For a computer expert, Cords was crap at games. I mean, I'd expected at least some competition on one of the games we played - but he wasn't. I wasn't God's gift (heh) to gaming by any standards, but I beat him at every game we tried. I would even have suspected him of throwing, if he wasn't equally as bad when fighting people online and clearly angry about the fact, though he showed none of it with me.

Even now the memory of last night was a nice one. Girls weren't good at video games, my snowy ass. I stretched carefully; there was less pain this morning, but everything felt tender.

Well, less pain everywhere but my head, but I could deal with it. As long as there was no blood or CSF on my pillow, and there wasn't, I was in good shape pain or not.

The television was on, and on the nature channel. "Grex, why are you here?"

"Your protection of course. Why wouldn't I be here?"

"Didn't I tell you to go home?" I could have sworn I had.

"No, you did not." Grex replied as I finally made it to the living room.

Well, that was clear - no room to twist the truth in that statement. "Fine."

It wasn't like it really mattered; Grex could stay out for a week by this point and it wouldn't drain me. But that wasn't the real concern; but while he was in a truthy mood...

"Did you do anything I wouldn't approve of last night, had I known about it?"

"I neither left the apartment nor took any action you would disapprove of. I stayed here in your apartment and watched television. I did pace, twice; exactly twenty-seven steps. I also took the liberty of making myself some tea. I trust you do not disapprove? You have not before."

"I do not disapprove."

Grex rose and swiftly moved, his hands supporting me, and I realized I'd been leaning against the doorway for a little too long.

Soon enough I found myself laying on the couch. This wouldn't do - I needed to get some exercise in before I went nuts. Maybe when the pain meds kicked in. Yeah, that sounded like a plan. I'd go jogging later, without swinging my arms.

"Wait, we didn't move last night, did we? We're still..."

Grex picked up the verbal ball I dropped. "On Earth, yes. Your will never wavered, even while you dreamed."

Good to know.

"Alight, go make me coffee and breakfast under the usual rules and stipulations."

I had no idea if an order like that would work, but I did know a nice ritual to test my food with.

Grex stared at me piercingly a moment, then shrugged. "You're getting lazy, my Mistress. See that you do not before others; I hear and obey."

Well, that was two parts ominous and one part creepy - a step up from the usual half and half.

"Right, I'll be less lazy when my head stops hurting." Now, why did I try to play for sympathy against a being that literally has none? My brain was more scrambled than I thought.

Breakfast came back, and I tested it while Grex looked approvingly on and declared me "Not entirely devoid of sense."

The food, drink, cutlery, and plates all came up devoid of contaminants or poisons of any kind, so I saluted Grex and downed the coffee.

Success, I didn't immediately die.

I changed the channel and smiled when Grex growled at me. He needed to learn all about the ancient aliens anyway, and that one dude with the wild hair was always funny. Demons were really aliens, indeed.

Soon enough Grex and I were both laughing. "This is what passes for scientific rigor among humans now?" He asked me.

I wiped tears from my eyes. "Only the stupid ones."

"So, I suppose I should take you to my spaceship then, take you for a ride to the outer planets, perhaps?"

That would be amazing. "You know, I'd like that. Can you pull it off?"

Grex pondered that a moment. "I could take you to an outer planet. That is if you wish to go. Such an effort would drain me, however, and your continued survival would be up to your own power; there are limits, even for our kind."

Well, that was out then, there was no way I'd survive a journey to those planets as a tender little human, even jumped up as I was. Cracking concrete with my head was one thing, but crushing interstellar forces were quite another thing to survive.

"I guess we better leave the vacation home on Saturn alone then, at least for now."

I was kind of tempted to abuse my power and see if I could glimpse the future; I already knew the past and future was off limits personally, as I could affect the flow of time but not the direction of it. But there had to be a way to manage to see the future.

"Hey, Grex."

