Zero to Love (14 page)

Monroe shoved through the bodies surrounding him and pushed his way to Magda. With an expression that curled her toes with fear, he grabbed Elise’s hair and hauled her mouth away from Magda’s breast.

“Don’t hurt her,” Magda cried.

His gaze flashed to her, his eyes green fire. She raised her chin a notch. “She’s just—they’re just—”

What were they doing? When she’d rushed from the car to Monroe’s aid, she’d expected to hurl herself into a battle with the Free Wills. Instead she’d been groped and sucked, kissed and fingered.

What were these women? Mindchangers? Her initial thought that Monroe had walked into a Free Will trap faded. Instead it had been a group of sex-crazed females who’d proceeded to force pleasure on her.

He shook his head, mouth grim. “They’re human.” To Elise he said, “Call them off. I’ll speak with you in a minute.”

Elise looked around at the women. Now that they’d moved away, Magda was stunned by their number. At least twenty women crowded around her, Monroe, and Keefe.

A chill ran over her bare skin. Keefe strode forward and swiped her top off the ground. He dangled it from his fingers, and she took it.

“Get your fucking eyes off her,” Monroe commanded.

Magda took the top and held it to her bare breasts. Keefe averted his gaze while she put it back on. A live wire of need coursed through her system. Her panties were growing wetter by the moment, and she couldn’t get the soft pull of those feminine mouths on her nipples out of her head.

But she wanted Monroe.

“You should have stayed in the car.” Monroe grabbed her upper arm and guided her a few steps away. The females continued to stare at her as if she were a rock star and they her groupies.

She drew her brows together as realization struck. She’d let them…wanted them to…

She raised her teary gaze to Monroe. “What’s happening to me? Who are they?”

“I don’t know,” he said, looking away. Keefe said nothing.

“Keefe, take her to my place. Here, you need this.” Monroe dug in the front of his leather pants and came out with the necklace he’d taken from her earlier.

Keefe accepted the jewelry, and the golden chain dipped between his spread fingers. “Van Es said that we need her. I think she should stay with us.”

Monroe gave a hard shake of his head. Even that stubborn gesture was nothing compared to the sparks of flint in his eyes. “She can’t come. If this happened once”—he jerked his chin in the direction of the women—“it will happen again.”

“Why—”

“I don’t know. Put her in the car, Keefe.” Monroe’s tone was immovable.

Keefe reached for Magda, but she locked her knees and tried to anchor herself to the ground. The big Mindchanger drew closer, blocking her view of Monroe, but not before she saw Monroe pull Elise out of the group.

Magda leaned to the left to see around Keefe, but he shifted his weight and obstructed her sight once more. Sighing, she craned her neck to look up at him. In height and size, he was equal to a professional football player. He was roped with muscle, which was evident on his bare arms. The leather vest he wore wasn’t buttoned over his corded chest—brown skin that glistened with perspiration.

“I’m thirsty,” she whispered, a wave of dizziness washing over her.

Keefe flipped her over his shoulder as though she weighed as much as a paper bag. As he strode to the still-running Camaro, numbers filled her head.

Whirling faster and faster, growing in strength.

Keefe made a noise in his throat. Then he opened the door and one-handedly placed her into the seat. She stared at his face, but he appeared to be distracted, a far-off expression on his handsome features.

A flurry of movement behind him made him turn. Magda looked past him and right at the young woman who had been with Elijah that night at the dean’s party.

That seemed like a lifetime ago—and the woman Magda had been was no longer. She’d spent months drifting, hooking up with Nick and applying gesso to canvases so he could paint his pseudomasterpieces that would awe all the girls in class even as Magda recognized the paintings for what they were—studies on technique that lacked in vision and heart.

As she stared at Elijah’s party date, Magda realized she’d also scooted out from under her brother’s thumb. He hadn’t known her whereabouts for days.

“Your brother is worried about you. You should contact him,” the woman said.

“What’s your name?” Magda asked.

“Amy.” She dodged to the side in effort to see Magda around Keefe’s wall of flesh. When she moved, he purposely sidestepped.

“He’s really beside himself, Magda. Please call him.”

Keefe gave Amy a look that caused the blood to drain from her face. A moment later, Amy shook herself and wandered off toward the other girls.

