Zero to Love (22 page)

Adams blew out a long breath. “Royalty.” Awe filled his voice.

Monroe’s heart jerked with emotion—reverence and his own brand of awe. Being in the presence of a royal was almost spiritual. Being in love with that royal bordered on a high he’d never begun to come down from.

“Now look at me, Adams.”

Groaning, knowing exactly why Monroe ordered this, he did. The instant their gazes connected, Monroe sucked that information out of him and replaced it with the more mundane details of the battle they were about to fight.

The pit loomed before them. Electrified chain-link fence enclosed a concrete commune. It would keep out most Mindchangers, but not Monroe. With a flick of his mind, he disarmed it. Inside they might find anything, but Monroe was pretty sure the bunker acted as a hive, just as Magda’s bedroom did.

He slammed on the brakes and jumped from the SUV. Mindchangers swarmed him. The guards behind the gates stared, and Monroe shoved his mind hard, bruising theirs.

The Free Wills fell back like leaves curling in the scorching heat of summer. A roar went up around Monroe, and the Mindchanger army he’d gathered charged the gates.

Rushing to the building, their feet loud on the gravel, and leather and weapons a noise of their own, they were met with no resistance—until a trapdoor in the ground opened, and black shapes flooded from it.

“Take them,” Monroe bellowed.

A collective battle cry sounded as bodies collided. Guns reported; screams filled the air as knives flashed. Monroe threw two stars and cut jagged lines across the throats of two men before reaching along his spine and palming his handgun.

Around him the noise was deafening. He tuned out the sound and focused on the minds of the Free Wills. This way he could hope to counteract any physical attack.

Spinning, he thrust his blade deep into the belly of a Free Will and jerked the knife upward through the spleen. Hot blood gushed over his hand.

Hundreds more came at him, swarming like bees on honey.

The hum took him by surprise.

His mind followed the sound, trying to make sense of it. No matter what he did to try to focus, he couldn’t stop listening to the hum that meant he needed to help.

“No,” he raged, blood filling his face and pounding in his temples.

They were trying to trick him, to slow him by producing the sound. He shoved them with his mind and came up against a solid wall.

Grunting, he doubled over at the attack on his mind. Only someone with great powers could do this to him. It had to be Arafa.

He whirled and found the man on the concrete balcony of the compound. His white-gold hair lay in waves similar to the red ones of the woman in his clutches.

Monroe’s heart seized. His breath whooshed from him as if he had been punched. A haze of fury voided his sight. When it cleared, his heart took off again, racing out of control.

He rushed the compound. His mind tripped over itself, trying to think ahead even as he hid his intentions from Arafa. Monroe had to get to Magda before she was taken over by her father. One flick of that man’s mind, and she could be lost to Monroe forever and be no good to their race either.

Magda. Not her
. He burst into the compound. Killed two Free Wills waiting to ambush him.

Running on, he followed the noise of Arafa’s mind. Magda was silent to him. Right now she wore the thought catcher, but through Arafa he saw that Magda was subdued by smoke and blackness. If Arafa removed her blindfold and looked into her eyes before Monroe could—

He leaped the stairs three at a time, his muscles screaming at him to go faster. As the hum grew louder, he located the room with the balcony. His legs buckled, but he stiffened them and plowed on toward the door that would lead to his love.

Adams’s mind broke into Monroe’s.
“I’ve got him in my sights.”

The invasion galvanized him. He threw his mind at the lock on the door and found it more complex than any he’d encountered. Arafa had anticipated this moment.

Monroe jangled through dozens of numbers, flipping metal in the lock to a pattern that would cause it to spring open. When the numbers suddenly shifted and became new numbers, he released a roar of fury.

He sent Adams a mental message.
“Don’t shoot Arafa. Not yet.”
Monroe needed more information from the renegade before his life ended.

“I’ve got him in the crosshairs. Give the word.”

A scream of pain sliced through Monroe’s consciousness, and then a light snuffed out.

The cry on Monroe’s lips turned into a croak of despair as, with his inner vision, he saw Adams fall, his long body arcing to the ground as the light of his mind extinguished.

