Dark Vortex: Mated by Magic

by Stella Marie Alden

  “Ha. If only she knew. What do you suppose she will do when she finds out you’re her father’s brother? Her loving uncle?

  “It is a good joke, is it not?” Ivar laughed without mirth, but perhaps he would manage to keep his fingers. “My niece is getting cagier, Gregor. It’s not my fault she found help with the Iesco clan.”

  “You are wrong, Ivar. She has always been clever and you have underestimated her. I won’t let this abomination continue. It has to end here. That vortex is ours and ours alone. Do you understand me?”

  “Da. What we will do with another vortex in our line, eh? We will be rich beyond our dreams.”

  Ivar sighed and hung up the phone, relieved he didn’t have to explain about the Afghani girl that he’d also lost to the East Coast clan.

  Chapter 35

  Zoe rolled onto her side, careful not to pull on her IV and reached for her phone. She’d been admitted for observation, but no one was giving her any clear answers. All she knew was that she was stuck in the hospital at least for the night.

  The silence was driving her nuts.

  Scrolling through her texts and voicemail, she frowned. No new messages. Olivia still hadn’t returned her call, and she tried not to notice that Jack hadn’t messaged either. She’d thought about calling him, but what good would it do? Olivia, Hands, or the doctor surely would have told him by now.

  Fresh tears surfaced and she blinked them away. She was so emotional lately. She knew he was mad, but she would’ve called him if he was in the hospital.

  She knew he was pissed off, but even if he didn’t care about her, his concern for his baby had always been his primary focus.

  What right did he have to be angry with her anyways?

  Sure, she had trouble connecting with emotions, but at least she’d tried to show him she cared. Hadn’t she given up everything to mate with him? Help protect his clan? He was the one that said that love wasn’t involved in mating–the one holding back.

  His last words echoed in her ears. That’s what’s wrong with you. Zoe. You won’t take anything from me except my cock.

  When had he ever offered her anything else? As soon as the thought raced through her mind, she knew she was wrong. He’d offered her a life. A family. Protection for both herself and their baby.

  Could she really be angry at him for not loving her? It wasn’t like love was a choice. Would she really have chosen a warrior witch to fall in love with if it was?

  Her phone pinged with a new email notification. Zoe frowned when she read the subject line. It was a response from her post on the popular ancestry site.

  “Very good to be meeting you, cousin Zoe. My name is Roxana. Our grandmothers were sisters. I would like to be speaking with you more, but maybe we should be finding a better way. The sister of our grandmother remembers well the letter she writes for you, so many years ago, and does cry in happiness that you are writing in email to her. She says that she has much to share for you. If you make phone number, we can talk soon.”

  At the end of the email was a phone number with a Romanian country code.

  This time Zoe did burst into tears. It was all too much. She was overwhelmed and exhausted. Her hormones were playing tricks with her emotions. Even if she could see past the blur of tears, she was too tired to respond.

  Zoe curled on her side and tried to numb herself to the chaos that was her life. Her phone remained silent when the sky turned from reds and oranges to the dark purples. The fluorescent light hummed above her. Noises outside her door jolted her awake just as she began to doze. It seemed as if she hadn’t slept at all when a nurse tried to wake her to take her vital signs. God, she hated hospitals.

  She moaned loudly. “What time is it?”

  “Six.” The nurse attached a cuff around her arm and stuck a thermometer in her mouth. “Can I get you anything?”

  Zoe took the thermometer out her mouth. “About eight hours more sleep.”

  The nurse chuckled, finished taking her blood pressure, and stuck the thermometer firmly back under her tongue. “You’re being released later this morning.”

  “Guess they didn’t find anything too serious.”

  “The doctor will speak with you before you leave.” The nurse gave nothing away in her face or demeanor.

  She couldn’t go back to sleep so she turned on her phone. There was a single text message from Olivia.

  Glad you’re okay.

  Call Jack!

  That wasn’t going to happen.

  Instead, she decided to try FaceTiming her new Romanian cousin.

