Chapter 9:

The next day at training, Cashile was still nowhere to be found, but luckily for him, the vampire representatives were happy to take over for him; they wanted to see our skills anyway, so it was win-win. We had the same people come in, two older men, and the same vampire that tried to bite me—I recently learned that his name was Seth. I made a mental note to be wary of him, but it was strange, the way he was acting today, he was almost sheepish. Cashile couldn't have shaken him up that bad. Seth even threatened me when he left. His ice-cold threat still lingered in my mind, 'see you in a week'. His strange attitude definitely wasn't because he was scared of Cashile. So what was it?

The older vampires ordered us into stations and we got to work. I stood in front of a black leather punching bag, but occasionally looked over my shoulder. Everything seemed more interesting over there, watching the vampires. I studied them, their graceful movements. I made sure they didn't catch me looking, but that they caught me punching the bag instead. I had to make a good impression.

I kept glancing over my shoulder and I soon found out why Seth was acting so weird. Whenever Seth was around the older vampires, he stayed quite. It's almost like he was… afraid of them. Whenever the older vampires were around, Seth kept his head down, like a dog tucking its tail behind its legs.

I know that the older representatives are, like, really old (which means they are also really powerful), but were they so much more powerful that they made a cocky vampire like Seth cower behind them. No, not cower, cower isn't the right word; he was staying back, trying to stay out of their radar. Seth didn't respect them, that's for sure, but he also knew not to get into a fight with them.

The two older vampires are some of the remaining vampires from before the war. There weren't too many to begin with, but there were still a good amount. Some of the pre-war vampires died in battle, and most of them ran away after it was over to live on their own, so only a few remained in the Vampire Compound, and most of them have high leadership roles now. The pre-war vampires are the strongest, fastest and most powerful; I can understand why Seth would be afraid of them. They were not to be messed with.

And being the oldest also meant they were usually the oldest physically, not just vampire age. The only other people that were old in physical age were the mutts that didn't make it through the first round of training, so they were turned when they were 30 or so. These vampires were the least respected; they were thought of as being the weakest. That is what I wanted to avoid; I needed to be turned this week if I wanted people to respect me.

. . .

After a long day of training, I felt successful. The vampires seemed to be impressed by my improvement, which is a good sign. Good signs haven't been coming around that often.

After I had showered and ate dinner, I needed some alone time. I missed my family. Seeing them again was great, but it only made the hole in my heart bigger. I can't stand being away from them so long, and the only time I feel like I might be getting over them is when I'm around Christina or Alex, but they were still acting weird. Not to mention Cashile's random disappearance.

The more I thought about all of the unanswered questions about Cashile, the angrier I got. He had told me he had a lot of secrets, but what was so big that he had to keep it from me, and the rest of the compound for that matter? I needed answers, and if there was one thing I was good at as a human, besides running, it was studying. I was always at the top of my class in school.

I walked to the library. There was something that most people used that was called a 'computer lab', but we never had computers in the human compound and I didn't know how to work them, so I decided on the library.

The lights were off. No one was in there. Dust made the library look like it hadn't been occupied in a long time. I turned the lights on with my finger and the blue tinted overhead lights flickered to life, giving off an eerie buzz. I started in the area where all of the records of the vampires were. It was no surprise that the vampires kept a tight-knit record of every event, the only problem is that most of the recording is done digitally now.

I searched through the "C" names and found nothing, and I soon realized that everything was organized by last name. My shoulders slumped. I don't know Cashile's last name, hell, I don't even know his real name.

That's it!

I ran over to where some encyclopedias and dictionaries were and viciously flipped through pages. "C… C… Ca…Cas…" I repeated to myself as I scanned the page. Cashile had told my parents that his name was changed when he was turned. He said that it was 'more appropriate'. Whatever that meant, probably had something to do with the meaning of his name.

My finger trailed down the page until I found it.

Cashile: (name) an African Zulu name often meaning "hidden" or " child of concealed at birth"

I sat back in my chair. This doesn't help me. This just tells me he chose this name because he is hiding something. I closed the heavy book and turned in my chair to put it away, only to find Cashile leaning against the doorway. I ended up dropping the book from shock and Cashile sped over to pick it up.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"What are you doing here? Why weren't you at training?" I interrogated.

"I had to take another personal day off. I figured that I started to train too soon, that stake through the chest really got me down."

"Bullshit. What were you really doing?" I asked.

"I told you, I took a personal day off. I'm allowed to do that you know." He handed me the book I dropped and I put it back on the table.

"Well, you shouldn't because everyday you're gone is another day I have to put up with Seth." I explained.

His body suddenly grew tense. "What did he do to you?"

"Nothing." I said, bewildered by his reaction. "He just hid behind the other vamps like a little puppy. I knew they were powerful, but I didn't know they were that powerful."

"Well, they are the oldest." He defended.

"What about you?" I asked.

"What about me?" he mused.

"Why are you so powerful? Everyone thinks that you're some crazy vamp/werewolf hybrid, but that's not even possible, right? And you're not that old, you came into the compound four years ago." I rattled out my questions.

