Administrative Control (Immortal Ops) Read Online Free

succubus at it, would it?”
    Asher had known Lukian a long time. The man held Asher’s obsession close to the vest and that was appreciated. “She ended up involved in all of this, and I asked for her help on a matter. I just need to see that she’s all right.”
    “Of course,” said Lukian. He touched Asher’s shoulder. “You could always just claim her as yours, you know.”
    He snorted. “What makes you think I could?”
    Lukian eyed him. “The fact you haven’t aged in all the years I’ve known you. I’m guessing that means you’re fair game in the immortal mate market, and since I’ve known you, you’ve checked in on her a whole hell of a lot.”
    “Maybe I just like getting my rocks off at a brothel,” said Asher.
    Lukian laughed. “Oh yeah, sure. I believe that. I’ve seen you around her before. You’re not sleeping with her—yet.”
    Asher grinned despite himself. “Go do what I told you to. I’ll meet you at the plane.”
    “Yes, sir,” said Lukian, waggling his brows as he headed for Roi and Eadan. The two men were now taking turns pushing each other, much like small children would.
    Yep.
    Preschoolers.
    Asher stepped over something he was pretty sure used to be an arm. When the cleanup team had notified him of the extent of the carnage, he’d boarded a plane with half the I-Ops team and headed to Seattle at once to try to figure out what had happened.
    So far, it was a mystery to them all. Asher was sure of one thing—Walter Helmuth had something to do with it and he’d been rumored to be in bed with two genetic-altering bigwig bad guys—Krauss and Molyneux.
    That just screamed trouble.
    Men like Helmuth always seemed like scared little boys to Asher. So desperate were they to cling to power that they would do anything to hold on to it—even kill. The man had apparently aligned with the wrong people if this was the result, because a huge number of the identifiable bodies belonged to known Helmuth associates.
    Asher had seen far too many men like Helmuth in his life. They never learned. They always thought their way would give them ultimate power. In the end, it never worked as planned for them.
    Helmuth and others like him needed to feel important. Needed to keep people lower than them in order to inflate their egos. Egos that would lead to their downfall.
    Helmuth wasn’t the first guy to try to rule through violence. Hell, Asher’s past had a man even worse than Helmuth in it.
    It’s in your blood , he thought, stiffening.
    Asher considered exacting revenge upon Helmuth, the likes of which the man had never seen. But Asher knew better than to. He’d seen firsthand what fully giving in to power such as his own could do to a person. It left them a shell of what they’d been—filled with rage, evil and the all-consuming need to kill.
    Checks and balances.
    Nature was full of them. So was the supernatural community.
    His cell phone buzzed.   He removed it from his inner jacket pocket and nearly laughed when he spotted who was calling. A figurehead, placed in his role to give the few humans who knew of the I-Ops existence a false sense of security. As if they had the men on leashes and could pull back when they liked.
    “Brooks,” he said, answering the phone.
    The man on the other end didn’t bother with pleasantries. “Dammit, Brooks, I’m looking at a report here that says Seattle is a fucking disaster. You better have more proof than this that we’ve got traitors among us or—”
    Grinning, Asher cut the man off. “Or you’ll do what, exactly?”
    “I’ll have you replaced, and you know what happens to people we replace,” the man threatened.
    Asher rolled his eyes. “Oh, do tell.”
    “You may be tight with Newman and the others, but you’re nothing to me,” warned the man.
    “As you are to me,” Asher warned. He would not take kindly to the man interfering any further. He let his power rise slowly and concentrated on the pudgy, balding man who’d let his