Southwest Nights (Semiautomatic Sorceress Book 1) by Kal Aaron (ebook reader for pc .TXT) 📗

my house in the middle of the day means someone might ask why an EAA agent is here, which could lead to me losing any chance of keeping my identity a secret. I’ve just started getting comfortable here, even if those HOA women keep sniffing around, asking me to participate in their stupid block party fundraisers.”

“Sorry.” Damien chuckled. “I’ll try to arrange a meeting elsewhere next time. There are complications to meeting at my office, and I’m still getting used to my new coworkers. Besides, we used to meet at your house before you moved.”

“I lived on a cul-de-sac with a bunch of trees and no one else around.” Lyssa rolled her eyes.

“I circled the block to make sure no one was watching.” Damien shrugged. “But sorry. You’re right. I apologize for any inconvenience.”

Lyssa waved a hand dismissively, not in the mood to let herself get angrier. “It’s fine. Just remember for next time.” She nodded at the couch. “Take a seat. Sorry about the lack of chairs. I’m getting some delivered soon.”

Damien watched her warily as he sat down. “You sure you’re okay? You were real spun up at Alvarez’s place.”

“It depends on what you have to tell me.” Lyssa sat down, not wanting to get too close to Damien. “I hope you didn’t come here empty-handed. I can let showing up in broad daylight at my house go, but I’m still irritated about the whole ambush thing and the EAA not having a clue.”

“You got out okay.” Doubt tinged Damien’s voice.

“Would you be fine with being shot at as long as you got out okay?”

“I see your point.”

Lyssa frowned. “I don’t mind going after shards or thugs using them, and it’s not like every rogue bit of sorcery out there needs to have an Eclipse sent to handle it, but I want to go in prepared whenever I’m hired.”

Damien nodded. “Fair enough. And let me make it clear: I don’t disapprove of how you handled yourself.”

His gaze lingered on her for a moment, an outright stare. Lyssa scooted farther away, her cheeks heating.

Why was he doing this? Not that she wasn’t flattered, but anything other than the job was way down the list right now.

“What?” she asked. “Something on my face?”

“No.” Damien looked away. “I’m so used to dealing with you as Hecate that I forget that’s not your face.”

“You don’t like my face?” Lyssa ran a hand over her cheek.

Damien shook his head. “You’ve got a great face. One I don’t mind looking at.” He grimaced. “I’m saying you’re not unattractive.”

“I’m not unattractive?” Lyssa asked. “Ouch. That’s the bare minimum praise.”

What the hell was she doing? She’d been pissed at him for flirting, and now she was?

“You’re attractive,” Damien sputtered. “Completely. Affirmatively.”

Lyssa tilted her head, unsure of how to respond to that. Damien had never said anything like that about her mask before, but he was right. Ninety percent of the time when they dealt with each other, she was dressed as Hecate the Night Goddess and sounded like a sailor who’d spent twenty years smoking.

Damien, in contrast, got to show off his handsome face whenever he wanted to. She wouldn’t say it was unfair, given the power granted by the regalia, but it did make the conversation awkward. She could understand how he might almost see Lyssa and Hecate as two different women.

“Okay.” Lyssa looked away. “Enough about my face. You’re here about the shards, right?”

Damien’s smile faded, and serious concern settled over his face. “Yes. I’ve been looking hard into the situation with Alvarez. We don’t have the deep personnel bench and resources in the local office that some of the bigger offices do, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have pull.”

“Okay,” Lyssa replied. “I’m glad to hear you’re doing your job, but I’d prefer to hear about the results.”

“How about information?” Damien asked.

“Same thing. I’ve quietly asked around on my own, but I’m still waiting to hear back.”

Damien looked down for a moment, his brow furrowed, before speaking. “I pressed a little deeper, and the mayor’s call for a Torch doesn’t seem like it had much to do with testing you out. I don’t think Lopez lied. I think he was fed a line.”

Lyssa hopped off the couch and pumped her fist. “I knew it!”

Damien eyed her with concern. “Yes, you were right that day. I checked into local procedures, and it’s clear that if they have any reason to suspect shards or Sorcerers, their first step is to coordinate with the EAA to request a Torch or an Eclipse.”

“And they didn’t do that?”

He shook his head. “That only happened because the mayor pressed the Chief, and he got the ball rolling. It didn’t come from the police side of things, which is where we’d expect it in this kind of situation.”

“Then why are you so sure this wasn’t just the mayor wanting to test his new pet Sorceress?” Lyssa asked.

Damien frowned. “I thought you were the one who thought all this was suspicious. I bring you evidence, and you’re trying to poke holes in it?”

“Don’t get me wrong; I’m completely dedicated to my paranoia hobby.” Lyssa folded her arms and flicked her wrist. “But I also want to make sure we’re following actual evidence and not phantom leads. It’ll make it easier when I need to ride somewhere to shoot someone.”

Damien blinked at her answer before nodding slowly. “I got my hands on an internal email from the mayor’s office. In it, the mayor references ‘a message from our friends at the Bureau’ before telling his chief of staff to get a Torch for any potential Alvarez raid. That email was written earlier that day, before Alvarez was spotted returning to his home.”

“Who are these friends at the FBI?” Lyssa asked.

“Nobody knows.” Damien shrugged. “I asked around the mayor’s office, and they’re arguing I misinterpreted the email, and I wasn’t supposed to have it anyway. They threatened to make a big stink about it. They also pointed out that hiring a Torch via