Tempt Me Eternally Read Free Page A

me!” an agent sobbed. “Please, help me.”
    Automatically, her gaze searched the night, the frenzied crowd. Before she found the beseeching male, one of the Rakans bypassed Aleaha’s protective wall of testosterone and slammed into her, shoving her to the ground. She landed flat on her back, suddenly breathless and experiencing a moment of terror and anger, helplessness and courage.
    As she raised her weapon to defend herself, she could feel her face and body beginning to change, the bones adjusting to accommodate a new form. No. No, no, no. When she changed involuntarily, she never knew who she would end up looking like.
    The alien with glowing golden eyes leaned down,not to strike her but to . . . kiss her? She struggled against him, and, yep, he opened his mouth to fit it over hers.
    â€œWoman,” he said, voice slightly slurred. “Mine.” Just before contact, an azure shower of sparks exploded around him, framing his large body and freezing him in place. Panting, instantly comforted, Aleaha crawled backward, forcing her image to conform once again to Macy’s.
    Jaxon held out a hand to help her up, and Aleaha prayed he hadn’t seen her mini-transformation.
    â€œThanks,” she rasped, somehow finding her balance. She ripped off her headset and tossed it on the ground. No more distractions.
    â€œThese guys are Rakan,” he said. “Don’t worry if you were dripped on.”
    Until that moment, she’d forgotten about possible contamination. Shit. Rakan or Schön, she was going to be more careful. The few times she’d been sick, she’d unknowingly transformed into an ailing identity. Each experience had taught her that it’s more fun to be stabbed than ill.
    â€œOn my signal,” Jaxon told her, shooting around her, “I want you to run and lock yourself in one of the vans.”
    The vans, hidden as they were, would offer a reprieve from danger, injury and death.
    â€œNo,” she said, surprising herself. She’d stay and she’d fight, even though the prospect terrified her. How could she live with herself if these men died and she’d done nothing to help? “I’m staying.”
    â€œDon’t argue,” Devyn snapped. “Women are always prettier when they agree.”
    Pig. “I need to stay.” She wouldn’t defile everything Macy had built with her own cowardice. “I have to sta— Ohmygod!” One of the aliens had just stepped into an agent. Stepped into . Like a demon intent on possession, the otherworlder’s body had entered the human’s, fusing them until only the human was visible.
    There was a tormented scream. The agent spasmed, shaking and quaking as he raised his own gun to his temple and fired. Brain tissue sprayed, obscene against the snow, and Aleaha gaped in horror.
    â€œFuck,” snarled Dallas Gutierrez, Mia’s second in command, as he joined them. “They’re motherfucking soul jumpers.”
    Soul jumpers. She didn’t know what that meant exactly, and she didn’t want to find out. Her hands shook as she increased the speed of her shots.
    â€œI’ve controlled the energy of a Rakan before,” Devyn said, his voice strained. “But I can’t grasp on to a single energy molecule to control these guys.”
    â€œUnlike Eden, they weren’t raised on Earth. Maybe that’s the problem. But it doesn’t matter. Surely they’ll tire soon,” Jaxon replied. “That kind of speed has to drain them.”
    Aleaha lost the thread of the conversation. Energy molecule? Eden? All she knew was that a few more minutes passed and the aliens didn’t slow. Their unparalleled swiftness only seemed to increase, so much so that she had trouble fixing another target in her sights.
    â€œShit.” Devyn slid a knife from his boot. “You were wrong, my friend, and we’re out of time. They’re coming for us