by Kal Aaron
“They could be stupid college kids filming an internet show.” Lyssa shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. We need to verify before we shoot anything.” She thought for a moment before shoving her gun back into the holster, pulling out her phone, and sending a six-digit code to a memorized number. Ten seconds later, she got a simple response, another numeric code. The Eclipse had acknowledged receipt of her alert message.
Lyssa drew her guns. She was now satisfied with the trap they’d set. “Look at it this way. If it’s college kids, having Flame Deva and Hecate give them a big story about monsters will be enough to scare them off. It’ll also give them something to tell their friends about.”
“I don’t care about that.”
“Just don’t blast them right away.” Lyssa jogged to the door and threw it open. It ripped off its rickety hinges and slammed to the ground. “Huh.” She shrugged. “Not my fault.”
Aisha snickered. “It’s a sign of things to come, Corti.”
“Don’t get mad. This little camping trip isn’t over yet. But I do hope this isn’t just drunken college kids,” she said, holding her guns by her sides. “I want this over as much as you do. Stay hidden until I signal for you. If I do, you’ll know it’s time to start toasting people.”
“You didn’t discuss a signal,” Aisha said.
“Gunshots will be the signal. Clear enough? If you hear any, assume a fight’s starting. I’ll keep them busy while you ambush them, and we’ll win.”
Aisha nodded. “Very well. Try to not die before then. It’d prove a grave disappointment.”
“I’ll do my best not to disappoint you, but keep a low profile until then. You stand out a lot more at night than I do.” Lyssa shook a gun. “This is a good time to be the Night Goddess.”
Aisha nodded. Her heat shield and aura disappeared. “You’re clever on occasion. But only on occasion.”
“I love you, too,” Lyssa replied with a snicker before assuming wraith form and stepping outside the building. The cloudless night left plenty of deep shadows, making it easy for her to creep alongside the buildings without standing out. Anyone coming after her in the middle of the night was starting with a disadvantage.
“A surprise attack could prove useful,” Jofi said. “Miss Khatri’s tactics shouldn’t be so easily dismissed.”
“You’re asking me to shoot first and ask questions later after I just gave a big speech about why we can’t do that?” Lyssa replied. “It’s not going to happen.”
Six black SUVs zoomed toward the town, rumbling down the barely-there remnants of the old dirt road. Lyssa’s night vision made identification of the vehicles easy, but she couldn’t do much about the tinted glass concealing the occupants.
The SUVs slowed and pulled into a side-by-side formation before stopping at the edge of the town about two hundred yards from Lyssa’s position. She doubted college kids or internet streamers traveled in convoys of black SUVs with tinted windows. She’d never been so glad Jofi didn’t like to say, “I told you so.”
The number of vehicles suggested a Shadow force rather than a single powerful assassin. She might be able to use that to her advantage.
The doors flew open, and ski-masked men in black fatigues and bulletproof vests hopped out. They pulled night-vision goggles over their eyes before aiming their rifles. Lyssa didn’t know a lot of college students with full tactical gear, including grenade launcher attachments on their rifles.
There could be a business opportunity for an Arizona Mercenary Technical College. She’d have to mention that to someone looking to invest.
After quick hand signals, the men split into four squads. They moved out with precision and urgency while sweeping the area.
A slight pressure built in Lyssa’s chest. It was faint background sorcery, but not from Aisha’s direction. The Eclipse must be on the move. She wasn’t feeling anything from the men yet.
Lyssa frowned. The Eclipse wasn’t going to help her fight a group of Shadows with rifles. He’d made that clear to her and Samuel, insisting he’d only help in an extreme emergency. He must have thought their boss was making an appearance, or even better, he’d spotted the rogue.
She jogged toward the men, curious if any of them would spot the strange shadow moving too quickly near the building. No one reacted. She could get off one attack while in wraith form, but not the dozens she’d need to take down everyone present.
