"Well who else could be here?" I say, looking to the door then back, "Tyler?"

"I, I don't know where they would be..." he seemed more confused than any of us.

"Ok, let's think then," I say as I walk to Derek's cell door, peeking in briefly before locking it shut. He seemed to be in the same condition as always: beaten up, bloody and bruised, but still holding on. How could they just leave him like this, for what, a month had it been now?

Turning around, "Tyler, I" I begin until I realize I'm talking to no one. "Agh. Where did you go?" I yell into the darkness.

As I continue running aimlessly, trying to find Tyler again, I realize what I may have missed before. Tyler wasn't confused before, he was angry. And he bolted. That's why I'd never find him. He is way too fast. I stop running, and walk instead back in the direction of the dining hall. I'd find him later.

"Alexis!" Someone whisper shouts my name behind me.

"Who?" I turn around, squinting in the dark. I had stopped and was facing in the direction I thought the voice had come from. Or so I thought.

"Alexis," this time from behind me, as in the same direction I'd been facing before. Jumping in reaction, I turn around hands up in defense.

It's Chase. "Jeez Chase you scared me. Where were you coming from anyways? I thought I heard you from over there..."

"Shh," he doesn't listen to my rambles and pulls me behind a plate in the wall. "Follow me, you have to see this!"

"Chase," I stop when I see where he had taken me. We were in a narrow hallway, wide enough to fit only one person at a time. It seemed as wide as it did tall, barely over my head as I scanned the ceiling. He was facing me as I looked past him, around him. "Where, what is this?" The only source of light was coming from the small, meshed openings behind the torches illuminating the actual hall beside us. This second hallway seemed to continue on for as long as the wider hallway did.

"Cool isn't it?" He was like a kid in a candy store, shaking his hands into fists as he looked at me. I had to laugh at his excitement.

"Chase! How on earth did you find this?"

"Well, it was after everyone freaked out at dinner, I mean you bolted. But I never saw where... Anyways I managed to sneak into the kitchen and found a second exit. Only it wasn't into the hallway, it was in here!" As he told me his story, his voice got higher and higher, but quieter at the same time.

"Ok," I whisper to him. "But what do you think this means?" In my mind, it means it will be a heck of a lot easier to sneak around, but it also means-

"It means someone is spying on us," his tone had become more serious as he says where my thoughts had been heading.

"Or it means that we can spy on them... how far do you think these hallways go?"

"Who knows," he shrugs. "The whole castle? Just this hall? Come on! I just found it, I don't know much else."

"Well maybe we can use this to our advantage now. Have you seen anyone other than me walk by?"

"Seen, or felt?"

"Huh?"

"Those things are so fast sometimes you can't see them, you just feel a breeze when they race by."

"Well then yeah, I guess either one," I press.

"Then only Tyler, I think it was. Oh and there were some guards but I only felt the wind so I don't know how many there were."

I knew exactly which guards he was talking about. And if Tyler was headed in the same direction, it means there is another place they keep prisoners...

"Chase, when they came by... where were they-"

He cuts me off by grabbing me and twisting me around, pressing a hand to my mouth to shut me up.

A few vampire guards walk by, I count through the mesh opening about five. They may be the ones that had been guarding Derek's cell but who knows.

"Ahh, thank you," he had let me go now.

"Yeah, why don't we get out of here now?" Chase says as he softly pushes a panel in the wall I can't even see. He doesn't even give me time to argue before he's pushing me out into the hall in front of him.

"Chase!" I whisper yell at him this time. "What if someone had been coming?"

"What were you two doing?" I hear a deep voice behind me, one that I recognize immediately. But he sounds hurt.

"Tyler," I turn around to face him, realizing how this must've looked. But he is staring Chase down, stepping past me.

"What were you doing with her, in the wall?"

"I, uh," Chase looks toward me, his hesitation only making things worse. "We weren't in the wall. Hah what are you even talking about?"

"Chase," I shake my head. Make him stop.

"I know what I saw, dumba**. What were ya doing?" Tyler knew he had the upper hand here. That Chase was scared of him. "Huh?" Tyler hits his collar.

"Ok Tyler. C'mon," I step forward, placing a hand on each of their chests to keep them apart. "Nothing was happening and you know it." This time I turn to face Tyler, seeing that I had his attention fully now. "Quit trying to scare him... Where did you go earlier?" I ask him, quieter this time.

He only looks at me, his lips pulling into a frown. But Chase pushes us from behind me. Namely, me, into Tyler. Tyler automatically grabs me and pulls me against him, in protective mode now.

"So you were with him before, huh?" Chase is upset, throwing his hands up.

"Yes," Tyler calmly answers him, almost proudly. His right arm was in front of my torso, his hand resting on my hip. I felt his pressure pushing me against him. "We were together before. So what?"

The tension between the two was palpable. Chase was red in the face, while Tyler was composed, holding me in his arms possessively.

"Alright this is not a testosterone fight," I say as I attempt to step away from Tyler. It proves difficult though as I use both hands on his one to pull away.

"Yeah, of course not. Because you just can't get enough of Tyler, here."

Ok I know how it looks, but I really was trying to get away from Tyler's death grip on me. I finally gave in but continued talking, "Chase, it doesn't matter." I place a hand on Tyler's shoulder then look back at him. "Yes, Tyler and I are..." Together? Did I forgive him after earlier today?

"Were together." Tyler finishes for me as he winks at me over his shoulder.

I stifle an eye roll as my insides warm. Chase isn't happy though, "The last I heard, you said you weren't together though. That he had been a jerk to you."