“Nooo!” Pain splintered inside Monroe. With every ounce of his energy he hurled his mind at the door.

The hum increased, and he realized it wasn’t coming from frozen minds but from women.

Magda’s harem crowded into the pit. Mindchangers shoved out a wall of brute force to protect the human women. Magda roused as they came to her.

Fuck, Monroe would give anything to be able to make her hear him right now. He’d tell her to look at those who would feed her and make her a Mindchanger queen.

The lock slipped, and Monroe broke through. With a violent shove, he burst into the darkened room. Elijah and Nick were pleading for their lives and for Magda’s life. Monroe ignored them and ran to the glass doors leading to the balcony.

Relief welled in his heart, a hot bubble of emotion. Arafa turned to him, Magda drawn across his body as a shield.

“Don’t come closer.”

“Don’t hurt her,” Nick whispered.

Monroe tossed him a glance. He hunched in the corner, beaten, his mind gaping from the torture he’d endured. Elijah and Nick had kidnapped Magda, thinking to hide her away in the underground, but the Free Wills had grabbed them first.

Elijah had taken the brunt of the attack—his mind was a half-dark cavern.

Monroe stepped toward Arafa. His gun, knives, and throwing stars felt worthless against this man. With an inherent knowledge, Monroe realized Arafa could deflect any of those attacks even if Magda weren’t in the way.

“You won’t win, Arafa. You won’t take her to use against humans.”

He laughed, the light in his blue eyes evil. “She’s my offspring. I’ll use her as I wish.”

Monroe gave a quick shake of his head. “No. Would you tarnish her mother’s memory—the woman you loved?”

The jab made Arafa’s eyes flutter, but he didn’t blink or lessen his grip on Magda.

Monroe couldn’t look at the fearful twist of her mouth around the gag or the way her hair trembled around her face as she shook.

If he could get Arafa to back up, get him into Keefe’s sights once again, he’d grab Magda, then give the order to fire.

Through the door behind him, someone shoved Elise into the room.

Her thoughts tormented him with hunger. His gut cramped.

“Take from her, Monroe. What are you waiting for?” Arafa taunted.

He knows. He knows I used her, and Magda walked away because of it.

What he didn’t know was that Magda used her too. Was Magda blocking her mind from her father as well? She must have been. The thought catcher no longer hung around her throat.

His strength faltered. All at once he knew if he didn’t drink from Elise, he’d never have enough power to defeat Arafa or save Magda.

Elijah sat staring, his mind a blank wilderness. Nick looked between Magda and Arafa, trying to work out how to save her.

Apparently his feelings for her had gone deeper than even Magda believed. How could they not? She bewitched everyone who came in contact with her.

Monroe stared into Nick’s eyes.
“You can free her.”
His voice filled Nick, and the man nodded. Immediately Monroe fed barriers into him so Arafa couldn’t see. However, the king was shrewd.

“You think this human can save her? He’s nothing.” With the flick of his mind, he twisted Nick’s until it snapped. The synapses halted. His breathing stopped; his heart slowed to an erratic rhythm.

Magda screamed.

Monroe took the opening. Leaping forward, he came at Arafa with his gun raised. He tore Magda’s blindfold off and shoved her aside.

“Get her to the SUV,” he said to Elise. The woman ran forward and gripped Magda.

Monroe fired the bullet, but Arafa arrested it before it reached his skin.

The metal dropped to the floor with a
clink
. Monroe waged war on the king with his mind. They clashed like two swords.

Monroe sank deep into the king’s mind, wrestling for supremacy. Arafa nicked his brain with a power Monroe couldn’t begin to understand or battle.

He fell back, bleeding out thought and emotion.

“Monroe!”
The scream filled his core, and he realized Magda had projected her voice into him.

He stumbled to the open door and onto the balcony. Arafa continued to pick at his wounded mind, but Monroe had the presence of thought to save others. He forced Elijah to his feet and propelled him out of the room. Once he was safely in the hall, Monroe told him to run, and he did.

Looking out over the grounds of the pit, Monroe saw destruction. Mindchangers dead, struggling, and fleeing. And he saw Magda in the center of her harem, lifted in their arms and borne off to the SUV.

