The blue candle didn't explode to life, as had Shaunee's fire, but it did burn steadily, and Kalona could smell the cool scent of springtime showers wafting up to him.

He took to the sky, once again following the High Priestess.

Stevie Rae waited with Rephaim in the rear of the building. Thanatos had to climb down a steep, dark stairway and pick her way around vans that waited to make deliveries. Kalona hovered, watching closely. Rephaim protects his Stevie Rae, and I protect my son. But it seemed such vigilance was not needed. The night was as silent as death herself as Thanatos stepped before Stevie Rae.

"Come, earth, to this night's circle I beseech,

Support, ground, hold confidence within reach."

The green candle sputtered to flame. In its flickering light, Kalona caught a glimpse of Rephaim's upturned face. The boy looked steady and sure, as if he believed there was no possibility of the night's outcome not being positive.

Kalona wished he had his son's faith.

He flew up, keeping Thanatos in sight as the High Priestess completed the circle around the Mayo, cutting down the alley from the rear, and moving quickly and silently past Damien and Stark, fully encasing the building in a trail of salt. When she reached the front of the building again, Thanatos hesitated only long enough to glance up. Kalona met her gaze before soaring to the top of the ONEOK Plaza and perching there. From that vantage point the immortal watched the cloaked High Priestess enter the Mayo. She disappeared for a few moments, and then he caught sight of her dark cloak as she joined Zoey and Aphrodite at their booth near the restaurant's large picture window.

Kalona could not hear her words, but he whispered the completion of the elemental call.

"Come, spirit, to this night's circle I cry

Endow, infill, on your might we rely."

Zoey had carried a tiny purple votive in her pocket to the restaurant. She and Aphrodite had talked about hiding it behind the textbook they'd used as a prop. Kalona's view was not good enough to see the candlelight, but that the circle was cast and the protective spell set, he was absolutely sure. He felt the inrush of elemental power. It tingled across his skin like an electric spark.

No! The winged immortal wanted to shout to the night. If I can sense the spell, then so might Neferet! With horrible dread Kalona stared across the space that separated the roof of his building and the rooftop balcony of Neferet's penthouse. He could not see over the thick stone balustrades. Should he fly high and take the risk that Neferet would catch sight of him? What was happening over there?

"Hurry, boy. Get up there and keep Neferet distracted so that she does not know they circle below and the vengeance she wreaks falls only upon you. I will be certain they all get away. Steal the old woman before the Tsi Sgili kills you!" That was the unspoken truth. Kalona knew it, and he believed Aurox knew it as well. There would be no escape for Aurox. Neferet was going to kill her betraying Vessel this night.

Kalona felt the heat and knew Erebus had materialized before he spoke, but he did not turn. Did not take his gaze from Neferet's balcony.

"Ready to accept my help, brother?"

"Why would I need your help? I have always been the better Warrior," Kalona said.

"Better Warrior, perhaps, but not the better Consort."

"That was your title, not mine." Kalona refused to rise to his baiting. "Return to your Goddess. I have not the time, nor the patience, to argue with you tonight."

"Darkness cannot feed from the both of us." Erebus's voice was emotionless. "If I flew there with you, we could free the old woman and return her to her loved ones. Neferet could not stop us."

Kalona shifted so that he could glance at his brother and keep watch on the balcony. "Why would you do that?"

"To get what I want, of course," Erebus said.

"Which is?"

"You gone from the House of Night-from any House of Night. Vampyres are not your people. Make an eternity elsewhere and leave these children to the Night and her Sun."

"I have sworn an oath to be Death's Warrior, and I will not be forsworn."

"You have already been forsworn once. What does one more time matter?"

"I will not be forsworn ever again!" Kalona's anger caused the air around them to stir with the cold power of moonlight. Mist lifted from his brother's sun-blessed body as it flowed over the heat of his golden wings.

Erebus shook his wings and the mist was burned away. "As always, you think only of yourself," he sneered at Kalona.

Kalona shook his head in disgust. "What would Nyx say if she heard you bartering terms for an old woman's life?"