“Demons hate Mondays too,” my mug proudly declared, complete with a rather basic picture of a horned demon filing paperwork in a file cabinet. Grex had gotten it for me – he told me he made it in “hell's home ec,” but it had that machined look. I wasn't sure where the money came from since I didn't pay him anything, but at least he hadn't killed anyone for it and then filled it with the blood of innocents before filling it with a reasonably good coffee and handing it over.

I had lower standards, these days.

I was at my desk, doing the filing of incident reports that the demon on my mug had only hinted at; there were far too many of them these days. Almost one per day I was on shift; the entire psych division was starting to take notice, and my basic training yesterday had been conspicuously light. The higher-ups were making it obvious they thought I was overworked. What worried me is I never felt better; aside from the annoyance of constantly taking care of demons, I felt good. Better than fine, and the opposite of what I was told I should feel, or what my co-workers already felt.

Many of my poor co-workers were on extended leave, having worked themselves right into collapse. Karen and I were left, but we had some fresh blood from Phoenix filling in the gaps.

I kind of hated them, they seemed far more soulless than the regulars. That could just be a result of being forced to move here to cover for us, or because they didn't know us.

Or it could just be because they had the personality of wet cardboard. They barely even said hello in the morning.

Of the locals, Karen, one of the Charlies, and I were it. Five summoners were out with exhaustion ( and hopefully that was all, I'd been hearing some disturbing rumors about disturbing whispers) and replaced with warm automatons.

Amazingly, the squads, including my own, was getting off relatively light. For some reason all the demons summoned went after civilians and then almost directly after any summoners in a response team; in many cases outright ignoring anyone else once the summoner was identified. So far none had died outright, which was lucky... but more than one had been injured. It was a major departure from how demons normally operated, and we already had another two teams just investigating the cause.

So far the reigning theory was that an old Nazi summoner had somehow snuck across the border, all the way to here, and decided to set up shop killing our summoners because Nazi. I wasn't sure that worked, but maybe it did. Summoners were crazy, after all, even the best of us.

There was a rather well-known military base, after all. It seemed as good a target to hit as any other if you were an insane crazy person.

What was even weirder was some demons were turning up dead, in many cases hacked into pieces and just left where they fell, by person or persons unknown. The demon would show, we would send a squad and summoner, and by the time the squad arrived the demon was already dead. In more than a few cases there wasn't even sign of a fight.

That had happened four times in the last week and a half or so. There was yet ANOTHER team of ADTF working that angle; a very nervous team, though one not as nervous as the ones being sent out to respond to calls. Those of us being sent to respond to demon calls were very nervous; it was only a matter of time before one of us got there in time.

With my power, it would probably be me. I wasn't exactly looking forward to it. Resigned, sure. Prepared, maybe, since there were only so many ways to cut a demon in half with a weapon (in one stroke no less) but not looking forward to it. There was already some serious rumor mongering going on behind my back, with people speculating why I was so unusual a Summoner. Some of those rumors were disgusting, and when I found out who spread them... well I wasn't sure what I'd do, but it wasn't going to be pleasant for them.

Today I was supposed to be on backup duty, with one of the exchange Summoners, a woman with the unfortunate moniker of “Harpy,” taking patrol duty today. The fact that the term was descriptive was even more unfortunate. By the end of the week, another shipment of out-of-towners was due, this time from places as far away as Boulder.

If we didn't solve this soon, the General might even roll out the new recruits and the people still in training, whether he wanted to or not; he was probably getting pressured to solve this. About the only good news was that it was stress testing our network and reactions, showing where the problems were likely to be before we got overwhelmed; having this happen in more than one city would probably have destroyed us.

Hm, another silver lining; if whoever was doing this had waited or had more help, they could have easily thrown all of the continent into chaos. This was small scale, at least relatively.

But what all this amounted to was a boring day. Cords was off today, and that meant no streams or television. Well, unless I wanted to go in the comm room and deal with the stone-faced soldier manning it; a vet freshly returned from his last tour. He stared off into space a lot, but Karen assured me he didn't have post-traumatic stress. I didn't believe her.

So, filing. The fact that the Captain had asked me to finally catch up was immaterial; I could ignore the paperwork if I wanted; especially now. But there was nothing else to do. I couldn't even go out and run, because I was still on call.