With one sharp shove, Monroe struck out at Arafa. The man’s faded eyes slipped shut as Monroe’s power cut deep.

Swinging back around, Monroe gauged the distance to the ground, then leaped.

Chapter Fifteen

The instant Elise sank her teeth into Magda’s lip, light burst in her brain, blinding her. A mushroom cloud of knowledge bloomed in her mind.

She
knew.

Everything.

Hunger cramped her, and she looked into Elise’s eyes, drinking her devotion and desire to fill Magda.

I’m here for you and Monroe if you command it, my queen.

Magda licked at the thoughts, sipping shallowly. To take more would wound the woman.

Hands lifted her and bore her off. Magda looked into blue eyes and brown, hazel and gold. When she had finished sinking into the gazes of her women, power welled within her.

Someone shoved her into the SUV and slammed the door. A split second later, Monroe’s big body filled the driver’s seat. For a heartbeat he stared out the windshield at the destruction.

Adams had fallen along with so many more. That she hadn’t known their minds before they were extinguished made her ache.

Monroe turned to her. His mind unfurled like an exotic flower. Numbers flooded out and connected with Magda’s mind in new patterns.

He dropped his head back, his gaze unwavering. “Drink from me, baby. Let me feed you now.”

The women—her workers—had provided the royal jelly of their thoughts and emotions to make her a queen. Her breath caught in her throat.

He caressed her cheek with the backs of his knuckles. “Take from me. Only me now.”

She burrowed into the depths of his eyes—through the golden flecks and riding the pathways to his delicious mind. The first sip threatened to steal her control. Velvet desire flickered between them.

His body shook with the vibrant release she gave him. His cock pulsed even as her nipples hardened and her pussy squeezed out a flood of juices.

He reached across the space and yanked her onto his lap. She straddled him, grinding wildly against him, unable to let go of his gaze even if she wanted. He was too good. For every erotic thought she devoured, she sent another back into his mind, heightening their sensation.

Wrapping his arms around her, he drew her mouth to his. The connection of their gazes was broken, but their minds remained intertwined.

“Hear this one thought. I love you,”
she fed into his mind.

He moaned, his feelers licking around the thought, but he didn’t take it from her.

“I need you. Right now.” The control she’d been lacking during her transformation returned full force. She tore at his clothes and freed his cock. With the thick, hot length in her hand, she fed him more intimate thoughts while she stroked.

“Fuck me. Fill me with this hard cock and make me scream while you drink from my mind.”

She rolled the swollen head through her fingers. He shuddered, prepared for a physical release now that he’d experienced the mind-fuck.

With a crooked grin he maneuvered her easily, stripping off her jeans, lacy panties, and top. When she was bared, he grasped her hips and captured her lower lip in his teeth. At the moment he thrust upward, filling her sheath entirely, her mind unraveled into his.

He rolled his hips, driving deep and lifting her to withdraw. Her wet walls clutched him, unwilling to let him retreat. When he used his thumb against her clit, the first tremors of her orgasm struck.

A cry burst from her.

Something struck the window beside her. A feminine hand flattened as one of the workers tried to reach Magda. She felt the pull of their minds on her as they surrounded the SUV. They crawled all over the vehicle to get to her, but Monroe had hit the door locks.

He ground his cock into her core, watching her face as he did. She leaned forward and plunged her tongue into his mouth to gather the sweet flavors there. Who knew his thoughts would taste exactly like he did? She’d never get enough of his delectable musk.

Pleasure sparked in her core, tightening and relaxing in rapid succession. Crying out, she came. Moisture drenched his cock. She floated higher and higher, tethered only to the man she loved.

“Feel my cock in you, nudging you higher. Feel my mind lifting you up.”

His strength filled her as he poured his cum into her pussy. Each hot spurt melded them together, binding them in a brand-new way. She opened her eyes, and he drank from her.

The erotic feel of him probing her mind shot her into a new realm. For long minutes, she drifted in ecstasy.

A subtle shift in his awareness sent her crashing back to reality.

She tore away from him, still pulsating. “Arafa.”

“It’s war, baby.”
Monroe stared deep into her eyes.
“You know you’re the only one who can stop him.”