sorry for the wait, it was prom weekend and mother's day, and a buttload of homework that delayed this chapter :/ ... but here it is! i know you all have been dying to find out what happens? ...sorry if there's any typos (i did a fast edit)

this may be a confusing chapter since there is a lot of info thrown at you pretty fast... if it's confusing to you and rereading doesn't help, feel free to PM me :) i like chatting with y'all.

ps. notice i changed my icon to 'Cashile'... ugh isn't he hotttt!

Chapter 10:

Cashile held his door open for me as I walked in. he shut it and locked it behind me, sending a bubble of panic through me. I took in deep breaths to try and center myself. Now that I wasn't trying to save him, I could really take in the details of his room. The walls were rock, like everywhere else; he had a queen bed that had white sheets with a forest green comforter. The mini fridge (full of blood) still stood in the same spot; there was a bedside table and a dresser. Other than that, his room was pretty empty.

As I was observing everything, my hands shook—halfway scared, halfway anticipating what Cashile was about to tell me. He rushed past me in a blur and pulled on a pair of dark jeans and his signature, plain, v-neck; his hair was still wet and it dripped slightly onto his shoulders leaving little dark circles on his shirt. Slowly he walked over to his bed, leaving me standing, and he sat down, putting his head in his hands. He kept on breathing in air, like he was going to speak, but he couldn't find his words, but finally he spoke. When he lifted his head, his wet hair was slightly tousled from running his hand through it. "Do you know about the Miller Murders?" he asked, his voice soft, almost like he didn't want to be overheard.

I was about to say no, but my gut told me that was a lie. The name 'Miller' resonated in my head, but I couldn't remember why. I knew I had heard the name before, but where?

Then, it finally clicked. The Miller Murders. I vaguely remember the story; I was young when they happened and my mother retold it to me when I was very little, and humans didn't talk about it very much because it was a gruesome reminder of how repulsive the vampires are.

I was too little to remember exact details, but it was about 16 years ago.

It was a normal day in the human compound. No one suspected anything to happen, but it did. There was a small girl's scream and everything unfolded from there. Families came out of their houses to inspect the noise, people carrying food from the market gathered in silence. The house that it came from was one of the larger ones that didn't have a tin roof, and then a blonde vampire emerged from the house with blood across his face, dragging a small dark haired girl by the hair, and threw her towards the humans. Her pale, limp body laid in-between the humans and him. The father of the family tried to fight the vampire, but it was no use, the vampire was too strong, and he snapped the father's neck. The mother came out then and fell to her knees, crying over the deaths and there was a small boy that hid behind her. The vampire grinned, anticipating his next kill, but another one came by with his fangs bared. He ordered something in a foreign language and the attacking vampire growled and then took the mother as the other took the son. The humans both cried out for each other. Both of the vampires left after that, leaving the bodies as a gruesome reminder of just how powerful and cruel the vampires are. They would kill any one, no matter who, or how many people were watching.

It was a short amount of time before I realized why Cashile asked me about the murders. The pieces slowly started to come together. Cashile was the little boy; it explains how he knows the human lullaby. It's no surprise that I didn't realize this before. After all, he had grown up, he changed his name and he changed species. And I never talked with his family for two reasons: he was older and they were richer. "Rich" meaning they could afford food for their family every night. So it makes sense that I wouldn't have made the connection.

When Cashile finally spoke up again he was staring at the ground; he must have realized I figured his secret out. "I was six when Viktor took me from my mother." He added bitterly. "He allowed the other vampire to go ahead and kill my mother, but I made a deal with him." Cashile paused and looked at me. "I told Viktor that he could make me into a weapon, to use at his disposal, only if he allowed my mother to live."

"And?" I asked, curious about what happened to his mother.

"He kept his word, but I should have been more careful with my request; I should have been more specific." He took the heel of his hand and rubbed it against his forehead in frustration. "She lives here."

"Here? How? Where?" Before I even finished asking my questions, I knew the answers. Cashile's mother was one of the imprisoned humans. Cashile's mother was Joan—the only other AB negative human in the compound.

"I was so stupid." He said into his hands. "I should have let her die. It would have been better for her than what she has to go through now."

"You don't mean that." I sat down next to him on his bed and put my arm around his back. It was strange the way he didn't radiate heat like humans did and it was extremely eerie how… dead he felt, but he isn't dead; he's here, talking to me. "You need her, just as much as she needs you." I continued, pushing away any thoughts on what it's like to be a vampire.

"The only thing that protects her from being killed is the fact that her blood is so rare, and I need it." Cashile lifted his head again. "And that's why I push everyone away. No one can know she and I are related. No one. Do you know how many people have a grudge with me? They hate me because I'm Viktor's favorite, his prodigy." He laughed a little. "No, 'hate' isn't the right word… they're jealous of everything I can do. They would do anything just to get under my skin."

He was right; a lot of people didn't like Cashile and would love to find his Achilles' heel. All of the information Cashile was spilling out was overwhelming, I didn't know how I was able to process all of it, but I did, and something didn't seem right. If Cashile was really a human before he was turned, how come he is so powerful? Mutts are the most powerful once they became vampires, not humans. "Cashile, why are you so powerful?" I asked.

"Humans make better vampires than mutts."

"But that doesn't make any sense. Mutts are stronger, and they only get stronger when they become a vampire."

"No," he shook his head. "that's the big misconception; it's only true with werewolves, not vampires. The reason why humans are better is because once our body is turned, it has larger amount of human blood for our body to 'feed' from, ultimately making us stronger." He explained. I must have had a huge question mark look on my face because he continued. "Think of it this way, all of the old vamps, the reps, Viktor… they're all vampires that were turned before the war; they all were humans and they are the strongest."

