What on earth could Tammy be doing in here with Derek? What does she know? And why was I suddenly feeling protective of Derek...

"Please. He doesn't deserve to live," I was surprised I was able to hear anything from inside the chest. "Tell us how you knew about Arc 34," Tammy's voice was surprisingly threatening.

I didn't hear anything for a moment before I heard the snake's voice, "Well I understand you don't want to tell the girl, but as you can see, she is very curious." Sickeningly enough, he sounded almost proud.

Derek's resentful voice, "Tell me then Cecil. Is that supposed to make me give a shit?" Well I was right in my earlier assumption, his mouth is what got him in trouble. "I don't care what you say, but you don't need to involve humans."

"I am involved because of your kind!" Tammy definitely knew more than she let on.

"Clearly, we are at a disagreement. One, dog, which I am sure you can see is not in your favor," Cecil spoke up.

I hear nothing for what seems like eons before I realize the small, muffled noises I had been hearing must've been them hitting Derek. The only thing I can do is wait, for what feels like hours but in reality I know was barely minutes.

"We'll give you some time to... Think over your answer." Relief washes over me when I hear the door open and close again followed by a distinct silence.

Panic consumes me, unsure of what to make of the quiet. Whether I had been made, or if I got out too soon, that I would be. I allow myself some sanity by easing open the trunk and straining my ears for something to indicate my situation. A deep voice clears they're throat, to which I assumed to be Derek's.

Still weary, I slowly rise out of the chest, and away from the corner of the room towards the dying fire beside him. Fresh blood pours from his nose and mouth as I look into his tired, defeated eyes.

I can't help my hand that gently caresses his cheek in an attempt at comfort, "I am so sorry, Derek," I breathe softly.

If I hadn't been studying his face so intensely, I may have not noticed the corner of his lip tug up in response. Feeling defeated myself, I walk out of the room, unsure of where my new direction would be. Derek didn't deserve that, I knew that much. He may have been a werewolf, but if I learned anything here; it's that not everything, nor everyone, is as they seem. I was currently learning that with Tyler. That these things, beings, do have feelings, and can feel remorse, maybe even love.

Cecil, however, was the epitome of a monster, exactly what I would expect a vampire to be. But it was Tammy that worried me now, as I had witnessed a dark side so full of spite and anger that I felt it was changing her. Or that wherever or whatever those passionate feelings had come from, already had changed her.

All I knew now, as I wandered through the halls, was that I needed someone. My heart squeezed at the thought of Tyler, and how he had opened up to me earlier tonight. I was beginning to develop strong feelings towards him. And that scared me. But as I knocked on his door and saw his face light up when he opened it, I temporarily forgot those fears.

"So, you come back to apologize? Tell me what's been going on with you, or..." he was half joking but I know it was bothering him that I was keeping something from him.

Now was just so not the time to tell him. Instead I shook my head, with a dainty smile, and wrapped my arms around his neck. "Let's just not talk tonight, ok?" I kissed his jaw as I whispered in his ear, seducing him.

"Mmm," he wrapped his arms around me in reaction to my motions as he whispered back to me. "That's fine with me, I'm just glad you came." His lips crashed down onto mine in a passionate explosion.

Yeah, I was too. I needed this right now; him, his physical touch, a distraction, a reminder that I could still be happy. We both had reasons to want the other, and that was evident in our kiss, as it deepened further from the intense craving we were now able to satiate.

His skilled hands shifted downwards as he pressed the small of my back closer to him and squeezed my hip. The pain caught me off guard, but I reacted otherwise as a small moan escaped my lips. With my mouth open, I felt his tongue delve inside, exploring, commanding, relentless. My hands pull his head closer as he angled his head allowing him better access. My fingers then ran through his hair before lowering to his scruffy beard, holding his face. I felt him testing me now, as he lightly tugged at my shirt, awaiting my approval.

I pulled away to get air, our foreheads still together as he pulled further away only to lift my shirt over my head. The sting of the sudden cold was immediately taken away when his large palms embraced me, holding me to him. I lowered my arms to his sides as I boldly tugged at his shirt. He ripped the buttons off, throwing the shirt aside. My hands should have been shaking by now, but as they lowered to his muscular, puffing chest, they were steady.

