The subway tunnel was empty. The air was still and absent of sound. It was dimly lit and eyesore as florescent lights flickered every couple seconds. Damien didn't know how he got there. He wasn't supposed to leave the Building. Trying to get his bearings he tried reading the words on the wall, but all the letters seemed to be out of order or backwards. Something told him it was English, yet he couldn't read it. The only sign he could make out was "Yawkrap Lardehtac" and "110th". There was an orange and blue line under it. Looking around he saw two figures on the other side of the tunnel sitting on a wooden bench. Jane and Alec. Maybe he came here with them. But why was he on the opposite side of the tracks? "Jane! Alec! Where are we?" he yelled across. They didn't even look at him, they just sat there motionless. Suddenly more people appeared out of thin air standing still as statues. This wasn't right. Damien didn't recognize any of them. Movement caught Damien's eye as he saw Jane and Alec stand up and walk towards the yellow edge of the plate form. Looking back at the wooden bench a blue adidas duffle bag appeared that wasn't there before. It had something written on the outside in black sharpie, but like everything else he couldn't read it. It wasn't Jane or Alec's.
Suddenly the bag exploded. Pieces of the ceiling collapsed trapping Damien and everyone in the station beneath them. The air smelled of blood, rust, and sulfur. Amongst the ringing in his ears he heard screaming and moans of agony. "Jane! Alec! Help I'm trapped! Where are you?" He yelled. He was lying on his back trapped by concrete and steel. The dust and debris burned his lunges ad he started coughing uncontrollably. Through gagging on the dust, he tried screaming for help until his voice was ragged. The smell of gas flooded the air. Panic surged through him and he saw sparks from broken electrical chords. The entire tunnel burst into flames, catching both on fire. Damien screamed as he watched his only family member burn. Then Jane materialized, standing over him smiling wickedly engulfed in flames, "Damien," her voice was different, higher pitch and childlike. It sounded concerned, which didn't match her murderous look. "Damien".
"Damien, you need to wake up. Everyone's meeting in the library in ten minutes," a tiny voice whispered, snapping him out of dreamland. Marina. She gawked at him with her wide azure eyes. "Are you okay?" she asked slightly concerned. Damien nodded catching his breath and reorienting himself. Marina left the room to let him change out of his pajamas. Personally Damien didn't see why he couldn't just wear his pajamas, it wasn't like anyone was going to see him…ever. Shrugging he put on a pair of slacks and a button down shirt. Less than seven years until this becomes a guard uniform. Damien told the voice to shut up. Combing his hair with his fingers, he dashed to library to begin his first day of school.
Demetri stood motionless as a statue in front of the main table with a chalkboard on an easel. Once his daughter hoped into one of the four chair and Damien sat down he finalized how he was going to approach this. He need to establish himself as an authority figure who would not take nonsense from anyone. He was in charge and his word was law.
"Good morning students. I will be your teacher for all subjects I deem necessary you all learn. Regardless of relationship and familiarly ties, you will all address me as Sir or Mr. Demetri," Demetri did not want the other three thinking he would pick favourites because his daughter was in the class. "We will meet here every morning at 7am sharp and will go until noon. From there on you will go straight down stairs to the combat training room where you will learn how to fight. Mr. Felix will be your instructor until 5pm. Lessons will be subject to change depending on orders and if there are any reports where Mr. Felix or I must attend too. But do not worry, I will assign homework and have Heidi or another guard member substitute the class to make sure you continue your studies," Demetri concluded shooting daggers at Tiago and Olivia when he heard them groan.
"Today we will begin with English before moving on to Italian and several other languages that you will need to learn. I am handing out the first book that will be your assigned reading. We will read on book per week and write an essay at the end of the week. The first book will be Lord of the Flies," Demetri announced as he handed out copies. Olivia raised her hand confused, "Mr. Demetri, I don't read yet." Wincing at her terrible grammar, Demetri realized that maybe he had overestimated his students. He knew Damien had been reading before he was talking, and two weeks ago he taught Marina how to read in English, Italian and Russian. Of course Heidi taught her to read in German. Just a couple days ago he had taught her cursive. She was surprisingly bright for an eight-week-old, even if she looked like a small three year old. Figures Felix had not taught his children to read, given he could barely read himself. Felix's position on the guard was to be brawns, not brains.
