Southwest Nights (Semiautomatic Sorceress Book 1) by Kal Aaron (large ebook reader txt) 📕

with both hands, trying to spot her target, her eyes tearing up from the smoke. Being able to see in the dark with the help of her regalia wasn’t the same thing as being able to see through and be immune to every challenge to her vision.

“Don’t make this more expensive,” she spat.

She wiped her teary eyes, trying to pick out movement through the smoke before gripping her pistol with both hands again. Another couple hits like the ones she’d already endured, and she wouldn’t be able to dodge.

Something creaked within the smoke. Lyssa put her finger over the trigger.

The construct emerged from the cloud. Lyssa’s attack had vaporized most of its chest. The damage exposed a pulsating sphere connected by gossamer strands of light.

She had not been expecting to see that, but she didn’t have to be an expert on construct sorcery to recognize an artificial heart. Twitching and jerking, the construct advanced toward Lyssa, its earlier speed a distant memory.

“Whoever built you cost me a lot of money,” Lyssa muttered. “They should feel good about that, but I like to tell myself you cost more.”

The construct advanced, each uneven step accompanied by tremors. It looked like it could fall over any second.

“Goodbye.”

Lyssa pointed at the heart and fired. Her bullet ripped through the organ, which shattered in an earsplitting, room-shaking boom. Dozens of inert pieces of dull metal shot everywhere. The strands connecting the heart to the rest of the body vanished.

The construct was still. There were no glowing cracks or aura and no heart, nothing but a huge hole in the chest.

Lyssa made a circle in the air with her gun. “You can die already, please.”

The body toppled over, landing with a loud crash and adding dust into the polluted air. Lyssa nodded, satisfied.

“Thank you.”

She holstered her gun. Gritting her teeth, she rubbed her chest, hating to think about what would have happened if she’d been hit without her regalia or the vest. She reached for one of her herb packets.

“Have you suffered any serious injury?” Jofi asked.

“I think it cracked some ribs.” Lyssa took a deep breath and winced. “But I don’t think it punctured a lung. I don’t know if that counts as serious injury.”

“I would humbly suggest it does.”

Upon second thought, there was no way she’d be able to avoid using healing herbs to supplement her regalia’s healing. She couldn’t sit around healing for weeks and not follow up on whatever lead Reed planned to give her.

“This was supposed to be nothing more than a supply run.” Lyssa waved smoke out of her face. “I’m still not seeing blood anywhere, but maybe you’re right. This could have been a trap. They might have snagged Serafina and left that here as a surprise for me. I can’t imagine they’d want a random customer or a cop running into it.”

The wall rumbled. Lyssa whipped out her guns and spun toward it, ready to continue the fight despite the ache in her chest and her labored breathing. A slab of metal moved forward and slid to the side, revealing a familiar Sorceress tucked into a coffin-sized alcove.

Lyssa gasped. “Serafina!”

Chapter Sixteen

“That’s a tight fit.” Serafina stepped out of the alcove, stretching. “Much tighter than I thought it would be. I didn’t measure it well.” She tilted her head and put a finger to her bottom lip. “Oh! Measuring height without accounting for comfort. It all makes sense now. Silly me.”

For a moment, Lyssa didn’t trust what she was seeing and thought the woman in front of her was another trick. She soon accepted it was her friend, or at least a perfect facsimile.

Serafina was a beautiful short, dark-skinned woman. Her long hair was elaborately braided and adorned with different-colored bright metal hairpins. Her muscular arms spoke of her years working with a hammer and anvil. She wore jeans and a white tank top under her thick gray apron, which was covered with blackened marks and scratches. Golden jeweler’s glasses covered her eyes, but she flipped them up and offered a bright smile to Lyssa.

The Torch holstered her gun before reaching into a pocket for a small baggie containing painkiller herbs. She couldn’t keep up with Serafina even when her mind wasn’t clouded by pain. After taking a deep breath, she munched on one of the bitter golden-blue flower petals.

Fighting while under the effects of herbs wasn’t a smart idea since a woman needed to know when she was hurt, but the battle was over. Lyssa didn’t bother saying anything else, waiting as the intense pain quieted to a minor ache.

Serafina turned from the alcove to survey the destroyed workshop, an amused smile on her face. “Wow. That thing went to town, didn’t it?”

Lyssa shook her head. “Serafina, are you okay?”

“Oh, and good timing!” Serafina clapped her hands together. “Yes, I’m okay.” She dusted her hands on her apron and stepped out of her alcove. “Why wouldn’t I be?” She lifted her hands and spread out her fingers. “No cuts, no bruises.” She patted the back of her neck. “You see something?”

A gaggle of tiny constructs shaped like the monster Lyssa had fought fell from a vent into the alcove. She doubted they packed the same punch, being only six inches tall, but she drew a gun anyway, ready to send them to join their big brother. They ignored her and spread out along the wall.

“What the hell is going on?” Lyssa continued tracking the tiny creations. “Why were you in the wall? What are those things? Why is your place trashed, and why did a huge construct try to kill me?”

“Oh, the wall is part of a new safety system I’ve been testing in case something unplanned happened. And something unplanned happened!” Serafina glanced at the destroyed construct. She scratched her cheek. “The intention was to use the alcove to survive an explosion, but it worked out nicely in this scenario.” She threw up her arms. “Hooray for more than one use. That’s good design.”

Lyssa gestured with