Tactical Magik (Immortal Ops) by Mandy M. Roth Read Free Book Online Page B

and whoever the hell else they were in bed with had their hands in this too, then Eadan wasn’t surprised. They were synonymous with problems. What Eadan couldn’t wrap his mind around was why the general had sent him alone. If this did tie back to Krauss, then why not include the I-Ops?
    Nothing made sense.
    All he was sure of was the warehouse smelled like sweat and beer.
    A leggy blonde girl held up a sign with the number two on it. The bikini she wore barely covered anything. There was a time she might have been hot, but she looked like she’d been ridden hard. Life hadn’t been kind to that one.
    The men around him whistled and carried on like fools, each shouting disgusting things at the woman. She smiled and walked with more of a sway to her hips. Shaking his head, Eadan pulled his focus from her and onto the men in the corners of the ring. Cautiously, he let his magik up enough to scan them, but ran into a bit of resistance. That was strange. Sure, the power he’d sensed before entering was old and powerful, but Eadan was no magikal lightweight. Far from it. Yet he had to strain to do a task that would normally be second nature.
    “Show it off, Candy!” a man shouted to the woman in the ring.
    Eadan kept going, making his way past the ring area, toward the behind the scenes area. It took more magik than it should have to get the guys guarding the area to turn and look away at the same time. When they did, Eadan strolled through the corridor. The stench of the warehouse lifted. He continued on, curious as to why he’d been led in this direction. Two of the rooms he walked by had open doors. In one he saw a guy getting a blowjob from not one but two women, and in the other he watched men sitting around a table, snorting something or other.
    Whatever it was had to be stronger than drugs you could get on the street. Those did nothing for a supernatural.
    As Eadan neared the last room, he found its door closed. The urge to enter nearly consumed him. Putting his hand to the doorknob, he hesitated, listening with both his ears and his magik for what might be behind it. He heard nothing that gave him concern. He twisted the knob and opened the door slowly.
    There she was. Inara, standing, naked from the waist up, her back to him, her front to an old sink basin. She covered herself from his view, her brilliantly green gaze staring wide at him in the mirror reflection. His mind said turn around and give her privacy. The rest of him forgot to take direction from his brain and remained in place.
    He’d thought his reaction to her picture was strong. Seeing her in the flesh—a whole lot of flesh—nearly took him to his knees.
    Air seemed to be resistant to entering his lungs. But the blood sure pooled to his cock, hardening it, making his entire body alive with desire and raw need.
    Her lips were full and slightly opened in a gasp. “Holy shit! You’re real?”
    He couldn’t seem to form a sentence to save his life. He merely nodded.
    She yanked an old t-shirt over her head and spun around, her look of surprise turning to annoyance. “Knock much, ass—” She launched into a sneezing fit. When she stopped, she blinked up at him. “Ah crap, a magik?”
    She sneezed again.
    “W-what?”

Chapter Five
    Inara glared at the blond guy who had barged in on her. He just stood there, managing to look sexy and clueless all at once. Normally, she’d have been pissed. She found herself struggling to stay in character to appear mad. She actually wanted to run and touch him, make sure she wasn’t dreaming and he was really there.
    More important, she wanted to feel his lips on hers.  
    His lips on mine? What the hell? Stop. Stranger danger, stupid.
    Except he wasn’t a stranger to her. Not really. She’d “known” him all her life. Her sketchpad was littered with drawings of him. She saw him when she closed her eyes at night and she’d see him when the times got really hard. His image would come to mind and just make