Grex looked over from where the wild-haired guy was giving another 'maybe it was possible' example of ancient aliens being demons, the wide smile still on his face. "Yes, my Mistress?"

"Has anyone ever figured out how to read the future with our powers?"

Grex's smile slid from his face. "I wondered how long it would take you to ask; I must say I expected this question before now."

Great. "Glad to prove I'm an idiot. What's the answer?"

"The answer is no, none have been able to discern the future with our power thus far, though there have been no shortage of those who attempted the task."

Then there was a good chance my approach wouldn't work. Whatever approach that was. Leaving dilated notes to myself wouldn't work, for example, because time would only slow around the note after it was written; I could only change the flow, not the direction. The best I could do at the moment was speeding up my own reactions or stopping time completely. Perhaps a combination of the two? No, at best that would lead to post-cognition and not precognition.

Would post-cognition be worth it? Would it implode the world if I found out about something through writing myself a note rather than simple investigation? Would it cause a paradox somehow? Sometimes I hated my power; it sucked because trying to figure it out broke my brain. I guess it was a plus that I cared. Actually, come to think of it....

"Grex, why don't you do any of this? The things I'm thinking of; if you did the war would be over, reality itself would probably implode or the Earth would vanish or something; isn't that something you demons want?"

Grex sighed. "The end of all existence is not something we desire. We simply desire the death of humanity."

Right, the whole 'we hate you because God loves you' argument. Familiar ground between us, by this point. "You really need to stop holding us responsible for the mind of God and get over it."

Grex showed me his teeth. "You ask the impossible, Mistress. However, I will admit you are more... tolerable company than the pathetic poo-flinging primates you associate with."

I showed off my own teeth right back at him. "Gee, thanks."

Grex nodded gracious acceptance of my feelings. "Besides all that, most of us, myself included, don't do self-sacrifice. It is one of the many foreign ideas which fascinate us about humanity."

Good to know our capacity to suicide by demon surprised him; it certainly surprised me.

Well, whatever. I levered myself up carefully. "Time to be doing something then Let's go for a jog."

Grex replied immediately. "I do not think that is one of your better ideas, my Mistress."

His look alone told me how good an idea he thought it was. "It should be fine unless I ram my arm into a wall or something. I'm not going to sit here on the couch and let my butt go flabby; I worked too hard to get into shape."

Grex's answer was as dry as a desert breeze. "I think you can go without jogging a few weeks, follow your doctor's advice, and try not to aggravate your injuries. Unless you feel now is a good time to heal our way?"

It wasn't a good time for that, and he knew it. With Karen and Cords showing up here at least every other day, I had to appear as normal as possible. Well, as normal as possible for a summoner at any rate.

It was a bit off-putting that no one from my team had come to visit me, but I would survive.

I went into my bedroom to change, shutting the door in Grex's face. Putting on my jogging suit was a chore; normally I wouldn't even use the darn thing since a t-shirt and pants served well enough, but it was easier to just pull the jogging pants on with one arm.

The sports bra one-handed took far longer than I'd hoped, but I managed... mostly.

A little bit of jogging in place to test things, and I felt... weird. I opened the door to find Grex literally standing up as if he had been pressed against it and moved him out of the way. My debit card and my keys went into a pocket (Because of course who would buy a jogging suit without pockets?) and I was ready.

I made it as far as the lobby; my surroundings started spinning in a slow yet grand manner. The wonderful smell of specialty coffee drew me off my normal beaten path to the lobby shop; that was my story, and I was sticking to it. From the looks of things, Grex already knew anyway.

At least he didn't say anything more than: "Perhaps a walk?"

That actually sounded like a decent compromise; a walk did not pose the same risk of slamming my brain into my skull that jogging seemed to, or whatever was going on. More brain damage I did not need, I was already stupid and crazy enough.

I finished my coffee, threw away the empty, and was on my way. The outside air was clean and fresh, the birds were chirping, even the squirrels were up to their usual antics. I watched one get run over by morning traffic; there was undoubtedly a moral in there somewhere, but I'll be darned if I knew what it was.

