H1B 2015 CAP question. Need help urgently

Hi Friends, need your inputs here on my specific case.

  1. I was in USA from till Feb 2010 to July 2013 (total duration of 3 yrs 5 months) on L1B visa and working for Employer A.

  2. Another Employer B applied for H1B petition. It got approved without COS and its valid till Dec 2014. But i never used it as the employer B was not keen to hire back at later point of time because they lost the project.

Question:

a. can i find a new employer and apply for a new H1B petition under 2015 CAP, so that i utilize full term of 6yrs term. The reason i’m asking this question is because, I keep seeing in the forum that we need to stay outside for full 1 year before we apply for the CAP petition with USCIS (cycle reset). but in this case, if i apply for 2015 CAP in april, i would not have completed my stay outside US for 1yr.

b. Can i use my previous h1B petition number and apply for new h1b under CAP EXEMPT? if so, then once again my end date will be 2 and half years (3.5yrs on L1+2.5 on new h1b=6yrs in total)? or if i stay outside US for 1yr, will my h1b cycle gets resetted?

Any comments on this is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Cap -Exemption can be filed if Ur petition approved in 2008 or later, Cap-Exmept can be filed till 6 years of approval…