His hand grabbed my jaw as we once again moved our lips rhythmically against the other. This time I focused on exploring his sexy sculpted torso as my hands moved from his pecks to his abs. He assumed I wanted something more though as his hand moves to unbutton his pants. I grab his hands to stop him as he simultaneously tugs at my sports bra. Confused, I feel him pull away from me, as I instead lean towards him.

Now separated, I find myself staring at his collarbone tilting towards him as he leans the other way. I look up to him to find a sexy smirk is building on his face. "You want to stop, or..." he was breathless, and it was such a turn on.

"I didn't want you to stop," I admit, finding myself sounding breathy as well.

"Good, I didn't want to," I hear his husky voice, somewhere between his hands pulling my sports bra off and his moist lips reconnecting with mine. I didn't care that I was more exposed than I had ever been with him as my hands found him again. He lifts me up as I instinctively wrap my legs around him to steady us.

I feel the softness of the bed underneath my back and close my eyes as I feel him unbuttoning my pants and pulling. Taking half a second to think, I decide I didn't need to think; didn't need to care, not if it felt so good. I wiggle my hips to help ease them off. I smell his musky, masculine scent before feeling the full weight of him bear down on top of me. My lips await his but he begins a trail of scorching hot kisses down my neck instead. His hand cups my breast as he continues his kissing down. Finally his lips are back against my own and I wrap my arms around him. I bite his lip when he opens our kiss and drag my nails down his back when I feel his fingers reach for my underwear. He moans but relents as his hand picks up my hips and grabs my butt.

We roll to the side as he tugs me towards him once more. I pull away and flutter my eyes open. His hands rests on top of my hip, his eyes roaming my naked torso. But instead of feeling uncomfortable under the scrutiny, his look made me feel sexy. Like a woman. I couldn't help but smile. He rests his head on a bent elbow and grabs my hand to hold it together between us. White teeth and crinkling eyes reveal a genuine smile on the vampire lying beside me.

He pulls my hand to his lips and places a soft, wet kiss on each finger. "I. am. So glad. You. Came," he said each phrase between kisses, before settling his blue eyes back to me.

"Me too," I smile back at him as I shift closer to him. He gives me a quick peck on the lips before grabbing me, turning me around, and pulling me against him. I laugh carelessly as he proceeds to tickle me, wriggling underneath his rough, exploring hands.

"Ok," I laugh. "Give, omg give!" I feel his chest rumble with laughter as he slows his hands and lowers them. I once again am presented with a kiss on the cheek. But then a shiver runs along my body when he is suddenly gone.

But by the time I shift myself upwards, he is back behind me and the room is dark. "I had to get the room ready for bed," he defends himself adorably as he pulls me under the covers with him.

"Mmm, thank you. But maybe a little warning next time?"

"Anything for you babe." he says sweetly as he settles behind me in the bed.

"Goodnight Tyler," I whisper to the darkness, closing my eyes in ecstasy.

"Mmm," I feel more than hear his chest grumble in response.

~*~

The next morning Tyler leads me on an 8 mile run, my longest yet. He shares with me his favorite path that truly reminds me of the beauty of this world. We jog side by side in silence, each of us busy with thoughts swimming in our heads. I assumed he was thinking about last night, and I was thinking about it too. But as much as I cared for Tyler, I couldn't help but realize how he had changed me. How this place had changed me, and what part he had in that.

All the time we were spending together over the next week allows me to really open up to him. And although I never admitted what I had heard about the conversation between his dad and a guard, it didn't seem to matter. We were happy, and every morning we had our moments of peace that gave me time to think, and I found myself worrying less and less. Because I felt genuinely, and truly, happy.

I was disappointed, however, upon returning this morning and learning the news of my new trainer for the day, Ross. And I didn't hide my disappointment from him either.

"I was really hoping your absence recently had been because something had happened to you. That's ok. There's still room in the day for better surprises."

"And here I thought you would just love to see your old buddy. Ya know, something to remind you of your family... I had met them, if you remember."

A pang of hurt and sadness washes over me at the mention of my family. I hadn't been expecting that from him. "Well I guess you do continue to surprise me then, dick."

He snickers at my petty name-calling as he wraps an arm around my waist. "I do miss that nickname you have for me, Lex." It internally hurt me to be touched like this and his words were not making me feel much better.

Our little show on the training grounds was not unnoticed by everyone however, as I feel a pull from my shoulders behind me. I am then pulled against Tyler's side as he chastises Ross, "Don't feel too special, she has nicknames for me too." I was relieved Tyler was here, and even more so that I was in his arms. God, I was becoming pathetic.

