Semiautomatic Sorceress Boxed Set One: includes: Southwest Nights, Southwest Days, and Southwest Truths

by Kal Aaron

  Lyssa retreated behind the column as Aisha tossed another fireball her way. It exploded against the column and blasted out a small chunk. A blanket of heat wrapped around Lyssa. Aisha wasn’t playing around.

  “You won’t be able to hold back,” Jofi calmly noted. “She will kill you if this continues.”

  “Gee, thanks for the update, Great Spirit Lord of the Obvious,” Lyssa snapped. “But I have to play this smart. Her damned shield will take out my rounds before their spells can go off.”

  “Come now, Hecate,” Aisha shouted. “Are you going to let me roast you there without showing your face?”

  Two more fireballs chipped away at the column. By staying there, Lyssa risked Aisha blowing out the entire column and bringing down part of the roof. She was hoping the woman would be exhausted before she destroyed the building.

  A loud boom shook the room. Aisha jetted to the side, propelled by flames shooting out of her feet and gaining line-of-sight on her opponent. Lyssa sprinted toward the wall, trying to keep pace with Aisha’s rocket-girl act.

  One advantage of Lyssa not being obliged to use only sorcery in a fight was not having to worry about exhausting her power. The flashier the spell without a careful ritual, the more tiring it was. It didn’t take a lot of strength to pull a trigger.

  Lyssa fired a couple of times at Aisha but didn’t stop moving. The bullets didn’t make it through, but all they needed to do was throw off the aim of the other Sorceress.

  Fireballs sputtered toward Lyssa in an erratic line. Her quick movements kept them from hitting her. Even a second’s pause would end with her taking a direct blast. The attacks might be missing her, but their intense heat passed over her, a reminder of what waited if Aisha hit her.

  Lyssa continued her run, seeking out decent cover that could survive more than a single fireball. Aisha continued walking explosions across a concrete wall, leaving a trail of scorch marks.

  Aisha’s aim became less precise when Lyssa shifted to serpentine movement. Pallets near her exploded in showers of burning wood.

  Lyssa offered a silent prayer of thanks that the walls were concrete. She didn’t want to fight Aisha while they were trapped in a conflagration. There were already enough burning pieces of wood to give the flame Sorceress the advantage.

  This strategy couldn’t continue. Jofi was right; Aisha was going all out. Lyssa needed to repay her in kind. She also needed a couple of seconds to prepare.

  “Stop delaying the inevitable,” Aisha yelled. “There is dignity in accepting your death at my hands. I will listen to your end formally if you wish.”

  “How about a big no?” Lyssa called.

  She vaulted over a large yellow forklift. The machine took the brunt of the next few attacks before she landed in a roll and popped back up. She ducked, shoving one of her guns into her holster before reaching into a pocket.

  Quick ammo changes required good muscle memory, something Lyssa had taken advantage of in Las Vegas and was now taking advantage of in Midland. She brought along the same types of ammo on jobs, and each had its designated pocket.

  A magazine wrapped in red tape came out with her hand. She ejected the current magazine and reloaded her pistol in one smooth motion, caught the half-empty mag filled with normal bullets, and shoved it into another pocket. She never wanted a fight to be lost because she was out of ammo.

  Aisha stopped her Saturn V impression and dropped to the floor before launching another wide fire blast that spread over the side of the forklift. Her breathing had become ragged. “You can’t run forever, Hecate. It’s your poor luck. Darkness is nothing before light and fire. I’m a true Torch. I will burn the impurities from this world, starting with you.”

  Lyssa grimaced. Aisha sure liked to talk. Was that what she sounded like to the men she took down?

  “You’re insane,” Lyssa shouted. “This doesn’t have to happen.”

  “It has been inevitable since the days of our birth.”

  Lyssa popped up. Aisha was ready for her. A fireball ripped from her palm. A round from Lyssa went wide and struck the ground. The enchanted round exploded, staggering Aisha, but her fireball did its part by hitting Lyssa’s side.

  The blast knocked Lyssa to the floor and left a blackened hole in her shirt and her mesh vest red-hot. She grabbed the forklift and pulled herself off the ground, ignoring the pain in her side. She was glad she’d taken the time to mostly heal before heading to Midland.

