A Debt to a Vampire

Almost

Leon was right about the job not being easy. The very next day after sunset Nate took me to meet Leon and the doctor in the lab. They did experiments on the strange creatures, and then dissected them once the experiments were over.

I've always been someone who can fight with the best of them, but gory stuff like this was way out of my league. I nearly barfed up my dinner when the smell of their corps touched me.

"Are you alright Catharine?" Nate asked in concern.

"I'm fine it's just..." I looked back over to the rotting body on the table, "The smell is making me sick."

"Is it?" He asked cocking his head to the side. Red eyes staring back at me confused. Nate then smelled the air out of curiosity. "Your right it's not a pleasant smell." He chuckles.

"Wait you mean to tell me you couldn't smell it until now?" I freak out.

"We breath like you humans do, but we don't smell usually unless we're hunting something."

Nate's sweet smile always makes me forget he's a vampire. He's always treated me nicely, and can goof around like the other guards can't. Suddenly a image of Caleb pops into my mind. His cute puppy dog blue eyes, the messy childlike blond hair on top of his head, and his small fragile body running up to me with that sweet innocent smile our group always adores.

"Catharine? Catharine?" I heard Nate's voice echoing through my head, bringing me back to the present. Noticing it was only in my head loneliness dug a hole deeper in my chest. A hole that's been rotting there since Caleb left... or since I sent him away.

"Yes I'm sorry." I spoke quietly to Nate.

I looked back over at the body of a woman around age 26 on the table. I will protect Caleb and everyone else from that fate. If I see another one of those creatures eat my friends I will kill them without hesitation.

Suddenly I felt a strong hand on my shoulder. Leon stood there staring at me with concern. Then I realize the dark place I was just in. Killing another living creature was never something I had wanted to do. Even with the vampires. My group had only wanted to find out why they were locking us up, and send them away. No murder involved. I wonder... why I feel like that now.

"These creatures put off a negative aura that affects other living creatures. Usually animals just grow depressed and die. However, with humans the story is quite different. Animals don't know right from wrong so negativity only makes them weak and die. Humans have a sense of right and wrong and therefore the negativity affects their emotions to the wrong side." Leon spoke as if reading my mind. Explaining everything I wanted to know.

"You experimented with animals?" I asked angry. I have never approved of people using animals as test subjects. It was cruel to the animals. Just like it would be for humans. Leon's eyes narrowed at me.

"That was research Catharine. Information we needed to learn more. The more we knew the more we could figure out how to stop them." He said in a stern harsh voice.

Knowing that this was the truth I gave up the fight, but I still felt upset for the animals. To die like that without knowing why must have been horrible. Leon's eyes softened as he took his hand away from my shoulder.

"If it makes you feel any better we only used a few animals that lived in this area. And the affects of the negativity was around twenty minutes. For a humans I suppose it takes around two hours."

"Hey I thought I wasn't going to be a test subject." I said curiously

"Your not, but just by you being here we've learned something we didn't know."