"Damien and Marina, you will continue the lesson as planned. You may chose anywhere in the library to start your reading, while I work with Tiago and Olivia. Please return in an hour," Demetri dismissed them. Grabbing two small black boards he began teaching the other two the alphabet, starting with uppercase letters before moving on to lower case letters. Next he explained vowels and combining two consonants to make different sounds such as 'th' or 'sh'. Needless to say the hour felt very long for Demetri.
Next he decided to work on arithmetic. Given the level half the class was at, he decided to introduce numbers one through twenty and see how far he got from there. To help with this difficult concept, he had them count fingers and toes before assigning them to counting how many books were on each shelf, how many windows were in the library, just about anything. Once he thought everyone was on the same page more or less, he introduced the concept of addition. This was a struggle. Once the hour was up, he moved on to something else after giving them each a worksheet with twenty addition problems on it and ten questions asking them to count certain things in the Building such as thrones, rooms, pictures, etcetera.
The next subject was history. "Who knows what ancient means," Demetri asked. "Really old," Olivia exclaimed. "Good. We will begin with ancient history and continue up until modern times…" Damien had been battling falling asleep for the last hour and a half. He was not use to being awake during the day time as oppose to his coven siblings who were often up at six am bright eyed and bushy tailed. Demetri's even invigorating voice was not helping. Crossing his arms on the table, he set his head down. What felt like a couple seconds later, he felt himself being jarred by his teacher. Demetri, once realizing Damien had fallen asleep in class, had picked up the table off of the ground several inches before dropping in back on the ground and continuing his lesson on Mesopotamia and the ancient Middle East. "There is a popular mythical belief that vampires originated from a she-demon by the name of Lilit or Lilith. According to legend, the reason there are two creation stories is that Gad had created Adam and Lilith and she refused to be second to man so God banned her from the Garden of Eden and turned her into a demon. Since she did not eat of the forbidden fruit she maintained her immortality.
Tiago raised his hand, "You don't actually believe this do you?" Demetri smiled, "No it's just one of many fairytales to explain the existence of vampires. There are several in the bible such as the betrayal of Judas is an example. Continuing on, one of the oldest covens in the Egyptian coven. It used to be quiet large with over fifty members, but after attempting to over throw the Volturi to take control of the immortal world, many had to be executed due to threatening to expose us to the humans and cause civic turmoil. Now only two of the original members are alive due to surrendering. The current leader, Amun Al-Kishari, has added two more to his coven Tia and Benjamin…"
Damien went rigid in his seat. He had heard that name before. It was the guy who split the earth with his hand. Trying to remember his weird dream from a couple weeks back, recalled him having a darker complexion and Middle Eastern features. He had to be sure it was the same Benjamin. "Sir, does Benjamin happen to have an elemental gift?" Damien interrupted Demetri mid-sentence. Demetri's brow furrowed and he cocked his head in confusion. "Yes. Where did you hear about that?" Demetri knew Aro had his sights set on Benjamin. Perhaps Damien had overheard someone talking about him. Damien just shrugged. Wanting to change the subject, Demetri started on their next subject: science.
They would start out with basic biology. Learning what animals were, kingdoms, evolution, cells, genetics. After witnessing the IQ average so far, he stuck to just talking about herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores. Five minutes through Demetri realized that because these children had grown up sheltered in the Building, they had never seen an animal in real life. Sure they had watching movies and kids television shows, but they all had no idea what one really was. For all they knew Barney the dinosaur and Teletubies were real animals.
For the last hour, Demetri could see that all four of them had been sitting too long. Nobody was paying attention. Tiago was flicking tiny balls of paper and Olivia, who was playing with her nails. Damien looked like he was on the verge of falling asleep again. Even his own daughter, who he thought personally had behaved the best today and was the farthest ahead, was glancing around the classroom studying the books of the shelf, the dust glittering in the beam of sun light, the grooves in the table. They might be half-immortal, but they were still half-human and still very young.
"For our last subject for today, we will be looking at some of the art around the Building. Everyone follow me," Demetri lead the way pointing out Renaissance paintings, vases from ancient Rome, Gifts from popes, kings and emperors. Many were portraits of fellow guard members, current, retired, or deceased. One was of Felix posing in battle armor. Another the wives sitting in Victorian dress. One made Damien feel a pang of loneliness. It was of Jane and Alec sitting back to back in the library reading. Both had left a week ago after there were reports of human corpses being found in alley ways drained of blood. Humans had begun to notice the "cult violence" going on around them. Joan was also gone on a shopping trip with the wives. They needed a personal maid apparently. Damien was on his own again. All too soon the hour was up and the four children filed downstairs.
