Ascanio was already checking. “Warded,” he called out a second later.
We were trapped. Great. I moved to the window and pushed against the ward with my palm. It nipped at me with magic teeth. Not a blood ward. This was incantation-based and someone had sunk a wallop of power into it. Shit.
Ascanio returned.
“Is it breakable?” Robert asked me.
“Sure. Give me an hour to figure out how it was made.”
Derek swore.
I dropped on my knees by the window and slid my hand against the ward, trying to trace its boundaries. Magic scraped at my skin with pale green lightning. Ouch. If Hugh had warded the whole building, we’d be in trouble.
At the street, the riders dismounted.
I found an edge of the ward. Another edge. “He didn’t ward the entire building. He just warded the openings, the windows and the door.”
Derek bared his teeth. “Ceiling or floor?”
“Ceiling,” Robert said.
It would take them at least a few minutes to break through the ceiling onto the roof. A few minutes, and nothing between us and Hugh except for a busted door. I ran to the door.
“Where are you going?” Ascanio called.
“To buy us some time. Stay in the bedroom out of sight.”
“Ask him about the cops!” Robert called.
Good point. If Hugh had bought the Atlanta PAD, we needed to know.
The front door stood ajar, just as we had left it. The sound of people running up the stairs floated up.
I couldn’t break this ward, but I had enough magic left to make one of my own. I dipped my fingers in my blood and touched the bottom corner of the door frame on my side.
The pounding steps drew closer.
I concentrated. The magic rushed out from me, twisted into an invisible current, kissed the empty air of the doorway, and snapped like a broken rubber band. The pain lanced my mind and for a second the world teetered in a red haze. Ow. I forced myself upright. Breach that, you sonovabitch.
The steps reached the landing just below us.
I leaned against the wall and tried to look casual. All this practicing must be paying off, because a couple of years ago I couldn’t have broken the ward and put up one of my own in the space of fifteen minutes. It still hurt, but at least I wouldn’t give Hugh the satisfaction of passing out in front of him.
Hugh conquered the last few steps and halted by the door. He still wore jeans tucked into tall riding boots, a black wool sweater, and a plain cloak, splattered with mud and melting snow. Gloves shielded his hands. His height and broad shoulders guaranteed that people would maintain their distance, but if he pulled the hood over his face, he wouldn’t stand out too much. Hugh in his inconspicuous mode.
The hood was down now. I scrutinized Hugh’s face, looking for any sign of the wounds Curran and I had left on him. I knew they weren’t there, but my brain refused to acknowledge it. I just couldn’t help myself. No old scars on the square chin or the cut jaw. No hint of crushed cartilage in the nose. I looked higher and ran straight into his eyes. They brimmed with arrogance, power, and humor. Hugh was having fun.
I took a rag out of my pocket and began cleaning Slayer, drawing the cloth along the pale blade.
Nick followed Hugh to the door. He was wearing clothes and seemed no worse for wear. A woman walked with him, at least fifty, but strong and fit, built like she could punch a tank out. Bright red paint crossed her left cheek, an upside-down T, smudged, probably drawn with a finger. It stood for Uath, the sixth letter of the Ogham alphabet used by the ancient Celts. It meant horror or fear, and according to Voron, Uath had earned her name. My adopted father had found her years ago. She was one of his elite soldiers who later formed the backbone of the Order of Iron Dogs. Hugh must’ve inherited her. I had no idea she was still alive. Voron knew how to pick them.
Hugh flicked his fingers. Nick and Uath backed off, took a couple of steps down the stairs, and waited.
Hugh pulled a glove off his hand and reached for the doorway. His defensive spell flashed green and drained down. His fingers touched the invisible wall of my blood ward. He pushed.
I kept cleaning my sword.
“Clever girl,” Hugh said.
“Learning as I go.”
He reached into his cloak and pulled out a small white bottle.
“What is it?”
“Ibuprofen,” he said. “For your headache. I know you have one.”
Hugh, a benign and considerate mass murderer. Always thinking ahead.
Hugh shook the bottle at me.
“No, thanks. I’ve had my daily dose of poison already.”
Hugh smiled.
“Something funny?”
“The more you struggle, Kate, the more I learn about you.”
“Learn anything interesting?”
He moved, stalking around the landing. He seemed to have gotten bigger somehow since our encounter in the Black Sea. Taller, broader, stronger. Maybe it was my memory playing tricks, or maybe it was the cloak.