Magda glared at him as he started to shut the car door. “You stole those thoughts from her.”

He met her gaze unapologetically. “Maybe.”

“Why? She was just trying to talk to me. You didn’t need to drink from her.” She clenched her hands into fists on her lap.

“I do what I need to do, as you will.” He straightened and slammed the car door. Then with one more look at Monroe, he came around and got behind the wheel.

“Wait! Let me out! I’m not leaving Monroe!” She fumbled with the seat belt, the door handle.

“His order, little One.” He reached across her and popped the glove compartment. When she spied the bottles of soda and fruit juice filling the small hideaway, she gave a cry.

The thirst overtook her, and she gave up the fight about Monroe as she cradled a cool bottle of grapefruit juice and drank.

AS KEEFE PULLED away with her, the numbers in Magda’s mind assaulted Monroe. He tightened his grip on Elise’s upper arm. She tilted her head to meet his gaze, her mind swirling with pleas for him to drink from her.

He yanked his gaze away. “No. Not that. Now tell me where these women came from and why this happened.”

She took a step back, blending in with the night as well as any Mindchanger. A streetlight shimmered on her curves in tight leather pants. He glanced around. All of the women wore black in support of the Mindchangers.

“Did you orchestrate this?”

Elise shook her head hard enough to cause her hair to bounce on her shoulders. “They smelled her on me and followed me.”

“What?” His harsh bark cut through the low hum of their voices. Everyone grew still.

The air was pregnant with food. His stomach cramped, mind flexing around the possibility of taking a little from each until he was swollen.

They’d touched Magda. Didn’t that make them Monroe’s too?

No
. He locked his jaw against the need to send out his feelers.

“I came from the subway, and they started to follow me,” Elise said.

“And you assume it’s because of Magda?”

“It has to be. I don’t know these women.” She stretched out a hand, palm up. Even if he couldn’t see into her mind, the gesture spoke of honesty.

He took a step closer to Elise, and she backed up. “Why did you kiss her?”

Her mind filled with sensation of completion—so close to what he experienced while moving inside Magda that he nearly roared with rage. He didn’t share. Or play well with others.

Elise opened her mouth to reply, but he cut her off. “I see. No need to say. Take them back to safety before something worse happens to them out here.” While he was relieved there wasn’t a Free Will attack, that didn’t mean he trusted the renegades not to try something similar.

“Worse than what?”

“Than me.” He scanned the delicious thoughts hovering in a cloud around the group. Sweet tastes of home and family as well as the saltier flavors of sin and greed.

He licked his lips. “Go, Elise. I’ll summon you when I need you.” Striding away from the buzz of so many humans congregated in one spot, he focused on Magda and Keefe.

They were barreling through the city to Monroe’s apartment. Magda’s mind overflowed with numbers belonging to high-intensity lights and electric cables. Hell, she even knew Keefe was number twenty-one.

Monroe let her fade from his mind, but she was never far. How had he gotten into this situation?

He increased his pace, eating up the distance between himself and his SUV. The police would find the car he’d used to make an escape with Magda. No one would bother to talk with a Mindchanger about a stolen vehicle because the cops had no real power over the supernaturals. Besides, they’d know who had stolen the car by the neighborhood where it was found.

Again, his powers flagged. What he wouldn’t give to come across a group of frozen Mindchangers right now and do his duty. If he was going to sink into the midst of the Free Wills, he needed strength.

Blue light thrown from houses stretched across the asphalt. The dark and glittering world beckoned to his kind. Recruiting a few certain Mindchangers was a must. Keefe would round up the dozen supernaturals—the beginning of their army. How many could Monroe recruit? Five times that at least.

He sent out a wave of thought, far-reaching. At once he felt a response, a quickening of minds humming with food.

A Mindchanger stepped out of the alley as Monroe passed. Blond like himself, but thick and broad with muscle like a wrestler. His smile spread in his clean-shaven face, and he bulged with fresh energy from the food he’d just consumed.

“How’s Jenny?” Monroe asked drily.

Toliver fell into step beside him, and Monroe slowed a bit to allow him to keep up. “She’s well satisfied as always. How’s…Magda?”

Monroe gave him a slicing look. “Safe,” he ground out.
For now.

