Subwalk, Bromley Marks Underground Parking, Staff Exit

Just her luck. She wanted to slam her head against a wall. Or throw something heavy at him. There was a stretch of silence that felt much longer than its few seconds. Then the soldier voiced exactly what was racing through her mind. With the slight difference that his expression was complete disbelief and hers dark with warning.

"Shit"

"You know her?" the woman asked, flashing a wary look at Alison, backing up.

"What are you doing here?" she countered before Frankie could explain anything in return. She turned to the dark-haired man in confusion, the scent of blood completely gone from her mind now. Incredible how seeing the soldier had instantly cleared her mind, made her alert again, "And how…how are you human? You treated me here and suddenly you…"

"We don't have time for this," Frankie cut in, pulling the older man's arm, "You need to get out of the city. Now"

He was politely ignored. The one that shared the same name but was so completely different seemed to have drawn his own conclusions about the situation. Recognition spread across his face and she wondered if that was a good or bad sign. "You're his daughter," the man said, dropping the stake back to his side, "The one who poisoned herself"

She honestly didn't know if that made her any less of a threat than the subsider that had just attacked them. She nodded anyway. Her options were either to continue fleeing on her own or possibly, maybe make it out with these humans. They were obviously on the run and she'd rather the second choice, even if it involved her bodyguard as part of the picture.

She needed to find allies and apparently, this doctor seemed to have enough of an interest to think about it. It seemed she'd made a positive impression on this brother in the five minutes that he'd treated her. That was a lot better than what she'd achieved in all her time with Frankie.

"I can help," she offered, holding the man's gaze. They didn't need to know that she had no clue about this place or how to get out.

"Ed, we have to go" the woman chimed in and threw a worried look at the door they'd come out of. She was pale and judging from the way her body was shaking, it was either from shock or blood loss. Alison wished she could remember what that fear felt like, that fear that she couldn't protect herself with an injured body. Even now, with her blood loss and fatigue she wasn't worried.

Even so…she didn't really know what was going on here. Pieces were falling into place and the longer she took in the scene in front of her, the clearer things became. These two people were following the soldier. They were actually relying on him for guidance. It stunned her. She couldn't believe that he was helping fugitive humans escape. That seemed impossible. Her father's lapdog? The loyal follower?

"You trust him?" Alison exclaimed, pointing at Frankie. The woman paused, waiting for the man to take care of the situation. The one in question was quicker to answer.

"This has nothing to do with you," Frankie shot back.

Alison simply glared before changing her approach. She opened her mouth to say that she was looking for a way out of the city, to beg the humans to trust her enough to let her get away from this place, but the blood doctor spoke first. He was observing her with curious eyes despite the urgency. "She can come with us"

He'd read her mind. Had she been able to still feel relief, as strongly as before, she would have probably sunk to her knees at his words. Finally, finally somebody was offering her a way out. A human who was prepared to believe her despite what she was. Fate was being far too gracious today.

On the other side of the corridor, the solider looked just about ready to drag her back the way he had once before. Despite his body language clearly addressing the human, it couldn't be clearer that he was telling her to back off.

"No, we can't risk it. She isn't involved in this," Frankie objected. She instantly wanted to punch him. There was hardness in his voice but she could sense the emotion when he addressed his brother. He obviously wasn't thinking rationally. Who knew what had happened in the hours in which he'd been gone.

She wasn't sure she wanted to.

"The more vampires we are, the less of a problem we have getting through these tunnels without questions asked," Ed stated sharply, moving to leave, "Come on"

"She'll make it more difficult. You know who she is!" Frankie snapped back. His insistence let another thought surface – what did the doctor know of the events in the recent weeks? It didn't seem like Frankie had informed him about his relation to her.

"And if we don't move now, none of us might make it," the older brother argued back. His eyes had the most beseeching look Alison had ever seen. Had she been on the receiving end of that, she would have caved in immediately. As a human, the man could practically project emotion.

Frankie growled under his breath but turned away. He wasn't going to waste any more time. The woman also accepted without further objection, evidently too worn out to argue. Alison didn't miss the soldier's conflicted glance in her direction but she couldn't read it. Even though she was absolutely confused as to what was going on and why Frankie was helping them instead of handing them over, logic told her more trouble was waiting if they were caught. She didn't ask anything else as they started moving down the passages.

