car crash.”

Mona pulled her into a crushing hug. Piper squeezed her mother just as fiercely, her heart and mind bursting under the weight of unveiled lies. After a long minute, she leaned back. Her eyes travelled around the room.

“Are you part of the Gaians?”

Mona smiled hesitantly. “I lead this chapter, yes. My affiliations with the Gaians are the main reason your father and I separated.”

“I—yes, I knew that. But this Consulate . . .?”

“We rotate our meetings among a number of locations. One of our members is a Consul and she recommended this spot. We don’t normally gather in one place for more than a single night, but the current situation is a little different.” She glanced at the boxes in the corner. “Of course, we can’t leave any evidence behind. We don’t want anyone guessing . . . details about us.”

Not wanting to face the reality of Mona’s involvement in the events of the last week, Piper tossed out another question. “Why would Consuls be allied with the Gaians?”

“Consuls know, even more intimately than most, why change needs to occur. Daemons are parasites, Piper. We can no longer allow them free reign here. They are diplomatically immune in almost every sense. They are petty tyrants who take whatever they want from humankind without restraint.” Her expression hardened. “You’ve been sheltered, growing up in the Consulate. You only know daemons who are on their best behavior. You have no idea what goes on in the dark corners of the city. What daemons do to humans—for fun. What they could do if the powerful among them decided to unleash their magic.”

Her mother’s expression softened. “We know not all daemons are cut from the same mold. Overworld daemons, on average, aren’t quite as . . . depraved in their tastes. We don’t want to eliminate daemons or even hurt them. We merely want to regulate their visits here to protect innocent humans who have no defenses. Our mandate is simple, and—as you may have heard—very popular. Hundreds more join our cause every year. People are beginning to see that the daemons’ reign on Earth must come to an end. It is time for humanity to reclaim our world.”

“The daemon’s reign?” Piper repeated as her brow crinkled. “They don’t reign here. They don’t—”

“I realize you find it hard to believe. Your father has taught you his philosophy, I know.”

“Did Father always know you were a Gaian?”

Mona shook her head. “I became interested when you were still little, after I’d seen so much daemon violence. By the time I was ready to join, Quinn was starting to suspect something. So one night, I told him everything. I was—” She paused, breathing deeply, then continued. “I was certain he would see what needed to change as I did and join too. He did not. He exploded. That was the night I left.” She shrugged off her dark mood and smiled. “But that is behind us now. We can be together now, Piper. You don’t have to join the Gaians if you don’t want to. I just want us to be together again.”

More than anything, Piper wanted to melt into her mother’s arms and never move again, but Ash’s words kept circling in her head. She saw Uncle Calder’s bandaged face and the burned bodies in the vault. With shaking hands, she straightened in her seat and crossed her arms.

“What happened at the Consulate, in the vault? Why did you try to steal the Sahar?”

Mona bit her bottom lip. “I didn’t know Calder would be there, Piper. I swear to you, I didn’t know.”

Piper shook her head. Calder went everywhere Quinn went. Mona had to know that. “You were there?”

“No. But it was essential we take the Sahar before it was returned to daemon hands. It was far more important than any one life.” She gripped Piper’s hands hard. “You can’t imagine what a powerful daemon could do with the Sahar. It would be a return to the dark ages.”

“You killed all those people.”

“We had to, Piper.” Her eyes pleaded for understanding. “Quinn tried to kill my people in retaliation. He caused that explosion.”

“Where is my father?”

“He’s here,” she said quickly. “He’s fine, safe and unharmed. We only brought him to find out where he hid the real Sahar—using harmless drugs, nothing more—but somehow he doesn’t know where it is. It’s clear he doesn’t have any idea.”

Piper worked to keep her face blank. How could Quinn not know where the Sahar was? He’d given it to her hours before the attempted theft.

“What about that Choronzon? Did you set it loose in the house too? It almost killed me.”

Mona’s eyes widened. “Oh no. We had it entirely under control. It would never have touched you.”

No, it would have just ripped Ash to pieces instead. Piper pressed her lips together. “Where do you get it? Using an Underworld monster to kill people kind of runs counter to your anti-daemon-violence mandate, doesn’t it?”

“We borrowed it from an ally.”