Zero to Love (20 page)

A woman with Magda’s mouth yet dark, Italian coloring who had once run with Mindchangers and fed them. She’d possessed a gift to understand things most humans and Mindchangers didn’t—such as how to silence human thoughts.

A Mindchanger had been intrigued with her skill and summoned her to him—Arafa, the Mindchanger king.

Monroe released Vincent and collapsed back against the pew. Vincent buried his face in his hands and would not look up again.

Breathing heavily, Monroe worked over the image he’d seen in the man’s mind. Arafa’s features loomed up. The nose was the same fine cut as Aric’s, and the long white brows might have once been red. But the blue eyes were unmistakable.

“She’s his daughter,” Monroe said, his whisper harsh and carrying in the space.

Vincent nodded, softly weeping into his hands.

One. She’s One because she’s Arafa’s daughter. Arafa, who is Aric, living among us the entire time as a common Mindchanger. He faked his death and smothered all his memories of his reign as king of the Mindchanger race.

Monroe nearly staggered under the revelation. He’d never guessed they were linked, let alone that Aric was truly their king living in hiding. Suddenly every gesture the man had made reminded Monroe of royalty. But the massive question of why Arafa would have done this was a black cloud scudding through Monroe’s brain.

“Who placed these barriers in your mind and in Giovanni’s?”

“I don’t know his name or what he looks like. He stole those things from me when he placed the barriers.”

If Monroe wasn’t mistaken, Magda hadn’t really been cleaned out by Free Wills, but they’d altered her. They knew she was royalty—Arafa’s heir.

Could it be—

Monroe shook his head, trying to dislodge the idea that had sprung into his head. Was it possible that Arafa, posing as Aric, was the royalty at the center of the Free Wills?

No, he’d never believe his friend would betray their race like that. Turning to the side of evil and ruling from his secret position was unimaginable. He couldn’t be.

Monroe stood.

Vincent dropped his hands and lifted his head to gaze at Monroe. Tears tracked down his worn cheeks. “Don’t hurt her.”

“Never. I’m trying to protect her.”

As he ran out of the cathedral and into the blinding sunlight of a Sicilian street, Monroe couldn’t help but wonder if he was really protecting her from her own blood father.

Chapter Thirteen

The humming noise broke into Magda’s trance. She snapped her head up and looked at the naked bodies writhing around her.

Her pussy was wet with her recent orgasms, and beside her Sara lay entangled with Adams. He pumped his cock in and out of her with a rhythmic slowness that spoke of how many hours they’d been going at it.

His purple-veined cock disappeared between Sara’s mocha pussy lips, and she gasped at the deep plunge.

“Drink, Magda,” Adams urged in a faraway voice.

Someone placed a bottle in her hand, but she turned to Sara and found her mouth. The kiss spiraled on endlessly. Magda might have been kissing her for seconds or hours.

When she finally broke free, she shut her eyes and rested her head against the sofa cushion. In the recesses of her mind, she recognized the wrongness of this situation. Her brain felt starved and shapeless. She could do a mental circuit of the entire room if she wanted. She could see into everyone here.

But she didn’t want them. She needed Monroe. He was the only one who could bring order to her life again.

Sitting up, she tried to focus. Across the room Keefe had the blonde in his arms, but he wasn’t fucking her. Instead he occasionally met her gaze and fed. She quivered in his hold.

Magda reached up and removed the thought catcher.

The room went dead still. Keefe, Toliver, Hale, and Adams froze, watching her. Whatever was in her mind transfixed them.

Actually, they looked frightened.

She picked up her robe and shoved her arms into the holes. “Someone must take me to Van Es.”

As she started up the stairs to her room to shower and dress, Keefe’s gritty voice reached her. “Why do you need him, my One?”

“He will not deny me answers now,” she said, knowing in her gut it was true. Something had shifted within her, and a strength she hadn’t known she possessed lived there.

A white fog surrounded her as she readied herself to meet with Van Es. What she planned to say to him or even why she wanted to speak with him was just out of her dulled reach, but when she stood before him, she’d know what to do.

When she went back downstairs, everyone was dressed, if disheveled. Keefe waited for her by the door while the other Mindchangers had gathered the females around the coffee table. Two pizzas were in the center.