Felix crossed his arms in front of his barrel chest as he examined the newly lined-up soldiers they were about to be training. He was use to fully developed adults who had just been turned into vampire newborns, not toddlers. The eldest, Damien, didn't even come up to his waist. He starting to lose his babyish roundness and looked more like his bean-pole, adolescent father. Felix hadn't realized how small Damien actually was for his age. In comparison to Tiago and Olivia, who were now taller and weighed more than him, he was quiet a scrawny runt. Marina was in the same boat as Damien. She was the youngest and by far the smallest. An everyday house cat probably weighed more than her. She looked like she belonged sitting on a toy shelf, with her robin blue jumper, white blouse and stockings, porcelain skin, perfect toddler curls, and innocent smile. Demetri would kill him if he broke his baby-doll pf a girl. Felix thought he could at least start with basic self-defense. He wasn't exactly sure how strong any of them were. Or how breakable. Felix truly did not want to test the latter considering his daughter, adopted son, and best friend's daughter were amongst the class.
"Okay class, I am going to teach you today how to throw a decent punch. Since you all are more fragile than the average vampire, you have a greater chance of breaking bones if you do it incorrectly," Felix started glancing at his troops. Tiago and Olivia were glancing at each other impatiently, wanting to cut the chit-chat and learn to fight. Damien was fidgeting and eyes wandering between him, the walls around them, the floor, the ceiling, the door, and just about everything you could imagine. Marina surprised him by standing up straight, hand folded behind her back, fully focused. Sighing he continued, "I want everyone to make a fist in front of them with their right hand." They all looked pretty good, except Olivia had wrapped her four finger around her thumb, quickly he corrected it. "Now punch the air," Felix commanded, "Now do it with you left hand. Now with your right. Left. Right. Left…" He continued for two more minutes. Quiet pleased. No one was dead yet.
" Next, I want you all to line-up single-file and try punching my hand," Felix put his right hand up like one would signal for stop, palm flat and forward. This way he would be able to see better one on one what each kid was doing and fine-tune mistakes as they happened. Olivia went first WAP! It was a good hit and ranked second in the group, but still was pretty weak. Marina's felt more like a dainty tap. Damien's was not that strong, but it was the fastest out of the group. Tiago's surprisingly had a good amount of force to it and caused Felix's wrist to recoil a small bit. Felix cycled through the group five more times. They were all fast learners. Then he had where each would try to hit either of his hands ten times before going to the back of the line. Each hit he moved his hand to see how they adapted to hitting a moving target. Marina and Damien did the best, considering Olivia and Tiago kept missing. When he thought all of them had gotten it down, he pulled out his new training toy: punching bags. All five bags were quiet heavy, designed for training newborns. It would be a miracle if these small children could make them budge.
"Now I want all of you to practice hitting the bag as HARD as possible. Throw all your weight into it by planting your foot, swinging the shoulder, extending the elbow, and making contact with your fist," Felix demonstrated, trying not to send the bag flying through the wall. Walking up and down the line he beamed proudly when Tiago was able to make the bag swing and punch echo in the marble room they were training in. Olivia joined him seeing who could make the loudest WAP sound and make the bag swing the most. Felix had to restrain himself from laughing at Marina. She looked so ridiculous and tiny, her punches barely made the bag quiver. "That's it Marina, throw all you weight into it, with the hips," Felix encouraged. Yeah, all thirty pounds of you, Felix shook his head to himself smiling. He watched her a little more, out of the whole group she looked the most balanced and fluid. Like she was dancing, not training to be a killer. Damien was having similar issues, he was just too small. Tiago seemed to be born with muscles, Olivia had wide hips, thick thighs, and was rather long legged. He was now smaller than both of them, even though he was older. One. Two. Three. Four. He counted in his head, trying to muster more strength. He unconsciously started speeding up, hoping that would help. Felix could tell he was getting frustrated. Damien was moving quiet fast, Felix mused. Both Marina and Damien would make great fighters if they could just get more power behind their punches.
