Zero to Love (15 page)

Monroe squealed into the street and did an emergency brake turn, sending the SUV in a tight circle so they faced the opposite direction. The guys huffed with laughter, but Monroe experienced a sharp, deep stab.

He grabbed his head, focusing on Keefe.

Gone. She’s wearing the necklace, and she sneaked out.

A roar of rage burst from Monroe. Adams and Toliver stiffened, knives and guns in hand, ready for combat.

Monroe aimed all his power at Magda but couldn’t hear a single twitch of a cell in her body. When she wore the thought catcher, she was off the radar.

“Fuck.” Terror wove through him. She was coming for him, probably believing she would protect him just as she had when jumping out of the Camaro and into the arms of what she’d initially thought were Free Wills.

But this time there was little doubt in his mind she’d run into something darker than a group of girls who wanted to feel her up.

“She’s wandering the streets. We need to find her. Now.” In a screech of tires, he shot into the blackness.

“Where do you think she’s going? Home?”

“Maybe. Probably not.” Hell, would she go in search of her brother after Amy had told her to check in with him?

“His name’s Elijah… I’ve got him,” Toliver said, voice growing quieter as he sank into her twin’s mind. “Nope. Not with him. Not yet, anyway.”

“I think she’s trying to find you, Monroe.”

“That’s more like it.” Monroe wanted to punch the grin off Adams’s face. And dammit, he was going to pound Keefe to dust when he saw him again.

The pit was two blocks away, but indecision warred in Monroe’s chest. Continue on and wait for her to come to him, or intercept her before she ventured anywhere near that death trap?

“Go to the pit,” Adams said. “Don’t you hear that?”

Monroe cocked his head and caught it—the low hum of frozen Free Wills. His hunger surged, roiling and kicking at him to go and eat up the stray thoughts. But disgust for the food that had surely frozen them in the first place beat down his starvation.

“Stop and take it. Up your strength, man,” Toliver said from the back seat.

He shook his head, torn between his aching mind and desperation to find Magda.

“No.” He stopped the vehicle, and they piled out just as a streak of red blazed in his peripheral vision.

Magda.

“Take it, man. Quick,” Toliver urged. Three Free Wills were locked up, the drone going on and on and on, maddening Monroe.

Magda darted toward him, hands pressed to her ears. “Stop it, Monroe. Stop the sound!”

“Yes.” He caught her around the waist and hauled her against him as he focused on the brains of the three Free Wills.

But before he scratched the surface of their minds, they were ambushed by black figures. Magda struggled to pull free, landing a sharp elbow in Monroe’s side.

“No, it’s not the women,” he said as the Free Wills attacked. Dozens swarmed out of nowhere, their black leather causing them to blend with the good Mindchangers. They circled the group, laughing, jeering, and wearing malicious grins.

Toliver fired. The Free Wills shoved forward. Adams jumped into the fray first and was locked in a fierce battle for his life.

Monroe conjured all his strength for a cerebral boom, but the energy faded like smoke, gone in a puff.

It was a trap. The Free Wills had known he was coming and that he would respond to frozen supernaturals. They’d read him like a crumpled newspaper, and now Magda was at risk too.

Keefe’s dark blue car burned tires as he peeled to a stop. In seconds he was engaged in combat. Two Free Wills closed in on him. With his mind, he shoved them back hard. They staggered but continued on.

“I got this!” Adams barreled toward them with a fierce expression.

Out of the corner of his eye, Monroe caught movement. He threw two metal stars in rapid succession. Both struck a Free Will running full tilt for him and Magda—one lodging in the Free Will’s forehead and one in his heart. The Free Will collapsed.

Monroe spun just as one enemy yanked Magda from his grasp. Treason twisted the chain around her throat until it compressed her trachea and she fought for air. The handgun was in Monroe’s hand before he gave it thought. He aimed directly at the Free Will’s black eyes.

“Let her go.”

Treason gave a harsh laugh and twisted harder. Magda kicked at the ground, her little boots making thuds that were lost beneath the explosion of gunfire and screams. Magda’s face reddened.

“Take me, but let her go,” Monroe barked.

“Who would ever choose you over this pretty thing?” Treason snapped the chain, and the thought catcher tumbled to the asphalt.

