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

internet, she walked along the side of the building until she stood directly below the room. She covered her hands and feet in shadows and eyed the wall. The spaced light poles did a great job of lighting up the parking lot but left the side of the building under-illuminated. There were enough patches of darkness leading up that she should be able to make it without trouble.

The third-floor location helped Lyssa. Heading inside from the first floor presented too many risks both to her plan and the patients. She wasn’t technically doing anything illegal, but Damien’s warning weighed heavily on her. Scaring an innocent man to death would bother her conscience. That left her sneaking into the building without going through intervening rooms and startling the staff or the patients. She also didn’t want to waste time trying to explain herself to alarmed staff.

Being a Sorceress with a darkness essence had its advantages. Sneaking into a building at night would be trivial for her as long as she concentrated. Sometimes she imagined what life would have been like if she had not decided to focus on a combat-oriented job.

“Are you sure this is wise?” Jofi asked.

She was surprised. He didn’t talk when Damien was around, but they’d had plenty of time since then.

“No, I’m not sure it’s wise, but it’s necessary,” Lyssa replied. “This guy’s our best lead. We can sit around and wait for something else to happen, but then we might end up with more dead people. It doesn’t matter if I killed all those monsters if there’s another that’s going to pop out and kill more people. You got any better ideas?”

“None that fit the parameters of what you desire.”

“Then trust me. I know what I’m doing most of the time, and this is one of those times.”

“You should still exercise the utmost caution,” Jofi replied.

“I always do.”

“You sometimes do. You forget how much time I spend with you.”

“Sometimes life doesn’t leave me a choice.”

Lyssa chuckled. She needed to avoid the more obvious sorcery like her Dark Steps. Hospitals had good camera coverage. A woman, even one with darkness sorcery, could explain away stray shadows on the edge of a recording or making a brief appearance on a wall, but it was harder to dismiss black steps hanging in the middle of the air.

A mistake would lead to attention, and attention would lead to the media. Then the next thing she knew, she’d have to deal with Samuel chewing her out for making the Society look bad.

Lyssa approached the building and pressed her hand against a small shadow. She looked up and took note of the irregular spacing of the darker areas created by a combination of the lights inside and stray headlights from cars on a nearby street. It’d be less like scaling a wall and more like ascending an uneven rockface. She’d dealt with worse in the past.

After taking a deep breath, Lyssa scurried up past the first window. She was a ghost ready to haunt the hospital.

She didn’t waste time climbing to the third-floor window of Lucky Nardi’s room. He lay inside, his eyes half-closed. An IV ran into his arm. He was pale, with bandages on his arms and face. His TV was on, playing an episode of Sensual Sorceress.

“Huh,” Lyssa whispered. “I’ve already seen that episode. What I don’t get is how they managed to film another season of this. I have a hard time believing the guys buy into the act.”

“Is this the time to be discussing television?” Jofi asked.

“Just saying.”

Lyssa took a deep breath before starting her chant for a thinning spell. The only way she would make it into the room was by sliding through the closed window.

Knocking on the window risked startling Nardi and having him call a nurse before she could talk to him. She didn’t have a lot of time to wait around and try again. The culprit behind the incident might come after Nardi if he felt threatened.

Lyssa’s already-tenebrous form flattened and shrank until she became a mere suggestion of a human being. She slid through the bottom crack in the window into the room, passed across the floor, and stopped below the TV. The lights were dimmed but not off.

She released the spell, gasping for breath as she grew and resolidified to her macabre Torch form. Nardi’s eyes shot open, and he jerked upright. The plan wasn’t off to the best start.

Lyssa put a finger to the bottom of her mask and made a shushing sound. “I’m here to talk, Mr. Nardi,” she whispered. “Don’t worry.”

The sound came out eerie and scratchy, thanks to her regalia’s natural filter. The Night Goddess couldn’t sound cuddly or soothing even when she was trying.

“Hecate.” He swallowed. “You’re Hecate.”

“Yes.” Lyssa nodded. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Are you here to reap my soul?” Nardi asked, sounding serious. “Am I dead?”

Lyssa strained not to laugh. People misunderstanding sorcery or using terms she didn’t like was one thing, but she wasn’t a supernatural entity.

Taking a deep breath, she chalked it up to him being on painkillers. She needed to focus on getting the information to ensure no one else ended up in the hospital torn up by a monster.

“No. I’m here to help you by punishing whoever’s responsible for hurting you,” she said. “And you’re very much alive after being attacked by a venomous monster.”

Nardi looked confused. “That’s right. A monster got me.”

Lyssa caught movement out of the corner of her eye. The door was already open. She hurried through a quick incantation and faded into her wraith-form right before a nurse stepped into the room. It was too close.

The nurse ignored the denser-than-usual shadows in the corner and hurried over to Nardi with a concerned expression. “Are you all right, Lucky? Your heart rate suddenly spiked.”

Lyssa grimaced. She hadn’t thought of that, though she didn’t spend a lot of time visiting people in hospitals versus putting people in them. Every new contract was a chance to learn how