After several minutes of grim, strained movement, she shrugged out of her hooded jacket and passed it to the woman. The human almost jumped at the contact and Alison felt a strange déjà vu that, had they been in reverse positions, she would have done the same. She'd never pictured what it would be like to embody the one to be feared, the monster. Here she was, a runaway vampire only trying to help and still posing a threat.

"The bleeding is too obvious," she muttered and despite the brunette's hesitant expression, she did take the garment, flipping the hood over her head to hide the giveaway eye colour. Interesting, that they should both have the same injuries but Alison guessed the woman's had a very different reason for infliction.

They moved wordlessly, with the soldier occasionally pointing out directions as they went. It must have been late enough in the day for most vampires to be at home since they barely passed any on their way. The woman beside her was panting heavily and Alison saw the sleeves being stained darker. She quickly looked away. Holding onto rationality wasn't going to be easy if they continued like this all day.

When they finally reached some stairs, which Frankie seemed to have been headed for, the vampire-turned-human noticed the bleeding too and supported her in climbing up the narrow steps. Alison kept her distance behind them, trying to quench the desire to bury her teeth in the human's vein. She needed to refocus.

Frankie pulled out a key and pushed open the door in front of them. The smell of metal and rubber greeted her, so she wasn't very surprised that they found themselves in a storage room bathed in fluorescent white. As the door snapped shut behind the four, the humans collapsed on the floor to catch their breath, while Alison and Frankie faced another in a silent challenge. She knew what he wanted to know but she was far more interested in finding out what was happening here than explaining herself.

"This is your brother?" she asked, although they both knew she was stating the obvious. She had heard and seen enough since meeting the two of them to deduce that information.

He only nodded curtly, never taking his eyes off her. She wondered what was raging inside him the most at this point. He surely looked like he was ready to throw her through a glass table again. She didn't even blame him. Somehow, she'd managed to disrupt his plans from day one.

"Edward," the man in question answered in his place, pressing a hand to his neck wound and wincing at the touch. "And your name …?"

"Alison," she replied.

He nodded and watched her with something she could only describe as concern. "That was a desperate thing you did that day. Painful. Not many vampires try to end it that way unless they're starving"

She was impressed he still recalled treating her, that he remembered her at all. She supposed she was one of the more interesting patients he'd gotten. Suicidal vampires weren't the norm.

"I wanted to die," she stated bluntly. It was the truth. The man nodded and somehow, she believed that he understood. Even then, he seemed to have kept a connection to his emotions and seeing him human again gave her hope. Or at least, what she remembered hope to feel like. A sensation she'd missed for a while. "I never wanted to be this. This is what my father wants"

Another nod. Something close to a guilty look as he watched her. Then Edward's attention moved to his companion. "Frankie, you have a first-aid kit somewhere here?"

The soldier was stiff and she could tell he was immensely perturbed by the familiarity with which his brother spoke to her. There was something in his eyes that made Alison nervous. It was a taxing expression, as though he was unsure of who to deal with first. Could vampires even go into shock? She'd seen Frankie in distress; feeling like he was backed into a corner and it hadn't been something she wanted to repeat.

"I don't think so. This is just storage for weapons that need repairing," he replied.

"I'm fine," the woman insisted but it was obvious that both the humans were worn out. They needed transport out of here and medical attention.

"Give me your shirt," Alison demanded, turning to face the soldier. It took him a moment to realize that she was addressing him, freely speaking to him in an order. Of course, he didn't waste time going on defence.

"What?" The irritation on his face didn't bother her anymore.

Honestly, for someone who must have had first aid training and survival tactics in his profession, he wasn't catching on quickly. "Your shirt. We can bandage up the injuries if we tear it up"

Before he could object, surely just for the hell of it, Edward jumped in. "Good. If we can make it back to the base by dark, it'll be enough until then"

She could see the soldier inwardly sigh before he caved and began pulling off clothes. Alison honestly tried not to look but there wasn't much else to pay attention to. Having experienced that body once, she just couldn't get rid of the memory.

He handed her the shirt to hold and pulled out his knife, ripping it into narrow strips. She was tempted to congratulate him on managing to work as a team. If this was going to end in her favour, she was going to have to keep snarky, sarcastic comments in her head. He caught her gaze as they worked and it was growing unexpectedly less hostile.

"How did you get out?" he murmured, low enough for the humans not to hear.

She shrugged, "Does it matter? I got creative"

His eyes were on her bruised hands and she looked away, knowing he was probably reconstructing the escape. She gave the strips to Ed, who bandaged up his companion best he could. She had to turn away at the sight of it. Why was she so hungry again all of a sudden? She wasn't in need of blood yet. Maybe the effort of breaking out had taken more out of her than expected.

