Zero to Love (3 page)

She wouldn’t get that if the dean discovered her with her skirt thrown over her hips and Nick buried six inches deep in her.

“I’ll get you another champagne.” Nick’s eyes sparkled.

“Yeah, you do that,” she muttered under her breath as he disappeared into the crowd.

Robert Calum’s annual midterm drinks party was famous for drunken debauchery. The three-story Victorian edifice was decked out with a wet bar in every room, and the upstairs bedrooms were equipped with a selection of condoms and disposable towels for cleanup.

In the corner of the room, Elijah was cozied up to a pretty intern. When he caught Magda staring, he gave a shrug and raised his glass of twelve-year-old Scotch in salute.

Magda just shook her head. Her brother changed girlfriends more than he changed his designer underwear, yet he continually nagged her about getting more serious about Nick.

As if that would ever happen.

She cast her gaze around the room. An old upright piano stood against a wall, and a doctor of psychology was playing a rag, his tie loosely knotted around his throat. When Nick had invited her last year, the doctor had worn that same tie like a bandanna around his balding head as the evening wore on.

A male body pressed against her from behind again, a long arm slipping around her middle. She slid her hand over the forearm and froze. The texture of the hair was different. Where Nick’s arm hair was thin and soft, this person’s was coarse.

She looked down. Dark hairs grew from the tanned skin.

Before she could wrench free, lips were at her ear. “You look fucking scrumptious in this short little dress, Ms. Brunelli. And what scent are you wearing? I could smell you across the room.” A tongue snaked out and licked her ear.

Disgust ricocheted through her, and she struggled to pull free. Her captor allowed her to turn, and she came face-to-face with Darian Drummond, professor of advanced composition and creative writing. A course she’d failed miserably.

Why the hell was he touching her? He’d never given her a second glance, other than to wrinkle his nose as he handed her a paper with a poor grade.

“Professor—”

“Darian,” he said, voice oiled from too much alcohol. His long, dark brows arched over heavily lidded eyes. His breath was one-hundred proof.

“Oh, here’s Nick.” Never in her life had she been so happy to see him.

She went still, contemplating that last thought. What the hell was she doing with a guy she felt so blasé about? Even Elijah was passionate about his flavor of the month.

A vision of the Mindchanger on the street flashed through her mind, leaving a trail of heat in its place, a brand. Her breath quickened.

Accepting the champagne from her boyfriend, Magda uttered a quick thank-you and headed toward the corner. Her brother saw her coming, and his arm around the girl tensed. He gave a flick of his head to indicate Magda should butt out.

Like hell
. She dropped onto the arm of the tufted velvet love seat beside the girl. “Can you get another ride home?”

“What? No. Besides, I’ve seen you downing those drinks. You’re in no condition to drive.” Elijah adopted his sports commentator voice, and Magda cringed.

Before he said more about how many flutes of champagne she’d drunk, she said, “Yeah, I didn’t think. I’ll just grab a cab.”

The hair on her nape rippled. Stood on end. Warmth sank low in her belly as fingers of sensation scraped her from head to toe.

Elijah stared past her, and his eyes bulged.

Without turning she knew he was there. At the party, seeking her.
Monroe.

The feelers reached for her, and she pivoted gladly into them like slipping into strong arms. She let her dangling heel hit the floor and started to stand.

Elijah grasped her wrist. Magda searched through the crowd for the Mindchanger who’d disappeared from her view. A cluster of people stood in the center of the room, waving drinks and talking politics in slurred voices. Magda stretched her neck to see while trying to yank free of Elijah’s hold.

Two female professors moved aside, creating a gap where Monroe suddenly stood. Dark leather, mussed, dirty-blond hair, and smoldering green eyes.

Not dark eyes, after all.

The corner of his mouth turned up, and a bracket appeared around the bad-boy smile that made her nipples bunch instantly. Her heart squeezed.

In the background, she caught Elijah’s demands that she not look into the eyes of a Mindchanger. She lost herself for a long moment in those green depths, waiting for him to feed, which humans the Mindchangers had fed on said was better than sex.

A soft finger trailed up her bare outer thigh, and she whipped around in shock.

