Free Zero to Love by Em Petrova Page A

memory that he didn’t understand and couldn’t totally see lived there.
    Later he’d ask Keefe if this was the case for him too.
    Why couldn’t he and Keefe feed on her thoughts? The Free Will on the campus lawn had half extracted the dream from her. How?
    Maybe because they stole from her before.
    A quiet step on the wet asphalt alerted him that a woman stood there several seconds after he detected her presence. She emerged from the shadow of a storefront and fell into step with him.
    She drew a deep breath. In her mind he saw that she caught Magda’s scent on him. She moved closer until their arms brushed.
    “What brings you out, Elise?”
    The young human sucked in another breath through her nose. “What is that I smell on you? It’s like…flowers or…honey.”
    He jerked his gaze to her face and saw not one hint of playacting there. Besides, how would she know he thought of Magda as smelling and tasting of honey?
    Ignoring Elise’s question, he took a right down a side street. Five more turns, and they had left the light part of Helgedom behind. Now they were entrenched in black shadows and evil. The very air thrummed with it.
    Taking Elise’s arm, Monroe guided her so her spine was against a concrete block wall. He hovered over her and stared into her eyes. “What have you found out?”
    She didn’t try to rub against him or seduce him in any way. Long ago he’d made it clear that he wasn’t going to give her what she craved. He never fed from her. If she wanted a fix, she’d have to find it from another Mindchanger.
    “There’s talk of a target,” she whispered.
    “What kind of target?”
    Her dark, glassy eyes begged him to take from her. He clicked open a part of her mind that he had used his powers to lock.
    She threw up every sexual image she could, but he pushed through them and saw her in the midst of a group of Mindchangers who were slowly sinking into the Free Wills’ clutches. If there ever was a suitable woman for this job, it was Elise. She wanted something from Monroe that he wouldn’t provide, so she went to other powerful Mindchangers in hopes of satisfying herself. As a result she ran with the most influential of their race.
    Many of them loved to couple with Elise, taking everything she offered. That was why Monroe had hidden his talks with her under a protective barrier. Almost no one in the city was powerful enough to crack that fog, and therefore Monroe’s secrets couldn’t spill out.
    As he flipped through the snapshots in Elise’s memory, she recounted the events to him in a hushed voice.
    “I went with Rock to this gathering. At first I didn’t know what we were there for. Well, I was there as a food supply.” She gave a wan smile that revealed she didn’t really love being used as much as she wanted Monroe to believe.
    She went on, her breath washing over his cheek. “There was a bonfire, and they were luring humans in to feed from them.”
    Monroe nodded for her to continue.
    Drawing another deep whiff, she turned her nose against his shoulder. “Are you sure that isn’t honey?”
    “It’s exactly what you’re smelling. Forget about it,” he grated out. “Go on.”
    “The Free Wills came around soon enough. Fire and humans always draw them to a feast. They emptied a young man after promising him drugs. By the time they were finished, he couldn’t even stand up or tell anyone his name.” She shook her head, disgusted, and Monroe squeezed his hand into a fist.
    That the Free Wills used people this way enraged him. Yes, he had to do everything in his power to stop them. For the sake of the vulnerable humans as well as his Magda.
    Half a block over, he felt a Mindchanger coming their way. Monroe planted a hand on Elise’s waist and shoved her against the wall. Lowering his head, he pressed his lips to the corner of her mouth to make it look as though he were kissing her.
    She moaned, her body giving off pheromones, nipples hard, pussy pulsating. She wriggled,