"We need to get to the meeting point," the woman demanded, now working on stemming the blood flow from her partner's neck, "He'll come looking for us otherwise. As long as the sun is up, we have the advantage"

"Where?" Frankie demanded.

Edward turned towards them again, already getting back onto his feet. "We need a car"

It was almost disturbing how easy Frankie made it seem. Ten more minutes down the Subwalk system and he broke open a door leading into the dimly lit interior of a townhouse.. Despite the warning uttered by the humans, he just shook his head, slamming his shoulder into the back door until it gave way. Alison was quite sure there were cameras watching them but refrained from voicing her concerns. He was the only one that knew these tunnels Looking around the place, she saw that is was nowhere near as secure as her father's mansion. This was the kind of house that had barely been modified for security.

"How can you be so sure nobody is here?" his brother queried in a low voice, as they slipped into the house. Frankie's shoulders tightened on the subject, although Alison was sure she was the only one that noticed the minimal change.

"We raided this neighbourhood weeks ago. There was a large subsider development around here - couldn't afford blood anymore"

Nobody said it aloud. This was a ghost house now. The inhabitants were long gone or starving to death in a closed facility. The curious part was, that Alison didn't feel anything in particular at the thought. It crossed her mind that this could have been her fate, had she not been the daughter of a particular influential man. Someone like Frankie would have come to dispose of her once she had lost all sanity.

She kept her back to him as she stared into the empty living room, the bare kitchen. No signs of a struggle but everything was eerily...dead. She could sense Edward behind her, his breathing still uneven from the running. The woman found the car keys hanging beside the main door and tossed them at the soldier. They were perfectly in place as though nobody had ever touched them. As though their owner wasn't gone for good.

Frankie wasted no more time leading them to the car. This garage door in this place wasn't solid steel and she caught herself thinking about how easy it would have been to escape this kind of house. She could have been free weeks ago.

"I can drive," Edward offered.

His brother gave him a look before settling into the driver's seat, simply pointing out, "Your neck is ripped open"

Alison slipped into the back beside the woman, making sure to have a good view of what Frankie was doing. As convenient as this was, she didn't trust this situation yet. It was such a change to see him…dare she think it, to see him care about someone more than himself. He was risking a lot by helping these humans and it just didn't fit. He'd told her time and time again that his position was everything to him. What if there was an ulterior motive? He still had time to hand them over and present himself as the hero who captured the runaways.

She had interrupted though. How would he explain her presence?

Sinking back in the seat, she kept a close eye on him as he activated daylight driving and pulled out of the garage. At the same time, she tried not to focus on how the scent of drying blood was filling the interior of the car. The bandages were suppressing it but the scent didn't make it less of a temptation. She supposed Frankie had more experience in withstanding but she was really beginning to feel the gnawing in her stomach, the burn in her throat. She clenched her hands around the seatbelt.

She had to focus. No beating hearts, no pulsing veins.

"What happened up there?" Frankie's voice rang through her head, snapping her back into the moment. She blinked, realizing that she could see the outside in broad daylight right in front of her. She hadn't realized how distant that memory already was but looking out, she could feel the phantom warmth of it on her skin. Or maybe it was the tingle of burning.

From the way his brother fidgeted, it seemed the question had been posed to him. It took both the humans a moment to find the right place to start answering. They had turned onto the deserted main road, heading out of the city on Edward's instruction.

The human looked pale as he recounted the events. "Bromley had Audrey in his office, draining her. When I arrived, he told me about how they had succeeded with a substitute blood source. But it was never the objective to stop the farming. Just another way to make money while stopping the chaos of starvation"

The brunette beside her spoke up. "Edward told him there was no need for it anymore. He found a cure for vampirism"

That hit home like a club against the back of her head. Alison felt as though she was processing the information far too slowly and quickly at once. A legitimate way to become human again – were they telling the truth? They had to be, judging by the transformation she saw in Edward Dalton. How did it work? How could she get to it? Was there even enough? It could be the answer to everything, the human race would survive, return to its previous state even. It was such an overwhelming train of thought that she barely managed to keep still in her seat.

Frankie didn't utter a sound and she couldn't see his reflection in the rear view mirror. She was too elated to care for his reaction. This was news. This was the change she had been waiting and wishing for. Suddenly, she found herself hanging onto every word being said.

