Zero to Love (13 page)

He had no idea how to respond to that, so he said, “I thought you needed to use the bathroom.”

She shook her head. “I’m okay now.”

All right. Enough
. Monroe pivoted to Van Es. “What’s going on with her?”

“She’s converted the juice in a very nonhuman way. Can’t you see it?” His voice held a note of excitement as he returned to his seat at his desk. “Please sit, Monroe.”

When a Mindchanger like Van Es gave an order, one obeyed. Monroe sat in the other leather chair, and Magda came to sit on the arm, her cheeks drawing inward as she sucked on the cigar. A cherry-scented wreath of smoke circled her head.

Monroe slid his arm around her waist and steadied her in case she grew dizzy from the cigar, but she showed no signs of it.

“What do you mean she converted it?”

“Look into her mind. Do you not see the banks of numbers there?”

His eyes widened as he ran over the store of numbers that hadn’t been there before. Numbers similar to the ones in Monroe’s mind.
No wonder she understood that screwdriver.

She’d left the tool in the car, but she’d spent several minutes during the drive running her fingers over the metal and wooden handle as if learning more about it.

Van Es gave a slight nod at Monroe’s thoughts. “That’s correct. She’s transforming.”

Monroe’s chest tightened. If being with him was changing her, he couldn’t let that happen. It couldn’t continue.

“Is there no way to stop it?”

Magda inhaled the sweet smoke as if oblivious of their conversation. In fact her mind was barely registering them. She was sifting through all the numbers in the room, processing them faster than even Monroe might be capable of.

His fingers convulsed on her waist.

“Why do you wish to stop it, Monroe?” The elder’s bright blue gaze met his. Before he could shield himself, Van Es plucked the reason out of the depths of his mind—his soul.

Monroe scraped a hand over his face. He hated that he could be so easily read. He gave an internal sigh that the truth was there, between Keefe, Van Es, and himself.

I’m in love with her.

Van Es opened his mouth to speak, and Monroe shot a warning glance toward Magda. It was one thing to have his innermost thoughts revealed to his peers, but he wasn’t ready to tell Magda. If he ever was, it wouldn’t be here with an audience.

“Do you only love her for her human characteristics?”
Van Es asked.

“Of course not. I can’t drink from her.”

“But she may be able to drink from you.”

Again that fist of revelation struck Monroe’s chest full force. He looked at Keefe, who was equally shocked. There were few Mindchanger females left. Many had been destroyed by the males who used them, sucked them dry before their time. As far as Monroe knew, there wasn’t a single female Mindchanger in the city of Helgedom. Since they lived long lives, they didn’t need to reproduce as often to keep up the numbers of their race.

“Have you coaxed her to drink from you?”

“No.”

“Is that not what she was trying to do with the women—with Elise and the woman at the car window?”

Monroe wished Van Es didn’t know so much. Monroe craved time alone with Magda to uncover these reasons on his own. Yet this was why he’d come to the elder. For help in understanding what was happening to her.

“She’s becoming a Mindchanger.”
Monroe clenched a fist.

“That answer is obvious. Although we all know there is something bigger happening.”

Monroe sat forward on his seat, his arm still around Magda. Van Es pushed a cut-glass ashtray across the desk to her, and she tapped her thick ash into it. The numbers in her head were multiplying out of control, hundreds per second.

“Her father must know of this. It’s why he’s surrounded her with pure numbers and flowers.”

“And cigars, apparently.”
An amused crinkle appeared around Van Es’s eyes.

“But his head is empty, just like hers. Is he acting only on instinct? Or does he truly know why he does these things?”

Van Es shook his head. “That I don’t know.”

“They’ve both been cleaned out by Free Wills, who have been working hard the last few days to get at her and empty her again.”

Magda glanced up, her eyes blurry. Monroe looked into her mind and found her in a far-off place.

“You need to get to Treason first, but I don’t believe that particular renegade is acting alone.” Van Es’s face broke into a smile as Magda stubbed out the cigar. “Feeling calmer, my dear?”