Cashile laughed. "That's what they think I am?" He laughed some more. "Well, I'm here to tell you I'm nothing special, and you're right, I'm not old." He started to turn to walk away, still laughing at the ridiculousness of the rumors.

"Wait." I called out softly; there was still one more question I needed to ask him. "Why did you change your name?"

He was quiet for a moment and shrugged his shoulders. "It's seemed more appropriate; it has more meaning."

"But, why? Why did you choose 'Cashile'?" I asked.

He looked at the all of the books that surrounded me, understanding that I knew the true meaning of the name. "I told you, I have a lot of secrets, and I rather keep them hidden from everyone else."

"You said that you thought you would let me in. So, now's your chance. Tell me where you went yesterday." I crossed my arms.

"I didn't go anywhere. I was here the whole time." He lied.

"I saw you get on that bike and ride away… In the daytime! What's so important that you needed to leave the compound in the daytime?"

Cashile took in a deep breath. His two-toned eyes softened. "You're not going to give any of this up are you?"

"Nope."

"I went somewhere, you're right." He admitted, nodding his head slightly.

"Where?"

"I went to see Viktor." He explained quickly.

"That's it? What about all of the supplies you packed?" I kept pushing questions at him.

Cashile looked behind him at the clock. "Look, it's getting late. You need a good night's sleep for training tomorrow." He avoided my question.

"But—" I interjected.

"Now is not the time, Allison." he pushed me away softly.

"When will be the time? You keep saying you'll tell me, but you just keep avoiding everything." I threw my arms up in the air.

He sighed. "You just…don't understand. It's complicated and it's better if you stay out of it. Just go to bed." His voice kept on getting more and more frustrated until finally he walked out of the room.

Defeated, I sat back down and stared at the books. What was so big in Cashile's life that he couldn't tell me? I already knew about the blood thing, and I don't know how much more personal things could get between us. Why couldn't he just tell me? He said it was complicated, but what does that mean?

I held up my head with my hand and flipped through the pages in front of me. Even though I was tired, these books held some very interesting information, even information from before the war.

I read about the time called the "Renaissance", a time full of art and the individual, a time where everyone was free to express themselves and a time where people weren't held in different sectors. I loved it all; I wanted to live in that era, not this one. At least in that time period people stayed in the "sector" they were born in.

In one of the books I read about the vampire culture. I found out that vampires can go out in the sun, but it's bothersome to their eyes and their skin. It turns out that their eyes are like a human's when they are dilated, so when vampires go out in the sun it is extremely bright.

I found that the more I read, the heavier my eyes felt; it was a hassle just to keep them open, so I decided that I might as well go to bed.

I put all of the books back where I found them and looked at the red digital numbers on the clock. 3:34. I had to get up in 4 hours. Great.

I was walking through the hallway back to my room when I noticed someone was in the boy's locker room. It sounded like they were using the shower, and I could see the steam coming out from the door. I would have walked right past the locker room, but I heard someone singing. Singing? No one sings outside of the human sector. The humans sing because it's our source of happiness, calmness and peace. It's a reminder that we are (somewhat) safe from all of the monsters outside.

I recognized the lyrics.

"You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now,

Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound..."

The male's voice was smooth, liquid, and familiar as he sang the lyrics of the human lullaby, completely oblivious to anyone ease dropping on him. His voice seemed to float around with the steam, airy and light. Who would be singing that? How would they know the lyrics? How would they know the tune? How?

I tried to reason. Maybe they overheard one of the imprisoned humans singing it. Maybe they overheard me singing it, but I never really sang the lyrics in front of anyone, I always hummed the tune.

The curiosity in me seemed to move my feet for me and forced me to walk into the locker area. On one of the benches I saw a pile of clothes. Instantly my heart dropped.

They were the same clothes I saw Cashile wearing earlier today.

I looked over to the showering area and saw his wet, black hair. There was a brick wall that was, fortunately, covering his lower body (I did not want to see any of that right now…)

As I walked closer he must have heard my feet padding against the tile because he turned his head. Water traveled over his two-toned eyes as he looked at me, surprised by my presence. His face looked defeated, like he had given up.

"Cashile…?" I kept walking slowly to him, but he stayed silent. "What were you before you were a vampire?" I asked.

"A mutt. Just like everyone else." He said quietly.

"Don't you dare lie to me." I said with authority in my voice.

Cashile hung his head, turned off the water to the shower and put a towel around his waist. I'd never seen his body before, but now I could tell that it was defined. His abdomen and arms were both enveloped with muscles, but not as extreme as a werewolf. He definitely had to work hard to get a body like that.

He made a motion with his head that offered for me to follow him. Before we left the locker room, he looked around to make sure there was no one following us. "I think my room is a better place to discuss this." He said as he led me through the hallway.

Ba Ba BUM! Who guessed it?

P.S. sometimes i choose names (not all) based on their meanings so with Cashile i chose the name because it means hidden and concealed at birth (which i will explain more in the next chapter)... and also i chose the name Seth because in mythology it means Chaos and the one who dazzles... i'll just let you ponder about what's to come in the future ;D

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