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

agrees with you there. If anything, we want to take out rogues even more than you do. They threaten the entire balance of our existence, and the average rogue generally happens to be an asshole even when they aren’t smuggling shards or making monsters.”

Damien chuckled, but the sound didn’t match his sober expression. “It’s kind of disturbing that the best-case scenario would be leftover monsters from years ago and not something newer. It’s like going to an old World War I battlefield, seeing a college kid getting blown up by an old bomb, and saying, ‘Whew. At least it wasn’t the Imperial German Army.’”

“Don’t worry. If it is a rogue, I’ll find this guy, and I’ll finish him.” Lyssa frowned. “He got cocky, or maybe he’s an old pal of Adrien Allard’s who wants to stir up crap. I don’t care. His monsters were more disgusting than tough, which makes me think he’s the same. He’s probably nothing more than a freak who thinks he can frighten Shadows with his pets.”

“I see,” Damien replied. “The problem is we don’t know anything at this point. Nothing for certain, from what you say. We’ve got a lot of theories but not a lot of suspects.”

“You’re right. Without finding something personal that belonged to him, we don’t have a chance of tracking him. Once we know who he is, that’ll make things easier.”

“Assuming we can find that out.” Damien frowned. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, Lyssa, but this guy might have already run to another country.”

“Then a Torch there can get him,” she replied. “It’d be annoying not to finish things up, but the most important thing is whoever responsible gets taken out.”

“There’s something else bothering me.” She licked her lips. “I didn’t worry much about it the other day because I did a pretty thorough job of cleaning things out, but there’s a small chance this might have been part of some weird-ass ritual thing. Once I get a better handle on the situation, I’ll go back and double-check the mine, but my initial run should have at least disrupted whatever they were planning.”

“Huh?” Damien winced. “You’re serious? I was doing a background investigation, and I didn’t come across anything like that. Did you find something on site to suggest that?”

Lyssa shook her head. “Nothing but monsters. I didn’t detect any active sorcery.”

“Then why do you think it might be a ritual sacrifice?” Damien asked. “Because if it’s a ritual, we might end up with more victims.”

“It’s only because of Halloween,” Lyssa replied. “We’ve got less than a week until the big day. Depending on the rogue’s essence and what kind of rituals they’re attempting, they could potentially draw a lot of power. It’s a roundabout way to go about it, but there have been weirder things in Society history. The monsters might be a tool for something greater rather than the end goal.”

“I didn’t think of that possibility,” Damien said, “I assumed it was terrorism or making living weapons to sell to the underworld.”

“I’m not saying it’s certain to involve a ritual, but it’s something to keep in mind. I’d rather we wrap this up before Halloween just in case.”

The worst possibility was that their rogue had a spirit essence, making Halloween even more important. Tristan St. James had a spirit essence, but she doubted the assassin needed to use a roundabout scheme to accomplish what he wanted. He had more than enough skill and power to kill whoever he wanted already.

Finding his picture on the card wasn’t proof of anything. A bad reputation with the Elders didn’t make him a rogue.

“Okay, it could be ritual, but you already killed the monsters.” Damien furrowed his brow. “That means the threat has passed. You could clear the contract if you pushed. I’m not complaining that you’re following up, to be clear, but I’m trying to get a feel for how worried I should be.”

Lyssa shook her head. “This isn’t done until we find whoever is responsible, or we at least feel there’s a strong chance that person isn’t alive anymore.” She patted her chest. “I don’t do half-ass jobs. This is a matter of professional pride and personal interest. I’ve checked the Society side of things and there’s nothing relevant, which means we need to push forward on this in a more mundane way.”

“You mean perform an actual investigation?” Damien asked with an amused look. “The horror of it all!”

“Yeah. That.” Lyssa grinned. “The survivor. He’s our best bet. I couldn’t find anything in the stupid mine other than those monsters that would give us any hint. I killed everything unnatural I could find and hung around for hours, but no one showed up.” Her grin faded. “The last thing I heard, the survivor was in bad shape from the venom.”

Damien nodded. “He’s not going to be leaving the hospital anytime soon, but he’s doing a lot better. I talked to him on the phone earlier this morning. He was eager to help and cooperate, but he wasn’t all that lucid, thanks to painkillers.”

“It’s a start.” Lyssa rubbed her hands together. “Did you get anything useful from him? GPS coordinates for the rogue’s home would be nice, but I’m willing to start with a description of a regalia that might hint at his essence. I know he didn’t mention anything like that to the cops, but maybe he was more worried when talking to an EAA agent.”

“Define useful.” Damien’s apologetic look worried her.

“I don’t like where this conversation is going.” Lyssa frowned. “Come on. Give me something.”

“I asked him a few times in different ways about why they went there,” Damien said. “You’re not the only one who’s suspicious of why the two victims decided to go to an out-of-state mine out of the blue.”

“And?” Lyssa asked. “Did you catch him in a lie?”

Damien shook his head. “Mr. Nardi was rather insistent they just wanted to change up their show. He claimed they were getting stale and getting fewer clicks