Southwest Days (Semiautomatic Sorceress Book 2) by Kal Aaron (ebook reader for manga .txt) 📗

wall from her couch. She was too spun-up to watch television, read, or do anything but think about the mine and the somehow larger horde that was lurking in it, waiting for her to come and wipe it out. There was nothing worse than having to rely on other people.

Antoine was right about her being a loner with issues, but a big part of being a Torch was solving problems when the next closest help might be hundreds of miles away. The thought of the monsters squirming underneath the mine and burrowing by themselves or with help churned her stomach.

“I should have gone back with more explosive rounds and blown a hole in the wall to make sure the first time,” she said. “Then we would have had more time to line people up. I screwed up.”

“Engaging them at that time would have proven dangerous, given what you now know,” Jofi replied. “It’s not too late, and Elder Samuel has no reason to deny you aid.”

Lyssa snorted. “But these bastards had time to breed more monsters. It might have been more manageable if I’d finished it that first trip.”

“You have no way of knowing that,” Jofi replied. “There’s no indication of rapid breeding from those creatures. There was a low number of eggs present. The lack of reinforcements also suggests the enemy didn’t intend their other forces to join the primary group. The most likely scenario would have been you being overwhelmed, running out of ammo, and dying either from the creatures or being crushed when you brought down the cave roof.”

“This whole setup bugs the hell out of me.” Lyssa shook her head. “I might have missed something, but mindless monsters don’t use secret doors, and we made plenty of noise to attract big ones to bash through. Either they weren’t there, or there was something set up to make sure they didn’t come through. I don’t know why, but I figure we’ll find out soon enough.”

“I often find the human obsession with understanding the reasons behind things misplaced,” Jofi replied. “The mere elimination of the threat is sufficient, whether or not you understand it. I, like you, would prefer the death of the rogue responsible, but it is unlikely the Sorcerer responsible will present himself, given you’ve returned more than once and haven’t seen him. I don’t see a logical reason for him to allow a significant number of his forces to be destroyed without opposition or to allow you to come and go freely and establish his strength.”

Lyssa snorted. “It turns out it’s debatable whether I did destroy a significant number of his forces during my first trip. If Antoine’s right, I didn’t destroy the majority.”

“It’s unlikely it was an insignificant amount. You also eliminated a queen.”

“But there might be two more.” She sighed. “I just want this to be over with. I don’t know if it has something to do with me or not, but this isn’t like the smugglers. This idiot is breeding those damned things and getting ready to flood an area with them. I don’t care about the PR angle, but I do care about the idea that a Sorcerer will be releasing monsters for some twisted reason that might involve a ritual. This is what Torches and Eclipses are for—to stop these kinds of plans. If we can’t stop this, we might as well not be Illuminated.”

“Could it be possible he’s doing it for simple amusement?” Jofi asked. “There might be no grand plan involved.”

Lyssa shuddered at the thought. “It’s not impossible, but that monster army represents a major investment of time and resources. There’s got to be something there other than death and destruction for laughs. It doesn’t make sense otherwise. The sheer scale of things is forcing more than one Torch to get involved, which means the chance of him surviving is lower if he is found and fights back.”

“If he survives, you can interrogate him,” Jofi said. “Until then, stopping the horde should be sufficient.”

“If he survives, yeah.” Lyssa frowned. “It’s hard for me to tell what’s real anymore. Ever since Oklahoma, all my bad habits have been magnified. I was half-convinced Bill was a secret assassin rather than just a guy interested in a woman on a bike.”

“Caution is always warranted, given your vocation,” Jofi replied. “From my understanding of what I’ve heard and others say, it wouldn’t be impossible that a man such as Bill is an assassin. One can be a professional killer without being a Sorcerer.”

Lyssa laughed. “Thanks for that. Now I’m going to go back to worrying about it the next time I see him.” She smiled. “They need to start a new spin-off of Sensual Sorceress called Gullible Sorceress, except this time, instead of the Sorceress being the fake, one or more of the guys are, and she’s got to find them.”

“Do you intend to star in this show?” Jofi asked. “Would other humans enjoy such a thing?”

“No, it’s a joke.” Lyssa snickered. “But maybe someone’s following me around with a hidden camera, filming the first season all cinema verité style. Forget Gullible Sorceress. They could call it The Semi-Automatic Bitch.”

Her phone rang and she pulled it out, pleased to see it was an unknown number. When the expected computerized female voice came over the line, Lyssa was ready. She spat her code and waited for Damien to speak.

She could use a distraction from worrying about the horde. More information on the rogue would be perfect.

“Is this a good time?” he asked.

“Yes,” Lyssa replied. “A great time. Please give me something good. Things are starting to move along, and I’m aching to close this out. If I could do that by wiping out the army and then going and taking down their master right after, it’d be great. It’d make my freaking year.”

“We all want this done,” Damien said.

“I’m guessing Samuel’s already informed you I’m requesting reinforcements to clear out the rest of the monsters,” Lyssa said. “You know that’s not something I’d