Magda’s mind blossomed, fogging the air with sweet honey. Treason tipped her head back and drank. The hectic red in her face drained and continued to flow away.

Monroe fired at the Free Will, but he traced its path and ducked the bullet. He pulled Magda across him as a shield.

Preventing Monroe’s attack.

He hurled himself at Treason, knife upraised. He brought it down with all his might and speed, but Treason was stronger. He was filled with Magda’s precious thoughts as fuel.

The knife glanced off Treason’s arm as he threw it to a block. Then with a swift jerk, Treason deflected the knife right into Monroe’s forearm. Monroe roared with pain and fury, shaking with the need to kill.

He sent a kick at Treason’s face. The movement broke Treason’s connection with Magda, and he was forced to stop drinking.

Her thoughts were heady in the Free Will’s mind, not yet completely gobbled.

“Good thing you chose to savor your prey,” Monroe said and sucked them from the Free Will before Treason could blink.

Power radiated to Monroe’s fingertips. It welled into a massive wall of energy, which he pushed out with a primal scream. The boom froze the pit. Every Free Will stopped, and the three Mindchangers fighting for the good were stilled in various poses of attack.

Panting from the effort and significantly weaker now, Monroe threw Magda over his shoulder and ran for the SUV. As he passed Keefe, Toliver, and Adams, he unfroze them. The three took off for the Camaro, and in seconds, both vehicles ripped out of the pit, far from the blackened souls of those who were now officially Monroe’s targets for personal reasons.

Chapter Ten

Magda felt bruised all over as Monroe set her on the worktable in his shop. She hunched forward, resting her forehead against his shoulder. He was bleeding—the coppery tang reached her nostrils and turned her stomach, but she couldn’t think of how to help him.

“Fuck, they took so much, and I can’t even give it back.” His words were shot with pain. He jammed a hand through his hair.

She didn’t feel capable of doing more than blinking at him. When he met her gaze, his swam with emotion. Her heart flipped.

He cradled her face in his big, smooth hands. “I shouldn’t have gone into that fight in a weakened state. I should have done anything in my power to protect you.”

She shook her head.

“No,” he said more forcefully. “I should have.”

“You’re bleeding.”

He looked down at his arm. Blood trailed down the back of his hand. Roused, she gently folded the leather sleeve up to expose the wound. Hissing at the sight of the wound, she nearly burst into tears but held them in check. He didn’t need her blubbering all over him right now.

She hopped to the floor and crossed the room to a roll of paper towels on a shelf. With this in hand she returned to him. His gaze devoured her every movement as she unfurled a few towels and pressed them to his cut.

Streamers of blood extended from his fingers, one drop rolling along his pinkie. She watched it for a moment, stunned by her actions and what had taken place tonight. In the span of hours she’d been swarmed by women and locked in erotic throes of passion she had no idea how to handle. And she’d been attacked by a Free Will.

Both her fault. If she’d only stayed where Monroe had told her to.

He trailed his free knuckles over her cheekbone. Tears tumbled down her cheeks at the tenderness of his touch. He took the towel from her hand and used a clean corner to wipe her eyes. But when the tears continued to come, he leaned in and caught them with his tongue.

The warm of his mouth comforted her in ways she couldn’t explain. That deep ache in her core spread until her sex throbbed.

He removed the paper towel roll from her hands and set it down. Then, as if he weren’t injured in the least, he swung her into his arms and placed her on the worktable again. When she reached for him, he wrapped his arms around her, holding tight and rocking slightly. The drone she’d heard earlier reverberated through her mind.

She caught his gaze. “What is it? What does it mean?”

“I have no idea why you can hear it. Then again, I don’t know why I can’t taste you or why you have thought catchers. I have no clue why those numbers are in your head.”

“You’re my Zero-Nine.” She parted her thighs and dug her knees into his sides, locking him to her. “I need you.”

“Like you need the juice.”

She shook her head, and her wild hair fell over her breasts. They tingled to life, nipples aching for Monroe’s touch. “The need I have for you goes much deeper. Don’t deny me.”

“How can I?” he choked out. He ground his cock into her pussy. Juices moistened her panties, growing with each nudge of his erection against her hungriest spot.

