Deliver Me from Temptation Read Online Free PDF

another reminder of what a fuck-up the night had been. They really needed to convince the council to allow them to carry their weapons out on the street. He understood their concerns over detection—knives and swords were not exactly commonplace anymore—but it was getting too damn dangerous to go without them. Between the war and their own diluted gene pool, the Paladins’ numbers were dwindling, along with them the power of their various gifts. And no gift was without cost. Even Logan’s ability to call His purging light was not a cure-all, the time and personal energy needed to pull from His realm not always possible during the heat of the battle—not to mention it was a one-shot deal until his personal reserves could be restored. But one scratch from a Paladin’s empowered knife, and subduing the succubus wouldn’t have been nearly so challenging. The weapons had been forged to consume all things evil. As it stood, the bitch not only got away, but she’d managed to injure two out of the three Paladins who hunted her.
    “Are you okay?” Logan asked.
    Alexander straightened, grimacing, but nodded. “Fine, just…” He fingered his sore ribs, grunting. “I can’t believe she got the best of me. Twice.”
    “She kicked my ass too.” And he still had the headache to prove it.
    Alexander perked up a bit at this, then grunted, scowling. “I had her, dammit. But that redhead could sure pack a punch.”
    “Red? You sure?” Valin sat up straighter, his bourbon eyes narrowing. “I could’ve sworn she was a brunette.”
    “She wore a wig. It slipped a bit in our last scuffle.”
    Valin sat back in his chair, a pensive frown marring his finely sculpted features. Logan opened his mouth to ask what he was thinking when Alex spoke again. “You get the human taken care of?”
    He turned back to the big man, trying to determine if there was anything more to the question than the obvious, but the Paladin didn’t seem to be anything but mildly curious. “Yeah. Her address was on her registration, her key on her ring.”
    “Anyone see you?”
    “No one that will remember.”
    “Good. That’s one complication we don’t need.”
    Logan turned back to find Valin staring at the far wall. Logan nudged the chair to get his attention. “While you were ghosting, did you notice anything strange about the succubus?”
    Valin looked at him oddly. “What could I have noticed while I was in the shade that I couldn’t otherwise?”
    “I don’t know. It just seems odd that she always seemed to sense when you neared. And for her to get through my defenses like that?”
    Valin smiled, his eyes dancing as he watched Logan rub the back of his head where the headache was the worst. “What did she take you down with, a frying pan or something?”
    “She got through my mental shields.”
    “She did what?” Alexander stood up quickly. Too quickly. He swore, grabbing at his side as he doubled over. Logan stepped toward him to offer his aid, but Alex waved him off, carefully settling back down again.
    “Logan?” Valin prompted.
    “I said she broke through my shields. Practically knocked me out for the count without even touching me.”
    “A succubus can’t do that.”
    “Not if that was all she was.”
    Silence descended over the room, each keeping his own council as he mulled over possibilities. Logan found each thought more alarming than the last. He couldn’t let go of the idea that the succubus had been leading them into a trap—the presence of those vampires seemed too much of a coincidence.
    But how did Jessica Waters fit in? He sighed, running his hand through his hair. He would probably never know. Suspicious coincidences aside, he thought it probable that she’d merely stumbled into the situation. The vampires could’ve been in that alley already, part of the trap for them, and it was pure chance the cop had been there. Wrong place. Wrong time. Simple.
    Logan frowned.
    “Logan?”
    Logan blinked at Alexander