It was time to catch up on police investigative procedures.

I was halfway through the detective novel an hour later when the alarm went off. “Oh, come on!”

Sure I felt fine, but a single day without a demon sighting or call would be nice. I wasn't even embarrassed by my very loud exclamation.

The soldier, his name was Brett, stuck his head out of communications. “The response team is on it, Ma'am. But you should prepare to move, just in case.”

Just in case, my ass. Another attack was almost a given at this point. It was too early in the day; there was a pattern for this. Multiple attacks to separate us and pick us apart, followed by a more serious attack on whichever team was sent to reinforce the first team. But what else could I do? I prepared to move.

Maybe today would be different, and the attacks would stop. But if not, I was best suited to deal with it, especially out of those of us left up. If only management could be convinced I was fine, especially afterward.

I met everyone down at the transport; my squad today consisted of Judge, Conners, West, Roddy, and Aims. Two snipers were unusual, but everyone else was sick or injured by this point, so that's what I had; the teams that had been moved in from other cities were full teams since full teams were what worked best together.

It could have been worse; the Captain was slated for actual night duty.

We didn't talk, we didn't have to. We just piled in instead. “The bird people still giving you grief, Snow?”

The bird people were what Sarah called the teams from Phoenix. I guess she thought it was clever. “Not for awhile now.”

The first thing the Phoenix teams had tried to do upon showing up for work bright and early at the beginning of the week, was to give me grief for having Grex out in the squad room. Things had gotten a little ugly, at least until the Captain had stepped in. Ever since though, they had been leading the charge to get me benched, and not even solving half a dozen demon cases nearly bloodlessly (easy when you can just order them to go home) was enough to shut them up. There had even been a few half-hearted cries of 'demon' bandied my way, which was silly; I could prove I grew up human, and so could the authorities.

I didn't summon Grex in their presence anymore, and it seemed like one of them was always watching.

“That's good.” Sarah said, “We are a little understaffed to be kicking bird people ass. Not that we won't, but it'll be dicey with half of us laid up.”

It was kind of heartwarming that they would go to bat for me like that, in a high school drama way, but unnecessary. They wouldn't do anything if not provoked.

Would they? “No, that shouldn't be necessary at all. If I need to I'll ask for Summoner help; they have ways of getting even with people who piss them off.” Like strip teasing imps.

And that wasn't even the worst option I'd heard.

“Good. The last thing we need is to fight among ourselves now.” she gave me a gimlet stare. “But, if they should start up again, don't sit there and take it. Tell us, and we'll kick some ass.”

“There shouldn't be a problem.”

We all packed in and started out, heading to support the first team; if everything happened true to form then we'd get ambushed along the way. If we were extremely unlucky, while we were getting ambushed another attack would occur across town.

The news channels had been pretty brutal to our department lately, accusing us of faulty procedures and bad response time; general muck-raking, the Captain called it. He wouldn't let me talk to the press, however; he wouldn't let any summoner do that. I did have idle dreams of making the talking heads eat their words, however; they were tarnishing a department of people forced to look into the abyss every day, and by extension, the police force my Dad had served on for years.

Then again, maybe the Captain had a point.

We were all silent once Judge pulled out. On edge, tense and waiting. It was a shame, really; I could kill for an ice cream sandwich. Okay, demons not humans, but still.

Three streets away, weaving in and out of traffic, everyone thin-lipped and staring out of the windows. The fire, red and somehow dark, hit us from an elevated position in a stream.

And as shameful as it was, my first thought was relief that we wouldn't have to turn around and drive another twenty minutes to some other demon attack.

The smell of sulfur filled the air as the tearing sound of shattering cars filled my ears. The heat in the transport's cabin rose a good twenty degrees in a second, and Judge, calm as ever, just drove into something to stop us with a crunch. It made sense, we were all belted in.

“Grex, veni huc!” He was already forming, doing that reverse puddle thing he so liked to do from the floor of the cabin. I took the opportunity to speed time for myself a bit, pop my seat belt, and start tapping members of my team. “Judge, the side door blocked?”

His no was long and drawn out since I hadn't got to him, but even just hearing the 'N' was enough. I got to everyone else before he was finished with it, and tapped him; the word sped up immediately.