"Yeah, but I don't think she puts much thought into the nickname bastard," Ross says abrasively as he continues to throw insults.

Beside me, Tyler stiffens, as do I. He was really beginning to piss me off, but Tyler once again beat me to a retort. "You wouldn't have any idea then, what she was calling me last night, would you?"

Shock was plastered on Ross's face as he registered the way Tyler was now holding me, almost possessively, away from him. I was sure my face was almost as shocked as Ross, but I was more concerned that Tyler even said it out loud. I look up to Tyler, now stepping away from him to see his smug grin, claiming victory over their verbal battle. He looked backed at me, winked, and walked away.

Oh no you don't, "um, what was that?" I run after him, stopping once were back inside the castle.

"That, was me making my claim on you," he stated as he stopped and turned to face me.

Huh? I threw my head back in a visual display of a 'wtf' look. He amended, "I just had to put him in his place. That was the only way I could think of."

"And you never thought, I don't know, maybe there would be consequences for you just admitting that?"

"I don't have to worry about consequences," he scoffed at me.

"Really?" I was giving him a condescending tone to get my point across at his stupidity of outing us over some stupid, testosterone filled battle. "So you don't think there's any problem. Whatsoever. With you just admitting that were together?"

He sighed, placing his hands on his forehead, frowning. "I don't really care right now Alexis. He was coming on to you, I didn't like it. Now he knows better. No one has authority over me here."

His tenacity caught me off guard, "This isn't about authority, Tyler." I speak softly, showing my surprise from his enlightening speech about us.

"So what is it about then?" He answers me, his tone mirroring my own, sounding tired.

"Don't you worry what will happen if people found out that-"

"It's not like were sleeping together, so what's it matter?" He cuts me off.

I almost laugh, and I do chuckle, although I find the situation far from amusing. "You're right. You are so right." I close my eyes and continue, "And now, we probably never will. Guess we really don't have anything to worry about." I shrug as I try to hide my hurt and turn to walk away.

I feel him grab my shoulder, prohibiting me from walking further away, "Alex, I'm sorry. He just pisses me off..."

I round on him, realizing I was more angry than hurt at the moment, "Well big fricken deal. Because now I'm pissed at you. Don't think you can talk to me like that, just because you're upset. I don't need that. Screw you."

He pressed his lips together in a firm line, "Fine. Be pissed at me. At least I know you hate him too. Maybe thank me for standing up for you at least."

"Yeah," I scoff at him. "Because you chose the best possible way to do so. Shove it in his face that were together. Like that hurts him at all. I can't wait till you realize you actually hurt us both more than him."

"Well yeah. I'm realizing that now. Because for some reason you're upset with me."

"And you really don't know why?" I screamed at him.

He gave me a 'wtf' look as I chose to answer myself. "I guess I don't either. This isn't even the place for this. I'm going back to training." I kicked the door open ahead of me as I stormed back to Ross, the last person I wanted to see right now. His smug look just fueled my fire as I threw up the first sword I saw and swung it at Ross.

"What? You challenging me?" Ross looked at me arrogantly.

"If you're too afraid to lose, I wouldn't be surprised. I guess a coward would be the last person I'd want to beat anyways right now." I kept the tip of the sword in his face, knowing I would egg him on, "wouldn't be a fair fight."

"Fine," he said curtly as he picked one up without breaking his line of sight to me.

I raised my eyebrows at him, as he stepped forward towards me, using his sword to push mine away from him. "You asked for it," he says as he lunges towards me.

'Yeah and you were the one that fired me up for this,' I think to myself as I easily block his first swing. He catches me off guard however, when he knees me in the stomach.

I groan in response, "That's my move!" I grunt at him. Pulling my sword behind me, I swing it forward to send him a forceful blow. He blocks it, but not easily as the sword nears his bicep. Pulling from the anger he caused moments earlier, I push the sword closer, watching him wince when it slices his skin.

"Argh!" he screams at me as he steps forward, forcing me back. I retreat a few steps back easily, allowing myself time to recover. Seconds are all I have as he strides towards me, swinging his sword sideways intent upon hitting my own arm in revenge. I bring my sword up to block his hit, and he soon swings again. I block again. He swings, I block; left, right, left, then right and right again. Until finally, I take his block and throw it away from me.

