Wow. so sorry for the wait, my life has been beyond hectic with exams, ACT, and work.. oh my goodness. But hopefully this cheers you up. A LONG CHAPTER! WHOO!

oh and if i reach 100 reviews on this chapter i will release a chapter in Cashile's POV (i'm thinking in the past like around chapter 3...) but i'm getting ahead of myself

Here's chapter 13... ENJOY (i will try and update more frequently since it's SUMMMMMER!)

Chapter 13:

I walked down the paved driveway next to Cashile, who was pushing his motorcycle along. "So, are you going to tell me where we are going?" I asked.

"Are you going to stop asking questions and just trust me?" he retorted sarcastically.

I gave him a look. He grabbed the same backpack I had saw him with before and he gave it to me. "Hold on to this." He said. I opened it slightly and saw it full of water bottles. I was so busy looking inside the bag I almost ran into him when he stopped walking to put his helmet on.

I looked back at the vampire compound and we were farther away than I expected. From this far away the compound seemed dead; there was no way I could tell people were living there. If I didn't know any better I wouldn't even see the compound since a good portion of it is underground.

"Put your helmet on." Cashile's voice surprised me and it was muffled slightly from his helmet and he flipped the dark face shield down. He fired up the engine and swung his leg over the bike.

"I'm going on that thing? Is it even safe?" I asked, playing with the helmet in my hands.

"That's what the helmet is for." He joked.

I hesitantly got on the humming bike, threw the bag over my back, and wrapped my arms around Cashile. I could feel his laughter. "Hang on tight." He said.

"I am." I squeezed tighter and Cashile pushed the bike into gear and drove away. The wind blew all around me and if I didn't have a helmet on I'm sure my eyes would be tearing up from the wind as well.

The sun was just beginning to rise and was starting to light up the sky. I wonder if it's bothering Cashile at all… he does have a darkened face shield on though, so it's probably not that irritating.

I watched the trees pass by us in a green blur. Little by little the trees started dwindling and gravel roads would starts to appear.

Cashile slowed down on his bike and I could take in my environment better now. There were several abandoned houses, apartments and warehouses that were wooden and chipping with paint. As he drove farther down the road, the houses became more cluttered. Eventually he came to a stop, turned off the engine, and pulled his helmet off—which tousled his hair.

He smiled and squinted at the upcoming sun behind me. "Come on." He said and held out his hand. I took it and timidly followed him.

"Where—?"

"Shh." He hushed and smiled again like he was enjoying keeping all of this a secret from me.

We finally stopped in the middle of a dirt path with buildings on either side of us.

"It's okay. No one followed us." He shouted.

I was seriously confused. "I'm right here… you don't need to shout—" Before I could finish my sentence I saw a small girl peeked out from one of the tattered buildings.

She had golden hair with baby curls at the ends. Her skin was tanned, had patches of dirt on her face and under her fingernails, and had a scabbed knee. She wore a battered dress and no shoes. She looked at me with worried eyes and then at Cashile.

"It's okay." He said with a welcoming voice. As if that was her queue, she ran up to him with a smile and he bent down to hug her. "Hey." Cashile said laughing.

Almost instantly, the small, abandoned town became alive. Hesitantly, children and adults started coming out of their hiding places.

A short male came forward and offered a hand for Cashile to shake. Cashile grabbed it and pulled him in to pat the man on his back.

"We didn't expect you back so soon. We were frightened; we thought someone had found us. Viktor said you two would be longer this time." The man said. He had scruffy hairs around his wide chin and his dark hair was peppered with grey.

"I decided to show Allison around," Cashile gestured to me. I smiled sheepishly. What is going on? "Oh, and I brought some more water for everyone."

The man took the bag and smiled politely. "Thank you, Cashile."

Now that everyone was acquainted, people went back to their normal routines, allowing me to talk to Cashile. "Okay. I give up. I need you to explain. Now."

Cashile grabbed his sunglasses and my hand and led me into a close building. Every once and a while someone would smile and say hello to him.

He pushed open the door for me and led me inside. It was dark and cool, and eerily similar to the coolness of the vampire compound. "What is this place?"

