4 Babysitting Duties

I continued to pursue my duties for the Elders as I was becoming a spy and betrayer to them. I didn't hunt and kill the vampires they sent me out to but brought them to the cabin to be "saved." Although, after they get to the cabin, I had no idea where they went after.

A typical night, I was the first to get to the cabin, and was assigned babysitting duties over the frightened vampires. The only irritating part of it all was that for hours I would feel the fear they radiated in the room.

An annoying buzz of electric anxiety brushing against my skin. Listening to their quick shallow breaths on the verge of hysteria only added to the annoyance.

Of course, Tankrell did not understand my irritation with babysitting duties. His senses are too dull to feel, hear or see all that I can.

Vampire's' senses differ that of humans, as Punishers differ that of a vampire. Vampires have four times better senses than a human and are ten times stronger. That is why they are an easy food supply for us. How we can manage them in the livestock district. Punishers have six times better senses than a vampire and are fifteen times stronger as well.

That is how vampires become our prey.

In the same sense, it makes it more difficult to explain to one how situations are more troublesome to Punishers—because they may ignore it, but we simply cannot.

The City was just that, a city. There was no name for it, it simply existed and those of us who lived in it, accepted it as The City. We didn't know anyone outside The City. We did not associate with those outside The City.

The only time people left, was for food hunts of wild humans. I remember my mission was to look for this group; to look for a vampire who was possibly a compromise to The City's safety.

I knew I've found him, but I found much more than just him. I found a whole group who threatened The City. Now, I was stuck siding with them for the time being, given the circumstances of how I was thrown into the whole situation. I couldn't just go up to the Elders and tell them they forced me join them. Who would believe that?

Beyond just that, how could they believe me telling them they were taking the hunting, and freeing them from the city walls?

The thoughts ate at me and made me question what was worth more. My existence for living, or whatever it was that they were attempting to fight for. They weren't hurting our citizens, they were saving them. But in some way, I knew they were a threat to the way The City worked.

I sat perched on a building top. Blending into the night's shade mulling over the past week of drop offs and knowledge that Nephilim had shared. Of course, it was very little bits that I caught in passing...

I wasn't allowed in their meetings, hence babysitting duty...

The rebel group called themselves the Nephilese, and so far, their goals were to save as many vampires from the Elders as possible. They had not given me any other background on the group. Their reasons of joining were not known either. I came to learn that the Nephilese had been established for twenty years now.

They had treaties and covenants and contracts with over ten covens, some as close as the Isian's. and as far as the Liberia Coven (a secret coven overseas in the human continent "America"). It seemed, being so well connected, amazing that the Elder's do not know of their existence.

If they had known, the Nephilese would have been long gone. I would still be a vampire, on some other assignment.

Becoming irritated at my train of thought, I started to focus and find my vampires to "hunt" on my list which I was given for the night. Ordinarily, my target, Elena, and company, pass by this area in the Housing District around this time. But further off in the shadows, a cluster of vampires caught my eye. There were five vampires huddled in a narrow alley. Suspicion gripped my attention and I watched

There were two blondes, a red headed girl, and two black haired males. The red headed girl lifted her hand to a petite blonde. I could feel the spike of anxiety from where I stood. Why were they anxious? Swiftly, I jumped from my current position to another rooftop closer to where they were to observe them better. The petite blonde lifted the hand higher, and slowly bared her teeth.

Sticking the red headed girls finger in her mouth I understood exactly what she was about to do. The idiocy of the situation hit me, they would be caught and killed, and Punishers from around the area would come here to find the smell and kill them on site for breaking our sacred law — to drink blood from another.

Do I save them?

I was part of the Nephilese, and it was our job to save vampires. The Nephilese would quickly find out if I slaughtered them rather than saved them. But they, I knew, where on no hit list to be punished in any way.

'Do I report them?' I thought. No, the Elders would have me killed for not doing my job. I fought the conflict in my mind of trying to find out what I should do.

'Leave them,' I heard Elizabeth tell me in my head. I whipped my head around to look at a nearby rooftop and saw her watching me and them.

