Zoe stirred on the bed and focused her sleepy eyes on him. “What’s wrong?”
Jack sat down on the edge of the bed and pushed the sweat soaked hair off her face.
“You’re scaring me,” she said, sitting up. Her eyes went huge when she noticed the torched dresser. “Oh my God, did I do that?”
“You had a nightmare.”
“A nightmare?” Her face was pale and her bottom lip began to tremble. She looked down at her hands, to the dresser, then back at Jack. “I could have killed us.”
He wrapped her in his arms and pulled her onto his lap. She lay limp against him, but he could feel the panic rising within her. He was aware of the memories and fears that haunted her. He just hadn’t realized how deep the wounds were.
If he could give her time to heal, he would. But they didn’t have time. Not when her powers were so volatile.
“I’ll make an appointment tomorrow with a therapist.”
She tensed in his arms. “I already have one.”
“Not one that you can talk to about what you are.”
“But–“
He pressed his lips against hers to stop her protest, then pulled back with a small shake of his head. “You need to let me take care of you.”
She glanced up at him, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “All right. I’ll meet with your therapist.”
His heart pinched with the pain he saw in her expression. What he wouldn’t do to take that hurt away, to kill and castrate the bastard that had put it there.
Zoe placed her head against his chest and let out a long, uneven sigh.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said tightly. It had to be. He couldn’t lose her.
Jack stroked her hair and stared into the darkness. Acid burned in his throat when he looked back at the charred dresser. He needed to take care of this quickly–and there was only one person he knew could help her.
Jack cursed under his breath as he realized what he had to do.
Chapter 28
Zoe sat in Jack’s car in front of a building on Park Avenue, while Jack’s driver, Hands, stood impatiently by the open passenger door.
“I can’t do this.”
Hands’ eyes darted up and down the street. “I can’t keep you safe, out in the open like this. Get into the building. Quickly.”
“This is Park Avenue, right? My insurance won’t cover this. Take me home, okay?” A line of cars began to pile up behind their idling car. From the sound of their honking, people were getting impatient.
“Mr. Fialko will take care of you, Miss Burton. C’mon now. Be brave.” He gently pulled at her elbow to where a uniformed door attendant stood and opened the door for them.
The attendant’s kind eyes crinkled, “Give your name at the front desk, Miss.”
She managed to mumble a thank you.
Her mouth fell open and she stared in astonishment at the elegant foyer. She swore the gilded room was more lavish than the famous Waldorf Astoria. The walls were upholstered, the floors polished marble. Four ionic columns held up a ceiling which loomed miles overhead. She would pivot on her heel and run like hell if it wasn’t for Jack’s driver. Sure, she needed to get the bad dreams under control, but not here. Not this way. What was Jack thinking?
An impeccably dressed lobby attendant sat at a deep mahogany desk. He eyed her up and down with an imperious sneer. “Can I help you?”
Her brain had shut down somewhere halfway across the lobby. She reached deep into her pocket and pulled out the wrinkled card. “Room two-oh-two. Doctor Framingham.”
Nodding, as if the room number explained everything, the attendant had her sign into a gold leafed notebook using a heavy silver pen. He texted into his computer and pointed towards the elevators.
A pristine carpet runner led to a polished brass elevator bay. She pressed the up arrow. Two women waited alongside her. Their handbags had that familiar Gucci pattern and their clothes, no doubt, were designer, too. Both women were topped with perfectly coiffed, platinum blonde hair.
Zoe glanced down at her jeans and hoodie, embarrassed at how underdressed she was in comparison.
The elevator doors pinged opened and she crossed the long hallway over the marble parquet floor. She stood for the longest time staring at the oak door with gold lettering that proclaimed the occupant, Dr. Diane Framingham. Taking a deep breath, she pressed a button, waited for the lock cylinders to click, and let herself in.
Seeing no one, she sat down in a plush white leather couch. Wooden flutes with ocean sounds played in the background from a speaker in the ceiling. Tasteful framed original art of ocean scenes and seagulls graced the walls. Oversized leather furniture was placed around the room to minimize eye contact. The place screamed, this is a therapist’s sitting room for rich, crazy people.
Her eyes watered when she thought of her own doctor, downtown. His waiting room contained blue plastic chairs and an old worn brown corduroy-covered couch, the floors covered with faded blue, industrial grade carpet. She could look up anytime, while waiting for him, and count the dots on the stained drop ceiling. Damn Jack for ruining everything. She wanted her old doctor back. Doctor Larry fit her like a worn-in pair of jeans. This one was like wearing five-inch heels, one size too small.
A woman opened the door and smiled sweetly. She looked like Scarlett Johansson on the cover of Vanity Fair. She had long legs, perfect blond hair coiled at her neck, and flawless alabaster skin. Zoe hated her immediately, yet managed to flash a saccharine-sweet smile right back at her.
“Zoe, right? Jack’s friend? Please, come in.” The doctor motioned her into a small room with subdued lighting.
It took a moment for Zoe’s eyes to adjust.
Friend? He said they were only friends? Whatever happened to mate?
Calm down. I’m reading way too much into this.