  The first call was dropped. Determined, she tried again and was rewarded.

  “Alo?” A blurry, yellowed image of a teenage girl came on the screen.

  “Hello. Roxanna?” Zoe spoke slowly. “This is your cousin, Zoe.”

  The girl squealed in delight. “I am so excited to be speaking with you. Please, wait. I get my great aunt who is living with me. My English is only so good, but I can be doing this.”

  Even with the poor video quality, Zoe could see her great aunt had tears glistening in her elderly eyes. The woman spoke and Roxanna translated, “She say she is so very glad to be meeting you. She is overcome with happiness.”

  Zoe smiled and nodded.

  “She say she will send you a ticket and you must come see her or–” Roxanne chatted excitedly with the elderly woman. Suddenly her face dropped into a serious frown. “Or baby may be died.”

  Zoe sat up more fully in her hospital bed.

  “Aren’t you making baby?” The teenager looked back to the old woman for verification and nodded.

  “Yes, but how did you know?”

  “My grandmother knows things. She is ummm…most powerful healer.” The girl gazed intently on the screen. “Cousin. You must come. Grandmother buys you a ticket. No tell anyone. Someone meet you at the airport of the JFK. No more internets. No more emails. Danger for you. You see? Grandmother says baby in danger. You are in much danger. I don’t know how to translate for you. Bad men want your baby but baby may die without her help.”

  “How do you know all this?” Zoe went cold. What was going on?

  “Bad men find you. Go now. Is no time. She fixes everything. No bring baby father. No trust warrior men. Understand? She says no to trust anyone. Come now. Hurry. About an hour we text your phone.”

  The connection broke and Zoe stared at the blank screen. What the hell? At a very witchy gut level, she knew her great aunt was right. Her baby was in trouble, but lie to Jack and his family? How could she do that? The old woman had said to trust no one.

  Not knowing what to do next, she decided to stop putting off the inevitable and called Jack.

  “Hi, Jack.” It took an awful lot of effort to sound cheerful.

  The phone went silent for a while and then he whispered, “It’s good to hear your voice. I’ve missed you, angel.”

  Zoe’s mouth went dry. Truth be told, she ached for him every day and cried nonstop without him. “Me too. Did I wake you?”

  “No. I’ve been up all night. Waiting for you to call me.” He sounded as miserable as she felt.

  “I’ve uh…been in the hospital.” She should’ve called him last night.

  “I know. I’m not supposed to upset you. Can I come in?”

  Startled, she looked to the door where his voice originated. He stood in silhouette, back-lit by the hallway lights. His suit was wrinkled, his shirt untucked, and a tie hung loose out of his pants pocket. He moved in closer. Dark circles lined his eyes, his hair stuck out all over the place. Despite all that, he was a cool drink in a desert of loneliness.

  She pushed up on her elbows and ended the call. “They didn’t tell me you were here. I thought…I don’t know what I thought.”

  He grabbed a plastic chair, dragged it across the room, and reached for both her hands.

  He whispered into the darkened room, “The doctors wouldn’t tell me anything. I had to call Olivia.” His eyes lingered on hers with a big open q
uestion mark. “Are you really okay? The baby?”

  “We’re okay.” She squeezed his hand and tried to find a reassuring smile. She swallowed hard to hold back the tears burning her eyes.

  “Thank God. I’ve been so worried.” He buried his face in her hand.

  They sat like that for the longest time. She couldn’t believe she’d allowed herself to live without him so long. “I’ve missed you…”

  “I know.” His voice cracked. Was he crying?

  It was too dark in the room to tell and her hands were wet from her own tears.

  “I didn’t mean it when I said I wanted you to leave me.”

  Jack struggled to put down the side rail, then sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her to his chest.

  “I didn’t mean any of it. I was just being stupid.” She’d forgotten how he smelled of firewood and ocean. Being in his arms was like coming home. “I’m so sorry about everything. I really suck at relationships.”

  “No. I screwed up. I’m the ass. Diane’s the only therapist I know and she’s really good at what she does. I had no idea…I was worried about you but I handled it all wrong.”

