The weather in Hell never really changed much. Lord Morgane's artificial sun never even set, which made the Nameless City a perpetually uncomfortable and arid environment. But even as the endless sun beat down on her back from the pinnacle of the dark castle of Nagarais, Gwen couldn't help but smile. The sun was too hot, she could hear gunfire and screaming no more than a block away, and the ice in her iced coffee had already melted, but the woman sitting on the other side of her table, the beautiful creature sipping her coffee, with her T-shirt falling off one shoulder, her tail swishing gently behind her, and her clever, chocolate-brown eyes peeking at Gwen from above the brim of that coffee, she made it impossible to complain. Gwen had no doubt that Angelisia's very existence made today a perfect day.

"Do I have coffee on my lip?" Angi finally asked, breaking her girlfriend's stupor.

"Huh, oh, no! no you're good I was just, just... Uh..." Gwen trailed off, unable to craft a reasonable excuse as Angi's shoulders shook lightly with giggles.

"Don't worry darling," Angi smiled broadly, leaning forward out of her chair as her cat-like eyes sparkled with mirth. "I would be disappointed if you weren't staring. After all," Angi lowered her voice to a tantalizing volume, "What are anniversaries for?"

Gwen blushed as Angi leaned back and crossed her legs onto her chair so she was sitting crisscrossed as she looked down at her lap and took another sip of coffee, looking the picture of innocence.

"But, of course," she said from behind her cup, "there will be plenty of time for that later; for now, let's just enjoy," Angi's brown eyes met Gwen's over her coffee once again, "tastier things."

Gwen's blush faded, smiling as she leaned back and took a sip of her own, now warm, coffee, knowing full well that Angi's comment was not directed solely at their drinks, and enjoying thinking of the alternate possibilities, when Benjin walked up to their table. The rose colored Incubus was the youngest of the three brothers that owned and staffed The Lucky Girl, the coffee shop Gwen and Angi were currently enjoying. Despite his age, Benjin stood taller than both of his older brothers, although his horns were smaller. He wore a simple blue T-shirt and jeans under a leather apron.

"Hello, my dears," he said, smiling and holding his empty tray behind his back with both hands. "How's my favorite couple this fine morning?"

"Wonderful Benjin," Angi grinned back. "There's no doubt, we're lucky girls. Your drinks are delicious as always."

Benjin smiled and opened his mouth to answer but whatever he might have said was drowned out as a blinding light flashed in Gwen's vision and the metal table between them all exploded in a burst of fire and shrapnel.

***

All Mira wanted was a latte. A latte, to help her enjoy a peaceful day off. She had given both of her lieutenants the day off to celebrate their first anniversary so was it too much to ask for her to take it off too? It wasn't as if she had an official office anyway. The Trifecta had many allies, and Mira's territory was large, but she mostly left her underlings to their own devices. In exchange for her protection, they did her favors from time to time; The Lucky Girl, for example, gave her a free drink and breakfast every day, and her other servants agreed not to fight with each other. Beyond that, though, the lot of them, largely, had free reign, so unless one of them was attacked Mira could take however many days off she wanted. So why did The Lucky Girl have to be attacked today?

Just as Daerion was handing her her warm and relaxing latte, Mira saw the light flash outside the café window. The explosion erupted from below the table faster than most demons in the coffee shop could turn their heads, and it wasn't just any table being cloaked in fire. It was her table. Both of her lieutenants, the pillar and blade of her trifecta, were being bombed. Mira's instincts kicked in immediately, and before she even understood what was happening she had flown across the shop, crashed through the shop window, tackled both Angi and Gwen along with the youngest of the Lucky Girl brothers, and enveloped them all in her inky black wings as the heat of the flames rushed over them.

As the four of them huddled on the ground surrounded by dark feathers, two more explosions went off behind them, presumably from inside the café, but there was a reason Mira never used the full extent of her wings. Moving so quickly made her wings shudder with exertion and caused her chest to constrict like a vice around her lungs. It was all she could do to keep her wings manifested to protect her less durable friends from the flames, and she could barely keep her breathing steady doing that. As the fire continued to eat at her back and Mira felt her feathers starting to burn, she knew there was no way she would be able to fly again for days after this, let alone get everyone out of the building by herself. So she waited breathlessly, covering her friends with her body and wings as pain blazed across her spine. Finally, when the heat subsided and Mira was confident the explosions had ended, she unfurled her wings and rose shakily to her feet along with her companions.

