After a thousand years of doing the same things over and over, you get used to repetition, the constant grind of the same over repeated. I’d killed tens of thousands of demons by this point, that was nothing new, as routine as eating or sleeping. Most missions I had no emotional attachment to what I was doing. Locate the target, destroy it, that’s usually how it went.

This mission was different. For the first time in decades I’d felt something about what I was doing.

I wasn’t hunting for the kill this time. Like everything in this world Seraphs never truly died, but rather reincarnated in a new form. This one, Blue, just happened to be the soul I was closest to. Not just in this form but in all our previous forms. Seraphs reincarnated as humans, so they don’t know what exactly they are until they mature. Their auras don’t read as Seraph until then either so from the point of death to new form to maturity the living Seraphs just have to wait it out.

A couple days ago I’d started feeling that aura, which became stronger as I narrowed down its location. North America, Atlantic Coast, the city called Atlanta, and then finally down to “Peachtree Neighborhood” outside of the city. Immediately I found Blue’s new form near an abandoned church, along with a handful of demon spawn which I easily dispatched. The master was not around, which unfortunately meant I would inevitably have to deal with that later, I decided I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.

After chasing both Blue and a straggler spawn I finally caught up with him and a girl who I’d correctly assumed was his sister. Another complication, wonderful. The hardest part of this process was by far explaining what a Seraph was an why they had to come with us. Bartholomew and Banhi were naturals at this but I… I’d always had trouble expressing myself.

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“Who the hell are you and what the hell is going on?” Blue asking the always expected question. So they were a male this time. He and his sister were half Asian half white, were both smaller than me, and wore casual American clothes not unlike the black hoodie and slacks I wore to blend in.

“I am Thalia. ” I said. “Those things were demon spawn. I just saved your life.” It was best to introduce these things slowly. “You haven’t told me your names.”

“I told you this was legit.” The girl said. “I’m Kish, this is Grayson. And I’m guessing you aren’t human, are you Thalia.” Heavy emphasis on the first syllable, coming out as “Thaaaa-lia.”

“I’m not entirely human. I’m a Seraph.” I explain. ” And so is your brother.”

The siblings turn to look at each other, then turn back to me. “Is this some kind of elaborate prank? Did someone in the Leigh LeBlanc community set this up?” Grayson said.

” Who is… ” I say. “No it’s not a prank okay. If you’ll allow me to explain.”

“Actually I’d rather go home and sleep.” Grayson says, starting to droop over.

“How can you think about sleep at a time like this?” His sister says. “We need to go through the footage you got, get some expert opinions, maybe interrogate green haired lady over here.”

“Excuse me?” I say. But then Grayson collapsed to the ground into the fetal position.

Kish kneels down beside him. “What the hell did you do?”

“Nothing. He’s asleep. The body goes into hibernation when it properly matures into a seraph.” I say. “Like a cocoon into a butterfly.

What I didn’t say was how I hadn’t expected it to be this soon. Or how I know had to worry about both protecting him and the demon that would no doubt come straight here