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

Lyssa blinked. “You want me to kill Reed?”

“I’m simply noting the possibilities. If he is a threat to your vision of a just society, it might be warranted.”

A cold shiver passed through her. Jofi spoke with the same calm tone he always did, but she couldn’t help but wonder if his true nature was seeping through. He’d made similar suggestions before. Even in his sealed form, his morality was alien on the best days, but he understood her political limitations and generally guided her accordingly.

Lyssa blew out a breath. “If he crosses the line, I’ll pass something along to the cops. For now, he’s useful.”

“I see,” Jofi said. “Useful and necessary?”

“I’m always going to need to have some fingers in the underworld.” Lyssa opened her freezer again and peered into it. She shoved a package of ground beef aside to make sure there were no hidden pints. “It’s nice when every job is as clean and straightforward as ‘Go into this house and beat the bad people down,’ but long before I met you, I learned the hard way what it’s like to do an investigation as an Illuminated without decent Shadow leads or contacts. Elders don’t focus on that kind of thing. It makes jobs a lot harder.”

“I have no memory of our first meeting,” Jofi said. “I can only speculate from what I’ve heard you say when you speak of it to others.”

Lyssa pulled her hand out of the freezer and slammed it shut, unease heavy in her mind. Not all spirits were sapient, and the ones who were varied wildly in personalities and basic psychology, if applying such concepts made sense with their kind.

There was no such thing as an average spirit. People, even Illuminated, seldom dealt directly with them, making them the closest thing to aliens humans could encounter.

Worrying too much made no sense. Jofi had no reason to be suspicious of her. Besides, he was better off sealed. In that form, he was helping fight darkness in the world, not adding to it. The procedure had also saved him from being destroyed.

The excuses didn’t comfort her. Jofi wouldn’t be easy to destroy. Lee had admitted as much. Sealing him was a plan birthed of desperation, not mercy.

The whole situation was strange. Lyssa was like a spirit parole officer, and that made it hard to process, even after all these years together. What would it be like to be a person stripped of their past and fundamental essence?

It wasn’t impossible. Lee could do something like that if he wanted to. She shuddered at the thought.

“Are you okay?” Jofi asked.

“Don’t worry. I’m just overthinking some things.” Lyssa frowned at the freezer door. “I should probably have something other than ice cream for breakfast before I head to Texas. Dealing with criminals is exhausting enough without being hungry.”

A chill shot through Lyssa. Shadows clawed at the edge of her vision. She was about to blow it off as another visit from overeager HOA reps when pressure built in her chest.

“Were you expecting another visitor?” Jofi asked.

“No.”

Lyssa sprinted toward her bedroom to open her safe. Her doorbell rang as she yanked out an enchanted pistol. She grabbed a magazine containing penetrator rounds and loaded the gun. The doorbell rang again.

She ground her teeth. Without her full regalia, she might not be a match for a Sorcerer in theirs, but she also didn’t want to wait and risk someone launching a public attack outdoors. The penetrator rounds drew as much on Jofi’s power as her own.

“Just a minute,” she called as the doorbell rang again. She walked toward the door holding her gun behind her back. When she checked her peephole, she saw a frowning man she didn’t recognize in glasses and a gray suit. “Can I help you?”

The man leaned in closer toward the door. “In your last message to me, you suggested we speak face-to-face, Miss Corti. It was right after yet another unnecessary comment about herbs and spices.”

Lyssa opened the door and gestured to the living room. “You could have told me you were coming, Samuel.”

The man entered. Once Lyssa closed the door, his form warped and blurred, revealing an older-looking man with white hair, along with a matching mustache and Van Dyke beard. The Sorcerer’s white suit was accessorized by a long, skinny white tie. He was Elder Samuel, the bearer of the Distinguished Aristocrat regalia and master of light sorcery.

She’d not been expecting him, but his arrival didn’t surprise her. No EAA jobs passed to the contract stage without an Elder’s approval. That didn’t mean she welcomed his arrival, but she did her best to keep her expression calm and neutral.

Samuel inclined his head toward the couch. Lyssa got the point. If he wasn’t behind a desk, he liked to talk down to her rather than the other way around. She set her gun on her end table and folded her arms before taking a seat.

He stared at the gun, distaste visible on his face. It wasn’t about disliking firearms. He knew the truth about Jofi but rarely mentioned it, despite his penchant for criticizing her.

The spirit didn’t seem to care for Samuel, even though he consistently urged Lyssa to respect the man’s orders. The spirit never spoke to Lyssa when the Elder was around, but when she’d asked him about it, he’d repeatedly denied ill-feelings. She wasn’t sure if a sealed spirit of his nature could lie.

“Sell any chicken lately?” Lyssa asked, losing the battle between professionalism and petty entertainment.

“That doesn’t become more amusing with repetition.” Samuel narrowed his eyes.

“It does to me.” Lyssa grinned. “And you didn’t even laugh the first time. It’s because you have no sense of humor.”

“As you grow older, I find myself less tolerant of your disrespect. Talent isn’t a license to behave without restrictions or common courtesy.”

“It’s called a joke, Samuel.” Lyssa shrugged. “Lighten up.”

“I don’t have to lighten up over disrespect, Miss Corti.” He glared at her, disapproval coming off him in waves.

Dialing