“Alright, here's the plan. We all go out the side door, and I'll go last; you're all sped up, so you should be through the door before whatever that is outside gets a bead on you; in case he manages I or Grex will block it. Sound good?”

Sarah really looked like she wanted to argue – but she stayed silent. I supposed I was usurping her authority just a bit, but the plan was solid, and doing things this way would actually be easier on me. Time was easier to manipulate than a full shield for me, and the side door was big enough to fit the team through in two waves; the other option would be to scatter and hope only a few of us got picked off. I wasn't really fine with that.

The door opened and I focused on slowing time for my select few even more; It took some serious effort since they weren't prepped for it, and were already moving around. We stepped out into a street that looked like an earthquake hit; (I'd never say 'scene from Hell' again to describe anything on Earth, since I'd actually visited Hell in my dreams) there were cars slammed into each other and buildings, a massive pileup that had to be twenty cars, and fire everywhere.

All of it was stopped for us, of course, though the fire might still burn us if we touched it; I hadn't fully stopped time for us and I wasn't sure how the interaction would work. I wasn't going to test it either.

The fire flowed to the transport almost lazily; it was easy to spot the roof our demon was using; an office building like many others, ten stories, the East corner near a fire escape. Sort of ironic, after a fashion. I watched the fire streak slowly over my head... and hit the inside of the transport through the door I hadn't closed. Whoops.

The slow motion explosion was a terrific sight to behold, the steam blossoming into petals of outstretched fire - but I'd left my tablet in there.

Grex was by my side, moving as fast as I was. I tapped him too. “Grex, go kill that demon.”

One of his eyebrows lifted, but his wings came out and he pushed off. Almost forgot! “And don't cause the death of any bystanders either, through action or inaction!”

I was more careful than most; I could afford to be.

Grex waved to show he understood and hit the roof just as the demon, a Baal-rog, judging by the size and the ugly, began to react to us not being where he thought we were. I stopped watching the fight that promised to be one-sided and looked for my team; I found them huddled behind cover and beginning to fan out; Judge and Aims both were already looking for lines of sight on the roof, to crossfire it.

Sarah looked over and yelled, the noise carrying over what amounted to loud white noise; all other sources of sound were slower than we were but not stopped. It was hard to tell what was what, really.

What Sarah yelled was pretty obvious, though. “Snow, move! The transport is going!”

Right, direct hit to its insides, and it had combustibles. I resisted the urge to looked back and check the progress of any explosion and settled on running. Good thing I had so much practice at it; I ducked behind a crumpled car just as it finished going up, spraying debris everywhere.

Note to self, design some wards to protect the interiors of those vehicles too. Provided I survived; that fire was hot.

I began to run out of gas, time for all of us returning for normal. I just let go and let it happen for everyone but Grex, since the rest of us were now behind cover. For some reason trying to speed up multiple people was much harder than speeding up one, or even an area, and left me panting. The stupid earrings I could feel burning away my ears didn't help.

I didn't realize my mistake until I'd already released my own time dilation; my own cover protected me nicely from the burning vehicle I'd just ran from, but did almost nothing to protect me from certain angles of the roof the demon was on. The stream of fire I had to roll away from was a big clue that I hadn't really needed.

Hm, wait, that wouldn't have hit me, at least not directly. I'd have survived with only horrible and potentially disfiguring burns. My eyes traveled up and met those of Grex, who was currently bending the arm that had been used to aim the fire at me in new and interesting directions. I gave him a thumbs up on my way to new cover.

A moment later Grex beat me to the cover I'd chosen, slamming into it back first with some snaps I didn't like the sound of. At least the rapid smothering had put the fire out. Mostly.

I ducked behind another car as Grex clambered to his feet, and opened my mouth to call the twins, my new ace in the hole. The more the merrier, as far as I was concerned. Grex, sped up or not, unholy stamina and endurance or not, was clearly already getting the worst of the exchange; there was something about that fire....

Other than it started to rain down on the street, that is. A veritable shower of flame which melted steel and pitted concrete. I focused through my jewelry, raising the shielding abilities of my robe and extending it to the street, slowing time in the area at the same time, fatigue be damned. Maybe I could give the civilians enough time to get out of their wrecked cars if I just pushed hard enough.