The lack of robe made a difference; I got a few stares, but the public at large didn't exactly avoid me. At least some of those stares were lust filled unless I missed my guess, but I didn't hang around to check; I had nowhere to be at the speed of light and Grex probably did something to make sure the amorous minded didn't pursue. But then again, he wasn't getting many stares either, so maybe he was behaving himself.

The entire walk would have been better if I'd had a destination, but an hour of aimless walking was probably enough to keep me from falling apart at the seams. I wasn't about to try the normal army PT calisthenics anymore.

Then I realized I'd forgotten my phone, and headed back. The sun was bright and hot and I really should have put on some sunscreen; I knew that since boot camp I tended to burn instead of tan. Perhaps it wouldn't be that bad. Perhaps if I did burn, the burn would heal like everything else. I did not see any sign of my new nemesis, the demon angel.

Once back in the safety of my apartment I plopped on the couch. My phone had two missed calls and one text, and I sent back texts to assure my Mother, Father, and Cords that I was fine. As I finished that, my phone rang, and wonder of wonders, it was Sarah.

"Hey Snow, sorry about not checking in earlier but we've been busy here and Cords told us you were fine. How are you holding up?"

"Going stir crazy of course, but other than that and a little vertigo this morning I'm fine. How're things at the office? No one else on sick leave, are they?"

"Quit worrying, everything is fine. The Captain has us all busy patrolling and helping out with looking for professor Crazy's confederate, but no one else has gotten hurt since you. The cops injured in the explosion are mostly fine, minor injuries all around, and we haven't seen a demon since you were attacked."

"Professor Crazy?"

I could hear the half-hearted shrug over the phone. "That's what we nicknamed the perp we caught since he keeps raving in German or Polish or whatever. None of us can really make heads or tails of it, and that includes those of us who speak the language and the translators. We haven't been able to make an I.D."

"That's a shame. I forwarded my own thoughts to Karen, but I don't think I'm supposed to talk about them until I'm cleared by I/A."

"Yeah, don't worry about it, I just wanted to catch up and see how you were doing for myself. If I have time later, you mind if I stop by?"

Even better. "Not at all, I'll be here. Already got my exercise and now it's paid couch potato time."

"Lies," Sarah laughed. "you don't know how to relax. Alight got to go; no promises, but I'll try to show up later."

"I'll make coffee just in case. Talk to you later."

She hung up. And now we played the waiting game. The waiting and thinking game, while watching crazy television.

Where could a relatively sane and sane looking summoner accomplice go? If the subject was a summoner too, why had no new demons popped up? Sarah did offer me new information - there was no way the perp in custody had the presence of mind to tie his shoes, let alone mastermind anything like the attacks we had suffered; they were too neat, the timing too perfect. whoever had planned it had known how we did things at the ADTF.

I doubted we summoners had a mole, that just made no sense at all and would be too dangerous besides, but maybe a former ADTF, from here or another city? What could possibly be the motive? A former summoner, one whose contract had ended but still knew the rules? There weren't many of either, to be honest, and all of those that were still alive were on file; all former personnel were made to register upon the end of their 'career' and tracked until the end of their days. Knowing who was in town was only a few mouse clicks away on the secure work PC's.

It would have to wait in my case of course, and I had no doubt that others were already working this. This wasn't even my first time thinking it, and I was hardly a genius. But there was something else to consider; access files. I would be very interested to see the log of who has accessed those files recently, and if there were any deletions. There weren't supposed to be, but cops were kind of notoriously not tech-savvy.

Sometimes cliches were based on truth.

I wrote all my observations down... in code. No sense getting fired or worse for apolitical opinions. Then I got desperate for something to do again, something to take my mind off things.

"Grex, go get the board games."

We were on our second game of Monopoly when someone knocked on the door.While Grex went to answer the door I fought my temptation to tinker a bit with my board position. Things were not going well.

