Southwest Days (Semiautomatic Sorceress Book 2), Kal Aaron [book recommendations based on other books .txt] 📗

We had real-deal monsters down there. That clarifies things for the follow-up investigation.”

“I thought you just said you cleared them all out?” Ortiz replied, casting a nervous glance at the mine. “What follow-up investigation do we need?”

“I blew away a lot of monsters down there, including a queen. Then I spent hours checking around that place looking for more.” Lyssa hissed in frustration. “I didn’t find any, but that doesn’t mean we’re done. I didn’t sense any sorcery down there, but that also doesn’t prove anything. There could be more to this, and we need to be sure before I walk away and dust my hands, saying, ‘Welp, that’s enough of this.’”

“You’re saying there might be another giant sorcery monster down there?” Adams shivered. “Maybe it’s time to move to Wyoming. I haven’t heard about any giant monsters there. If it’s not the snakes and scorpions here, it’s the monsters. Geeze.”

“I don’t think there are more monsters down there, though I also can’t be sure, which is why I’m concerned.” Lyssa glanced at the mine. “I’m also worried about whoever was responsible for this threat, whether it was recent or not, and there’s a good chance I’ll perform another sweep after I coordinate with the EAA and my Elder to report on the situation.” She held up the body. “I wanted to test if they are harmed by sunlight. That’ll let us know our options and how much of a threat they are half the time.” She nodded at the edge of the shadow cast by the mine entrance. “Back up to the car.”

“Why?” Ortiz asked, eyeing the body.

“I’m not sure if it’ll explode,” Lyssa said. “Unless you want to look and smell like a Sorceress dipped in monster sewage, I’d step back. Your choice, but let me tell you, this crap on me smells even worse close up.”

“Oh. I get it.” Ortiz sprinted back to his cruiser, followed by Adams, who shook his head.

Lyssa tossed the corpse out of the shadow into the waiting Arizona sun. The skin sizzled and burned, flaking off in smoky streams that rose above the body. The odor intensified, making her regret the test.

“That answers that.” Lyssa tried to not breathe through her nose. “Any enemy that can only operate half the time is one we have a decent shot at managing.” She squatted next to the sublimating body. “But unfortunately, that brings up more questions.”

“The sheriff isn’t going to like that,” Adams said. “Do we need to call in the National Guard? He doesn’t want to, but he’ll do it if we need to.”

She considered the question. Not finding the rogue she suspected lay at the end of the puzzle wasn’t the same thing as the mine remaining a major immediate threat. She’d used thinning to explore even the smallest of tunnels, only to find more tunnels but no more monsters. That didn’t guarantee the mine was empty, but it did mean hordes of them weren’t going to spill out into the desert anytime soon. It would be night soon, but she doubted a stray monster could rampage across the county in under twelve hours.

“No,” Lyssa said. “There shouldn’t be anything requiring that kind of response, but I think the mine still needs to be guarded for a while until I can confirm its safety.”

Adams’s shoulders sagged. “Now that I’ve seen that thing, it makes having to sit in front of this place that much worse.”

Lyssa gestured at the corpse. “My issue is those things weren’t that deep for something so vulnerable to light, and I doubt they were sleeping there for decades. I also didn’t find any tunnels leading away from the area other than the small extensions of the mine made by the monsters.”

“You’re the monster expert. What’s all that mean? This is my first case involving monsters.”

Lyssa chuckled. Being good at killing monsters didn’t make her a monster expert. She was good at killing most living things. If anything, she was a killing expert.

She stood and shook crusted muck off her sleeves. “Nobody makes a monster that can’t handle sunlight and releases them in Arizona as a serious strategy. I don’t care if it’s October. There’s still ten hours of daylight here during the day.” She glanced between the mine and the deputies. “I didn’t think of this down in the mine, but this isn’t the land of high population density. There are more people in most Maricopa suburbs than this entire county.”

“Maybe they thought it’d be easier to take us out.” Adams puffed up his chest. “But now they know not to mess with us.”

Lyssa eyed him. She liked the man, but he’d done nothing but stand outside while she did all the work. It wasn’t worth a fight, so she let it go. Besides, it was hard to be mad at a man who had asked for her autograph.

“You could be right.” Lyssa smiled as the body disintegrated. “Look, the nest is cleared out for now, but coating the whole place with napalm isn’t a bad idea. At least it’ll get the smell out.” She waved. “I’ll follow up on this after checking in with the EAA, but for now, I’ve got a date with a car wash.”

Chapter Fourteen

There was no freedom in victory. Lyssa was learning that the hard way.

Stretched out on her couch, the snake-roach stench lingered in her nostrils, waiting, taunting, and sickening her. It had destroyed her appetite.

It didn’t matter that she’d taken four showers and two baths the night before. Scrubbing down and using one of Tricia’s herbal concoctions only barely helped. Maybe the real terrorist threat was in the smell.

She’d won the battle but was losing the war against the odor. The reminder of her mine-delving adventure lingered in her nose, souring her premium strawberry ice cream. The latest health craze could be the snake-roach diet. The smell would keep the pounds off because it’d keep the food out of people’s mouths.

Lyssa had earned odd looks from neighbors for running her