With a groan, he angled his head and crushed his lips to hers. For long minutes the erotic dance of their tongues spiraled out of control. She lost herself in his flavors and her pulsating need as he slipped off her top. He skimmed her breasts, barely giving her a moment to groan before he snapped the hook on her bra. The cloth fell away from her body, and her breasts tingled to life.

Monroe drove his tongue into her mouth, tickling hers in a way that made her hungrier. She wriggled against him, and he popped the button of her jeans. He couldn’t slide the zipper fast enough—she wanted him with everything in her body.

He sucked on her tongue, and by the time she regained her senses, he was stroking her pussy through her panties.

Flattening a palm against her belly, he pressed her back into a reclining position. She raised her hips so he could pull her jeans and panties off. He bent to tug off her boots too and dropped everything to the floor.

She parted her thighs again in invitation. The scent of her arousal struck her.

The depths of Monroe’s eyes churned like a sea during a violent storm. Green-tipped waves and black need.

“This isn’t going to be gentle.”

He gripped her thighs with a strength that made her gasp. She scrabbled at his shirt. When he was free of the leather, she raked her nails over his chest, down to his ridged abs, and lower to his bulging erection.

Thrusting two fingers deep into her pussy, he stared into her eyes. “Damn you for disobeying. I hate myself for not being able to protect you before Treason took those thoughts. But fuck…” He flicked his tongue over her lips. “They tasted so goddamn good.”

The thought of him tasting her at last send tingles racing along her spine. They converged between her thighs. Flooded with juices, her pussy gave a hard squeeze.

Monroe groaned and finger-fucked her with rapid movements, curling his fingers against her inner wall in a way that made her spasm.

“Give it to me. Come for me so I can taste your emotions. Then I’ll go down on this sweet pussy and lick you until you scream.”

The cool counter under her ass faded from her mind as heat consumed her. The pinnacle was there—just beyond her grasp. Raising her leg, she afforded him deeper penetration. His fingers sank to the knuckles.

He hovered over her with his lips a breath away. “Come for me. Give me that, Magda. I need more of you. Fuck, I can’t get enough.” He plunged his tongue into her mouth, mimicking the action of his fingers.

With a blinding cry, she burst. The harsh pounding of her release left her breathless. As she contracted around his fingers, he threw his head back and growled. The erotic notion of him drinking her emotion—of her nourishing him—sent her to a new plateau.

She quivered as another orgasm struck. Her raspy cries filled the space even as her cream flowed over his hand. Before she’d stopped pulsing, he withdrew his fingers, stretched her out on the counter, and buried his face between her legs.

He clamped his lips on her clit. She bucked, rising and falling in the rhythm of their passion. Grasping handfuls of his hair, she guided his head. He lapped a trail from bottom to top and top to bottom of her pussy, swirling his tongue through her cum.

Her breathing hitched as he found her clit again. With a gentler pressure, he drove her toward the peak once more. His hair was decadent silk between her fingers. Just as she thought she’d come, he eased three fingers into her.

The girth stretched her and sent her soaring. Her mind unraveled in a space she’d never known before. He rocked her with each thrust of his fingers. Jolts of pleasure rooted in her core, knotting her so tightly she nearly screamed.

“Please, Monroe. You. I need you.”

He straightened, and in a flurry, he removed his clothes. Holding her gaze, he lifted her from the worktable and settled her over his hard cock. The length slipped into her wet channel so quickly they both gasped. His balls slapped her body.

With her weight supported on his arms, he thrust within her. When he sank his teeth into the side of her throat, she cooed in bliss. Once he raised his head, she bit him back. His lower lip in her teeth tasted like honey.

He dug his fingers into her ass, dragging her into him with force that made her head snap. Still she couldn’t get enough. Wanted him deeper, faster, harder.

“Fuck, baby.” He claimed her mouth and drew on her tongue for a long minute. The haze in her mind cleared as the first sharp pulsations began.

Faltering, Monroe lost his rhythm. She opened her eyes and met his intense gaze.

“That thing you just thought, baby. Say it.” He steeled his jaw, probing her deep, then shallowly with his cock.

The sparks in his eyes sent a thrill to her belly.