That did make sense. Does that mean that I will be extremely powerful too? "How come no one has caught on to this before?"

"Because all of the vampires are arrogant fools that are power hungry."

"Well if there are power hungry, then why haven't the older vamps shared this information with them?" I asked.

"The older vampires are wise. They have been alive a lot longer than you or I can imagine. If the secret got out, vamps would try and turn as many humans as they could to use in an attack against the werewolves. A war would break out, but what the vampires wouldn't consider is that they need humans to survive. They would go ahead and turn hundreds of humans, but they would run out of blood. They don't understand that we need to coexist. If the humans all die, we all die."

So the vampires and werewolves are planning a war. "How long have you known about this? The war, I mean."

He shrugged. "Isn't it obvious?" his smile curved up in one corner. "The werewolves already attack me, and killed that other girl."

So Cashile knew about the werewolves attacking. I felt a twinge of guilt, knowing that Danny was part of the whole ordeal. I needed to change the subject. "What about the other day. Where did you go?"

"I actually told you the truth about that." He smiled. It was nice to see him smile; he had a nice smile. "I went to see Viktor."

"Viktor doesn't live in the vampire compound?"

"No."

"Does he live with the other vampires that fled after the war?" I continued to interrogate.

"Nope." The playful tone in his voice starting coming back now.

"Are you going to tell me what you did, or are you going to make me play twenty questions with you?" I started getting a little irritated.

"Games are fun." He said. "And you look so cute when you're frustrated." He said halfway joking, halfway serious.

Cute? I shook my head back and forth to try and remember why I was questioning him. "Where did you go?"

"It's not important."

"It is to me. If you know where Viktor is then I want to know. I need to know why he chose me because let's face it, we both know it wasn't because of my physical abilities."

Cashile's face softened. "That's why you want to see him?"

"Yes!"

He sighed. "I can't take you to him now; maybe sometime later it will work out, but for now you are just going to have to let it go."

"You promise?" I asked.

"Promise." Cashile rested on one hand, and leaned closer to me until his lips fell onto mine, making my lips tingle. His were cold in contrast to mine, soft, and delicate like he thought I would break me he pushed too hard. His other hand caressed my hip and pulled me into the kiss. I mimicked his silky motions by weaving my hand through his dark hair and I pushed harder into his lips. My heart was beating fast, leaving butterflies in my stomach. I was kissing a vampire. This is wrong, but it feels right. He pulled slightly away, leaving me breathing hard and heart racing. His forehead still touched mine as he spoke. "I wanted to tell you so many times, about me, but I couldn't. No one can find out." He whispered.

"Turning humans… your mother… I get it. I won't tell anyone." I whispered back and then continued to kiss him. I don't know why I enjoyed his kiss so much. Maybe it was because I finally had someone to relate to. Maybe it was because I actually liked him. Whatever reason, I like it.

Much too soon, Cashile pulled away and smiled. "Sorry."

I blushed a little. "It's fine."

"No, um, I have to stop. It's been a while since I've fed." He explained awkwardly. If he wasn't a vampire I swear he would blushed then too.

"Oh." I said uncomfortably. "Do you want me to leave?" I pointed my thumb towards the door.

"No."

"Are you sure I'm not making it worse?" I turned to walk away.

"No," he gently grabbed my wrist and traced the blue lines of my veins. "I like having you near me. It …helps."

"How?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, you're right, it doesn't, but I don't want you to go." He smiled.

"You know, you're a lot nicer to me now than you were in training." I sat back down by him.

"I don't need to push you away anymore; you know everything now… well, not everything, but we'll get there eventually." He smiled again and kissed me.

I broke the kiss even though I didn't want to. I was hungry for knowledge. "You said that Viktor found you, and used you… What happened between then and when you were turned?"

Cashile clenched his jaw for a moment. "I trained. The same way you train, except my training wasn't a week long, it was 12 years. My eighteenth birthday happened to fall on a choosing year so he turned me then and corrupted the records of my origin. No one knows where I came from because he wants to keep it that way because of the chaos that could unfold because of it."

"Is Viktor the one that does all of the turning?"

"No, it's usually random to ensure that no vampire has too many 'offspring'."

"Offspring?" I asked.

"A vampire and their offspring usually end up sharing something in common; there's a bond that they share. If a vampire is in trouble, the sire will know because of the blood they share, which also means that a sire has a certain amount of control over the person they turned."

"And if one vampire has too much power, that would be extremely bad." I finished the thought for him, understanding where he was going with it.

"Exactly."

"Everything is about power here isn't it?"

"Not just here. Everywhere. The werewolves are territorial and wild, the vamps always want to be the most powerful and the war broke out because the humans refused to believe there were beings higher than them. It's only a matter of time before the next war breaks out." He said seriously. The way he was talking made it sound like he had been considering this for some time, which made me even more concerned. What if he was right? What am I talking about? Of course he's right. All three sectors are unstable right now; war is imminent.

"I'm afraid." I admitted, but I left out the details. I'm afraid for me. I'm afraid of becoming a vampire. I'm afraid for my family. I'm afraid for Cashile and his mother. I'm afraid for us. Us? There is no us? Is there? He and I are the only humans that were chosen to be turned; we have to stick together. We understand what humanity is and how important it is to retain.

"I know." He said softly, running his cool hand through my hair, looking me in the eye. "Me too."

What do you think? Opinions? Comments? Concerns? REVIEW PLEASE!