Killing them all shouldn’t prove challenging in theory, but that’d leave her in the same position as before. She needed to identify the Sorcerer who was behind the entire affair. The world could spit out an endless supply of disposable guns-for-hire.
The mercenaries arrived at the buildings on the edge of town. They used the dilapidated buildings for cover, the groups breaking apart and hiding in the spaces between buildings on either side of the road. They weren’t trying to surround the town, and they had parked close to the plain gray van she and Aisha used for transportation.
The diffuse sensation of background sorcery grew stronger as she moved closer to the men. Shards. The men were pros with the best toys.
“I wish the bastard would come out and play himself instead of sending lackeys,” she whispered. “It’d save us all a lot of time.”
“Do you believe there’s any chance he’s watching nearby?” Jofi asked.
“I hope that’s what’s going on.” Lyssa slowed her pace. She looked around for the enemy. “But he’s not right here with them. We can use that to our advantage. These guys thought they were doing themselves a favor by jumping us at night, but they must have forgotten who I am.”
The mercenary squads moved in a practiced point-to-point formation, sprinting in quick bursts to allow for cover behind buildings or the piles of wood and detritus that were spread around. They swept their rifles her way more than once, but no one took a shot.
Lyssa crouched behind a desiccated stump filled with scores of small holes and covered in brownish termite lines. It was time for her initial attack, this one verbal rather than sorcerous.
She waited until their next advance to shout, “You don’t have to do this.”
Her voice carried, resounding in the night. The slight whistle of the wind and the echoes from the buildings made it hard to tell where it had come from, as she’d planned.
The mercenaries ran for cover, jerking their rifles back and forth in search of a target. She might only have pistols, but they were enchanted to pack the punch of a rifle even before she started using special rounds.
Engaging the enemy without knowing the nature of the shards they were wielding would be dangerous. Their assault rifles weren’t a joke either, even with her regalia.
“Whoever hired you,” Lyssa continued, “has made a big mistake. There are a lot of dead killers now and some truly angry Elders. You don’t want to join the dead men.”
“It’s nothing personal, Hecate,” called one of the mercenaries. “It’s just business. We’re not so different, you and us. We get contracts, and we carry them out. Same deal, right? No offense.”
“I’m not offended. I’m trying to warn you. It’s kind of hard to spend money if you’re dead, and pissing off the Society by trying to assassinate Illuminated tends to end in Shadows dying.”
The mercenary chuckled. “How ‘bout I do you a favor? You come out right now, make this easy, and I’ll donate some of my pay to a charity. I’ll even give five percent. It’ll be worth it with the payday we’re going to get for this job.”
Lyssa scoffed. “You’re Shadows with toys. The last Shadows with toys who took me on didn’t like it, and if you’ve been watching this place or you’ve had a decent briefing, you should know it’s a bad idea to fight me here and now.”
She’d almost mentioned Aisha, but there was the off-chance they didn’t know about the other Sorceress. There was no reason to blow the chance of a surprise attack for a mere threat. Right now, she might be able to unnerve them, but she doubted she could rout them with a speech.
&nb
sp; “That supposed to scare us?” The mercenary poked his gun around the corner. “You think we didn’t come equipped to handle a Sorc? We’re not idiots. That’s why we charge the big bucks.”
“The Society will pay you to give up your boss,” Lyssa replied. “Trust me. The Elders care far more about finding and punishing a rogue Sorcerer than punishing Shadow mercenaries. It’s like you said; it’s just business. Why not take the easy payday instead of the one requiring death and pain?”
“You have no idea who hired us, and you never will. It could be a rogue, or it could be a movie star who doesn’t like your kind. It doesn’t matter.” The mercenary let out a low growl. “We take professional pride in what we do. Walking away from a contract? That’s not going to happen, Hecate. I’m not ready to retire, and the minute we burn a client, we’re done in this business.”
Lyssa holstered a pistol, then slipped an explosive magazine out of her pocket and swapped, moving slowly so as not to make any noise. After putting the other magazine away, she grabbed her second pistol.