The doctor pointed towards the couch. “Would you be more comfortable there?”
“No, I think I’ll sit.” She flopped down in a chair, eye to eye with the doctor. She crossed her arms across her chest.
The woman pursed her lips. “Of course, dear, please do. How about we just chat for a moment, and get to know one another?”
Oh hell, this was not going to end well. Zoe leaned back into the chair, maintained eye contact, and tried not to grit her teeth.
“Let’s start on similar ground. How do you know Jack?” The woman spoke way too pleasantly and watched Zoe’s face far too intently.
“He’s my mate,” She blurted out, feeling a smug sense of satisfaction when the therapist’s eyes went wide.
“Surely you’re mistaken.” She looked Zoe over from head to toe, much like people viewed Nan with her tattoos. Horror and revulsion flashed across the woman’s picture perfect face. A condescending sneer appeared briefly and faded just as fast.
“Don’t think I could be mistaken about that, do you?” She’d had enough of Miss Prissy-witch.
“But, Jack is…I mean…” The doctor stood and closed the office door, putting her back to Zoe and tried unsuccessfully to regain her composure. “We all assumed he was too powerful. That he was eventually going to settle for a love match.”
“Is there a problem that I should know about?” Zoe clenched and unclenched her fists. What was this woman’s problem?
“I’m just curious. Where are you from? What clan?” Doctor Framingham stayed on the other side of the room.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
The woman was practically in tears. Slowly, she crossed the room and sat down heavily in her black leather chair. Her face had gone ashen and her lower lip trembled.
Shit, this was certainly not going as planned.
“I’m sorry. This is totally inappropriate. Of course I won’t bill you. Please go.” Doctor Framingham waved her hand at her, indicating she was dismissed.
No way. She wasn’t going anywhere until the woman explained herself. Zoe had a bad feeling she knew where this was going, but she needed to h
ear it for herself.
“Are you and Jack, like, a thing?” She held her breath. Was Jack playing the field behind her back?
“We hook up occasionally. On and off. I just always thought, we might, well, get back together, eventually.” The woman’s eyes watered and her breath came in a little hiccup. “When he called me about you, I thought he had forgiven me, and he was willing to try again. I had no idea–”
She didn’t need to hear the rest. What the fuck? What was all that bullshit about mating for life?
Zoe got slowly to her feet. She felt stiff, old, completely worn out.
Damn him all to hell. She was a fool for ever believing she could trust him, or anyone for that matter.
She’d been right about him, and about all men. They took what they wanted and left a shattered shell in their wake. Jack used women for sex, spit them out in tiny pieces, and left them bereft, and in her case, pregnant.
Crushing sadness replaced her initial anger.
She walked stiffly to the elevator. Her entire body had gone numb. Jack’s chauffer would be waiting in the lobby. What was she going to do? She couldn’t go back to Jack’s apartment. Not yet, not until she’d processed everything. Without a second thought, she turned on her heals and found the stairwell.
By the time she reached the lobby, tears she hadn’t even known she had formed wet trails down her cheeks. She brushed them away roughly. Seeing Hands pacing by the elevator bay, she darted across the atrium and pushed through the heavy doors.
She hailed the first cab she saw and jumped in, giving the driver the directions to Nan’s apartment. Pulling her hood over her head, she crumpled back against the torn faux leather seat. Drawing a deep breath, she clenched her teeth and pushed back the sob that threatened to escape her throat.
Self-disgust filled her, burning a path straight to her soul. Never again. She’d promised herself to never let a man hurt her. And yet she’d trusted him. Given herself to him. In return, he’d tossed his ex-lover in her face. Worse, he’d expected her to share her deepest, darkest nightmares with a woman he uses to fuck.
Something inside her shattered at the realization. She might be screwed up, but she wasn’t a doormat. Her stomach clenched and anger lashed through her. She’d been a fool to think Jack cared about her. She wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
A small zap of energy shot out of her palms, and shot through the passenger seat in front of her, creating a small bullet size hole.
“What the fuck, lady?” The driver screeched to a halt, and pointed at the door. “Out.”
“I’m sorry.” She handed the man a twenty. He sped off before she had the chance to shut the door.
A shiver raced down her spine. If she’d been sitting in the opposite seat, the driver would have been dead. She pulled her hood tighter around her face.
You’re broken. No matter how hard she tried to feel otherwise, she always came back to that one single truth.
Chapter 29
Sitting in Nan’s apartment, Zoe picked up her phone, and scrolled through Jack’s texts, before powering it off completely. Let him worry. She didn’t care anymore. At least that was what she was going to tell herself until it became the truth.
She gave a weary sigh and curled up on Nan’s bed, afraid to close her eyes. What if she had another nightmare? She wasn’t just a risk to herself, but to everyone around her. Numb to everything except the constant pounding in her skull, she stared up at the ceiling.
A small noise came from the kitchen. She froze. Another creak, and a shadow crossed the hallway wall.
Someone was in Nan’s apartment.
