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

backed up until it was on top of the bed of the semi. Another minute passed as the truck operator finished positioning the cargo. He lowered his tines, turned in a wide arc, and departed. The two men who’d exited the truck scrambled over it to finish securing the load.

Lyssa didn’t bother to check the time. It was obvious Nelson wasn’t going to show. She put her batons away and waited with grim determination until the men got back into the cab and pulled away. They could figure out the why later. The job wasn’t over, and they’d planned to hit them on the road anyway.

Accelerating, she stayed close to the rows of containers. The early dawn challenged her wraith form, but towers of containers and machinery cast enough shadows to introduce doubt to anyone looking. Thinning, even for a short period, wasn’t practical with another person. Lyssa wasn’t even sure she could put the spell on any living thing other than herself.

The truck took a wide turn and headed toward an exit gate. Lyssa kept close to the load so she wouldn’t be visible in the mirrors. Anyone knowingly hauling shards might be suspicious of a strange shadow in their mirror, especially after having seen one earlier.

“We should hit them a hundred feet after we’re on the main road,” Lyssa murmured.

“Just tell me when,” Aisha replied, her voice tight.

The truck’s brake lights turned on. The wheels screeched, and the trailer swung wide. Lyssa hit her brakes and turned.

Aisha released her grip and leaped backward, her wraith cloak disappearing. She avoided a nasty spill with a last-second jet from her hands and landed on one knee, her eyes narrowed. Lyssa’s bike continued sliding on its side, throwing up sparks. Her spell failed.

She hissed and rolled off her bike before jumping up and pulling her guns. The container door shot off with a loud, echoing pop. Steam billowed as the door flew toward her head.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Lyssa ducked. The heavy metal passed over her head, failing in its decapitation attempt. Aisha jetted to the side and landed on her arms before righting herself with a cartwheel, chanting the entire time. Her heat shield appeared around her as the container door slammed into the ground with a resounding thud.

Instinct propelled Lyssa. She darted for the nearby container stacks while firing into the obscured container. Loud, heavy gunfire rattled from inside in reply. A river of bullets flowed out.

Lyssa hissed as rounds struck her before she made it behind her cover. The bullets vaporized against Aisha’s heat shield.

She couldn’t see through the steam. Was the source a shard? Could the men inside see through it?

“Don’t get cocky, Flame Deva,” Lyssa shouted. “Remember the shards.”

Something hissed inside the container, and the hiss became a roar as a rocket sped out. Aisha jumped and spun in the air with the help of a flame jet. The projectile missed and exploded against a container stack, knocking one container askew and leaving a ragged, blackened hole.

That wasn’t fair. They weren’t the ones blowing things up, but they were the ones who would get yelled at. It would be Sacramento all over again.

“Restraint seems foolish at this point,” Aisha shouted.

“Okay, we’ve got no choice,” Lyssa called back over her gunshots. “Let’s do this the loud way, but try not to blow up the port, Flame Deva.”

Lyssa’s rounds flashed when they entered the truck, but she couldn’t tell if anything was stopping them. The thick steam hid her enemies.

“You keep talking about me blowing up things,” Aisha yelled. “But what about that incident in Tucson? You might have kept your name out of it in the media, but don’t think I didn’t hear about it, Hecate.”

“That building was scheduled for demolition anyway. I was doing them a favor.”

Lyssa’s question about her attacks’ penetration was answered when Aisha tossed a fireball at the open container. The spell struck the same invisible barrier before dissipating in a brighter flash than the ones earned by the bullets. Another rocket ripped out of the container.

Aisha jumped into the air and shot forward on jets from both hands and feet. She flew toward a container stack. This time the explosive meant for her continued at a descending angle until it struck the road. The blast left a small crater and chunks of asphalt spread all over.

“One-way forcefield,” Lyssa muttered. “Annoying.”

Men in dark helmets and black coveralls emerged from the obscuring steam in the container and advanced toward the opening, submachine guns in hand.

They opened fire and showered the area with bullets. Whatever hope Lyssa had for an easy victory vanished with the bullet’s first hits. Each bullet exploded on contact with anything solid, blasting up dirt, asphalt, and rock.

The pressure continued to build in her chest, confirming sorcery. The explosions lacked the power of one of Lyssa’s Serafina-supplied rounds, but the shooters were spraying them around with little care and at a much higher rate.

Lyssa fired a couple of shots before leaping back to avoid three blasts. The shooters were starting to get on her nerves.

A large fireball screamed from Aisha’s hiding place. The red-orange globe changed direction, curving hard and heading toward the back of the container. The shooters backed away before it struck.

The massive blast consumed the back of the container and lifted the rear of the truck into the air. When the explosion and smoke cleared, the back wheels lay yards away, and the container was hanging halfway off the truck bed. The thick steam remained.

Lyssa stopped firing after a couple more rounds didn’t go through. “Take out the other wheels. We need to keep the shards here.”

She waited until another curving fireball struck the center of the truck, then spun around the corner and coated the front cab in a black cloud.

Exploding bullets struck all around Lyssa, showering her with chunks of metal and asphalt. One round hit her stomach and knocked her back. Fiery pain spread in her abdomen, but the attacks ceased once another of Aisha’s powerful spells