“I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree,” she said.
“Too bad,” the mercenary called. “This didn’t have to be a big deal. There’s such a thing as dying with dignity. Haven’t you heard?”
Lyssa smiled and concentrated, whispering a chant underneath her breath. She kept low, pointing her guns at the closest mercenary while weaving dark strands in her mind. The enemy needed something to shoot at. She might as well give them that.
Shadows flowed from the ground in the center of the overgrown dirt road like smoky snakes wriggling through the air. They formed a roughly humanoid outline that would stand out well to someone with night-vision goggles.
“I’m glad to see you can be reasonable,” the mercenary said. “From one pro to another, I salute you. Now die quietly.”
The mercenaries’ rifle volley lit up the night. The battle had begun.
Chapter Nine
The bullet swarm passed through the shadow puppet. Grinning, Lyssa released the spell and backed away from her position until she arrived at a narrow gap between two buildings.
Explosions ripped up the ground where the puppet had stood. The mercenaries using their grenade launchers so early surprised Lyssa. Touchy men. They might not be as professional as she had thought.
“What’s that?” one of the men called. “Up there!”
“I think it’s Flame Deva,” another said.
Aisha hovered in the sky near their base, wrapped in her hazy heat shield. Jets of flame sprayed from her feet, keeping her aloft.
The men shouted in surprise as a bright flare lit the sky. Ducking, they pulled back, seeking better cover.
Lyssa sighed. It was a good plan, but she’d learned the hard way early in her career that military-grade night-vision goggles only let so much light through. Even tossing a flashbang right in front of them wouldn’t do much.
“Good try, Aisha,” Lyssa whispered. She’d planned to suggest the tactic to the woman when she got closer. They’d hated each other for years, but the last couple of missions, it had felt like they’d been working as partners since the beginning of their careers.
They might not be blind, but the enemy was now focused on the sky. Taking advantage of their momentary confusion, Lyssa pointed the pistol loaded with explosive rounds around the corner, aiming across the road at a squad clustered behind a wall. She couldn’t risk waiting until they opened fire on Aisha. The point was to take the men down, not for her to hide until somebody else killed them all.
She pulled the trigger just as a man risked lifting his rifle to shoot at Aisha. The attack and loud report disrupted Lyssa’s wraith form, but the mercenary's first reply was blind-firing into the air rather than at her.
Half a squad of mercenaries spun toward Lyssa. Her explosive round blasted the corner of the decrepit building apart, knocking men to the ground, with flaming wood showering down behind and around them.
Aisha tossed her first fireball and struck one of the exposed men. The exploding blast tunneled through his vest and knocked him back, leaving him groaning in pain. He crawled toward cover, saved from her follow-up attack by the large distance.
Something small flew through the air, hurled by a mercenary. It ignited into a red flare. The mercenaries threw several more until the nearby area was bathed in a light-red glow. They might have been surprised by Aisha, but they had been taking notes. Lyssa’s respect for them notched up, along with her annoyance. They were trying to make it harder for a shadow to hide.
Mercenary return fire kept Lyssa on the defensive. She sprinted backward, alternating target sides as she laid down her explosive hail. Half a magazine later, she’d reduced the enemy cover to smoking, charred wood, but she’d only downed a handful of men.
With the battle fully joined, she accepted they weren’t boys with fancy toys. It was annoying to deal with pros. Their flares made it harder to move around undetected. Even her shadow form would stand out. The men also minimized their profiles and didn’t blindly run out shooting at her to prove their bravery like half the idiots she ran into. Monsters and criminal thugs were easier.
They’d also yet to deploy any obvious shards. That worried her. They might be waiting for the perfect opportunity.
Blowing the hell out of them was the most efficient solution, but Lyssa needed to take someone alive for interrogation. She wanted their commander, but she had no idea how to identify him in the masked mass of men wearing and wielding the same gear.
