The Mind Control Telepath Read online

  Table of Contents

  Books by Evelyn Lederman

  Acknowledgements

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Enjoy the beginning of ‘Nightshade’

  Prologue

  Coming Soon: Feral Nightshade

  About the author:

  The Mind Control Telepath

  The Worlds Apart Series: Book Four

  Evelyn Lederman

  Copyright @ 2015 Evelyn Lederman

  All rights reserved

  Paperback

  ISBN-13:978-0692556955

  ISBN-10: 0692556958

  e-book

  ISBN-13:978-0-9966298-4-3

  ISBN-10:099662984X

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  Cover Design by Fiona Jayde Media

  Editing by Tina’s Editing Services

  Books by Evelyn Lederman

  Worlds Apart Series

  The Chameleon Soul Mate: Book One

  The Crystal Telepath: Book Two

  The Warrior Woman: Book Three

  The Mind Control Telepath: Book Four

  Nightshade Saga Series

  Nightshade: Book One

  Feral Nightshade: Book Two

  Dedicated to my good friend Sheryldean Fernley.

  How she would have loved the ride!

  Acknowledgements

  To Fiona Jayde Media for another incredible cover. Fiona has a way of making the vision in my head come alive on the cover

  To Tina Winograd for her wonderful edits. I am now dubbed ‘The Comma Queen.’

  To Alice Calderonello and Katherine Fibiger for being my grammar police and comma patrol. Alice’s commas rhyme still plays in my head. My sister and best friend were at my side at my first Romcon as an author.

  To Susan Smith for adopting me.

  To my tennis team pals for putting up with my constant travels and supporting my writing.

  Prologue

  7 Years Ago

  Estero, Florida

  Earth/Ginkgo Terra

  She stared at the package with intensity. It would not have surprised her if it burst into flames. Her hands, which held the accompanying letter, shook with emotion. How could her parents ruin her birthday with the one reminder her life was not perfect?

  Sweet sixteen. It would have taken more fingers than the ones on her trembling hands to count the boys she had kissed. Kisses that meant nothing, given by boys who did not elicit any emotion from her. They would call her an ice princess if they ever found out. What did it matter? Girls her age were not supposed to feel passion. Look what happened to poor Juliet. Besides, there was nothing wrong with her that finding the right boy wouldn’t cure.

  Her sun-kissed fingers opened the letter which accompanied the gift. She tore the envelope in her haste. Living in Florida left her with a year-round golden tan. She stared at the setting sun across the Gulf of Mexico, which gave her another excuse to postpone reading the letter from a woman long dead, the woman who had given birth to her.

  Her birth mother left her and failed to provide plans for her care if anything happened to her. She had no memory of her father, the one who contributed the other half of her genetic code. It was a strange way to refer to a man who may have held her at one time with pride and joy. Memories of a black haired woman laughing, flashed before her eyes. How different the woman in her memory was from the blonde who had raised her, the one she had called mom. What little she remembered of her true mother, one thing was clear, there was a strong resemblance between them.

  She unfolded the letter and began to read.

  My dearest daughter, Jolyn.

  Jolyn? Her name was JoAnna, JoAnna Carlson. The girls in the orphanage had called her Jo Jo. Not all the girls, the three who had been her world: Alex, Shirl, and Candy. They had been her family in another life, a sad life. She often wondered what had happened to the girls who dominated her early years. Obviously, her desire to know was not strong enough for her to find out. The ice princess would’ve had to feel something to take action. They wouldn’t have fit into the existence she had carved for herself anyway, so what did it matter?

  If you are reading this, I am no longer living. This world is hostile to our brain chemistry. Three of us have already died, including your father.

  What a strange way to refer to the world. Well, she now knew what had happened to her birth father. Curious, she brought her attention back to the letter.

  Ben and I are the only ones not plagued by the severe headaches. I pretend to suffer along with the others, since I do not want him to know the truth.

  Know what? Her birth mother’s letter raised more questions than it answered. Who were the others? Would her mother reveal her dark secret? There was only one way to find out.

  I am a mind control telepath. The same type of being we left the Troyk universe to escape.

  Great, now she knew there was mental illness in her biological family’s history. What a birthday present! Her birth mother believed she was from another world. There was no such place as the Troyk universe.

  It must have been a world from an episode of Star Trek or Farscape. She had never seen either show, science fiction was not her thing, but what else could it have been? Romantic comedies, with their happily ever after endings, were her passion. The movies seemed to generate a reaction, something her boyfriends had never managed to do.

  My only hope is that you are one of us and will not suffer as the others have. If the headaches start, find Ben Clark in Scottsdale, Arizona. Hopefully, by the time you reach your mid-twenties, he will have access to a crystal telepath and can evacuate you through the portal in Sedona. My clan bracelet will identify you as my daughter.

