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candle.

“She’s not safe?”

“No.” I was on my feet. “I’m going up there.” Without waiting to see if she’d argue with me, I sprinted from the restaurant and across the lobby to the elevators. Shaunee and Darius met me there. She was holding her candle. Its flame was burning a lot brighter than my little purple votive, but both candles were still burning.

“Fire’s back,” Shaunee said.

I punched the up arrow button. “I know. Grandma’s still up there.”

Stark ran into the lobby, with Damien close behind. He, too, still carried his lit candle. “Air returned! Fire and spirit, too?”

I nodded. Then faced Stark. “Grandma’s not out. I’m going up there.”

“Not without me you’re not,” Stark said.

“Or me.” Stevie Rae’s face was flushed, but she was cradling her burning candle.

Shaylin looked scared and confused when she jogged into the lobby, cupping her hand around the flame of her blue candle. “Something happened. I have water back and Thanatos didn’t close the circle. I figured I better get in here.”

“You did good,” I said. “Okay, look.” The elevator doors opened and I stepped in. “Aurox has lost control. Probably because Neferet did something awful. Stark and I are going up there to be sure that awfulness isn’t going to get Grandma killed. You guys stay here. Don’t let your candles go out. Keep the circle open.”

“Hell, no,” Shaunee said, striding into the elevator. “If you go—fire goes.”

“We’re all going,” Stevie Rae said.

“Fuck it. Me, too,” Aphrodite said.

And that was it. My friends and I all squeezed into the elevator. I hit the penthouse button.

“You know there’s going to be some majorly screwed-up shit going on when these doors open,” Aphrodite said.

“Stay inside the circle close to Zoey,” Darius told her. He had a knife in each hand.

Stark notched his bow. I put the hand that wasn’t holding a candle on his arm. “Don’t kill Aurox unless you have to.”

“Zoey, it won’t be Aurox. It’ll be the beast. Remember that,” he said.

I nodded. “I’ll remember. You remember that I love you.”

“Always,” he said.

The doors opened to a deserted hallway. As one we stepped out of the elevator, holding our lit candles and keeping our circle open.

The smell of blood hit me. Laced in the terrible seduction of its scent was lavender and something I couldn’t identify. Something that reminded me of the bluffs that edged Grandma’s farm.

“Turquoise,” Stevie Rae said. “I can smell it.”

Then I heard Grandma sob Aurox’s name, followed by a shout, a terrible roar, and then Neferet’s unmistakable command, “Kill her. Now!”

I ran into the penthouse. “Air, fire, water, earth, spirit! Stop the beast!”

There was a blinding flash as Aurox, fully changed into the horrible creature that slept beneath his skin, charged Grandma. The power of the elements encased him, sizzling with energy. The beast roared his rage, spittle and blood spraying from his terrible mouth, while he circled Grandma.

“U-we-tsi-a-ge-ya!”

“Get to the balcony!” I yelled. There was a shattered glass door just yards behind Grandma, and through it I could see the starlit rooftop balcony onto which Kalona, wings spread, was landing.

“No! Not this time.” Neferet was suddenly there, standing before my group. “Seal the door!” Neferet commanded and a web of black formed across the broken door, blocking Grandma’s exit. Then she turned to us. “This time you are in my home, and I do not invite any red fledgling or vampyre within!”

“Oh, no!” Stevie Rae screamed as she, Shaylin, and Stark were lifted from their feet and hurled against the closed doors of the elevator so hard that Shaylin cried out. She and Stevie Rae dropped their candles. The circle was broken.

“Zoey!” Stark shouted, sounding like he was in agony as his body kept being battered against the closed metal doors.

“Make it stop!” Shaylin cried.

I understood what had happened. Different rules applied to red vampyres. The sun burned them. They could control humans’ minds. And they could not enter a home without being invited.

Aphrodite knew those rules all too well. She ran to the elevator and pressed the button. When the doors opened, the three of them rushed inside. Stark got to his feet first.

“Get me my bow!” he yelled to Rephaim.

“No. I’d rather you didn’t have your bow,” Neferet said. She waved her hand and something dark and sticky knocked Rephaim off his feet. “But I would prefer the three of you watch.” She flicked her fingers and spiderweb-like tendrils formed around the elevator doors, holding them open. Then she turned to me. “So nice of you to join your grandmother. Let’s have some fun, shall we? Vessel, kill the old woman!”

Neferet’s command worked on the beast like a whip. He roared and battered against the elemental prison.

And the elements began to give.

I dropped my candle and held my hands out. Damien took my right hand. Shaunee grasped my left hand.

“Spirit, hold him!” I yelled.

“Air, batter him!” Damien shouted.

“Fire, scorch him!” Shaunee added.

The bubble of energy around the beast pulsed, and for a moment I thought it would hold, then Neferet spoke again.

“My children within, made of Darkness divine,

Come forth—absorb, and make vengeance mine!”

The beast’s skin shivered and twitched, and while he roared, hideous black creatures spewed from his mouth. They slammed against the bubble of elemental power. I felt the drain as if I’d been punched in the gut. Shaunee cried out. I heard Damien gasp in pain. They both still clutched my hands.

“Spirit, hold!”

“Air, hold!”

“Fire, hold!”

We tried, the three of us, but I knew we were lost. The creatures of Darkness were too many. They were too powerful. A broken circle could not hold them.

“Zoey! Go!” Grandma was huddled on the floor before the web of Darkness that had cut off her escape to the balcony. I could see Kalona on the other side, battling furiously against Darkness. He ripped and tore and slashed. He was making headway, but I knew not quickly enough.

“Grandma, come to me!”

“I cannot, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya. I am too weak.”

“Try! You gotta try!” Stevie Rae called from the elevator.

Grandma began crawling toward us.

Neferet laughed. “This is such fun! I never believed I would end so many of you at once. This will even get rid of Kalona. The High Council will be ever so distraught when they hear that he went rogue, attacked me, and when you came to my rescue he killed all of you.” She was sitting on the back of the giant round couch with her legs crossed and her hand primly placed on her knee. Her long black dress covered her feet, but there was something wrong about it. Neferet wasn’t moving, but the cloth of the dress didn’t stay still. I shivered. It was like she was covered with bugs.

“No one will believe that. Thanatos was here. She is our witness,” I said.

“So sad that Kalona turned on his High Priestess first,” she said.

“You won’t get away with it!” I yelled at her.

She laughed again and made a “come here” motion with her finger. The creatures that had come from the beast’s body pressed against the bubble with renewed strength.