The rest of the evening continued as such. Felix was able to introduce kicking, blocking and kneeing. He wanted to make sure they understood the basics before he had them spar against each other. The group was just so spread out abilities wise. Felix collected his thoughts, dismissed the children and made his way to the throne room. Aro would want to know immediately how his little experiment was going. Bowing he approached his master as he extended his hand. Aro grasped it and smiled. That had to be a good sign. "When will they be ready?" Caius questioned. Felix was confused, "Ready for what?"
"Ready to fight, of course. We need warriors, champions. Not liabilities. I want them to start sparring against each other tomorrow. The sooner, the better," Caius explained. Felix winced "But sir, they aren't ready. Not even close."
"Then make them ready. We will observe tomorrows training. Have JUST this week to prepare them to fight each other. Do not fail us," Aro concluded dismissing him. Felix left to find his children tuckered out, dead asleep in the TV room. If it took only a brief intro to tire them out, imagine what would happen next. After putting them to bed in their rooms, he returned to the TV room to see what was on.
Marina soon found her father. "How was I toady as a teacher?" He asked as he scooped her up into his arms. Given her silence, Demetri guessed her answer would not be positive. "You were a little boring. Maybe we can do more activities besides just sitting and listening for several hours. I liked the counting exercise," she smiled politely before yawning. Sure her father could be strict sometimes, but she could tell he was trying. Marina stayed up a couple more hours do her homework before watching a documentary Mussolini with Felix and Demetri. It was in Italian, which she was okay at, but some of the bigger words she had difficulty with. She had a feeling that tomorrow would be even more tiring than today, so she decided to walk back her room. Oddly enough she wasn't too tired, just slightly sleepy.
Along the way she sensed that Damien also had not gone to bed yet. He was in the training room. Maybe she would check on him, since it seemed odd he would be down there. Normally he was in his room, or the library or pacing the halls. Opening the door with a rusty creak, she found him alone repeatedly punch the bags that they had all been practicing with earlier. His knuckles were bleeding and muscles quivering from hours of use. His jaw was clenched and face void of emotion. There were bruises under his eyes and sweat dripping down his face. Yet he moved at such a steady rhythm, it sounded almost like a heartbeat. Stepping back, lunging, Punch, stepping back, lunging, Punch, dum, dum, WAP, dum dum, WAP. His eyes unwavering with this intense fire unblinking. His eyes were completely dilated and the vibrant green was replaced with dark pools of black. His breathing was even, pulse matching his movements. He didn't seem to realize she was there.
"Damien?" she asked. No response, "Damien". It was like he was in a trance. She continued to watch. For the ten minutes she stood in the doorway, he hadn't blinked once. How long had he been down here? In an odd way Marina always tried to picture him as her older brother, even though she didn't talk to him much. Olivia said he was crazy and dangerous like Jane and Alec, who seem to scare everyone but Damien. Marina often tried to invite him to play with Tiago, Olivia, and herself, but the other two always tried to exclude or ignore him.
Soon she sensed Demetri coming down to check on her. He must have realized neither of them were in bed yet. "Marina Elena, what are you doing up still?" Demetri's cold voice asked. "I came to check on Damien," she answered. Demetri turned his eyes from his daughter to the small boy attacking the punching bag. The rhythm still hadn't changed and his eyes still seemed to burn holes into the punching bag. The intensity of his gaze reminded Demetri of when Jane tortured a poor soul with her dark gift. Dum, dum, WAP. Dum, dum, WAP.
Out of curiosity and concern, Demetri walked up and waved his hand in front of Damien's face. No response. Next he tried shaking his shoulder lightly. Damien swung at whatever attacker had startled him and Demetri just barely dodged the hit. Blinking a couple times, the fire dimmed from his eyes as the dilated back to normal and were replaced with confusion. "Are you okay?" Demetri asked. Damien just nodded. "It's almost eleven at night. You both better get yourselves to bed," Demetri order. Something was going on with Damien. Maybe it was because Jane and Alec were gone.
Muscles aching, Damien collapsed on to his bed. Physically he felt dead, but mentally his mind was going a million miles per hour. The images from his dream kept running on a constant loop behind his eyes. Cathedral Parkway. Blue adidas duffle bag. Large group of people. Blue and orange. His left hand itched to grab a pencil and draw what he kept seeing. Instead he chose to do his homework. It was simple, tangible, safe. One plus seven equals eight, three plus two equals five. Two pillows on his bed, three coats hanging in his closet. Once he was done, he felt much better. Relief flooded him as he curled up in a ball under his sheets.