  He pushed her hair off her face and kissed her tears away until he found her lips.

  God, she’d missed his lips.

  When they came up for air, she asked, “So where do we go from here?”

  “What do you mean?” He frowned. “You’re coming home with me. Where you belong.”

  Zoe stared at the dark dotted hospital ceiling and tried to group them into sets of five for counting.

  “That’s the problem, Jack. I don’t belong. I buy my jeans and sweatshirts from a second hand store, and until the other night, I never had more than lip gloss on my face. Park Avenue people are picture perfect. Your family? Olivia? Diane? All picture perfect.” She shook her head and blinked hard. “I’m a mess. When that woman said you were a thing–”

  “Were is the operative word, angel. Were. We haven’t been together for over a year now. She lied. That’s where you’re different.” His eyes glowed with intensity in the semi-dark room. “It’s not about the clothes and the stuff on the outside. It’s who you are inside.”

  Just outside the door, nurses were changing shifts with hellos, goodnights, and status on patients. What a cluster-fuck. She was going to have to lie to him, too, to get to Romania and save the baby. He’d never let her travel alone and he couldn’t come. They would know. They’d see his aura a mile away.

  “You’re thinking.” He tilted her chin up with his thumb. “What’s wrong?”

  Zoe paused and counted fifty more dots on the ceiling before she whispered again into the silence of the dark hospital room. “You said you loved Diane…I want to be loved, too.”

  Jack moaned and hugged her tight. “I want that for us, too, angel. Don’t give up on me.”

  Don’t give up on me after I do what I have to do.

  “We’re good. Really. Could you do me a big favor?” She gave him a big smile and hoped he didn’t catch that she was faking. Thankfully, the room was dark.

  “Sure, Zoe, anything.”

  “Can you give me minute? I need to clean up a little. And can you get me just a small cup of coffee? Half decaf and half regular. Lots of cream. No sugar. And a donut?”

  He searched her eyes, then nodded.

  Oh God, he was never going to forgive her.

  When he left, she opened the dresser, threw on her clothes, and peaked out the door. Sitting down the hall facing her room was Hands still wearing sunglasses. She had no idea if his eyes were on her door. He could be sleeping or highly alert.

  In her darkened room, she spun a small vortex in her palm and prayed she could keep it under control. Inside, a small flame burned brightly. Wishing she had played more softball as a kid, she lobbed the tornado at the fire detector right over the nurses’ station and hit it dead on.

  I’m so sorry, Jack.

  Water gushed and a few nurses screamed as water poured down onto their heads and into their computers. Sirens wailed and red lights flashed. For that instant in time, Hands turned his head away from her door. She used the opportunity to dash down the hall and into the emergency stairwell. More alarms sounded, but no one paid the extra noise any attention. She made it to the bottom floor, just as fire trucks arrived at the scene. In the chaos, it was almost too easy to scoot around them and hail a cab to the airport. She hoped that no one was hurt, but her baby’s life was on the line.

  A text popped up on her screen with a terminal and flight number. Zoe paid the cab driver in cash, and wondered about how she was going to travel without a passport. She was never this flaky, but she had this overwhelming urge to get on a plane, find her healing family, and fix the baby.

  How long should she wait before giving up and going back home?

  “This is crazy,” she muttered.

  A man bumped into her with his suitcase, almost knocking her off her feet. Apologizing profusely, he grabbed her hand and thrust a small purse under her arm. She felt a jolt of healing energy and he ran off. She opened the purse and found a passport with her picture, money, and a plane ticket with a boarding pass.

  She shook her head and wandered to her gate. The flight was already boarding.

  What was she doing? There were so many things wrong with this situation, but she didn’t have time to think.

  She held her breath as she handed her passport to the agent in security. He glanced at the document and handed it back to her. “Have a good trip.”

  “Thank you.” Her hands were shaking when she removed her shoes, her cellphone and her two purses into a container. When they called her flight, she looked down at her ticket for her row. She hadn’t even noticed. She was flying first class to Europe and away from the man she loved, the father of her baby.