  JoAnna opened the package with hands that still trembled. It contained a copper bracelet with various etchings. It looked like costume jewelry she could purchase at any department store for next to nothing.

  The placed the cuff over her left wrist. How different it was from the gold bracelets which graced her other arm. JoAnna would wear the bracelet as a daily reminder of how lucky she was the Carlsons adopted her. It had been the first time she had used her special gift to get what she wanted. Was she a mind control telepath as her mother’s letter noted? Suddenly, the letter did not seem so crazy after all.

  Chapter 1

  Present Time

  Estero, Florida

  Ginkgo Terra Universe

  His stare penetrated her being, melting the ice that had surrounded her for years. The dampness of her panties was evidence the dam had burst. Sensations she never expected to feel bombarded her.

  JoAnna had come to terms with this a long time ago; she would never feel an
ything for a man. After all, she was engaged to one for whom she felt nothing. Blake was handsome, obnoxiously rich, and seemed unaffected that she had no passion for him. They were the perfect match. JoAnna was the eye candy he needed on his arm and he guaranteed she would continue to live in the style in which she had grown accustomed.

  The man’s icy blue eyes continued to bore into her. There was a primeval quality to the way he looked at her. A caveman’s kind of possession, ownership clear in his gaze. She half expected (and secretly wanted) him to grab her by the hair and drag her away to his lair.

  He was tall and powerfully built. His dark blond hair was cut short, too short for her liking. JoAnna would have liked to comb her fingers through his locks. She knew she wanted this handsome stranger and her gift would make it a reality.

  Through mutual consent, she and Blake had an open relationship. Since she could not give him passion, he took care of those needs elsewhere. His infidelities did not matter to her. She would have had to care to be hurt by his numerous affairs. JoAnna never imagined she would go to bed with a man and find any type of sexual release. Considering what his stare was doing to her, she knew when they came together, it would be explosive.

  Her fiancé brushed her arm, breaking the spell the black-haired man had cast over her. “Neil Hargrove is over there. I need to speak to him. He has some insider information to share and we don’t want to be overheard.” She watched as Blake walked away, plotting how he could add more wealth to their already overflowing coffers. Her gift was partially the reason for his good fortune.

  JoAnna wandered to an unpopulated corner of the hotel’s lobby. Her father had managed this five star hotel for over a decade. The establishment hosted various receptions which allowed her to mingle with the rich and famous.

  Over the years, her beauty and grace brought her to the attention of the powerful and wealthy. She was now one of them in her own right. JoAnna’s investments over the years made her an extremely wealthy woman. Not bad for a twenty-three-year-old non-college graduate. Why go to college when she could get anything she wanted with her gift?

  The man prowled across the room toward her. He had transitioned from a caveman to a predatory cat in her mind. There was a grace in how he moved, which further drew her eyes to his incredible body. He was oddly dressed, but his clothing only accented his physique. Unlike most prey, she wanted this animal to pounce. JoAnna longed for his touch, her body tingling in anticipation. It was almost a biological need to touch this man.

  For the first time, she noticed the cuff bracelet around his wrist. It was similar to the one she had worn for the past seven years. Her instincts were now screaming for her to escape from her stalker. She felt trapped, outdone by her earlier desire to have a little privacy with the man who had captivated her.

  Just short of his arrival, she tried to maneuver past him. He grabbed her arm and she felt as if she had been hit by lightning. She had never experienced anything quite like it. Her body felt like every cell had been fried.

  “As I suspected, you are my soul mate.” JoAnna heard those words in her head. It would have been so easy to dismiss what had just happened and call for security, but she just stood there, unable to move. The initial impact of his touch had worn off; however, she still longed for his hands to explore her body. She felt paralyzed, his hand gripping her arm.

  “I don’t know what you are talking about,” JoAnna addressed her attacker. “My name is -”

  “I know your name,” the man interrupted with a growl. “It is time you come home, back to the Troyk universe.”

  She felt her face drain of blood as her complexion paled. He had referred to the place her mother had mentioned in her letter. JoAnna had searched to find any reference of that world over the years. Although she had never found anything, she never gave up hope one day she would.

  She traveled the world exploring texts which had not been uploaded to the Internet. Her father supported her obsession; he planned their vacations around her driving need to find another reference of the world her mother revealed in her letter. Now this man who had mesmerized her, let it slip from his sensual lips.

  “Where exactly is the Troyk universe?” JoAnna inquired. Her ears longed to hear information she had sought with a fanatical vigor. She feared it was all a misunderstanding and she would come up short once again.

  “A parallel dimension to the world you know,” the man answered. “My cousin is a crystal telepath. He can take us home.”

  Another reference she had read in her mother’s letter. “A crystal telepath?”

  The man sighed loudly. Apparently he was becoming impatient with all her questions. That was too bad, she had searched in vain for too many years to give up now. This Adonis, who stood before her, held the answers she needed.