Magda flicked her hand toward Toliver. “Come with us. Your Jenny wouldn’t want you here, would she?”

He jerked. “How do you know about Jenny?”

Magda shrugged and met his gaze. “I see her in your eyes. You haven’t touched these women other than to feed, unlike Hale, Adams, and Keefe.” She grinned at Keefe, who seemed to have formed an attachment with the blonde named Chloe.

Keefe whirled toward the door, fists clenched and the lines of his back tense. Magda gasped.

With every ounce of her being, she knew Monroe stood outside.

A thrill hit her belly, and her senses buzzed to life.

The door struck the inner wall, and he appeared in the opening, silhouetted by sunlight. The breeze tore at the blond strands of his hair, blowing them into his blazing emerald eyes.

He glared at Keefe. After cocking his fist, he rammed it right into his friend’s nose. Blood sprayed, and several of the ladies behind Magda cried out.

Magda ran forward to separate them just as Keefe pulled back his fist like a hammer on a gun, prepared to go off on Monroe.

Monroe delivered another sharp jab to Keefe’s midsection. “You know what that’s for.”

“I didn’t lay a hand on her other than to carry her to bed,” Keefe responded. Magda hurled herself at Keefe, clinging to his bicep to keep him from retaliating against Monroe. He tried to shake her off, and Monroe gave a growl.

“I saw every damn lurid thought in your head when you touched her, Keefe.”

Magda released him and fell back. Looking past Keefe, Monroe met her gaze. Electricity surged between them, and in that instant she saw Monroe’s bald emotion.

Tripping forward, she threw herself into his open arms. He molded her to fit his shape. She drew deep breaths of his scent—man and leather.

Mine.

“Yours,”
he murmured to her, but she didn’t think he’d said it aloud. The word had echoed in her soul.

He tangled his fingers into her hair and tipped her face up to his. When he crushed his mouth against hers, her strength fled. Dizzying desire flooded into her brain, and she could think of nothing but getting him inside her. Now.

“Keep the SUV warm,” Monroe grated out to Keefe as he rushed past him and up the stairs with Magda in his arms.

She tore at Monroe’s hair, digging her nails into his scalp, hungry for what he could give her. As he ran the stairs to her room, he sank his teeth into her lower lip. Her body pulsed with awareness.

“Where were you?”

“Gathering information.” He bathed the hurt on her lower lip with his tongue and kicked open the guest room door. At her questioning look, he said, “I want to hear you as I take you. No thought catcher is going to stop me.”

In four strides he came up against the bed. He stretched her on the mattress and covered her in one motion. The hard ridge of his cock lay against her inner thigh. Holding her gaze, he slowly rocked up against her pussy.

“If I’d come in and found you with someone else, I don’t know what I would have done.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s ha—”

He placed a smooth fingertip to her lips. “Don’t. It’s not about you—it’s about me. You need it—require it. I’ll deal with it until…” He stopped, staring down at her with complete tenderness.

She cupped his face in wonder, entranced by the rugged look of his unshaven jaw and the happy twist of his lips.

“Baby,” he panted, “you’re bleeding out emotion.”

“Then take it. Drink it.” She arched upward and covered his hard mouth with hers. Thunder crashed in her body as she processed that he was here, with her once again.

It didn’t matter that he’d taken from Elise—that had been nothing more than food. She knew that now.

“I don’t want anyone but you. If you could feed me, baby, I’d never touch another human thought.”

Shivers of pleasure slipped through her limbs. She wrapped her arms around him and drew him down, tangling her tongue with his. Dark pressure built in her core, a tightening knot that begged for release.

When Monroe finally took her, she’d go up in smoke.

Roughly, he ripped at her top, popping the buttons in one flick of his hand. Threads snapped and buttons fell away. Her breasts rose for his touch, her nipples straining.

He tore his mouth free and dipped his tongue to her nipple. She sucked in a sharp breath as he pulled on her hard. She twisted the hair on his nape and guided him from one breast to the other, then back again.

Her pussy squeezed with want, juices flooding her panties.

“Fuck,” he groaned, using his teeth to pluck at her tight nipple.

Love flowed like lava in her veins, red-hot and without end. She grappled with his shirt and left it abandoned on the floor. Then she reached for his waistband. The tip of his cock swelled under the leather. She skimmed it with her fingers, raising another moan from him.