"Viktor's house. Well, mine too when I visit." Cashile flipped on the lights so that I could see. He took off his sunglasses.

"I meant all of this." I said, but it was good to know that he lived here. I walked around and looked at the old, chipped paintings on the walls.

"This? We like to call it The Cache." Cashile smiled as he looked up at me. There was something gleaming in his two-toned eyes.

"Why?" I pondered.

"Take a guess. There are humans all around you...hiding from the world." He said.

I nodded. "Yeah, and they're living on vampire soil? Why?"

"What better place to hide than in the enemy's back yard. Nobody ever looks this close. They immediately start searching miles out."

"Okay?" I said, starting to understand. "But why are humans here?"

"Viktor started this before I was turned. This is where I stayed when I was human. He trained me here."

"Then why didn't you stay? Why didn't you stay human?"

Cashile shrugged his shoulders with defeat in his eyes. "I promised. That was the trade. Besides, I couldn't leave my mother in there to fend for herself. That's why I can't stay here all the time. I have to live with the vampires, for my mother, and for my own safety; I can't let them get suspicious. Plus if there's ever a chance of me getting revenge for my family's murders, I can't do it as a human."

"So you've been gathering an army since?"

"No, not an army." He laughed. "They're all refugees. We saved them."

"How?" I asked.

"Some were prisoners in the compound. Some we found wandering, starving and dehydrated. Some heard rumors while they were living in the human compound and found their way to us." Cashile explained.

"So they just trusted vampires? I'm sorry, but no matter what species I am, I will never trust vampires."

"Not just vampires, there are werewolves here too."

"People from all three sectors live here? How? How is there not a war?" I asked, shocked.

"We're extremely careful. You'd be surprised how many werewolves are willing to help the humans."

"More like they want to stop the vampires from hurting the humans."

"Exactly." Cashile nodded. "They are protective or their kind and humans, which is one of the reasons they hate vampires."

"But what about you and Viktor? Do the wolves get along with you two?"

Cashile smiled. "Not always. But Viktor has had a long history that dates back hundreds of years before the war. He knows very many people, all of which respect him greatly, and then they know he turned me." he shrugged. "Like I said, some knew me as a human, they've grown to trust me too." He started studying the walls with me, but I stopped looking at the old paintings and I studied Cashile's features instead, his vampire features. As soon as a vampire is turned, their most beautiful features are intensified. They rarely gain weight, they get defined muscles, clear skin, shiny hair—all of which Cashile had. I looked at his brown and green eyes—his beautiful mutation.

This would be me soon. Transformed into a new being. "What's it like?"

He lifted his dark eyebrows in surprise. "Hmm?"

"That first moment you become a vampire. What's it like?" I asked, heart racing. I wanted to know. Did it hurt? Is it scary? Yet at the same time I didn't want to know what my future holds.

Cashile walked over to a couch and sat down. I sat next to him. The silence between us made me nervous.

"It's amazing." He finally said and then laughed. "I hate myself for saying that, but being human handicaps you from an amazing world that you would have never seen, heard or tasted before. Your senses are tenfold, and that first moment when you wake up… it's overwhelming. It's fantastic." He paused and I gave a half-hearted smile. I thought Cashile hated what he was. "But don't get me wrong, it comes with its disabilities too." He tucked a brown string of hair behind my ear. "Controlling it is the hardest, takes the longest too." He said all while avoiding my eyes and looking at my neck.

"How does the transformation happen?" I asked quickly, snapping Cashile out of his trance.

He took my arm and traced the vein from my inner elbow to my wrist as he talked. "First the vampire had to drain you of all of your human blood, but not to the point of death; if your heart stops beating you're dead, there's nothing anyone can do about that. Next, the vampire has to feed you their blood, and since your blood has circulated through their system it has all of the vampiric qualities with it. Finally after you wake up, usually after a few hours, you'll need to feed, and hopefully whoever turns you will just bring a few bags for you."

"What makes you think they'll bring me bags instead of humans?"

"Too much of a mess." Cashile said. I swallowed hard. "Relax, no matter what happens I'll be waiting outside for you." He leaned in closer so that his lips were inches away from mine. "I'll be the first one you see. Everyone at the compound is pretty scared of me, you know. I can talk my way around things."

