Hugh’s eyes turned bright electric blue. Indigo radiance coated his hands.

“Today,” I called out.

He lunged forward with both hands. His fingers pierced the ward like talons.

The blood ward flashed with brilliant red light, the magic crackling like thunder. Hugh flew back ten feet and hit the stairway leading to the upper floor. The back of his head bounced off the steps. He slid down and didn’t move.

Ha! Serves you right!

Behind me Robert said, his voice completely deadpan, “Oh my.”

A wall of translucent red pulsed in the doorway and turned transparent. My spell was still up. I laughed.

Nick and Uath charged up the stairs to Hugh’s prone body. I turned around and hurried to the bedroom.

A hole gaped in the ceiling next to the bed. Derek waited by it. Ascanio swung down out of the hole and offered me his hand. I grabbed it and he pulled me up until I could grasp onto some wooden beams. Ascanio let go and climbed up, and I crawled up after him. My cracked rib was screaming. Derek followed me into the ceiling structure. Beams, broken brick, insulation, and more beams.

A cold drop fell on my head. I looked up and saw Ascanio’s feet disappear, replaced by the night sky. My fingers caught cold metal and I pulled myself outside onto the roof. Frozen rain sifted from the gray sky. In the distance Desandra in a warrior form crouched on the edge of the roof, like a sleek monstrous gargoyle.

“Did you know that would happen?” Robert emerged from the hole.

“I hoped it would.”

“And if he broke through?”

“Then we’d have to run away very fast.” Well, we still had to run away really fast. Hugh’s people wouldn’t move until he came to, but that head was really hard. He’d bounce back soon.

The roof, slicked by frost, sloped down at a sharp angle. The ground looked very far down below.

Ascanio ran across the slippery roof toward the wererat. My head swam. The roof teetered before me.

Don’t think about it. Just do it. I sprinted. My stomach lurched. Tiny black dots swam in front of my eyes. Okay, running might have been too ambitious.

The roof ended. A twenty-foot gap separated us from the next building. Far below, hard pavement promised a painful landing.

Robert leaped across the gap and scurried on.

Twenty feet was so beyond me, it wasn’t even funny. Well rested, on solid ground, and with some training, I could possibly come close, but right now, on a slippery roof, it might as well have been a hundred feet. I had to get off the roof. When Hugh finally managed to deal with my ward, the backlash would be a bitch. I needed distance, but I was stuck.

“Kate.” Derek grabbed me and leaped. The ground yawned at me and then we landed on the other roof.