He reared up and knelt over her, eyes ablaze. He attacked her jeans and silk panties, removing them in one swift yank. Then he gripped her ankles, spread her legs wide, and dived for her pussy.

He sank his tongue deep. Her orgasm rushed up around his molten tongue, her body more primed and ready for him than she could have imagined.

The contractions of her release stole her breath and all thought. He swirled, flicked, licked, and sucked her bud as she soaked him with her cream. He cleaned her with languid laps more sensuous than anything she’d known.

With a jerk, he gained his knees again. She freed his cock. Without removing her stare from his, she shoved his pants down his hips.

His cock bounced on his hard abs, the tip swollen and leaking precum. After running her thumb through the juices, she could barely restrain her need.

A bracket appeared around his mouth; his lips quirked. “You’ll get what you need. Roll over.”

When she didn’t move, he grabbed her waist and rolled her. Before she could regain her equilibrium, he clutched her hips, raised her ass, and drove into her pussy in one solid thrust.

His balls slapped her flesh, and she cried out.

“Who wants this pussy?” He slipped his fingers around her and located her hard pearl.

She bucked against his fingers and cock, taking him deeper. She clenched and released around his shaft, gearing up for another mind-blowing orgasm.

“You, Monroe. All yours.”

He pressed her clit into her body. Tremors ripped through her on the heels of sensation and emotion. His voice in her ear grounded her and titillated her all at once. “That’s right. My pussy. My breasts.” With his other hand, he pinched one nipple, then the other, still circling her clit.

When he eased his cock out to slam into her again, she pressed back, seeking that connection.

“All of you belongs to me, and from now on I choose whether or not to share.”

“Yes, Monroe. Please.” She gasped, beginning the steep climb up the slope of ecstasy.

The thought of him controlling when and who she gave herself to sent her flying. His thick cock stretched her pussy perfectly, and she shattered. A guttural cry rumbled in his chest, and he followed.

Hot jets of cum filled her. He pumped into her madly, pistoning his hips to get deeper, to pour more into her.

She longed to look into his eyes and read the pleasure on his handsome face.

He slowed, then lowered her hips to the bed. That fog she was growing so accustomed to closed in. She clung to reality, not wanting to abandon this link she shared with Monroe.

He pulled free and lay beside her, then drew her into his arms. Tucking her close, he traced a path over her cheek to her lips, a chain of tiny kisses.

“I love you,” she murmured.

He stilled, then wrapped his arms tighter around her. “Look into my eyes, baby. You need to look at me when you hear this.”

She raised her chin and met his burning gaze. Gold flecks danced around the outer rims of his pupils. With a suddenness that shocked her, he darted close and bit her lower lip.

The sting made her eyes water and her cravings subside for another minute.

“I’m in love with you, Magda,” he said, his gaze never wavering.

A new kind of satisfaction overflowed in her. His eyelids fluttered, but he didn’t blink.

His voice was gritty—constricted with emotion he fed to her on his words. “Take it. Taste it. Don’t let it go.” He tightened his hold until she could barely breathe. And yet she felt as if she’d never really lived until now.

She gave a shuddering sigh and kissed him until the fog overcame her. He bit her lip, then pressed apple juice on her. When she came to, Elise had her fingers buried in Magda’s pussy, smearing them through her and Monroe’s combined essences.

Magda mewled for more and tugged Elise close even as Monroe crowded beside her, fully dressed now.

He placed his lips right against Magda’s ear and whispered, “Let yourself go, baby. Let her feed you on lust, but don’t forget it’s me you love. Don’t let it go,” he murmured again, but this time his words instilled her with chilling fear.

* * * *

“Her change is almost completed.” Light spilled over Van Es’s tall, lean form. His folded arms and the way he faced away from Monroe alarmed him. The elder’s pose spoke of his worry, and that couldn’t be good.

Monroe swallowed hard. Leaving Magda under Keefe’s protection didn’t sit well with him, but he’d had little choice. Besides, after making love to her repeatedly, he knew Keefe was just entranced with Magda as the females were. She’d wielded her power over him too. It had brought Keefe to his knees, and many more would fall before she totally transformed.