The intern who had been cozied in the crook of Elijah’s arm was stroking Magda with one slender, red-tipped finger. Magda’s gaze followed the finger’s journey back down to her knee.

On his feet now Elijah shoved the girl away and tightened his grasp on Magda. “We’re going. Now.”

A scream came from the front of the house, and it wasn’t one of bliss. The shriek curdled and broke.

Monroe whirled in a blur of black as two other Mindchangers burst into the room, searching, searching.

Locking on Magda.

Her heart stuttered as they rushed Monroe.

“Monroe!” The cry burst from her without thought. He retracted his feelers, leaving her icy and alone as he reached for the knife strapped to his thigh and jerked it free. The crowd gave a collective gasp and plastered themselves against the walls. Silence reigned.

All of a sudden, a huge Mindchanger with long black hair was at her side. His gaze flicked over her rose-gold micro-minidress and down her bare legs to her heels. “Nice,” he drawled, then grabbed his head as if he’d just been struck.

“Get away from her,” Elijah growled.

The girl ran her finger up Magda’s thigh, dangerously close to the undercurve of her ass. What was wrong with her? Was she drunk? Elijah knew how to pick the classiest women.

Magda slapped her hand away, every fiber of her being straining after Monroe.

The metallic clashing noises of a knife fight sounded, and the Mindchanger beside her grunted. “Name’s Keefe. I’m with Monroe.”

And they’re not with him.

“No,” he answered, his voice as gritty as gravel on asphalt. He shook himself suddenly.

Elijah stepped between Magda and Keefe. He was a full head shorter than the supernatural, and his preppy sport coat and khaki pants made him look weak in the face of all that black leather. It crisscrossed Keefe’s thick chest in bands that accentuated the muscles.

She stood on her toes to see Monroe. Her knees weakened. A fog filled her mind.

“Fuck,” Keefe said as the air was sucked from the room and everyone was frozen.

AS THE FREE Will stared into Magda’s eyes and sipped from her beautiful thoughts, Monroe’s anger bubbled up and over, a warhead.

He threw his mind.

The cerebral boom was never used, and most Mindchangers couldn’t perform it. But he was strong after gobbling Magda’s emotion. Her fascination bled from her like the sweetest honey.

The Free Wills turned to statues as Monroe froze the cortexes of their brains. Every human’s and even Keefe’s mind came to a grinding halt.

Air was sucked out of the space like a vacuum.

It held. Back-built. Then exploded.

The air rippled with his power, distorting the room, blurring the horrified, frozen faces of the party guests. Dust cascaded from the plaster ceiling, hanging in the air around the humans, who couldn’t even think to cough.

The concussion sent Keefe stumbling. His ass struck the floor, and he was thrown back, arms outstretched, completely pinned by Monroe’s fury.

All activity ceased. Not a single brain cell shifted in the fractured atmosphere.

Except Magda’s.

Across the space Monroe looked at her. Her mind opened to his, and relief flooded him with the realization that the Free Will had only stolen a fragment of her thought.

“…come for me?”

“They’ve come for you. You’re not safe here.”

“Have you come for me?”

He tipped headfirst into the sapphire pools of her eyes.

Fuck, I’m as good as dead, wanting a woman who can’t feed me.

Her pulse tripped, and the smell of her arousal struck him fully. His heightened senses detected every throb of lust in her tight, curvaceous body.

His cock swelled, and his feelers went out automatically, ready to drink her thoughts, emotions—as all Mindchangers were meant to do during sex.

Want fed into her system. She stepped forward, her legs the sexiest fucking things he’d ever laid eyes on. He clamped his hands into fists and strode toward her.

“We’ve gotta get out of here. The boom will only hold for so long.”

But how was she functioning? The difference in her mind wasn’t only the result of being attacked by Free Wills as a child. He had to get her someplace safe and examine her further.

Sure, if that’s what you want to call it.

“Monroe?” Her voice wobbled.

“Look into my eyes.”

She did, hers widening, the pupils dilating and constricting rapid-fire. When he looked deeply into her, he saw too much. Nick’s hands on her, his mouth on her, his goddamn body moving inside her.