Tyler cocks his head in mock shock at me, then looks at Chase. "I can be a jerk man, so I wouldn't be surprised if that were true."

Omg he was so not taking this seriously. "Well I never said that exactly, but I did say we were fighting... Chase, what's it matter anyways?" I shake my head as this time Tyler lets me step away from him.

When Chase didn't say anything else, I looked back to Tyler to explain. "Chase was showing me a hidden tunnel, or hallway behind the wall here. He said he'd found it leading from the kitchen."

"The kitchen, huh?" Tyler seemed interested now, more serious. "Where from the kitchen did it start?"

"Uhh," Chase looked confused as he continued explaining. "I had run from the dining hall into the kitchen so I was closer to the appliances than I was the storage and preparation areas... I think it led from the storage closets though, it was towards the back right maybe."

"Tyler, I came out into the hall from the kitchen, what does it mean that the kitchen has so many exits?"

He raised his eyebrows at me in innocent questioning, before opening and closing his mouth several times. "It, uh... It just means that the staff uses that to deliver food and stay hidden. Not everyone eats in the dining hall here."

Lie. He was covering something up, I knew it. "Where had you gone before Tyler?"

His expression grew sad, "I was following my father. He wasn't telling the truth before. It wasn't a prisoner that escaped-"

I couldn't hide my excited gasp at what he was saying as hope bloomed in my chest. "You mean a recruit escaped? Someone got out?"

"No," he keeps his frown. "It was your grandmother, I think."

"Her what?" Chase says beside me.

"Oh," was all I could manage. Well good for her, she made it out of here alive. She's free.

"Alexis has... some," Tyler didn't know how to tell Chase.

"I have some secrets I'd like to keep secret. Ok?" I look at the two men in front of me with cold stares. "Now why don't we just forget all this and go back to our rooms?"

"Our own rooms, sure," Chase mumbles.

I round on him, staring him straight in the face. "What was that, Chase?"

Tyler slips his arm around my waist, pulling me against him. Furious, I turn to him, but am silenced when his hand covers my mouth. Within seconds, we are hidden inside the wall, with Chase scrambling behind us. I can't help my heavy breathing, from my boiling anger and now my being forced in here. Noise fills the hall next to us as several guards, several more than is normal, walk by. Cecil takes up the rear as they proceed north. It seems like eons before they finally all pass by and we are back in the larger hallway.

"Why were they're so many of them?" Chase asks, out of breath from who knows what.

"I don't know, but they're moving towards the north tower." Tyler answers, looking in the direction they were headed.

"Cecil's room? Where I was held last night?"

"His room? You were what? Where were you last night?" Chase asks question after question as Tyler and I ignore him and start walking. "Alexis?" He continues to tag along behind us.

Finally, I stop and face him, "Chase, I understand if you don't want to join us. But I don't have time to answer everything right now." I offer a small smile before walking once more. "I have questions of my own I want answers to."

Once we made it to the north tower, we followed the endless stairs to the top. Somehow even with my state of being having been so weak last night, I remembered a lot. Maybe it was from the last journey I'd made up here when I followed her. It was a little too soon to be back up here again, and one look at Tyler said the same.

He looked incredibly anxious, borderline scared. "You two can't go any further," his eyes searched mine. "Especially you Alexis."

"Tyler," I whisper to him as I crawled closer. We had made it to the last corner of stairs and the three of us were now crouched low to try to stay out of sight; if anyone was up there in the open. "You have to let me see what is going on in there."

"Alexis," his painful look exacerbated as I raised my eyebrows at him. "No," he closed his eyes. "I cannot let you go in there again. Not so soon, not after what happened before."

I stayed quiet as it slowly began to dawn on me just how hard it may have been for him to watch last night.

"So what, you're just gonna go in there alone?" Chase speaks up. "In case you forgot, Cecil had a hu-mongous army with him." He emphasized the word.

"Yeah, that's the plan I guess. He is my dad. Maybe he'll open up to me," even he scoffed at that last part. It was obvious he wasn't close to his dad but now I really felt sorry for him.

Tyler took a deep breath beside me then stood up and darted around the corner as I follow, on accident, and on reflex. Arms latched onto me from behind as Chase silently chastised me, trying to keep us hidden.

Seconds passed and Tyler was back in front of us, standing tall. "Wanted to say goodbye, did ya?" he asks me, flashing his cocky smile.

"Yes!" I couldn't help myself as I threw my arms around him. I didn't know what would happen in there and after he bolted last time, I realized how much I really did want to say goodbye.

His chest rumbled in a low laughter as his strong arms held me steady around him. "I'll be fine, Al," I hear him say softly against my hair.

"I know you will," I smile into the crook of his neck, still squeezing him tight.

He loosens his grip too soon. Reluctantly, I do the same. Looking down at his broad chest, I hear him chuckle as he caresses my cheek before forcing me to face him. His eager lips smash down to meet my startled ones. I don't stay surprised for long as I begin to adjust and close my eyes. His arms slide down, securing me closer to him as my hands run through his hair.

Pulling away, we are both breathless, neither wanting to let the other go. I finally open my eyes, my gaze settling on his now puffy lips. Smiling, I peek at his dazzling blue eyes, intensely staring back at me. He closes them, holding my shoulders and kissing my forehead before stepping away.

He smiles once more before walking up the stairs and around the corner. Chase and I watch him, following at a safe distance, hunched down. He turns around before taking a deep breath and opening the doors.

"Father?" The door closes and within moments a scream erupts from inside.