Tempt Me Eternally Read Free

. Hit . Hit .
    As the beams made contact, the Rakans wererendered immobile, aware of their surroundings but now unable to move. But most remained untouched, their comrades having acted as their shields.
    As though realizing what was happening, those men quickly gained their bearings and charged forward, successfully dodging the next round of rays.
    Aleaha blinked in shock. Never in all her twenty-six years had she seen anyone move so swiftly. They moved so swiftly, in fact, that they left some kind of ethereal, ghostly outline of themselves behind. Their spirits? Those outlines then had to play catch-up with the tangible bodies, which created a dizzying blur of movement, light, and shadow.
    â€œI’m down! I’m down!” someone cried. “Had the shit knocked out of me.”
    â€œI can’t fucking freeze them,” Devyn said. Odd. He had refused to bring a gun to this fight, the cocky bastard, so he wouldn’t have been able to freeze them anyway.
    After that, absolute chaos erupted. There were screams of pain, frantic footfalls, and humans collapsing. Aleaha pinched off a few more rounds. And, goddamn it, she missed every time.
    She never missed. People who lived on the streets often depended on their aim for survival. She’d taught herself to hit whatever she aimed at—no matter what she was doing or what was going on around her. This was unacceptable.
    Calm . Focus . She concentrated on the blurs as best she could, narrowing her eyes until she saw—
    Squeeze.
    This time, she hit a target dead-center. No, she realized a baffled moment later. She’d hit his spirit, that ghostly animation or whatever it was. Damn it! Unaffected, his body continued moving, darting from one place to another, felling one agent after another. And then, before her horrified gaze, the Rakans scattered in precise, measured increments. They weren’t running away, but were encircling the entire AIR team and lethally closing in.
    Caged, she thought. We’re being caged . Despite the direness of their circumstances, the agents continued to fight, and Aleaha was utterly proud of them. Blue stun-beams glowed throughout the enclosure, lighting up the snowy night with majestic fury.
    â€œShit,” someone said. “What the hell should we do? I can’t see them anymore. I can’t fucking see them!”
    An agent ran over her, mowing right over her legs. No longer quite so proud, she popped to her feet, abandoning her cover in favor of protecting her limbs. Her knees knocked, but she managed to remain upright.
    â€œKeep firing,” Devyn commanded one and all. “Stay together, and for God’s sake, stay calm.”
    He sounded so close that she turned her head—and found him standing right beside her.
    â€œYou okay, Lolli? You staying calm like I said?”
    If her emotions wouldn’t listen to her, perhaps they’d listen to him and calm. “Yeah.” At the moment, she wasn’t capable of saying more. Okay, so no. Her emotions wouldn’t be listening to him, either. Fear still held her in a tight clasp, growing as another agentfell just in front of her. Much more, and she might lose her hold on Macy’s image.
    Jaxon sidled up to her other side, firing two guns at once, each pointed in a different direction. His green eyes were eerie in the darkness. Eerie but calming. Just being near him was like finding shelter in the midst of a raging storm. Finally, blessedly.
    â€œAim just ahead of the bodies,” he instructed. “Or rather, ahead of the lights. It’s the best way to lock on them.”
    Grunts, groans and screams filled her ears, louder by the second, distracting her. She pivoted and fired, pivoted and fired, trying to direct her beams in front of the blurs, just as Jaxon had said.
    To her consternation, she only managed to nail one of the warriors. How many were out there, damn it? They seemed to be multiplying like flies.
    â€œHelp