I could not telepathically communicate back, so wordlessly I mouthed: they will be killed.

She gazed back impassively. 'Watch, they do not get caught.'

I followed her instruction and watched. The petite blonde's lips were wrapped, and she sucked on the girl's finger, almost sensually. Then she stopped sucking but did not remove the grip of her lips around the girl's finger.

They stayed poised like that for some five minutes.

She loosened her lips from around the red head's finger and only her tongue stayed in place on the finger for another two minutes. The petite blonde finally moved away from the red head, and I saw there was no wound. Realization hit me that she let the wound heal before releasing so that the scent of blood did not penetrate the air. The saliva healed the wound, so It left no scar or indication that such an act occurred.

They weren't dumb. Still, the thought of saving them then nagged at me.

'Follow Elizabeth's instructions... newborn,' Jarod said in my thoughts as well.

Irritation swelled in me, so I began to think logically. The Nephilese were not known, this was apparent. I couldn't act in the favor of the Elders or I would face immediate death, while remaining on the Nephilese side could gain me their trust for intelligence I could later give to the Elders.

At the same time, I was having an odd urge to want to save them... it seemed smart to simply wait until they were placed on the list. Hopefully we would be the ones to receive them on our list and save them. The sin of drinking from another vampire was drilled in so much.

But there was no explanation as to why never to do it, or why it was so wrong to do. I can't punish someone for something I don't not see as wrong.

I swooped back up to my original perch and peered into the night to look for my hunt. Finding them I knocked them out and swiftly left the city to the cabin. The city was messing with my thought more so than I needed at the time.

I was the first to arrive at the hideout, as usual. Elizabeth would be back soon for I had just seen her passing in the City. I dropped them and went into the fridge. Tankrell didn't leave a cup of blood again.... I slammed the fridge shut and sat at the table watching the three waking up.

Elena, a little brunette with wide amber eyes. She lazily fluttered her eyes awake. She, unlike the other two, wasn't emanating any form of fear or anxiety. It caught my attention immediately.

"You're not scared?" I asked.

"I'm not dead, and I'm not in the city. Why should I be scared?" she asked.

"Why would here, in the unknown make you feel... safer? I think is the word I am looking for, then the city?" I asked, leaning forward.

"It doesn't matter what I do here, I'm not being scrutinized for my actions, or my thoughts. Even if I am free for a few minutes, it's a few minutes of freedom I didn't have in the city."

I leaned back in thought. "You didn't feel free in the city?" I asked.

"I didn't want the partner they gave me. There was someone I would have preferred. I didn't love them, I didn't have a 'crush' on him, but he was more amiable to me. I couldn't choose where to live. I couldn't choose what to wear. I couldn't choose my jogging path. I couldn't express my disapproval about my partner, I couldn't express my disapproval at my trade, I couldn't express disapproval about anything that they decided for me.

"I enjoy the study about the human philosophy of 'free-choice.' The idea appeals to me. But, we do not have a choose to even leave the city. Why wouldn't I consider myself free now?" She asked challenging me.

I never really cared for free-choice. I believed the Elders always choice what was best for us. I never considered anything else.

"You never considered the idea of free will. But, if there is no choice, no freedom, what kind of society are we living in?" Elena implored to me.

Unwillingly, my first thought, a dictatorship. And I was its enforcer.

Tankrell and Elizabeth walked in, Elena's eyes glowed, and Elizabeth winked at her.

"How's babysitting going?" Tankrell asked.

"You didn't answer my question yet," Elena cut in, turning to face me.

"It's not a democracy, if that's what you are trying to imply," I answered simply and turning my attention to Tankrell. "You keep forgetting to leave a cup in the fridge."

"I'm sorry," he answered pulling out a cup from the cabinet.

"Obviously, but that wasn't exactly what I asked," she prodded more.

Unrelenting...

"It's a dictatorship of sorts, are you satisfied now?" I sneered tapping my fingers on the table in impatience.

"Well, glad you are finally starting to see things clearly," Nephilim's voice came from behind me.

How I hate babysitting...