  Chapter 36

  Jack was in the hospital lobby when the alarm screeched. He dropped the stuffed animal, the Dunkin’ Donuts tray, and bolted to the emergency stairs. On the eighth floor, he had to scoot past a tsunami of soggy hospital staff, gurneys, and wheelchairs before reaching Zoe’s room.

  Fuck. Her room was empty and Hands nowhere in sight.

  How had he let this happen again?

  Her last words haunted him. I want to be loved, too. What was wrong with him? Three stupid words. He’d fucked up again. He should have told her what she needed to hear.

  Out of breath, Hands met in the hall, his clothes drenched. “Sorry. She was long gone by the time I made it to the street.”

  Jack bit back the scathing oaths at the tip of his tongue.

  “Find her.” Anger seethed in his low voice when he said, “And I want to know everything she’s done for the last two weeks. Every call. Every keystroke. Everything. Are we clear?”

  “Yes, boss.”

  An hour later, Jack sat in the back seat of the town car with a spreadsheet of every text and call she’d made in the last forty-eight hours. He cursed vehemently when he read the last few.

  “Get us to JFK.”

  Hands grunted. The car slid in behind a line of taxis, went through a yellow light, and moved slowly along on Seventh Avenue South.

  Jack keyed in Zoe’s best friend’s cell number and pressed send.

  A concerned voice answered. “Zoe?”

  “No. This is Jack Fialko.”

  “Fialko?” He could hear the frown in her voice.

  “Zoe just bolted from her hospital. Did she call you?” Jack glanced out at the traffic as they crawled forward a foot at a time.

  “Last time we spoke, she was pretty pissed off. Not sure if I’d tell you, even if I knew.”

  “You are aware she was kidnapped? Twice.” Jack swallowed his impatience. Loyalty was one thing but Zoe and his baby were in danger.

  “Hell no. The stalker?”

  “Yeah. He’s a hit man for the Russian mafia.”

  “Shit. Does she know?”

  “I haven’t had the chance. We’ve been, ah, apart.” Jack cringed. Apart. Sepa
rated. Words he never wanted to use again.

  Nan shot back. “The guy that’s been after her for months is a hit man and you’re waiting for the right time to tell her? What the fuck?”

  “It’s complicated.” Everything about Zoe was complicated. They’d probably end up living separate lives, finding others to have meaningless sex. Frustrated forever.

  Nan’s volume increased a notch. “What do you need me to do?”

  “Is it secure? To talk?” Jack scrubbed his hand over the stubble on his chin.

  “This is the friggin’ FBI. It’s as safe as anywhere.”

  “The man who’s been following her is her natural uncle. Her father’s brother.”

  Nan whistled and the computer’s speaker screeched. “Give me a minute.”

  There was a pause and he heard fingers flying across a keyboard. Some more clicks ensued, more pauses, and she muttered something he couldn’t decipher.

  “Shit. I swear, if anything happens to her, I’ll kill you myself.”

  “No need. I’ll do it for you.” He turned up the volume so Hands could hear. “What did you find?”

  “She has a new passport that matches a name on a manifest to Romania leaving in twenty minutes from JFK.”

  Jack cursed. “I’ll never get there in time.”

  “I’m booking a flight to Romania as we speak. I’ll meet you there–”

  “Wait.” Jack pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. Zoe would never forgive him if anything happened to Nan. “Do you have someone to watch your back? This guy is…powerful.”

  Nan gave a frustrated sigh. “I can handle myself.”

  “Did she tell you about my family’s clan?”

  “Of course,” she snorted.

  The car swerved, Hands cursed, and the side of a city bus almost clipped them. Jack gritted his teeth. “And?”

  “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio…”

  “You’re quoting Hamlet?” He let out a little laugh. What a strange woman.

  “Nothing like a good education and Netflix. I’ll see you soon.”

  Jack hung up the phone and said to Hands dryly, “Nice driving.”