  Aisha shook her head and raised her hands. Lyssa had already steadied her gun on the back of the forklift. Four lightning-fast trigger pulls placed explosive rounds in a square around the fire Sorceress.

  The explosions knocked Aisha about like a petal in a hurricane. She grunted, her mouth twisting in pain before she fell to one knee. With a shout of defiance, she shot off the ground, flames trailing from her feet and palms.

  “That’s annoying,” Lyssa shouted.

  Her follow-up shots missed. They struck high on a wall, raining concrete on the hard floor.

  Lyssa gritted her teeth. She’d known Aisha for years, and the flame Sorceress got better each time they fought. Before, it had always stopped at overenthusiastic sparring. Aisha might leave Lyssa no choice but to use her ultimate bullet, the showstopper.

  Fire rained from above. Explosions burst around Lyssa as she jerked, sprinted, and danced to avoid the attacks. Cement dust puffed up in clouds. Dark smoke drifted upward. She kept waiting for an alarm or a sprinkler.

  Lyssa replied with another four shots, making sure to count them. Her attacks missed the flying Sorceress and blew pieces out of the roof. Falling debris forced Aisha to dive toward the floor. Aisha’s fire shields could burn away all threats, but only so many and only so quickly. It was time to remind Aisha that bullets weren’t the only trick in Lyssa’s arsenal.

  She pointed a finger on her free hand and concentrated. A small inky cloud grew on the tip and shot toward Aisha. The spell struck the floor and expanded for several yards, swallowing both the Sorceress and one of her nearby lantern spells in a juddering mass of darkness.

  Lyssa allowed herself a triumphant grin. She’d hadn’t won, but she was forcing Aisha to meet her tempo.

  Repeats of the same spell cloaked that portion of the warehouse floor in impenetrable darkness but tired Lyssa. The blinded Sorceress’ eyes widened in concern as she jerked her head back and forth. Flaming jets blasted from her hands and feet and launched her into the air.

  Lyssa could see through the spell, thanks to her regalia. She followed Aisha’s flight arc with her gun and aimed for her landing spot, firing another exploding round.

  Aisha landed in a crouch, but Lyssa’s explosion sent her careening through the air. She landed hard on her back, her head cracking against the concrete. She cried out in pain.

  Lyssa boxed Aisha in again by shooting all around her. The combined blasts propelled Aisha into the air. She crashed to the floor again, bloodied, burned, and her regalia filled with tears and holes. The attacks had cleared out most of the darkness.

  After loading her last magazine of explosive bullets, Lyssa pointed her gun at Aisha. The other Sorceress stood, swaying, and wiped blood off her split lip. She extended her arm, and a blazing sword of bright white flame appeared.

  “I’ll die before I surrender to a degenerate like you, Hecate.” Aisha spat blood and gestured for Lyssa to attack. “You disgrace our kind by selling shards to criminal scum. You’re the opposite of what a Torch should stand for, friend. I’ll exchange my life for yours, so at least this travesty ends with you.”

  “Wait.” Lyssa kept her gun pointed at Aisha even as her mind swirled in confusion. “I’m not the one helping some gangster shipping service spew out shards to the entire Southwest. That’s you.”

  The anger on Aisha’s face remained, but she didn’t release her spells. “You’re claiming you don’t work for the scum?”

  “No!” Lyssa snorted. “Of course not. I came here on a tip from an informant to find the smuggler
s. Next thing I know, you show up and try and kill me.”

  “Why should I believe you?” Some of the arrogance had drained from Aisha’s voice.

  Lyssa grimaced. “Because it’s the damned truth, you crazy zealot. Now this is all making sense. I couldn’t figure out how you of all people would end up working for these bastards. I might have issues with you and your family, but I couldn’t buy that you’d smuggle shards with the help of Shadows.”

  “Why did you attack me then?” Aisha asked.

  “Because you were tossing fireballs at me,” Lyssa shouted. She groaned. “It’s called self-defense.”

  Aisha wrinkled her nose. The light of her flaming sword gave her a face a sinister cast. “A likely story.”

