Southwest Days (Semiautomatic Sorceress Book 2) by Kal Aaron (best book recommendations TXT) 📕

safe and secure there, not even bothering to help the rest of the swarm during the massacre in the hatchery until Lyssa fired directly into her room.

The creature had thought she was above the fray, and Lyssa had shown her that she wasn’t. Now she needed to prove the queen should have stayed hidden.

Lyssa lowered her penetrator-loaded gun and pointed the other pistol at the queen’s mouth. “This is going to hurt you more than it hurts me.”

She pulled the trigger, and yellow-tinged purple flames lit the throat of the monster. A sickening sizzling followed.

The queen scurried back, rising on her back legs and jerking her head. Lyssa aimed for one of the previous wounds and fired another ablative round, searing the upper layer of the flesh. She fired another, but the queen crashed down and the round clipped her side, leaving a blackened, smoking mess.

Now staring down the gaping maw of the queen, Lyssa kept firing. The loud sizzle and smell of burnt flesh reminded her in a sick way of a barbecue. She emptied the magazine into the thrashing queen, who shot forward, slicing and bashing with her legs.

Lyssa shoved her empty gun into her holster before launching a penetrator through the queen and leapt into the muck to avoid the spear-like tips of the monster’s legs. The queen slammed down near her, splashing fluid all over. Lyssa kicked her legs, regretting her lack of water sorcery to keep her gun from getting jammed with gunk.

She rolled toward the queen and squeezed the trigger, moving her pistol up and down as she sought a brain, a heart, or some other vital organ.

Monsters weren’t spirits. They were living creatures. They could challenge Mother Nature, but that wasn’t the same thing as being free of her grip.

Lyssa kept firing. Round after round dug deep into the queen, leaving her mouth filled with blood. How many enchanted bullets could the damned thing take?

She stopped and concentrated, murmuring an incantation under her breath. She grew insubstantial. Her spell complete, she took slow steps, watching the queen for a reaction.

The queen writhed and splashed fluid for a long moment before calming and crawling into the deeper parts of the pool. Lyssa crept along, moving as fast as she could manage without splashing.

Holding her breath, she reloaded with ablative and penetrator rounds. She continued circling to the side of the injured queen, aiming for one of the deep burns from an earlier ablative hit. Anything that could be wounded could be killed.

Lyssa pointed both pistols and backed away, trying to put enough distance between them that the monster couldn’t nail her with an immediate reaction. She exhaled slowly and pulled both triggers, winking into existence with the loud echoing blasts from her pistols. Another puff of yellow flames ripped into the wound as the powerful second round carved through the queen.

Now visible, Lyssa ran toward the back of the monster, trying to keep her angle on the wound. Relentless trigger pulls sliced away at the queen until Lyssa had drained her magazines and left a gaping hole in the side of the huge monster. The blood leaking from the wounds mixed with the fluid in the pool.

The squirming and violent jerks intensified. Lyssa ran toward the hatchery and loaded her last set of magazines. Running might not work if the queen charged through the cavern and smashed her way through the intervening walls.

“You should consider retreat, given your ammo situation,” Jofi said.

“I made her mad,” Lyssa replied. “It’d be rude to leave now. This might be my only chance to finish her off.”

She rapid-fired into the open wound, careful to use only half her remaining ammo. The queen grew wilder, swinging her tail and striking the wall and the pool. Lyssa rushed into the hatchery, but the monster didn’t follow her.

“Come on, already!”

With one last spasm, the queen reared, holding her entire giant body on her two rear legs. Lyssa’s concerted efforts had burned a hole through the queen’s body. Heart pounding, the Sorceress took slow steps back, pointing her guns above the wound. Did she need to annihilate the entire body?

The queen swayed, then collapsed on her side. The body smacked hard into the fluid, launching a huge wave of muck that splashed Lyssa.

She shook her arms, trying to get some of the mess off. “I’m going to have to shower for a week to get this smell off.”

Chapter Twelve

Taking slow, deep breaths, Lyssa stared at the body of the queen for a good minute to ensure she was dead before ejecting her magazines and inspecting them. She had eight bullets left in each of her guns, more than enough to stop any leftover small monsters that decided to take a chance on killing her, but she’d have trouble against any other huge ones.

Part of her wanted to believe she wouldn’t run into any other large monsters on the way out, but the difference between a dead Torch and a live Torch was proper preparation, not luck. The quick recon sweep had turned up a large and self-perpetuating horde rather than the handful of leftover stray monsters she’d expected. It’d been a long time since she’d used up almost every bullet in a single day.

“We should retreat while you have the opportunity,” Jofi said. “The monsters are dead. You’re no longer being rude, as odd as that statement was.”

Lyssa shook her head and went back into the hatchery. “We’re still not done.”

“The contract specified elimination of the monsters,” Jofi replied. “I fail to see how you’ve not accomplished that. Even if you aren’t finished, it would be wise to return to your home and rearm.”

“We need to verify we’ve done enough that nothing’s going to come barreling out later.” Lyssa nodded toward the queen. “I didn’t know she was in here at first. If I’d just killed the guys at the front and turned away, I could have left a big problem. Those deputies don’t deserve to be eaten.”

“I understand, but I