I step backwards in an attempt to analyze the situation. He is angry that I had broken his skin first, threatening me with an intimidating look and blatant swinging of his sword. In my head, I only see it as cocky, when I see a move to attack. I step forwards once, signaling a ready to continue once more.

He falls for my trap as he quickly closes the distance between us. His sword comes at me full force, as was expected. So I duck his hit and step forward, bringing my sword behind his back. Not wanting to inflict a full hit at this angle, I jab his side lightly. I watch victoriously as he falls forwards on his hands, clutching his side.

In a grunt, I watch as he gets up and turns to face me, trying his best to hide the pain I inflicted. I smile smugly at him, this time offering my hand in respect. Roughly, he shakes it before shaking his head and making his way back to get help in the infirmary.

Thankfully, hardly no one had watched our little battle nor had anyone cheered when I won. I accepted the silence and did my best to settle my fuming thoughts as I continued to train on the manikin. After a few rounds, I decided I had beaten Ross, so why bother continuing with sword training? Instead, I decided to attempt my most daunting activity yet, knife throwing.

Stepping up to the table, I grabbed an array of knives to use, excitedly stepping up to a target. Still, after a few throws, I become discouraged when none of my throws even hit the target, let alone center.

"Try bringing your hips forward when you throw," I hear a female voice next to me.

I turn to face her, a pretty young woman with baby blue eyes and short platinum blonde hair. She smiled at me, offering a hand wrapped in black gloves, "Elizabeth." She nodded at me. "And those are to help with my grip."

"Alexis," I answer her. "And thanks for the help. This is the one thing I can't seem to grasp..."

She laughs lightheartedly, "Nice pun, but really. It's all in your stance. I can help you. It's the one thing here I'm a natural at."

"Okay, yeah thanks! I usually have some help but I think I scared them all off..." I say, trailing off when I realize I didn't care to explain why to her.

She only shrugged, "Makes sense when you're an attractive female and all of your instructors are men."

I nod at her, "Touché. Well, here it goes again."

I was surprised at how well her advice actually helped me. That or it was the light hearted conversation that helped to distract me from all of my angering thoughts. Either way, when I used my hips, gripped the knives differently, and swung my hand all the way through the throw, I hit the center. Every time.

Heading to the dining hall for lunch later I was actually in a great mood. That is, until upon sitting down, my eyes moved to see Tyler. My heart sunk. He had been such a jerk this morning. Did he really care that I had not slept with him yet? It had been barely 6 months since I met him. And I've only started spending time with him for a little over a month now.

"Alexis," Chase pulls me out of my inner rant.

I raise my eyebrows at him, "Yeah, sorry. What?"

Bridget laughed, "I just cannot believe you beat Ross!"

"Oh," I nodded arrogantly. "Yeah, that. Well it was pretty easy actually..." I laughed as I rolled my shoulders back jokingly.

"I heard something had happened before that got you upset with him," from beside me. Leave it to Tammy to always know what she shouldn't.

Frowning, I turned to face her. "Yeah, he did. The prick brought up my parents." I say to her with as much venom as I could muster.

Oddly enough, she didn't even look phased when she replied, "Oh, sorry."

There goes my happy mood. "Well I'm off to train again then." I say curtly to the table as I get up to leave, giving my new friend Elizabeth an apologetic look.

Back outside, I refocus on the task now at hand; archery. If Tammy could get the hang of it, I would too. And I wasn't normally all that bad. But as I readied the bow, the arrow fell flatly to my feet. Bending over to pick it up I had to stop myself from crying as memories of practicing archery at summer camps with my brother flooded through my mind.

"She just doesn't get it. Don't take it personally," Chase said behind me.

Sniffling, I shake myself as I stand back up and face him. "Thanks. But you don't have to defend her. It just struck a nerve this morning with Ross, and it struck the same one with her."

"Well, she's an orphan. She never even met her parents, so maybe she doesn't feel the same as you but she does understand the pain..."

"Wow, I had no idea. I guess everyone here has a story, huh?" I only felt a little bad for Tammy though. Still, I have no idea how it must have felt to have never known one's parents.

"Yeah they do, don't they?" Chase says to me spitefully, almost accusatory.

"What are you meaning, exactly?"

Angrily, he stepped forward, his words spewing pure malice, "The reason you fought with Ross. It wasn't just over your parents. Something with Tyler, huh? Tyler, Alexis? Of all the people that you could become involved with here, it's him? I mean you of all people. You hate them, the vampires. And now you're with one?"