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

you? That’s so Hecate of you. Run into a roadblock and blow it away with overwhelming force. Who needs flexibility when you’ve got force?”

Lyssa frowned, insulted, but she stowed the feelings. She couldn’t complain about Serafina being right. She was more concerned about getting the woman back to the real world and understanding the seriousness of what had happened before she made more killer constructs that ambushed people.

“What if that thing had gotten out of your place?” Lyssa asked. “You want it rampaging down Fremont Street? That mime I saw doesn’t deserve to be punched into a wall, invisible or not.”

“Of course not.” Serafina waved a hand. “Without the power being fed from the gallery, it would have collapsed the second it stepped outside. Then it would be nothing but a boring-shaped statue with some interesting detail work.” She traced glyphs on its arm with her finger. “By the way, it’s only boring-looking because it’s a prototype. I wanted to get the fundamental design down before I worked on the appearance. It’s hard to balance everything when they are this big.”

“You’re planning to make another one?” Lyssa pulled off her mask. She wanted Serafina to see the exasperation on her face. “You’re kidding, right?”

Serafina shook her head. “Not right away. I need to figure out what went wrong with this one first. I kind of know, but I don’t completely know.” Serafina shrugged and gave her a frustratingly doe-eyed look of innocence. “You know how it is.”

“I would recommend not being here when it’s completed,” Jofi said. “Or if you must, bring extra magazines and explosives.”

Lyssa frowned. “Agreed,” she murmured. “I used up a whole magazine of ablative rounds and a penetrator to take that thing down.” She walked over to the construct and kicked it in the head. “You better replace those for me, along with a bonus since I’m having to use herbs.”

“Doesn’t Tricia give you those for free?” Serafina looked confused.

“It’s the principle of the thing.”

“Sure.” Serafina smiled. “Don’t worry about the other stuff. It’s the least I can do. I also owe you for the surprise field testing. And since it was against a Torch, even better. I’ll give you everything you came for today for free and get started on some new bullets for you.” She hopped up and stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth like a happy puppy that didn’t know what to do with herself. “Did it speed up when you attacked it? I forgot to ask that, or maybe you said it, and I didn’t listen.”

“Yes.” Lyssa took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “Why did your doll attack me? Was it designed to attack anyone who came in here? I get that, but it also went after you.”

“That’s my fault. I screwed up some of the glyphs, not having considered the size differential.” Serafina tittered. “Sorry! I should have used a nested northern crane when I used an eastern snapping turtle, and that’s before we get into the formation density. Scaling it to the size I did requires different techniques than I used on the prototype dolls. I didn’t realize it until it started going crazy and trying to kill me. By then, I was, like, ‘Oops, I’m probably going to die if I don’t get out of the way. Silly me.’”

Lyssa frowned. “Where’s your regalia? Shouldn’t you be wearing it when you’re testing something so dangerous?”

Serafina pointed at the corner pile. “It’s in a box under that. I didn’t need it for the activation. I didn’t expect my doll to go nuts. But I see your point.” She rubbed her chin. “I’ll have to set up a better testing system for larger constructs, something that traps berserk creations rather than me. That makes sense, right?”

“Yes, it makes a lot of sense to me.”

Serafina leaned closer to Lyssa, a hungry look in her eye. “You know how hard it is to make a good doll without using spirit sorcery?”

Lyssa shrugged. “I’ve never been interested in that kind of thing.”

Serafina raised a finger slowly before jabbing it toward one of Lyssa’s holsters. “I’m complete garbage when it comes to spirits. They might as well not exist as far as I’m concerned, but you’ve got one bound to those two guns.”

“I would prefer not to be examined by that woman,” Jofi said.

This wasn’t the first time Serafina had expressed interest in Jofi, and it was difficult to deflect her attention without offering the whole truth, something Lyssa wasn’t at liberty to share without pissing off Lee.

“I had help when I bound Jofi,” Lyssa replied. “And some of that came with me having the Night Goddess.” She shook her head. “Now that you’re okay, I need to pick up the ammo I came for and get out of here. I’m working a job, and I don’t have time to stick around and chat about your latest killer projects.”

Lyssa accepted she would need at least one day at home for recovery. She couldn’t risk getting into a major fight before her ribs were in a better state. Getting home wouldn’t be much of a hassle thanks to the herbs, assuming no one ambushed her along the way. Reed had said he would have something for her by evening, so the timing worked.

“Oh, sure.” Serafina looked around the room, then all but dived into a pile of trash. She threw pieces of wood and metal out of the way until she found two narrow boxes. “Here we go.” She stacked and offered them to Lyssa. “I’ll let you know when your reward pay is ready. Sorry about the almost-killing-you thing. Mondays, am I right?”

Lyssa took the boxes and gave them a light shake, enjoying the quiet rattle of the enchanted bullets inside. A couple of bungee cords would secure them on the way home.

“And a new job, huh?” Serafina cocked her head to the side. “Anything interesting?”

“I’m investigating shard smuggling. Some Shadow criminals in Phoenix had a bunch of combat shards.”

“Oh.”