All too soon he was woken up by Marina shaking him. He didn't understand why she always wanted to follow him around. Grabbing his homework, he dashed to the library. An odd inkling of dread made his stomach twist as he had a feeling something bad was going to happen. Taking his seat, he handed his homework to Demetri. Tick Tock Tick Tock.
"What is this?" Demetri asked confused. The sheet of paper was covered in doodles and drawings. There wasn't a single answer written anywhere. There was a picture of a wooden bench, a duffle bag, an Adidas sports logo, and a sign that read Yawkrap Lardehtac. Instead of the answers for the math equations there was the number 110 or 730 or 666 interchangeably.
Demetri angrily threw the paper back at Damien. Looking back at the sheet, his blood ran cold. He didn't remember drawing these pictures at all. He DID his homework not this! Why was he seeing these images? An odd ticking sound filled the air. It was probably just the clock tower in the plaza. Demetri let out a sigh. At least he did something with the worksheet. Tiago had turned his into a paper airplane and Olivia had done nothing. Marina was the only one who completed it and had gotten all the problems correct on top of that. Tick Tock Tick Tock
Demetri continued from where he left off with Tiago and Olivia, working on reading aloud from simple children's books with obnoxious rhyming and learning vocabulary before finishing the hour with cursive. Taking his daughter's advice he had them try to do more activities. Today they worked on copying sentences and writing their own. During that hour Damien and Marina were to finish Lord of the Flies and take a reading comprehension quiz on it. Tick Tock Tick Tock. The entire time Damien struggled to focus as the ticking sound kept getting louder. When everyone regrouped for arithmetic.
Today they worked on subtraction and counting to one hundred. A new challenge he wanted to install was that he gave them each a piece of paper with one hundred addition and subtraction problems and they goal was to do as many as possible in a minute. Slowly it became a fun competition. Marina won almost all the rounds, with Tiago and Olivia battling for second each time. Tick Tock Tick Tock. Damien surprised Demetri by barely doing any. The boy seemed more distracted that usual today. One round he spent the full minute staring as the piece of paper without moving.
Once it was time for history Demetri had them draw a map of the ancient Middle East, having them colour in cities, trade routes, and different areas with crayons. Tick Tock Tick Tock. He gave them half hour to do it and decided he would graciously be allowed to chat and help with each other as long as they continued to work. Olivia did most of the talking, saying how Chelsea had given her a new doll and how after class they should all play house in her room. Tiago argued it was a stupid game for girls. Marina politely as possible suggested they play hide and go seek instead since she knew Tiago hated playing house and it was a game everyone would enjoy. "Do you guys hear a ticking sound or a clock?" Damien interrupted. Everyone shook their heads confused. The ticking sound was making it really hard to concentrate and was hurting his ears. TICK TOCK. Every time there was a boom of a dropped book or pencil he would flinch, remembering his weird dream.
The rest of the morning passed in a nerve racking blur. All Damien heard was the Tick Tock sound of a clock. He didn't remember following the group down to the training room. He didn't notice Caius and Aro were standing against the wall watching as Felix explained the legal hits in sparing and points. Every time he blinked he was transported back to the subway station. One minute down, a voice whispered in his head.
7:27 am New York City
Jane glanced at the cheap flip phone checking the clock for the third time that minute and she tapped her fingers on the wooden bench impatiently. There had been reports of vampires being too careless about disposing of bodies and human authorities were starting to notice all the humans tended to be drained of blood and have neck wounds. The latest one had been found in Central Park. They had gotten a scent when they found a body that had been left lying in the open. Last night they had spent dusk until dawn trying to track down the law-breaker. Normally they had at least Felix or Demetri or at least Santiago to help them, so it had taken longer than they had wished and dawn was just starting to peak through the horizon. Even though it was mid-November, it looked like it would be a sunny day. This forced the twins to resort to underground transportation. They needed to take the A train to the abandoned building they had stashed their suitcases at. Their train was late. Both Jane and Alec hated how densely packed the station was because the close proximity to humans spiked their thirst. Luckily New York was one of those cities where two pale teens with black cloaks, dressed like demon catholic school kids and red eyed blended right in. Humans probably just assumed they were on their way to school.
