"Wrong?" A question was on the tip of his tongue — you mean this isn't on purpose? — except Stefan understood just then that Edward had to be right. Letting them loose during a guided mission was one thing, but within the prison itself? In this context, the pink glow clinging to every surface of the building now appeared to be some kind of protection. From them. The Code Red had been a warning about Landel's patients unchained.

Sobriety settled back on his shoulders, that brief delirious feeling of invincibility giving way to the realization that the first thing these soldiers would need to do was contain them. Stefan was less worried about dealing with what they might throw at him than he was about what might happen to Elena if she got caught in the middle of all this. She'd promised to stay in her room until he came, but... Elena being Elena...

More and more people were entering the hallway now, and with them, a rush of monstrous creatures. Stefan tensed, ready to fight or come to the aid someone under attack, but the few harried patients seemed perfectly capable of dispatching the creatures which came at them. They weren't the only ones to have their strength restored.

"We should go." He studied Edward, who seemed to have regained his composure, and noted again the almost luminous white of his skin and the red of his pupils, Stefan's eyes picking out each detail perfectly in the dark. It was hard to imagine how he could ever hide what he was from humans. "You should find Bella—"

A growl behind him. Stefan spun on the spot, one hand lancing out just in time to grab the neck of the animal which had lunged at him. A dog, its skin cracked and rotted, teeth snapping blindly at Stefan's face. He crushed its throat with one hand and tossed the dog's body on the tiled floor.

It wasn't alone. "Edward..."