"He didn't believe it but it didn't look like he was planning to take chances either. He was going to kill us, probably drain us just to prove his power," the woman continued, "I guess it was the plan all along - he bit Ed"

Well, that was more than visible. She was drawn back to the wound with its makeshift bandage. If she just bit slightly deeper, she could start the bleeding again and taste the heat of it right from the source…

"So why aren't you dead?" the vampire soldier sounded impatient and she forced herself to look away, "How did you get out when I caught up to you?"

All eyes went back to Edward, as he turned with a tired smile tugging at his lips. There was something victorious reflected in his face. "Because Bromley didn't know that my blood was the cure"

She was so enthralled by the word 'cure' that she completely missed the implication of what he was saying. Of what had happened to her father.

"How?" it was quiet but with an undertone that had Alison instinctively tense. The car went over a bump as Frankie's hands clenched violently around the wheel, sending everyone slamming against their seats. They were going cross-country now and she wasn't all too comfortable for the soldier to take his attention off the road. He was staring at his brother with wide-eyed disbelief. She glanced over at the human beside her, taking in her strained face. She was watching Frankie too, gauging the reaction.

"I'll explain. We're almost there," his brother pointed ahead to a large tree, "It'll be alright"

The younger one braked unceremoniously and without warning, throwing the inhabitants into their seatbelts again. Alison was about to raise her voice at him when he repeated, carrying a quiver in his angry tone. It was the sound of betrayal, disbelief and denial all at once, "How?"

It took her a moment to realize he wasn't talking about how things could possibly be all right after this. He wanted to know what she was also more than curious about.

"Sunlight, Frankie. Sunlight!" Edward's eyes shone with wonder, even as he pried himself out of the seatbelt, "A controlled exposure! You have to burn just long enough to get the heart beating. It's so simple, absolute genius. Nature found a way to evolve again. Once the body returns to its human state, the decontaminated blood acts as a remedy for vampirism. We become our own cure. Nobody knew because everyone that has died in the sun couldn't control the external factors. We can change everyone"

The silence that followed was deafening. Alison couldn't find her voice. It was unbelievable but at the same time, the most logical answer. It was nothing short of a miracle and despite the procedure sounding painful, she couldn't think of every wanting anything more. She would be human again.

Her bodyguard looked just as stunned and had turned away from Edward throughout his speech to stare at the wheel. Then he wordlessly eased the car forward again, although slower than before. When the vehicle finally came to a stop beneath the tree, he got out, recklessly walking into the shade. Alison was a bit surprised at the move. He seemed to be paying no mind to the danger of burning up.

Edward sighed as he watched Frankie lean against the trunk with his back to them, hands running over his head. It was a picture of defeat. "I said too much"

"He just betrayed many people for you, Ed," the woman spoke up and Alison didn't miss the way she leaned forward to place a hand on his blood-soaked arm. "He'll be on the run as much as we have"

She considered that. She hadn't even though about how Frankie would go back now. If he wouldn't be punished for leading the humans to safety, it would be for letting her disappear from under his nose. After everything, she found herself also opening her door and getting out of the car. The air here completely flooded her senses and she was reminded once again, that she hadn't experienced the outside world for weeks. The sun was bright though and it hurt her eyes more than she recalled.

Mindful of the areas that weren't shaded by the canopy, she didn't hesitate walking towards the vampire. "Frankie…"

"You must be satisfied," he cut her off, not bothering to look her in the face, "This is exactly what you've wanted"

No point denying it. "I guess it is"

When he didn't give any sign of reaction, she moved around his immobile figure in order to look him in the eye. She needed to read him, to have a semblance of an idea what was going on inside him. Unsurprisingly, he had his blank mask expression on. The look of someone trying to ignore reality.

"Listen," she tried again, fixing him with her eyes, "This doesn't need to be a terrible thing"

The mask shifted slightly, just enough to allow a sarcastic laugh to pass his lips. "You don't know what you're talking about"

She took a deep breath, knowing this could go both ways. He could fly into a rage or he could see her point. He'd understood her before, maybe he'd see eye-to-eye with her on this one. It was a long shot but she wanted to try.

"I know that what you've always wanted most, my father's appreciation, just became impossible. I know that you saved your brother because you care about him. I know that you think this is the only life for you…but you're wrong"

A muscle in his jaw jumped and he finally caught her gaze. He didn't look too pleased that she was putting it into words and the question escaped between gritted teeth. "What are you doing, Alison?"

She moved a step closer, entirely serious. "Become human again"