Two minutes and a half minutes later Alec heard the sound of a train approaching standing up he noticed a blue duffle bag under the bench. Someone must have forgotten it there. The twins walked towards the tracks to hop on as quickly as possible.
Chaos. All of a sudden an explosion through them to the ground as concrete, steel beams, pieces of rubbish bins and benches rained from every which direction as the lights went out. A wave of fire whipped at their backs and their clothes caught on fire. Thrashing on the ground in the blur they were extinguished. The sound of it going off felt like a flaming knife to their sensitive ears. The smell of blood and carnage made the vampires' throats burn in agony. Smoke everywhere. Fire. Can't move or break free. The air was filled with screams. Sitting up they saw a woman sobbing as she tried to remove a piece of dry wall that had ripped through her now dead child's chest. The sight of the blood made Alec lose control and kill the woman. When she and the child were drained he turned around to find his sister devouring an elderly man whose femur had broken through his skin and skin covered in burns and blisters.
Once she was finished and slightly saner, they both examined the area around them. Rubble, rubbish and human body parts such as fingers and limbs littered the small area they were incarcerated in. Jane swore she saw someone's ear in the corner. They were trapped under pieces of the wall and ceiling. If they had been human it would have appeared to be pitch black. "You okay?" Jane double checked all was good with her younger brother as she nearly snapped his neck in half in a deadly hug. "Same as you I guess," He shrugged calm as a cup of tea. For a couple minutes they tried to see if they could dig their way out. Nothing was budging, even with vampire strength. Alec suddenly felt very claustrophobic and like he couldn't breathe. "We should alert Aro," she said as she checked to see if the phone still worked. The screen was cracked and plastic had welts, but it still lit up and responded as she speed-dialed her master.
1:31 pm Volterra
Damien started screaming when he felt this phantom heat attack his body. He felt shrapnel shred his body and light fixtures from above fall on him. Then it was over. Damien suddenly felt calm, the pain subsided. Looking around the train station faded away and was replaced with Demetri picking him up off the ground. He hadn't even realized he had collapsed. Everyone was staring at him like he had grown wings. The room was silent except for four heartbeats.
"You guys didn't feel that?" he panted. "Feel what?" Caius hissed, "Whatever childish game you are playing, end it!"
"No. I am dead serious. I think Jane and Alec might be in dan-," Damien muttered quickly. The sound of Aro's cell going off. Quickly Aro answered it, "WHAT?!"
"Master we are trapped in the subway tunnel in New York. There was a bomb," Jane's voice was full of panic. Aro looked back at Damien. "Where are you exactly?"
"We aren't sure. Somewhere around Central Park," Jane answered. Something clicked in Damien's mind. The random letters and the 110th sign. "Cathedral Parkway and 110th street station," Damien whispered to himself trying to remember his dream as best he could. What did he smell at the end…gas. "Was that Damien?" Aro heard Alec's voice on the other side of the phone line. "Give me the phone NOW. They are going to die!" Damien ordered urgently. The tunnel was going to blow any second. "Damien go to your room," Aro hissed through barred teeth as Demetri grabbed his arm dragging him away. Demetri locked the struggling, screaming child in his room for the rest of the night. "Tell Aro to tell Alec that there is a blue Adidas duffle bag that has the name of the bomber on it," was the last Demetri heard as he walked away.
Continuing the conversation. Alec had taken the phone from Jane and was asking Aro to put Damien on the phone after hearing him screaming in the background. Demetri came back and relayed that Damien had something about a blue bag that didn't make much sense. "There was a blue duffle bag someone had forgotten under the bench we were sitting on," Jane shouted in the background. Snatching the phone from Aro, Demetri told them to see if they could find it or any remains. There had to be a trace of a scent on it.
Jane found scraps of blue fabric. On one of the pieces, message in black sharpie scared the unliving daylights out of her. "Burn Witches, Burn" was all it said. The bomb must have been made to kill them. This was an assassination attempt. Slightly freaked out, she found a plastic grocery bag to wrap it in so it wouldn't mix too much with their own. Checking to make sure it wasn't a scent she recognized, she sniffed it. She smelled an unfamiliar vampire's scent….and gasoline.
"Alec, we need to get out NOW!" she screamed, "I smell gas-". The tunnel erupted in flames. Demetri dropped the phone when he heard the BOOM of an explosion and the sound of the phone going dead.