“Much, thank you.” Did she know that the reason the smoke and flowers helped her was that her body was transforming at an alarmingly quick rate to that of a Mindchanger? That soon she’d belong to their colony—another bee taking the pollen of thoughts from humans and feeding them a new kind of honey in return?

If Monroe could stop it, he would. She was no thought eater, and she had a whole life ahead of her. She’d barely had time to experience it.

“C’mon, man.”
Keefe’s voice broke into his head.
“You can’t tell me that you think watching her go to work with that ass professor every day, marrying him, and having a family with him, is preferable to her being by your side as a Mindchanger.”

“And a powerful one, at that.”
Van Es winked at her.

Monroe pinched the bridge of his nose hard against a rising headache. The conversation jumped around erratically, and he could hardly make sense of anything, let alone figure out what the next course of action was.

Van Es came to his rescue. “The Free Wills are after her. She’s transforming. Do you not suspect there might be a reason behind the coincidence?”

“She’ll help in the fight,” Monroe murmured, mind spinning off with this brand-new filament of information. Extreme protectiveness rose inside him. He’d keep Magda safe or die trying.

Magda slumped against him. He lifted her over the chair arm and settled her on his lap. She dropped her head to his shoulder and snuggled close. To Monroe’s surprise Keefe came forward with a woolen, checked blanket and draped it over her shoulders. She sighed.

With one hand on the base of her skull, Monroe detected the lowering of her heart and breathing rates as she grew more and more tired.

“When she falls asleep, you may lay her on the sofa there, and we’ll continue our talk of the Free Wills.” Van Es tapped the desk blotter with an impatient hand. There was something he wanted Monroe and Keefe to know, but was withholding. Not all Mindchangers could conceal thoughts this well. Monroe could when at his strongest and most well fed. And Magda—

Keefe chuckled again. “I never considered that.”

Van Es nodded. “It would seem that she is very powerful. She won’t let you touch her thoughts.”

“But the Free Wills can get at them. They took part of a dream she had.” As she drifted off to sleep, Monroe tightened his hold on her, loath to relinquish her to the sofa even for her comfort.

“She must still be weak and vulnerable to their attacks, since they took so much when she was a child,” Van Es offered. “Now that she’s asleep, shall we get to our business?”

Keefe sat on the edge of the desk to join the talk.

“They are amassing an army. Their ranks are swelling as we speak. They’re rallying our race by promise of more food—all the food they want. They promise that no Mindchanger will ever be hungry again,” Monroe said. He resisted the urge to grind his teeth, afraid the noise might wake Magda.

He dipped his head and allowed his nose to brush her bright hair, breathing in her sweet citrus scent along with the cigar smoke.

“But you say we need not only stop Treason. There is someone else behind the action,” Keefe said.

“I suspect this is the case, yes. We all know Treason. While he is powerful and quite evil, he’s also a little…how should I say it? Dim-witted. Does that man have the brains to orchestrate a war? He has the muscle and mind-strength, yes.”

Monroe pondered the moment he’d been faced with the wall of Free Wills, including Treason, right before he’d turned in to the alley and escaped them. Treason had used everything in his power to direct Monroe’s SUV where he wanted it—to a dead stop so they could steal Magda.

“You’re right. Someone else must be behind the dictate. So we need to dig deep and find that person.” Monroe’s worries mounted.

“We gather an army ourselves. I can get a dozen Mindchangers right now—tonight. We’ll start a hunt for information about this person and recruit as we go,” Keefe said.

Van Es’s face drooped, showing his age more than ever. “They’re protecting him, as worker bees must protect a queen.”

Monroe felt the vibration of those words to the core of his being. There hadn’t been a Mindchanger royal for over two decades. Not since Arafa, who had died and left no heirs to take his place. When their king passed on, the Mindchangers continued to exist. The loss of a king hadn’t mattered as much as they’d all feared. Unlike a colony of insects, the workers did not perish along with the queen.

But whether or not Arafa could have stopped the Free Wills group from forming in the first place was a prospect to consider.

“You actually believe there is a king…or a queen?” Keefe asked, shifting so that the desk creaked.

“Not a true royal blood, no,” Van Es said, eyes downcast. “But they’ve named one, and that power is sometimes more terrible.” He looked into Monroe’s eyes. “Your job is to find that person and wipe him out. Treason is a second target. And hold this one close.” He gestured toward Magda. “She may be a weapon for us.”