"Oh hey boss," Angi groaned as she stood and examined her burns. "Are you alright?" It was a silly question considering the state Angi was in herself. The succubus was uninjured but her raven hair was singed and covered in ash, her arms and legs were covered in minor scrapes and bruises from when Mira tackled her, and her clothes were smoking in various places. Her girlfriend was in a similar state. Benjin too was badly scraped but aside from also being unconscious he seemed well enough. 

Mira chuckled, but the action crushed her still aching chest and it came out more as a cough. "I heal fast," she finally replied, grimacing as she straightened to her full height and the burns on her back stretched with her. The fire had burned the back of her shirt into oblivion and most of her skin with it so that her aching and tender wings were basically the only things keeping what was left of the shirt from falling to the ground. But keeping her wings out wasn't a valid option. If she tried, the pain would definitely cause her to pass out, so Mira folded her wings back onto her back and then magically shrank them back into her skin as she magically hid them within her flesh. They still hurt terribly, but not as much as they had when exposed, and she knew they would heal faster if she left them hidden for a few days. Besides, no one could complain that her shirt collar was hanging too low after watching her dive into an explosion. Only an idiot would criticize her outfit anyway, considering her position in Hell. But by that logic only a lunatic with a death wish would try to assassinate any soul under her ownership, let alone her lieutenants! Or blow up her favorite café! What kind of psycho would burn down a perfectly good coffee shop!

The afterthought of the café reminded Mira of the other two explosions, and she whirled to look at the building behind her, ignoring the searing pain in her back as she cursed and raved at the state of it.

***

Out of the three members of The Trifecta, Angi was the most level-headed, but even she was white knuckling her pants trying not to scream as Mira and Gwen flung curses and punches at nothing and everything in every direction. The Lucky Girl was gone, lost in the sounds of crackling flames, burning wood and splitting beams as the whole building folded in on itself before them. Angi's favorite café was now little more than one of Hell's many bonfires. Thankfully, most of the patrons, including Benjin's two older brothers, had rushed out to help after the first explosion, so the casualties had been minimal. It was an unusually gracious reaction in Hellish culture, but thanks to Angi’s efforts Mira owned the souls of most of those present, so Angi imagined that they had reacted out of fear for the penalties of not helping their lady rather than any real sense of selflessness.

That was as it should be. Mira was The Angel of Sin, one of the few Angels of Hell. She was magnificent. She had just saved Angi from certain death, and even with her shirt in tatters and her back burned red she was still beautiful. Mira had a perfect body, Angi had always known it, but now it was impossible to ignore as the light of the fire silhouetted the demoness' enthralling physique. Mira's green eyes always promised entertainment, and the flecks of the indigo within them added an alluring sense of magic to her face, even when her chaotic, dirty-blonde hair concealed them. And her skin! The unburned portions of Mira's legs, arms and chest were colored with a delicious golden tan. Angi licked her lips. Mira's shirt was little more than a bra after being burned so badly, it would be so easy to take it off…

Angi bit her lip and shook her head. No! No no no! Angi had a girlfriend. Her name was Gweny, and she was standing right next to her scraped and bleeding. She should be focusing on her, not ogling her boss. Angi quickly snapped her head to the right and gazed at her partner. Gwen's clothes were almost more tattered than Mira's, which, Angi had to admit, helped tremendously in blocking out Mira's miasma. As the full-blooded child of both the Sin of Lust and the Sin of Envy, Mira had inherited her parents’ ability to influence the emotions of lesser creatures, but unlike her parents, her aura was influenced by her emotions, and her control over it was limited.

When she focused on it, Mira had stunning control of that aura and usually kept her miasma in check when she wasn't using it, but whenever she lost that focus, the people around her randomly began to feel overwhelmingly lustful or jealous emotions towards her, depending on their unique personalities. Angi had long ago found that Mira's aura always made her extra salacious, and although her daily exposure to Mira gave her a noticeable resistance to that effect, she wasn't immune. So Angi had developed a simple technique to counter her friend's magic whenever it became too much. If Angi ever caught herself gawking at her boss, she thought of her girlfriend. Gwen's deep blue eyes, the eyes that had always looked at her like she was the only girl in the world. Her icy gray skin, that was always warm to the touch, and her golden-blonde hair that she refused to tie back no matter how much it tickled Angi's face. That was the face of the woman she loved, and nothing could ever change that.