  “Think about it. Do you think I’d work for criminals? Or can you accept, for at least a few minutes, that you let your hatred run wild, and you made a bad call?”

  “Don’t trust her,” Jofi said. “That was lethal intent.”

  “I’m not happy about what went down,” Lyssa whispered, “but I’m not going to kill a Torch if she made an honest mistake. Well, a mistake, anyway.”

  Aisha was an annoying pest and had been from their first meeting ten years ago. The then-twelve-year-old Aisha had kicked the twenty-year-old Lyssa in the shin and called her a thieving cat. At the time, Lyssa had been as impressed as she was annoyed.

  That shin-kicking little girl had grown into a skilled young woman and a powerful Torch. When she wasn’t attempting to murder Lyssa, she was good at her job. They might never be friends, but they could at least be colleagues.

  Lyssa took a deep breath. Time to gamble with her life. She lowered her gun but kept her attention focused on Aisha, ready to dodge.

  Aisha watched Lyssa with suspicion before chuckling and waving her arm. The sword disappeared.

  “No’s one dead.” Aisha sniffed. “My mistake.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Lyssa holstered her weapon and stared, dumbfounded, at the other Sorceress. Relief warred with irritation and pain. “A mistake? You almost turned me into fried Hecate!”

  “Yes, and I stopped. You don’t have to be so petty about it. And I believe it would have been baked or roasted in this case. There was no oil involved.” Aisha smirked and wiped more blood off her mouth. “When I saw you here, I assumed you’d come with shards for the scum. You can’t blame me for how suspicious you looked.”

  “A mistake is drinking the last pop in the refrigerator without asking me. It’s not trying to kill me. You can at least say, ‘Hey, Hecate, I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions and almost killed you. Sorry I almost made you use a powerful obliteration spell.’”

  Aisha scoffed. “You wounded me. I wounded you. It’s your fault for interfering in my investigation and showing up at the exact place the criminals are using as a base. I’ll admit to jumping to conclusions, but given your family history, you can hardly blame me.”

  “Interfering with your investigation?” Lyssa glared at Aisha. “Has your heat finally fried your brain? I was assigned to investigate how the criminals in Phoenix got their shards, with an official EAA contract sanctioned by Elder Samuel. What, you think I have so little to do that I just decided to take a trip to Midland and roust criminals?”

  Aisha narrowed her eyes. She placed her hands on her hips and glared back at Lyssa. “I was assigned by Elder Theodora to investigate rumors of shard-smuggling out of Texas.”

  Lyssa ground her teeth. Torches technically didn’t have territories, though the Elders encouraged them to move around to ensure there was at least one within theoretical striking distance of most places of significant population and not too many in any one area. That had been one of the main motivations for Samuel’s suggestion that Lyssa move to Phoenix from San Diego.

  The Elders, however, did have distinct areas of responsibility, including the eight Elders assigned to North America. Samuel’s area included the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.

  The problem was where those territories met and overlapped. The Society only marginally cared about Shadow geopolitical lines, and it wasn’t as if Elders ruled their territories like medieval nobles. They were focused on the safety of the Illuminated in their territories and making sure that nothing was happening that might threaten the Society.

  An Illuminated who wasn’t a Torch or an Eclipse rarely had to deal with Elders. Theory implied Elders should be able to coordinate to handle problems.

  Lyssa had never been sure if that idea was aspirational or a way for ambitious Elders to excuse certain actions in border areas. From what she’d heard and read, this had been a problem back to the Post-Cataclysm years. A problem that wasn’t fixed after thousands of years was never getting fixed.

  Before M-Day, it’d been less of an issue. Torches were rarely deployed for needs outside of direct Society business, and there was more careful coordination. No one wanted to risk exposing the world of sorcery. Now, with Torches taking on Shadow threats, things had become murkier.

  Midland lay on the border of Samuel’s and Theodora’s territory. Lyssa could see where the mistake might happen, but there was one thing that bothered her about the whole situation—something that felt wrong on a deeper level.

  “And Theodora didn’t bother to mention it to Samuel?” Lyssa asked. “Or the EAA?”

