Van and Desoto made their way to the forest on the outskirts of the city. They were heading toward the meeting place. Where they always went to meet their master. It was a limestone cave. A small one riddled with stalactites and stalagmites. They hated the cave. Why couldn't their master meet them in a house? Desoto didn't like the cave because he hit his head on the stalactites. Van hated that it was limestone. Spirits manifested easier with limestone and that made him uneasy. Even as a human he had been sensitive when it came to the paranormal. He had known the vampire who made him was unnatural as soon as he laid eyes on him. But when he tried to do his memory search on the much more powerful being… well let's just say it didn't work. At all. In fact it backfired and ended up knocking Van out. Desoto and he were both reaping the benefits of his screw-up.

They stood in the cave. Backs to the entrance just waiting for their master to arrive. Van heard a whisper of movement, similar to the flutter of a dove and knew their master was there. Van turned around. And yanked Desoto around with him. The idiot had been too busy trying to catch a drop of water with his tongue as it dripped from the stalactite to even notice their master's presence.

The silky voice of the man filled the cave. "I trust you have good news," their master said, his usual sneer plastered on his face.

Van and Desoto shared a look. A look their master didn't like in the slightest. That look meant one thing. Failure.

Van swallowed, "Well, you see we ran into-

"I don't care what you ran into," the man boomed. He was trying to decide of these two imbeciles were worth his time. They couldn't even find one measly angel. "It's simple. Find. Me. Tiearyu." his words were stabs through their hearts, and they knew if they failed him again they probably wouldn't remain living.

"There was a new person involved. A boy," Van tried to save some face by explaining exactly what went wrong.

The master's eyes narrowed he didn't like where this was going. "Why haven't I been informed of him?"

"We thought him inconsequential. He's a nobody. But he was painting."

Here Desoto laughed choosing to join in on the conversation, "Yeah, little bitch was panitin' pictures of Tiearyu."

"What?" their master's tone shocked them. He never showed surprise over anything. "Painting pictures of Tiearyu?" that was impossible.

"Yeah, he was pretty good too. Tasted amazing." Desoto, always thinking about food… But Van had to admit the kid had been the best human he'd ever tasted. His blood almost tasted like their master's. Of course Van would need to taste their master's again to be sure but… he was almost positive that the kid's blood was similar. It was… unsettling. Why would the boy taste like him. Maybe Van should tell him that the kid was strange. Stranger than just being able to paint Tiearyu. The kid was a freak of nature.

The master's mind was whirling. This was most intriguing. A person who could paint one of them. There was no way both of his vamps were wrong. Desoto was an air head but Van… well, he at least had half a brain. There had to be something more to that kid. He didn't think that the kid was just able to paint them. There had to be something more to him. He made the decision that he was going to find this kid. And use him.

"Where is the boy now?" his voice was calculating and Van knew they'd be in trouble. Again. Normally the master wanted to dispose of anybody involving Tiearyu immediately. What were the chances he actually had wanted this kid alive? Judging from the gleam in his eye, pretty high. He didn't want to be the one to tell him the kid was... There was going to be Hell to pay if the master found out the kid was dead. Maybe Van could make up a cover story. They lost sight of the kid and do not know where he lives yet. Or they watched him board a train… probably to visit relatives somewhere. They didn't know when he's be back, but he took his cat with him and-

"Dead," Desoto declared happily. Well, at least now Van didn't have to say it. Little twit was like an excited little puppy. Van was waiting for Desoto to start humping their master's leg, or wet himself.

Van waited for the inevitable blowup. But instead the master sounded deep in thought. Pondering what they said. "You killed him? Are you sure he died?" the master asked slowly. That didn't add up with the theory he was forming about the boy. His vamps must be wrong. This child would not be dead if what they said so far was the truth.

Van was confused of course the kid was dead. They had watched him bleed out. Well okay, when they left his heart was still beating. But it had been slow, irregular. There's no way the brat was alive even ten minutes after they left him. It just wasn't possible.

"Absolutely," Van answered confidently. "We did the standard seven wound kill. No human can survive that." But now that he thought about it, there had never been anything about a murder on the news. Humans were nosey, and they seemed to care about others of their species. The kid couldn't have gone unnoticed. Surely he had a family, friends. There was no way that art shop owner hadn't realized the kid was missing.

The master looked deep in thought. No human can survive. But was the boy human? He had reason to believe otherwise. In fact, he knew otherwise. No human could paint an angel. They'd go insane at a mere glimpse of them. Humans were too impure to see the personification of all that's good. Even the angles forsaken by God could still rip a mortal's mind to shreds if they weren't careful. And that's exactly what Tiearyu was. Forsaken by God. That's why he needed to die.