The hard rush of adrenaline rushed through her system. She conjured a small vortex of fire and let it hover in front of her. Carefully, she followed the sounds out towards the living room. She tried to adjust the intensity of the vortex so it was strong but not lethal. Taking a deep breath, she blindly threw the energy into the room.
The shadow dropped to the ground, panting.
She conjured more energy and was about to fire it when Jack’s voice echoed through the darkness. “Zoe, stop.”
Her fingers curled to extinguish the energy, but after a second thought, she let the vortex fly, hitting its target square in the chest.
Jack buckled over and groaned.
“What the hell are you doing here, Fialko?” She flicked the light switch.
He caught his breath and grinned. “Sucking in your essence.”
“I want you to leave.” Zoe clenched her hands into fists, ready for another blow. It had felt good to blast him.
Jack raised his eyebrows and held up a hand in supplication.
“Why are you here?”
He stood, shook off the effects of her blast, and crossed the room. “Diane called me.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?” She hissed in a breath when a fresh bout of anger gripped her throat.
“I’m sorry.” He reached for her hand.
“Sorry?” She shook off his grip with a sharp motion, which caused a frigid breeze to blow through the small kitchen.
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know Jack. Figure it out for yourself. I got enough problems of my own without adding yours to the list.”
“Diane said you were pretty upset.”
She gave a small, tight laugh, and tried to stay calm, but all she could see was Jack hooking up with the picture-perfect doctor. His hands slipping through her perfect, platinum hair.
“Did she mention how she was the one who broke down in tears?”
“No.” He winced. “She didn’t.”
“Did you even think about how finding out about us might hurt her? Hurt me?” Zoe’s eyes began to water and she squished them shut. Not going to cry.
“Hurt her? No. I didn’t.” Jack eyes went hard, his voice clipped and tight. “She was the one that left me. Did she tell you that? I loved her. I was ready to stop searching for a mate that matched me, and marry her. Damn it, I was going to give up my clan’s hope for the future for her. She dropped me like a bad habit during the last solstice and fucked herself silly with some other guy.” His eyes sparked with fire and glowed briefly. “Why the hell would she care that I found a solstice mate?”
His words hit her like a blow to the gut. She sunk onto the couch, physically and emotionally numb, unable to breathe.
Jack had loved the ice princess doctor and he didn’t love her. She gripped her queasy stomach and gave up hope of ever finding peace with her mate.
“You need to leave.” Zoe couldn’t even look at him.
“We’ve already had this discussion. You’re my mate, carrying my child. I don’t care how fucking angry you are, you come home with me. Now.”
She glanced up at him. A hysterical laugh played on her lips. She finally understood what it was all about.
“You wanted revenge.” She was such an idiot. Tears burned at the back of her eyes, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing them. “You wanted to show her you had found a mate.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Jack’s face darkened with anger. “You needed a therapist and she’s a good one. I was trying to take care of you.”
“Bullshit.” She stood and wrapped her arms protectively around her chest. “You had to know what was going to happen when the two of us met. When you said you found me a therapist, I really thought you understood, that you cared, but all you were doing was getting a bit of revenge on an ex. It’s always all about you, isn’t it? Do you even know how to care about someone else?”
“I do care about you,” he said icily.
“No, you lust after me.” She swallowed tightly, and gathered the strength for what she had to do. “Get out. I’ve had enough.”
“I’m not leaving you. You’re the mother of my baby”– he swiped his hands through his hair– “I have a right to be here.”
“I swear I’ll make you.” Zoe raised an arm and the electrons in the room rushed into her.
“Bring it on.” He was no doubt waiting for her to give him a burst of her energy so they could end up in bed.
“No, not that way.” She lowered her hand and picked up the phone. “I’ll call Olivia, Josh, get your whole family involved if I have to. I’ll tell them how you’ve treated me. I’ll tell them all how you sent me to Diane.”
He scowled, his face dark with anger. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“I would and you know they’d take my side.” Zoe knew she had finally hit home. “If you want any part in this child’s life then I suggest you leave now. We’re through.”
“I see it as a draw, angel…it’s a fucking draw.” Tiny red orbs glowed in the center of his eyes. “I’ve waited my whole life to find you, and you refuse to cut me any slack. Damn it. I’m not perfect. I was trying to do the right thing. I heard your dreams. You flamed my dresser. I was worried about you. You could’ve burned down the apartment with us in it. I thought you needed help. That’s what’s wrong with you. You won’t take anything from me except my cock.”
Her pulse roared in her ears. “Get out.”
He stormed out and slammed the door behind him.
“Don’t ever come back,” she shouted, and then crumpled to the floor in tears. How had he turned everything around? It was always about him and his needs. She didn’t need that in her life right now. How could the most powerful witch on the whole East Coast be so intolerably needy?
Chapter 30
Immediately after the words came out his mouth, Jack regretted it. His mate could be so infuriating, but he ached to have her back in his arms even before he’d slammed the door shut. He should turn around and apologize–but he knew better. They needed to cool off.
If she wanted space, he’d give it to her. But first he needed to make sure her safety was guaranteed. He picked up the phone, called his security, and then called his brother, Josh.
Dark Vortex: Mated by Magic Page 15