Even as time started to slow I saw my team with Sarah in the lead; she shot out a storefront window and dove in, the others following suit. I didn't see Judge among them.

“You fools!” a voice boomed. “I am Verborax, one of the generals of the lord of the pit himself! You stand no chance against my hellfire, granted me by Lucifer himself!”

And if anything the shower got more intense; so bad I couldn't ignore it. My team had the right idea, as much as it galled me; if I went down the demon would just continue to kill people, pretty much completely unopposed. And the intensity of his attack was such I wouldn't lay money on anyone else being able to beat him. I'd have to take a personal hand, again, which had been happening too often lately.

At least my team probably wouldn't see this.

I pulled an earring out of my ear. Instantly, the strain of trying to do too much eased, and I let my wings burst from my back. Some modification to my robes mean they didn't rip or tear when I did this, just accommodated them; the spell calculations made my head hurt, but long strips of cloth simply ceased to exist in the same timeline as my wings, so when one set existed, the other set didn't.

A quick focus of my shield and I was airborne, the fire actually pushing back against me and making flight difficult. I needed to practice this more. I needed to find a place to practice this more, without getting outed.

The demon saw me, of course. How could one miss a winged robed figure gliding through the sky directly at them? I expected more flame, but instead he grabbed Grex by the head and threw him at me.

With a wince, I dodged and let him sail past, keeping my eyes on the self-styled general. Sorry Grex, you aren't going to die from that and your sacrifice will be remembered.

Verborax himself was a large guy, red and roided. Maybe he lifted in hell? He had two large horns on either side of his head just above his ears, and jagged teeth. He stood at probably fifteen feet tall, and wisps of flame sprouted from him in random patterns, as if he made of charcoal briquettes. He was bald of course, but the waves of fire wreathing his head might well double as hair for him. And for someone wearing human form, he was somehow ugly beyond belief; I'd seen imps cuter than him.

That's probably a bad way to phrase that, even in my own head.

I drew my knife and sped up, closing in. The general couldn't quite meet me, but the flame came literally exploded forth from him in all directions, and even with time slowed almost to a crawl for me there was just no way to get close without dying. That was the feint though; he had to at the very least understand me for my real attack to work – but would it work? He was a general in hell, somewhere; no demon would claim that if it weren't true. Well not and live long, anyway. More importantly, he had the power of one, which may mean he outranks me. Only one way to find out.

I eased my power again, just enough for conversation to be understood, and put all my force, all my weight, behind my voice.

“Verborax, you're relieved. Go back to Hell, and do not come here again unless summoned.”

He understood immediately, but today was clearly not the day for all my hard work and practice mastering that trick to pay off. What he did next confused me, though.

He saluted and replied, almost conversationally in what just missed being an inside voice. “Mistress, I hear, but cannot obey; one who outranks you has commanded me. And so, we must fight. But know that I bear you no ill will.”

Then he looked down at the street and roared. “The same cannot be said of the maggots down there! Die, you scum!”

And with a whoosh, more fire. I was a bit busy trying not to get my wings burned off to do much. Grex and I had practiced fire before, but never this much of it, and never this hot. I was beginning to see why this kind of demon 'outranked' Grex. I doubted the twins would even be able to do anything here. This was looking to be more natural disaster than fight.

Which was why it was a little anti-climactic when the sword came from nowhere and split Verborax completely in half, finally coming to a stop buried in the roof to its guard.

The hilt was glowing a pure white that hurt the eyes, and the being that came hurtling out of the clouds to land with force enough to buckle the roof slightly matched that. It grasped the hilt of the sword, pulling it free, and then kicked and spat on the dissolving corpse.

“Foul beast. Did you think we would not notice your kind, even here?”

He looked up, to me, and his eyes narrowed. “And you. What are you doing? Your enemy stands before you, and you do not summon your raiment? Your sword? Why do you toy with this one? Are you somehow injured?”

His own glow diminished a bit as he sheathed his sword, a truly massive two-handed thing, and I could finally see clearly enough to make out plain plate armor of an odd style over a fit body, the blonde hair, and the two bleached white glowing wings. Wings that no demon I'd ever met had.

The angel took off, flying closer. “Answer, now. Or are you addled?”