“You can break my ward. This morning I knew of eleven people in the world who could. Now there are twelve.”
“Whoop-de-doo.”
Hugh shrugged his shoulders. “You know what I hate about the winter in this city?”
The longer we kept talking, the more time I would buy for Derek, Ascanio, and Robert to take the ceiling apart. I raised one eyebrow. “Mmm?”
“It’s so damn cold, I wouldn’t let a dog out, but there’s no snow. There’s just this crud. It’s not rain, it’s not snow, it’s like freezing mud falling from the sky.” He rested one hand on the wall next to the side of the door. “I say we call it quits. The new Four Seasons has VIP suites. I stayed there on my last trip here. We’ll have them build us a nice fire and hide in the room, hot, dry, and cozy. We’ll order some food, some decent wine, and talk.”
“What would we talk about?”
“About the future.”
I pretended to think about it. “Pass.”
Hugh flashed his teeth in a narrow smile. Before a hungry tiger pounced on its prey, he would smile just like that.
“Where is Hibla?”
“Hibla has been reassigned.”
“Where?”
“Let it go,” he said, in that good-natured way as if we were sitting somewhere in a bar, sharing a drink, and I were venting to him about a co-worker who annoyed me. “She’s hard to kill and not worth the time.”
“When you see her, let her know I have a grave picked out for her. With a headstone and everything.”
“How about this: if you come with me, I’ll deliver her to you. You can play with her as long as you want. I’ll even heal you if she rips you up.”
“Still a pass.”
“You should reconsider. Just some friendly advice.”
“I don’t think so.”
Hugh leaned forward, his eyes amused, and looked me over, slowly, head to toe. “You look good.”
Spare me. “Nice touch letting Dorie go. If I don’t turn her over, you’ll start a bloodbath and I and the alphas will be blamed for it. If we do turn her over, we look weak and our own people will lose confidence in our leadership. Either way the Pack is destabilized and I’m the bad guy.”
“You’re beginning to catch on to how the game is played,” Hugh said.
“There’s a third possibility. I could kill Dorie and dump her dead body on your lap.”
“I don’t think so.”
He said it with absolute surety. Not a moment’s hesitation. Note to self: bluffing—learn to do it better.
“Why not?”
“Because it sends the wrong message. If you kill Dorie, every shapeshifter who has ever broken the law will wonder if they’re next on your hit list. If you go that route, nobody will follow you. I’m a bastard but even I don’t kill my own people, unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
“No, you just put them in cages and let them slowly starve to death.”
He rolled his eyes. “Of course, there is a fourth option.”
“And what’s that?”
“You come with me now,” he said. “And this whole ugly mess goes away.”
“I don’t believe you.” The words had come out almost on their own. But a look into his eyes told me he wasn’t lying. Shit. He really had come here for me. I was the sole reason Mulradin was dead and the Pack was now evacuating. Well, that was one mystery solved.
I didn’t need that kind of pressure. I had plenty to drag me down as it was.
Hugh shifted his weight, reached over, and drew a doodle on my ward. The magic nipped at his finger. It must’ve hurt. “I meant what I told you before. Their lives don’t matter to me. If I have to crush the coal to get to the diamond, I’ll do it.”
“Aha. And I’m the diamond?”
“You cut like one.”
Ha! “Flattery, really? Subtle like a hammer.”
He shrugged. “Why not? Do the shapeshifters take time to flatter you? Do they tell you how grateful they are for you sticking your neck out for their sake?” He touched the blood ward again. “Do they beg your forgiveness every time this precious blood is spilled?”
No, they generally didn’t. They mostly complained at me, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. “The answer is no.”
“No, they don’t flatter you?”
“No, I’m not leaving with you.”
“I suppose I’ll have to come and get you then.”
“Knock yourself out. I’ve got a sword I’m dying to introduce to your blood.” Wait. Knock yourself out. Funny I said that. An idea began to form in my head.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Robert leaning into the hallway. He was watching. He’d probably heard every word. Great. I could look forward to more questions I didn’t want to answer.
“Come with me,” Hugh said. “Let me show you the kind of power you’re missing. Nobody else has to die. He’s waiting for you.”
Every nerve in me came to attention. “Don’t see how he has the time for me, preparing for the claiming and all.”
