Southwest Truths (Semiautomatic Sorceress Book 3) by Kal Aaron (the red fox clan .txt) 📗

“Oh, well,” she said. “I wanted to get this over with anyway.”

Chapter Fourteen

Just before Lyssa got to her room, all the nearby lights died. That was downright insulting. After everything that had happened at the ghost town, she’d expected her opponent to know the basic facts about her. Trying to blind her with darkness was the least effective strategy she could think of, beating out using sinister shadow puppets to intimidate her.

She made it to her room without anything exploding or monsters bearing down on her. That was a good start.

Her heart rate kicked up. Her door was ajar. She couldn’t remember if she’d left it that way. The enemy might be waiting inside. It might be time to finish things.

Not having the time or patience to second-guess everything over the last few minutes, Lyssa threw open the door and swept back and forth with her guns, seeking targets. Nothing and no one confronted her. She must have left the door open, after all.

That was good enough for her. She ran over to her backpack, unzipped it, and stuffed magazines into her pockets, starting with her showstoppers.

She wanted to be ready for a long, drawn-out battle. Whoever was there should have taken her out before she got back in the room since now she could take on a whole mercenary army or a mine filled with monsters and come out victorious.

Lyssa hurried back outside, closed the door, and headed to the parking lot. Though she still had her wraith form up, she crouched behind a truck and peered around the area. A small number of people lay unconscious on the sidewalk and in the parking lot. She assumed everybody within the dome of darkness other than her was in a similar state.

That was useful. No one would run screaming into her line of fire. All she needed to do was be mindful of where she aimed her explosive rounds.

“More spirits are entering the area,” Jofi said.

“That explains how this guy is pulling off all these impressive spells, especially if he’s using shards, too.” Lyssa looked around, seeking a hint of a target. She couldn’t do much about non-materialized spirits, but she could put a nice bullet in the head of any spirit Sorcerer who showed up. After that, all she’d need to do was wait for his spirit friends to leave the physical world. An image popped into her head, a spirit Sorcerer she’d never met but who she’d seen on the memory card she’d recovered in Oklahoma. “I’m also really not liking where this is pointing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Lyssa frowned. “But it’s time to hide a little better. Might as well use a soul blanket.”

She chanted in Phrygian and visualized more sigils. A chill ran through her body, and she shivered.

“Can you still hear me?” she whispered.

“Our direct bond can pierce your soul blanket,” Jofi replied.

Lyssa chuckled. “It’s just been a while, and I needed to make sure. If this is mostly spirit crap, it’ll help until we have to go on offense.” She made a face. “I’m trying to figure out if I should make a run for it.”

“Do you think you can get through the barrier?” Jofi asked. “You seemed doubtful before.”

“Not sure.” Lyssa stared at the edge of the parking lot, where a wall of darkness marked the edge of the dome. “I don’t think it’s a giant forcefield, but I don’t like the idea of leaving people here when some psycho with spirits is wandering around. It might be worth the risk to draw this guy away from so many people.”

“You’re correct about its nature,” said a hollow, echoing voice. It was hard to tell if it was male or female.

Though Lyssa could hear it clearly, the voice wasn’t loud. She couldn’t tell if it was coming from a particular direction. It was similar to how Jofi spoke to her.

Lyssa gritted her teeth, wondering if she was dealing with another spirit rather than a Sorcerer. It didn’t seem likely. She doubted an untethered spirit would stalk her across the country or be able to hire different groups of mercenaries and assassins to go after targets. Most spirits also lacked Jofi’s intelligence and mental stability, let alone his ability to communicate.

“Can you hear that, Jofi?” she whispered.

“Yes,” he replied.

“Hey, whoever’s out there, can you hear me?” she asked, this time speaking at a normal volume.

“Yes, I can hear you,” the voice replied. “It’s taken me some effort to track you down. You did a good job of disappearing. I’m impressed. It’s been a while since I’ve had to put this much effort into tracking down a target.”

“I live to annoy, vex, and otherwise piss people off.” Lyssa looked toward her room. The dome and other spells continued to mask more sorcery, but she could sense an uptick in spells past her room and toward the pool. Ending the Sorcerer might end the dome.

The more she thought about it, the less the idea of running made sense. Getting out of the dome might not be hard, but then she’d be on the streets of Los Angeles with an enemy of unknown capabilities and ruthlessness. She wasn’t familiar enough with the area to know where to run to isolate her opponent. She also didn’t have eyes on the target, and he could kill countless people in the crossfire, assuming he didn’t execute everyone at the motel.

That left only one option. She needed to take him out there.

Lyssa raised her pistols and pointed them toward the pool, seeking a target. She didn’t spot anyone except the same unconscious people. There were plenty of places, including the nearby rooms, for a man to hide.

“What’s the deal?” she asked. “You’ve gone through a lot of effort to follow me, and you’ve done whatever the hell you’ve done to this place. There’s a plan here other than just killing me.”

“Spirits are swallowing the sound in this entire area,” the voice replied.