Criminals always made that part easier, too. Arrogant mob bosses and terrorist leaders couldn’t resist smarting off to Hecate.
Follow-up gunfire supplemented by grenade shots forced Lyssa farther back. She jumped into an old tavern to avoid a trio of grenades. The booming attack shredded the support beams of the front awning, collapsing it with a crunch and knocking a thick cloud of dust into the air. The next attack blew a hole in the side of the building. So much for her cover.
Bright fireballs streamed from Aisha and exploded on the ground and against the buildings near the mercenaries. The enemy returned to splitting their fire between the two Sorceresses.
Lyssa emptied her other pistol. Her bullets knocked another mercenary down, but he rolled behind the remnants of a wall. Even the increased power of her pistol wasn’t enough for one-shot kills through their vests with non-enchanted ammo.
She aimed higher and nailed a man in the neck, and he collapsed in a spray of blood. No interrogations for him. She hoped he wasn’t the commander.
“These Shadows are demonstrating superior capability compared to your average quality of enemy,” Jofi said. “You might want to consider being more aggressive in your resource usage.”
“Less color commentary and more letting me focus on shooting people, please.”
Another grenade barrage blew apart what little remained of the far wall of the tavern. Lyssa jumped through a window, the glass shattering loudly around her like she was in an old-timey barroom brawl. It wasn’t like the Earps and the Clantons had had to deal with grenade launchers.
Lyssa stayed low while reloading both pistols with conventional rounds. Her heart thundered. She could still feel a little sorcery in the direction of the mercenaries, but Aisha’s spells were masking anything distant.
“I again suggest increasing your level of offense,” Jofi said.
“These guys are tough, but they aren’t using any shards yet,” Lyssa replied after catching her breath. “There’s no reason to go crazy, and the more special ammo I use, the less chance I have of taking anyone alive. The whole point of this thing is intelligence-gathering, not thinning out the world’s mercenary population.”
She popped up to fire both pistols, and a rifle round nailed her in the shoulder, ripping her regalia. A spike of pain shot through her arm, and she ducked again, gritting her teeth. Blood dripped from her arm, but the bullet had left only a mild laceration, thanks to her regalia. It was a solid hit from a high-powered rifle. These were
n’t cartel goons with pistols. She needed to be more careful.
“You should reconsider your strategy,” Jofi said. “They will win a battle of attrition at this rate.”
“I’m doing fine,” Lyssa muttered. “These are just the lackeys. I need to be ready for the real fight later, and I’ve got Aisha.”
She hadn’t seen the mercenaries attack with anything that suggested shard use, but she also couldn’t dismiss the faint sorcery she felt from their direction. Their vests and guns were impressive but not any stronger than she’d expect from high-end but conventional equipment.
Aisha zoomed back and forth while flinging fireballs at the men. A fireball struck near the feet of a man, launching him burning and screaming into the air.
That was another problem. Waiting too long might end with Aisha killing everybody.
The mercenaries returned fire, but their bullets kept vaporizing on Aisha’s heat shield. She zigzagged through the air on each attack pass, moving closer. Her efforts drew enough fire that Lyssa downed two distracted men with headshots.
Lyssa had been wrong in one way to chastise Jofi. Somebody needed to survive, but not everybody. Thinning the pack would make it easier to wound rather than kill individual mercenaries.
She fired a couple more times, surprised the men weren’t nailing her with more grenades, but they’d already burned down half the town. They might have been out.
A blast in the air near Aisha proved Lyssa wrong. Aisha grimaced before jetting over to drop down on the roof of a building. The blast had ripped some tears in her regalia and scorched her, but her heat shield had burned off most of the shrapnel before it hit her. Her current roof began to smolder, a victim of her heat aura, but she was only there for a moment before rocketing back into the air and heading toward another roof.
Lyssa quickly fired at the mercenaries, more interested in distracting them than downing men. Their answering bursts ripped through the wall near her, and rounds struck her thigh and side. She hissed in pain. Their rifles were starting to piss her off.
