Demetri stood back-to-back with his partner. His temporary partner. Felix was so much more enjoyable. They turned very slowly, eyes scanning the room, shining their infra-red lights around. Humans couldn't see in the infrared spectrum, but handily enough, they could. The room they scanned now was ancient. Sand piled in the corners, against any imperfection on the thousands of years old stone tile floor. The stairs into this chamber, as with the one above, and the one above that, had been lost to sand blowing in, but it was growing thinner the deeper they went. After thoroughly inspecting the pitch-black room, Demetri signaled, and they went through the passageway to the right of the entrance, which turned out to be another staircase. They were eight right-turns in, deep under the dunes by now, Demetri drew the model in his head, they were moving straight down, in a squared spiral. What was in these rooms? Why were they so large? As long as he was questioning things, why were they here? And why did he have to work with the stuffy man-boy from the states. Edward sharply elbowed him in the ribs for the last thought, apparently not that stuffy, Demetri added. At least he didn't have to talk when would have with Felix, the Cullen boy would be first detected if they were attacked. Edward smirked on the tracker's opposite side, now scanning the room with his "partner". Another empty chamber, another staircase in and down, then down and out. They finished surveying the room, and moved to go down the next set of steps, when Demetri stopped Edward. It was so faint, infinitely faint, how old was it, thousands of years? He knelt down, and gently brushed some sand away from a stone tile that was in front of the next staircase. There were some symbols darkened into the stone, just discoloration? The two vampires knew it for what it was instantly, blood. Even after several thousand years they could smell its sweetness, though very very faint.
"What does it say?" Edward asked aloud. Demetri gave him a stern look over his shoulder, and thought mightily Keep your voice down! Imbecile!
"Oh yeah? Pharaoh's going to rise from the grave and hear us?" Edward asked sarcastically, kicking away more sand from the same area carelessly. "It's writing, Demetri, Sanskrit. Can you read it?"
"Cain. It says Cain." He voiced grimly, looking up to Edward who was now well progressed in filling the room with a dust cloud. "Could you stop that?"
Edward continued kicking up a ring of dust around the room, clearing the perimeter of the room of sand. "Then Aro was right, and we're not wasting our time. But stop scolding me, you have a lot more to read." Edward said, indicating the trail he had excavated around the room. Demetri stood, standing back slightly, and saw the writing in blood, all the way around the chamber.