Cords was in the hallway, a handful of posies in one hand and a vase in the other.

"Monopoly? Really?"

I shrugged. "Not much else to do. Grex, make some coffee please."

Grex reversed course silently with a sour look on his face.

Cords didn't notice. "Heck with it, deal me in."

"I'm not sure I can just deal you into a game already in progress."

"Then call this one and start over, I want to play too."

Now that I could do. "Grex, you officially won game two!" I started resetting everything as he came back in.

"Thank you, Mistress," He called back.

"Hmm, you are the thimble and Grex is the car... I'll take the top hat then." Cords plunked the counter down.

There was another knock on the door. "Grex answer that please."

The new visitor was Sarah, who stopped short upon seeing Cords sitting on the couch."Cords? How did you get here so fast?"

Cords leaned back, nonchalant. "I broke a few traffic laws. How about you?"

Sarah's eyes narrowed as she smiled. Something was up. "Same here actually, but last I knew you hadn't clocked out when I left. Seems you still got it, or something."

"Something like that; I wasn't aware you were on your way here or I'd have offered you a ride. Well, that or bummed one; I'm all about saving gas money and the environment."

Sarah Shrugged. "Your loss. So, monopoly?"

I had to confess. "I know It's lame, but it seemed like the thing to do at the time."

"Deal me in, I'll take the shoe."

I fished the shoe out of the box and put it at the start while Cords counted out the money. Hey, if he wanted to play bank I wasn't going to argue; less work for me.

Grex came back and sat across from me on the floor, Cords took my right and Sarah pulled up a chair to my left. We rolled to see who would go first, and Cords won, which meant I'd be going second.

As he rolled I asked: "so anything new going on with the case?"

Sarah shook her head. "Not a thing since this morning; we're still looking for the accomplice. Oh, and Charles is back on the job, healed and ready to go, so that's something. Helps with the manpower crunch at least."

That was good news. "Any new demon attacks?"

Sarah shook her head. "Not a one; not even a sighting. Whoever the accomplice is they don't seem capable of summoning demons themselves for whatever reason."

"Probably doesn't have another base; it can't be easy for them to set up a place to murder a dozen people or more without anyone noticing, especially us. There was something off about that warehouse; hopefully, we can piece together what it was."

I felt the sting of rebuke there. "Sure, blame the victim for the explosion."

His indignant sputter was more than a little amusing.

"Snow, that was mean," Sarah chided, with the grin she sported hinting at her true feelings.

I was smiling, at least until Cords put a handout. "Pay up."

I'd just landed on one of his properties. One of the more expensive properties in the game.

That was pretty much how the game went; I would never be able to live out my dreams of being a real estate baron or a rich mogul. Not only did I not win, I came in last behind people who hadn't played Monopoly in years.

After my brutal smashing, I begged off any further embarrassment in favor of sleep and Grex happily kicked my guests out the door. Sarah eyed him on the way out and gave me the hand signs for summoning a demon; essentially telling me to de-summon him. She was probably right considering he'd been out all day. I did have to figure out what Grex's problem with me having company was.

"Alright Grex, clean up and then go back to your home; I'm just going to go to bed."

Grex bowed deeply in response, as he liked to do when others were watching. "As you command my mistress."

A little odd. More than a little odd really, but a quick check with all my senses revealed nothing and no one out of the ordinary. So the only audience Grex was playing to was me.

I snagged my water on the way, threw my stupid jogging suit (that I'd never changed out of) onto the floor and jumped into bed. By climbing in carefully, of course.

I'd just settled in when I realized something. If the summoner was in jail he was in a very public place. Would the wards put in place to stop demon attack stop an angel attack? Did the angel read the paper or watch local news? If the angel was as up to date on current human advancement as Grex was, then there could be trouble.

Words failed me for a moment as I shot upright, but I found them. "Grex, veni huc!"