“Talk to me, man. Give me the deets.” Toliver rubbed a hand over his jaw, his mind thick with Jenny and a curiosity about who had finally taken Monroe’s sanity.

Monroe ignored Toliver’s quest for information and gave him another tidbit of knowledge. “We’re looking for Treason and one other. Someone at the center that he may protect.”

“Ahh.” Toliver patted his hip, where he wore a long blade and a semiautomatic. He’d taken out his share of Free Wills who stalked Jenny. Her mind was quick—the equivalent of a fast-talking fifteen-year-old’s. The girl filled with thoughts at a pace rapid enough to feed two Mindchangers for the rest of her life.

“Let’s go find Adams.” Monroe headed toward a building constructed of glass and steel, an empty warehouse that Adams had converted to his living quarters.

“Man, I don’t know how he lives here. Just being near it makes my skin crawl,” Toliver said as they stepped onto the sidewalk before the structure.

Made his skin crawl because of the high numbers. No peace to be had here. Monroe would go crazy, especially since he heard the numbers. Toliver reacted to them but didn’t process them as Monroe did. And Adams was somehow immune to all of it.

Before they were forced to go inside and find Adams, the door opened. The Mindchanger, tall and thin with shaggy brown hair and a goatee, grinned at them.

“I heard you coming.” He riveted his gaze on Toliver. “Where’s that pretty little morsel of yours?”

“Out of your reach,” Toliver said without a hint of malice. Everyone knew Adams was as far from predatory as they came. His food came to him. Men and women alike were drawn to his open personality, and he often said he needed a home of this size to host all the orgies.

Monroe followed Magda for a moment. Yes, she was safely in his apartment, but Keefe hadn’t given her the thought catcher necklace yet. He gave his friend a mental nudge from halfway across the city, and Keefe grumbled in response.

“To what do I owe the honor, Master Beekeeper?” Adams asked.

“We’re ending this fight for the city.”

“Has it even started?” Adams wore an amused expression.

“Squashing the rebellion before it starts is best for all of us. Think of your visitors”—Monroe shot a glance up at the glass wall that housed Adams’s quarters—“and how put out you’ll be if they are turned into vegetables.”

Adams leaned against the door frame and stroked his goatee. “Yes, I see your point.”

“Then join with me.”

“You’re backed by Van Es.”

“Who else?”

“I’m in.” Adams pulled away from the doorjamb and closed the door. Monroe locked it with a quick flick of his mind. “Thank you, brother. Let us be off.”

“Where’s that SUV of yours?” Toliver asked as they started down the street, three abreast.

“Two blocks over. We’ll go to the pit first.” Monroe lengthened his strides, eager to finish this job and get back to Magda. If he had his way, he’d find Treason and the so-called royalty and finish them off tonight.

“Straight to the pit? Not playing around, I see,” Adams said quietly.

“That’s right. The Free Wills are there 24–7.” The part of the city known as “the pit” was a terror to a human mind. No one came out alive. The Free Wills drained them and didn’t even leave enough to keep their hearts beating.

“Best get that gun ready, then,” Toliver said to Monroe, waving at the gun lying along his spine. “A battle of minds is too much for you, man.”

He almost stopped walking. The last thing Monroe needed was for everyone to see his weakness.

“When was the last time you ate?”

He shook his head at Adams’s question. “I don’t know. Too long.”

“Let’s find someone, and you can drink. Don’t hold back, man. You need strength to fight any battle, and especially one involving Treason. You know he’ll be there.” Toliver paused and peered into a nearby window. Behind the glass a man sat strumming a guitar.

“Not him,” Monroe growled, drawing to a halt. The kid was young—too young to lose even a single idea to a Mindchanger.

Toliver held up both hands and started walking again. “Touchy subject, as always.”

“What you need is a good human to keep you well fed.” Adams’s eyes flared wide as he hit so close to the truth. “Ah, you have the human, but not the food.”

“I can’t drink from her.” Monroe’s voice sounded like gravel under his boot heels. They reached the SUV, and he opened the door locks. They climbed in with Toliver in the back.

Adams folded his long legs into the space and gave a whistle of appreciation at the features on the dash. “Very nice, Monroe.” He trailed his fingers over the radio Monroe had designed himself. More high-tech than anything available on the market.