Sea Haven 02 - Spirit Bound

was already on the lower side of the roof and he gained a few steps, leaping onto that roof as Ivanov jumped to the next long building, a woodworking gallery.
    Rather than run straight, Ivanov angled back toward the street again, toward the front of the building, and then disappeared down the other side of the roof. That action warned Stefan that the killer had a plan. He didn’t slow his pace, but heightened his awareness as he ran, puzzling over the route, trying to get ahead of the assassin in his mind to figure out what he had in store.
    Below him was the main street of the town. Across the pavement the ocean pounded at the cliffs, dark water throwing spray high into the air. The wind slammed into him as he raced over another gallery, this one two stories with multilevel roof lines so that he had only brief glimpses of Ivanov who had managed to gain the roof of the bar.
    Instant awareness hit him. A neon sign had been flashing two nights earlier when Stefan had checked the streets so carefully. The beckoning light pulsed red and blue in the night sky, but it was now unlit, leaving the overhung balcony roof dark and silent. He changed his angle as he jumped the distance between the two buildings, landing on the sloped roof rather than that tempting flat upper deck.
    Ivanov was two buildings ahead, running up the third-story roof of the Sea Haven Hotel. Stefan had to keep him in sight at all times. If the exterminator was allowed to lengthen that distance between them, the odds of his getting away went way up. Stefan was totally exposed to the increasing strength of the wind as he ran across the next building, a larger store that sold clothes and an assortment of high-end gifts. The building was quite large and by the time he’d crossed the roof, Ivanov had disappeared on the other side of the hotel’s roof.
    Cursing, Stefan raced up the very steep angle, the tiles slippery. Ivanov paused for a moment, glancing over his shoulder even as his feet angled three steps to the left. Stefan would have thrown his knife, but the angle was all wrong and in a flash, Ivanov went over the ridge to the other side of the hotel, disappearing from sight. Stefan put on a burst of speed, marking the exact spot Ivanov had used to go over the ridge of the hotel. He needed to follow that exact route, otherwise he could be in trouble. Why had Ivanov taken the time to move to his left when a straight line would have been faster?
    Something grabbed at Stefan’s ankle, biting deep, sweeping his leg out from under him. He went down hard and rolled immediately, knife in one hand, the other up to defend himself, his radar screaming a warning at him. A dark shadow launched itself at him, knife stabbing down. He caught Ivanov’s wrist with one hand and drove toward the man’s side with his own knife.
    He heard Ivanov grunt as the blade penetrated through clothing to pierce the skin. Ivanov kicked him hard in the ribs and Stefan slipped backward on the steep slope. The exterminator took another swipe at him as Stefan tried to save himself from falling off the roof. The attack with the knife came in a figure eight, catching his forearm twice, nicking his jaw and slicing shallow cuts through skin as he fended the blade off with his arm. He lunged at Ivanov a second time, his own blade slicing across the assassin’s stomach, driving him back and away. Stefan continued to slide backward even as he dug in his heels to slow his steady descent to the edge.
    Jamming the blade of the knife hard into a tile, he gripped the handle and rolled over, getting his feet under him, all the while trying to keep Ivanov in sight. The tile splintered, the bottom half falling away to hit loudly on the gutter and fall farther to the ground below. Stefan whipped his head around, looking for the next attack from Ivanov, but just that fast, the exterminator was gone, running back up the hotel roof, timing his footsteps to avoid the trip wire he’d laid out probably days earlier for just such an opportunity as this.
    Stefan gave chase, clearing the trip wire this time. He made it to the top where the roof peaked and stopped to look over the other side, cautious now that he had given Ivanov a few seconds to formulate another ambush. The roof of the next building was empty. His quarry had disappeared. He went still, listening. The waves slammed into the bluffs, crashing over rocks and sending white spray high into the air. The sound of music and laughter poured out of