With one last shake of her head Angi finally managed to disentangle her own emotions from the ones Mira was forcing upon her. She looked up and glanced between her companions, both of whom were still street fighting with imaginary ghosts, and the crowd of practically drooling demons that surrounded the three of them. Even Gwen was beginning to mindlessly curse at Mira along with everything else. Unlike Angi, Mira's aura had always drawn out Gwen's jealousy rather than her desire. Luckily Angi had a quick fix for that too. Without another thought Angi walked up to Gwen spun her by the arm to meet her gaze and kissed her in the street.

"You're perfect to me. There is nothing in the world I want that you do not have," Angi whispered, smiling and watching the magical emotions drain from Gwen's face as her girlfriend hummed in her embrace.

Angi allowed herself a fleeting moment of enjoyment and another quick kiss before pulling away from her partner and walking over to Mira. The seething daughter of sin had fortunately stopped pacing, although she was still angry enough to scare even the most heavily enamored demons of her magically intoxicated crowd away from her. So Angi could easily walk up behind her as she took a hair band off of her wrist – she always carried a few extra – and began to ball Mira's hair up in a bun, away from the raw skin on her back.

"Mir Mir," Angi soothed as her friend quieted and began to come back to her senses. "Please take a breath, we won't accomplish anything if you," Angi hesitated, looking for the right word before finally saying, "incapacitate, all your servants."

Mira made a harsh coughing sound Angi chose to believe was a laugh as she finished securing her friend’s hair. Then Mira closed her eyes, and Angi sighed, as she felt the aura of the Angel of Sin lifting from her mind. She watched the crowd blink, straighten, and finally begin to dissipate as it did.

"Oh Angi," Mira whispered, her voice was hoarse and it reminded Angi of when Mira had drunk one of Charlotte Hellfire's fire-breathing martinis. "What would we do without your level head?"

"Our cool-headed little lynx." Gwen smiled, coming over to join the pair and ruffling Angi's hair. Angi poked her in the ribs, which made Gwen yelp, pull away, and then hiss as she moved too fast.

"They call you lynx too ya know!" Angi shot back giggling and ruffling Gwen's fluffy blonde ears for emphasis.

"Ahh that's true!" Gwen shot back before lowering her voice and whispering. "But nobody also gets to call me kitten."

Angi blushed hysterically. "Only you get to do that." she huffed, glancing in the opposite direction as she refused to dignify Gwen's playful smirk, or acknowledge Mira's raised eyebrow and poorly hidden intrigue.

"Alright lovebirds." Mira interrupted, "I'm sorry to postpone your anniversary, but I just saved you from certain death, so you have zero room to complain when I order you both to find whoever did this or whoever put them up to it and bring them to me."

"Of course, my lady." Angi and Gwen replied in unison, and a single glance told Angi that they were both just as eager to catch whoever had done this as Mira. Besides, they had no right to argue with her about it. They were the most qualified for the job, and Mira was obviously in no state to hunt them herself. But  Angi was still concerned about their massive lack of evidence. The explosions and succeeding fire had already destroyed all but the bare-bones foundation of The Lucky Girl, and it was still burning.

"Um, Boss," Angi began, gesturing at the ruins of the coffee shop and the scorch mark that minutes ago had been her table. "Where do we start? There's nothing left to investigate."

"That's not entirely true," Mira grinned. Now that her aura had dissipated and was no longer clouding her mind, Angi could see just how badly she had been hurt. The burns on her back were obviously awful, but the front half of her body was also scraped and bruised pretty badly, and blood was leaking from her mouth. She had undoubtedly taken the brunt of the damage between the three of them.

"You think regular fire..." Mira stopped, interrupted by a fit of coughing, and groaned as she wiped the resulting blood from her face. "Could do this to me? I might not be my parents, but I'm still hellish nobility. Only hellfire could burn me this badly, and there is only one creature in the city right now that can naturally produce that kind of fire."