Hugh’s eyebrows rose a quarter-inch.
I laughed quietly. “I see he doesn’t tell you everything. I think I’ll stay right here.”
He shook his head. “Seriously, what the fuck are you doing, Kate? Running around the frozen city in the night like some filthy bottom-feeder playing queen of the shapeshifters? Come to me. I’ll give you the city on a silver platter. A gift.”
“If I wanted the city, I would’ve taken it.”
“I love that snarl in your voice,” he said. “Sexy.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I like that, too,” he said.
“Just out of curiosity,” I asked. “Last time I checked, the cops frowned on the random murder of civilians. Do you think Atlanta’s Paranormal Activity Division will just let you blunder about hunting shapeshifters?”
Hugh pretended to ponder it for a long moment. “Let me think. Yes.”
Jim was right. He had made an arrangement with someone high in the police food chain. “Aren’t you smug?”
“That’s what happens when you play in the big leagues.”
“Big leagues, huh?”
“That’s right.” He winked at me. “Stick around, I’ll show you how we do it.”
“No need. I’ve already had the proper instructions from my aunt.” Big leagues, I’ll show you the big leagues. It was a gamble, but if it worked, it would buy us enough time to get the hell out of here. “Curran broke Erra’s ward, by the way.”
Hugh’s eyes narrowed. “It’s adorable when you try to manipulate me. I find it charming.”
“I’m not manipulating you. I’m stating a fact. The man I’m sleeping with broke Erra’s blood ward.” I indicated the ward. “Mine is still standing.”
In the bedroom Robert leaned out for a second to catch my eye. Yes, yes, I know what I’m doing.
“I’ve been waiting for you to break mine. I have to say, your technique is really different. Curran hammered at the spell until it broke. You just talk. Help me out here, what’s the strategy? Are you hoping the ward will get tired and kill itself so it won’t have to listen to you anymore?”
Hugh’s eyes turned dark.
I yawned. “I don’t know about the ward, but I’m done talking. I’m going to go and take a nap.”
“Last chance,” Hugh said. His voice lost all of its amusement. “Come with me, and I’ll spare your precious Pack. All your pets will go to bed safe and won’t have to worry about fighting for their lives in the morning. Or they can wake up to a slaughter and blame you when their kids and lovers start dying.”
I slid Slayer into its sheath on my back and crossed my arms. “Time for talking is over. Come on, Preceptor. The man I sleep with broke the City Eater’s ward. You just have to break one of mine. Do it, Hugh. Show me something.”
“Remember, you wanted this,” he warned.
I dug into my memory and pulled out the worst rebuke Voron ever used. He said it to me and he had said it to Hugh, because Hugh threw it in my face the last time we met.
“If you’re too scared to try, just say you’re scared, Hugh.”
Nothing was worse than not being brave enough to try.
Hugh pulled a knife out, sliced his forearm, and dropped the blade on the floor. Show-off. Why not use the knife?
He squeezed his forearm. Blood swelled, bright sharp crimson. Slowly he rubbed it all over his hands. His stare locked on me. Wow. Hugh was pissed.
I raised my eyebrow at him.
He leaned forward, his feet shoulder width apart, his arms bent at the elbows, fingers apart, pointing up. His whole body tensed, gathering together as if before a great jump. Muscles bulged on his legs. His biceps strained the sleeves of his sweater. His abdomen hardened. Thin streaks of blue vapor slithered from him, growing stronger and stronger, until pale blue smoke emanated from his whole body. I’d seen it before when he pulled Doolittle from the brink of death. The ward blocked me from feeling it, but I remembered the magnitude of that power.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
On the stairs Nick crouched. Uath gripped the guardrail. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Robert, standing in plain view in a hallway.
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.
Robert cleared the roof and jumped down, right over the edge. I followed and nearly slid off the icy shingles. A fire escape, ten feet below.
I jumped down, landed with a thud, and slid down the fire escape, trying not to trip over my own clumsy feet. Wind whistled around me and then we were on the ground and next to Robert, who held Cuddles’s reins.
I swung into the saddle and gave her a squeeze. We had to hurry.
Cuddles didn’t move.
“Come on!” I kicked her sides. “Now isn’t the time to be an ass!”
Cuddles planted herself. Not now, you stupid donkey.
Ascanio snarled and smacked her butt. Cuddles shot into a gallop, thudding down the street.