Despair clutched Monroe. Throwing this fragile girl into the dark underworld was like throwing a newborn to a pack of wild demons. But strapping a bomb to that newborn and pushing the baby carriage at the demons?

He rubbed his nose against her hair, fighting the emotion and terror roiling through him. Van Es ordered it, so Monroe must carry through and do as he said. But his heart screamed out for a safe place to hide Magda away from everyone who might cause her harm.

Chapter Nine

Keefe’s Camaro sliced through the inky darkness. There were no streetlights in this section of town. A cold finger of worry lay along Magda’s spine. At her side Monroe was rigid, his gaze fixed on their surroundings.

After she’d awakened in his arms, he’d been short with her—distant. Maybe he was finished with her.

“Here.” Monroe’s voice was a bark that snapped her out of her fog.

Keefe eased the car along the curb.

“Leave it running.” Monroe opened the door. A blast of cool air knifed across her skin. She wrapped her arms around her middle and watched his long, straight back as he walked away from her.

“He’s not finished with you,” Keefe said quietly.

Could she never have a private thought?

“Not in this city,” he said with a hint of amusement.

The car rocked as if shoved by a harsh wind. But the few trees dotting the lawns weren’t moving.

They came out of nowhere—black forms crawling all over the street, swarming Monroe.

She grasped the door handle and tried to shove through the door, but it was locked. “Let me out, Keefe!”

“I can’t. Monroe did it.”

Panic rose in her chest, and all the numbers in her head broke loose in a torrent as wild and uncontrolled as a natural disaster. She shoved hard, and the door locks clicked.

Before Keefe could stop her, she was on the street, running toward Monroe and those who would harm him.

Keefe’s footsteps pounded behind her. Hands reached for her, grappling, scraping over her clothes and hair, searing the exposed skin of her arms and throat. A dozen people stood between her and Monroe. Through the darkness, his face was a pale oval, his eyes too shadowed to connect with.

Then again…

She focused on him and held his gaze, willing him to take what he could from her. “
I’d do anything to give you power.”

The pressure of the hands changed, and suddenly someone was caressing her. Fingers trailing up her spine, over her shoulders to her breasts. Her nipples peaked, and Monroe issued a harsh growl but didn’t move a muscle to fight those who threatened him.

The forms surrounded Keefe, trapping him in a ring so tight that only the top of his head showed over theirs.

Someone ran a finger over her lips. She turned her mouth to the sweetness there and licked. The taste of feminine skin was familiar.

“Elise!”

The dark-haired woman framed Magda’s face and kissed her. The tongue she thrust into Magda’s mouth tasted of fruit and honey. Magda closed her eyes and let the kiss pull her to the center of a world she didn’t understand and had no will to push away.

The people around her pinched her nipples. Hands worked over her torso, tugging her top overhead. Cool night air struck her flesh but was quickly replaced by the warmth of so many hands.

Blondes, brunettes, redheads—women with fresh young faces and those with beautiful laugh lines of age. They rubbed against her, and she rippled with a brand-new awareness.

Someone placed her lips over Magda’s breast and sucked. She gasped into Elise’s mouth, drinking in the pleasure as much as the flavors of the woman she kissed.

Grinning, Elise broke away. She dipped her head and parted her lips around Magda’s other straining nipple. Another woman pressed her lips to Magda’s.

The powerful taste of oranges tingled in Magda’s head. She threaded her fingers through the woman’s silky brown hair and held the woman to her lips even as Magda writhed with bliss under the attentions of Elise and a pretty blonde.

In the recesses of her mind, she accepted that this wasn’t her—she’d never been with a woman sexually before and had never even considered it. But now…

Someone popped the button of her jeans, and heated fingers plunged into her lacy panties. As the digits stroked her wet slit, Monroe’s bellow reached Magda.

“Enough!”

She met his gaze, and a bit of her sexual haze vanished, probably consumed by him. A woman had her fingers buried in Magda’s pussy. Magda wrapped her fingers around the woman’s wrist and tugged her hand free.