Enough.

But the images kept coming. Another professor licking her ear and the young woman stroking her thigh.

Magda inched nearer.

“Do you trust me?”

She gave a jerky nod. Noting her slight difficulty with motor coordination, he wondered if she was really affected by the cerebral boom in some way.

“Then come with me.” He opened his fist and held his hand out to her, palm up.

She stared at his hand for a long minute. Her emotion fogged the air like the headiest drug. Desire and excitement and a hint of worry.

He closed his eyes and licked at the treats. As each hit his system, his power swelled.

His cock throbbed for more.

Slowly she extended her hand and placed it in Monroe’s.

It was all he needed. He tightened his grip and yanked her off her feet. She tumbled against him—soft, round limbs and fragrant hair. He swept her into his arms and broke for the front door just as the dust began to settle in the frozen house.

Keefe, who had the strongest mind in there, recovered first.
“Damn you, Monroe.”

His chest rumbled with unbidden laughter. Magda tilted her face up to his, and it took every ounce of his control to keep from lowering his mouth and drinking from her lips—in the old-fashioned human way.

Tongues and teeth and passion flowing between them.

He clutched her tighter, then took off. His military-style SUV stood at the end of the street. As he neared, he flicked the key locks with his mind, and they opened with a chirp. The street was lined with vehicles but was empty of pedestrians, which was good. He didn’t need a human witness to him stealing into the night with a young woman.

The lawmakers had unsuccessfully tried to control Mindchangers for decades. Monroe’s race couldn’t give a damn about society’s rules, but he personally did not wish to feed the perception that all Mindchangers were evil.

Back in the house, the boom lifted. Keefe stood over the Free Wills, and the instant they mobilized, he prettied up their faces with his knuckles, one then the other.

Monroe shook off the entire scene and focused on what lay before him.

He was running with Magda. But for how long and to what end? The Free Wills wouldn’t stop until they had her, and he couldn’t keep her on the run forever.

Holding her with one arm, he opened the door of the black SUV and slid her onto the leather seat. She sat there, staring at him, her knees parted in a way that was at once sexy as hell and carefree as a child.

Lust clenched his balls up tight.

Before he could part her legs and bury himself between her thighs, he closed the door. In seconds he started the engine with his mind and climbed behind the driver’s wheel.

“Where are we going?” Her voice was a sliver of its normal strength. He licked at her emotions, testing them for fear.

He found none.

Across the dim cab, he gazed at her. “You said you trust me.”

“I do.” She raked her fingers through her hair, which gleamed bright even in the darkness.

“Never go against instinct,” he said and squealed into the roadway. The SUV jumped to life on the long stretch, and Monroe kept the pedal locked to the floor.

Magda fumbled with the seat belt. When she was secured, he really opened up the SUV, running red lights. He tossed a glance in the rearview mirror. It was only a matter of time before the Free Wills traced the honey of her mind to him.

And every Mindchanger knew where to find him.

They flew through the town square at eighty miles an hour.

Hummm. Hummmummdrummm.

He shook his head. Not now. He didn’t have time to act as beekeeper. Magda shook her head too, then shook it again.

As he sailed through a red light, he stared at her. If only he could see her eyes. She squeaked and pointed at the windshield. He jerked the wheel in time to avoid hitting a parked car.

The buzzing followed him, but he couldn’t take the time to stop. If the Free Wills were bold enough to show up at the party, they wouldn’t hesitate to steal her out of the SUV while Monroe devoured the stray thoughts from the frozen Mindchangers. Another beekeeper would come along eventually.

But what the hell was going on? Did she hear the droning of the frozen Mindchangers too?

No, impossible.

“Where are you taking me?”

To my bed. No, not that. Somewhere safe.

What was safer than his apartment?

Once he had her there, he’d never want to let her out. If only to keep other people from putting their hands, mouths, and other body parts on her.

He veered left and headed for the freeway.

“Please talk to me. You’re scaring me.”

He focused on her more closely. A minute before, she’d eagerly come with him, but now she was hesitant. Actually, fear leaked from her pores, and while he shouldn’t enjoy tasting it, he devoured it with a fist-slam of pleasure.