"I know." I smiled, but didn't say anything else because by the time I wanted to, Cashile's lips were already on mine and I didn't mind, what I had to say wasn't that important.

'I want you to turn me.' I could bring that up some other time right? No, he doesn't decide who turns whom. It's random. It's better if I just don't bring it up; I'll save myself from any embarrassment.

His cool hands starting lifting up my shirt near the bottom. Sending electric goose bumps all over my body. Involuntarily, I moaned in response. I could feel a smile crawl up on his face and he leaned in more, eventually laying me on my back. My head fell onto the armrest and my body was underneath his. My hands found the bottom of his shirt and I slipped it off. A growl rumbled from his throat and he started kissing my neck. I clasped my hand around his neck, running my fingers through the back of this black hair.

Every time he kissed me it was like an explosion. It felt so good to have some one so close to me.

Out of nowhere, a throat cleared and it was hard for me to see who it was over the arm rest, but I eventually got a visual of and upside down Viktor with a smug grin on his face.

"What are you doing here?" Cashile asked, sliding off of me and standing up.

"What are you doing here? Causing trouble I presume." Viktor lifted an eyebrow at me. He wasn't in his usual dressy attire, instead he was much more casual. He had on a fitted white shirt and jeans, sunglasses that pushed back his hair, and his skin was pink, but as I watched it, the pink faded. It was almost like he had a sunburn and then he healed himself. I do remember reading that vampires could go out in the sun; it was just irritating to their skin.

Cashile rolled his eyes at Viktor's comment. "I wanted to show Allison around."

"Apparently." Viktor walked over to the kitchen area and opened a refrigerator door, only returning when he had a plastic bottle filled with blood. He took a sip.

"What are you doing here?" Cashile said, avoiding Viktor's comment, again. "I thought you said you needed to lay low."

"I did say that, but Serenity said that she needs help with some repairs on her house, and you can't just 'say no' to Serenity." Viktor took another sip of blood.

"You've been working outside all day?" I asked.

"Well, since the sun's been up, yes. How are you by the way? Ready for the big day tomorrow?" he smiled satirically.

"Ready as I'll ever be." I shrugged. "Actually, I was wondering if I could talk to you." I asked, surprising both Cashile and Viktor.

"Me? Sure."

"Okay." I smiled. I turned to look at Cashile, signaling for him to leave. He began to complain, but then put his shirt back on and walked out the door.

Viktor smiled. "He get's grumpy when he doesn't get his way sometimes." I laughed with him. "So what is it that you want to talk about?"

"Why did you choose me? Out of all of the humans that you could have chosen, why me?" I wasted no time.

"I saw potential in you. You have just enough rage against this society but not enough to cause monumental destruction. We need more vampires like you, like Cashile, like me. Humans will go extinct if we continue to let vampires reign the way they do now. Their numbers are dwindling, but the vamps don't see it."

"You've never seen people with that combination before?" I asked.

"Oh, I have, but there was something about you that stood out, and I still can't put my finger on it. All of my years on Earth and there are still mysteries." He smiled. "I love it."

"So it had nothing to do with my blood?" I asked just to reassure that my assumptions were false.

"No, that had something to do with my decision." He said. I had a flashback to when he grabbed my arm and studied it on Choosing Day. "More of it was an experiment. I wanted to see the vampire's reaction to having a human chosen."

"That's all I was? An experiment?" I asked, anger rising in my voice.

"No," he looked out the window and Cashile was there playing with the little girl I saw before.

"You picked me for Cashile?" I asked, genuinely surprised.

He smiled. "There are many reasons. I can't pin it down to just one." He winked and left me as he walked out the door.

. . .

As I walked outside I saw Cashile sitting under a tree, in the shade, with the blonde girl, playing with colorful rocks. She had a gleaming smile every time she looked at him. Looks like I have some competition. I thought.

"Hey!" I said as I approached them. They both looked up and I sat next to Cashile, making sure to lean into his shoulder a little bit. The blonde-haired girl huffed hair out of her face and I gave her a small, playful smile. "What are you guys doing?" I asked.