  Koel Mardroft was frustrated at her response to him. His soul mate had not fallen into his arms or communicated through their private channel. As soon as they had touched, the soul mate pathway opened. The electrical current, which rocked his body, was unmistakable. It appeared he was going to have the same issues his cousins and their friends experienced with their soul mates. It would be best to address her questions for the time being.

  “We are a telepathic race living in a dimension parallel to yours. I believe String Theory talks about infinite planes of existence.” He could see her eyes glaze over. It was not a dissimilar reaction to his own when Shirl started talking about the science behind parallel worlds. “A crystal telepath can control the frequencies of portals between worlds. Your friend, Shirl, is a crystal telepath. Her soul mate is my cousin Starc.”

  He felt her waiver on her feet, at the mention of Shirl’s name. He tightened his hold on her arm and walked her to two unoccupied chairs not far from where they stood. The black leather of the furniture brought out the red of the dress his soul mate wore. It clung to her like a second skin. He needed to draw his attention back to his soul mate, rather than obsess over her body.

  “How do you know Shirl?” his soul mate asked in a weak voice. She was clearly shaken by the name from her past. A need to care and nurture this woman replaced his earlier impatience.

  “My name is Koel,” he told her. It had been an inexcusable oversight not introducing himself earlier. He had been overwhelmed when he finally laid eyes on her. The tight dress she wore left very little to his imagination. It brought out the beauty of her dark skin and ebony hair. His usually sharp mind shut down when he looked at her.

  His cousins and friends had found their soul mates, as each made their way through the portal to the Troyk universe. JoAnna was the last of the four orphaned daughters of Benko Jarlyn’s followers. Benko was referred to as Ben Clark in this world.

  “Koel, how do you know Shirl?” JoAnna asked again. She had a single focus and it was obvious she wanted answers. There was determination in her glare.

  He massaged his forehead. His head was killing him. Literally, Ginkgo Terra’s atmosphere was toxic to the telepathic brain. His soul mate was the same age as Shirl, who had suffered from debilitating headaches before she left this world. He had witnessed firsthand the shape Shirl had been in when she first arrived in the Troyk universe. However, JoAnna was the picture of excellent health.

  “Shirl suffered from migraines, caused by Earth’s polluted air. She stumbled across the portal in Sedona, Arizona. She unknowingly opened an event horizon when she came within its proximity. That is what happens when a crystal telepath comes in contact with a natural portal.

  “In the Troyk universe, Shirl’s headaches stopped. Figuring her friend, Candy, would soon suffer the same headaches, Shirl brought her to our world. The Troyk universe is their home now. They both have blossomed there.” He figured now was not the time to bring up how being with their soul mates had been primarily responsible for the powers both now possessed.

  “Headaches,” JoAnna repeat
ed automatically. Obviously she was thinking, but nothing leaked through their soul mate channel. “We were all once so close.” She had a faraway look in her eyes. His soul mate seemed lost in the past.

  “You can be together again in my world. We should go now,” Koel said to his soul mate. She could come across worlds with nothing, he would provide her with all she needed.

  “I am not going anywhere with you,” his soul mate declared.

  She was magnificent in her defiance. Her bronzed face was framed with black straight hair, which fell over her bare shoulders. Her green eyes had flecks of yellow, which made them appear amber. JoAnna was absolutely stunning.

  “Time to leave, Koel,” his cousin Darden said, as he approached from behind. Koel had not even heard Darden approach, that was how engrossed he had been. “She needs time to absorb all she has just learned.”

  “I have waited, while you have all found your soul mates,” Koel replied. He had stood by as the four men he was closest to found their other halves. At one point, he was afraid he would never find his own. Every woman he encountered brought new hope, until he touched them and nothing happened.

  “My soul mate still resides with her father in this world,” Darden reminded him, with an edge in his voice. His cousin’s soul mate was Benko Jarlyn’s eighteen-year-old daughter, Cassandra. Although the soul mate channel had opened when Darden accidentally bumped into Cassie when she was a young girl, they had not been intimate. If Darden felt a small fraction of what Koel felt for JoAnna, he was amazed at his cousin’s restraint.

  “Fine,” Koel sighed once again. “I certainly do not want to force JoAnna to go anywhere she does not wish. But that does not mean I cannot give her something to remind her of me.”

  Koel stood, grabbed JoAnna’s arm and brought her to her feet. He wrapped his arm around his soul mate and gave her the most passionate kiss he could deliver in public. He could feel her knees give way, as Koel held her tighter and deepened the kiss. His soul mate groaned into his mouth, as she pulled at his tunic. He could feel her hands on his bare back. She caressed him as she explored his naked flesh. JoAnna pulled one arm from beneath his shirt and wrapped it around his neck. She drew him in closer.