  Had Samuel not bothered to mention it to her? It would make sense to have more than one Torch working a big, politically sensitive case, but Lyssa and Aisha had gotten in each other’s way because their Elders hadn’t told them everything. They had been lucky the night didn’t end with one less Sorceress in the world.

  Aisha shrugged, looking unconcerned. “This isn’t an EAA contract. This was an order directly from Elder Theodora. She preferred that the Shadows be kept ignorant about this, but I suppose you and Elder Samuel have made that difficult by involving the American government.”

  Lyssa hissed. Flagging adrenaline allowed the pain of her injuries to pierce her consciousness. Getting blasted by flame sorcery at close range was never enjoyable, even with her defenses. Smug demeanor aside, the cuts and burns on Aisha proved she wasn’t in much better shape, and they might need to be ready for more action soon.

  “You know what?” Lyssa threw a hand in the air. “Who cares? Now we know. We’re both working this case, and I know you like me about as much as a thieving cat likes water, but we both have the same goal in the end: stopping those shards from getting into the wrong hands.”

  Aisha tried to fold her arms but grimaced as she rubbed her wounds. “You have a point. It’s rare for you to have one, but I won’t deny anything you’ve said.”

  Lyssa reached into a pocket and pulled out her small baggie filled with painkiller petals. She put one in her mouth and swallowed before offering one to Aisha. “It’s not healing. It’s for pain. I’m saving the healing ones until I have a better idea of what comes next.”

  The other Sorceress eyed the petal with a faint frown before snatching it out of Lyssa’s palm and downing it with a delicate swallow. “It’s from your foster mother, I presume?”

  “Yeah.” Lyssa let out a sigh of relief as her aches faded. “I know you hate me, but at least you respect Tricia.”

  She realized the reason Aisha had dared to use her family name before. There was no reason to hide names if they were inside a sound shield. That reminded Lyssa of another open question.

  “Did you put the shard up there?” she asked, gesturing above.

  “No,” Aisha replied.

  Lyssa waved smoke out of her face and coughed. The fight had been short enough and there was enough concrete around to stop the area from burning out of control, but there were still crates and pallets on fire.

  “You going to do something about that?” Lyssa gestured at them. “They probably disabled the sprinkler so they can test shards that blow things up, but I’d rather not choke to death, and you’re not immune to smoke either.”

  Aisha raised her hands. She walked to
ward a burning crate. The flames flowed away from the crate toward her palms, leaving a charred, smoking mess. They formed a burning fireball in her hand before disappearing in a flash of light.

  She repeated the process until every fire was out, apart from a single lantern spell. With a flick of her wrist, she set it to orbiting her.

  “Wait.” Lyssa frowned. “I’m not trying to accuse you of anything, but how did you know about the sound-eating shard?”

  “I paid attention when I walked into this room from the front instead of sneaking in like you and not taking in my environment.” Aisha scoffed, this time successfully folding her arms. “This is the worst part about you, Corti. You always act as if I’m a fool. I’m a trained Torch. I passed the Trials too, you know.”

  “You’re hot-headed, not a fool.” Lyssa shrugged. “But sometimes those categories blur.”

  “Don’t make me burn you again, Corti.”

  “Wait a sec. You walked in the front?” Lyssa’s gaze flicked to double doors leading to a hallway and the front of the building.

  “Yes.” Aisha offered a condescending smile. “I borrowed some potions. One hypnotized the guard. It made the whole thing rather easy.”

  Lyssa barked a laugh. “You hypnotized him? I thought you always said that kind of spell was for weaklings. I’d kill to have something that useful.”

  “Of course you would. You like to skulk about like a black cat.”

  “What about cameras?” Lyssa asked. “You figure out a way to make cameras drink potions?”

  Aisha shrugged. “I had him shut them off and erase the portion where I came in.”

  “That could have alerted someone off-site,” Lyssa said.

  “Do you see anyone other than me?” Aisha gestured around.

  Lyssa rolled her eyes. “You still need to learn to ask questions before you blast away, but progress is progress. Aisha Khatri not burning down everything in sight. What a miracle! You’re learning self-control. What about the cameras after you left the front?”