"Playin' checkers." The girl bounced onto her knees and stuck out her tongue in concentration. She looked at the red and black rocks in the grass and finally jumped her red rock over one of the black ones.

"You're getting better at this." Cashile said.

"I've been practicin'." She said. Cashile played a moved that stumped the girl for a while and he whispered to me.

"What'd you and Viktor talk about?" he asked.

"Nothing." I shrugged.

"You do remember that I know tell when you're lying, right?" he raised his eyebrow.

"Ugh, there you are, Lily." An older woman, probably in her thirties, came walking toward us, luckily allowing me to avoid Cashile's question.

The girl—Lily—groaned. "Mom… I was playing with Cashile."

"Well don't run off again. You scared me half to death. I'm sorry if she was any trouble."

Cashile smiled. "No she was fine, like always."

Lily smiled as her mother pulled her by the wrist. "Byeee Cashile." He waved back to her and she squealed.

"She's got a crush on you." I said in a singsong voice.

"Yeah, well, I've got a crush on you." He said as he leaned in and kissed me. "I have one more surprise for you."

"More? I don't think that's possible." I said as he pulled me off of the ground. He led me through some buildings and down a dirt path that had long grass along the sides. As we walked, the dirt became whiter and looser.

"Is this what I think it is?" I asked, getting excited.

Then I heard it. Water. Waves. This is a beach. I've never been to a beach before but I've seen pictures.

As we walked down toward the water I also saw wolves running around in the water, chasing each other and shaking off in the water. Some were in their human form, lying in the sun.

Cashile whistled. Two of them turned their heads and started running toward us. I staged back a little, afraid that if I didn't they would hit me.

The first wolf was all white and transformed back into a girl right in front of me, exposing everything. Her hair was blonde and she had pale blue eyes with faded freckles on her cheeks. She quickly grabbed a large t-shirt and threw it on, covering her body to her mid thigh. "Hi. I'm Nicole." She held out a hand for me to shake.

"Hi." I said softly.

The second wolf came up to us and was a mixture of black and brown fur and transformed into a boy, a few heads taller than me. He grabbed a pair of shorts before anyone could see anything.

"Oh my god, Shane!" I leaped to reach his tall shoulders. His body was still wet from swimming, but I hugged him anyway.

"Nice to see you too Aly Cat."

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"What do you think?" Shane laughed.

"I thought you didn't like vamps."

"I don't, but… you don't remember?" he asked, looking at me and then at Cashile.

"What?" I asked.

"You know, I don't think—" Cashile began.

"Cashile and I were friends way back when." Shane smiled.

"What?" Shane's werewolf girl friend and I said at the same time.

"Yeah, I could never hate him." Shane tried to put Cashile in a headlock, but Cashile squirmed his way out of it

I put my hand on my hip. "You never told me that."

Cashile grinned guiltily. "I was going to." He lied.

"So what are you doing here, Shane?" I asked

"I got promoted back in the werewolf compound. I'm an Alpha now and Nicole is my Beta." He explained. I remembered reading about the werewolves when I was in school; Alpha's are the leaders and Beta's are the second in command. I wonder if Nicole was more than just Shane's Beta? "Cashile came to me about this place and I rallied up some wolves I thought would be willing to help."

"That's great. What about Danny?" I asked, but as soon as I did, Shane's expression changed.

"He's part of my pack. I still don't trust him enough to come here and work with Viktor and Cashile."

"We're all trying to end the sectors, and having tensions between our own group isn't going to get us very far." Cashile explained.

"Right." I sighed. If there's one thing that Danny hates, it's vampires. He wouldn't even get along with Viktor or Cashile; that's how much he hates vampires. That's how much he will hate me now.

. . .

I spent the rest of the day with Nicole, Shane and Cashile. We stayed on the beach and every so often Cashile would need to cool off in the water. I stripped down to my undergarments and walked into the water with him. He took off his shirt too.

"Are you okay?" he asked. The water was reaching my waist now.

"I think you know the answer to that." The whole day I have been trying to put on a mask, but Cashile could see right through it. He knew I was nervous about being turned into a vampire.

He wrapped his arms around me and I took in his scent in a long breath. "It will be okay, I promise."

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