Dark Vortex: Mated by Magic

by Stella Marie Alden

  Another similarly aged, big-haired matron bobbed her head from another table. “I heard twenty. Two buses across both lanes, one tipped over. Some idiot spun into the south bound lane.”

  “Probably drunk.” The woman clucked her tongue.

  “I saw it happen,” a man said, smugly. “An Audi spun like a top and then wham.” He clapped her hands together and Zoe’s gut wrenched. “Two buses hit it, and it scrunched like an accordion. No one could’ve survived it.”

  Zoe’s body went numb.

  The awful truth hit her like a two-by-four. She gasped and barely made it to the bathroom stall before retching.

  Her phone rang while she was rinsing her mouth. “Olivia? It’s Jack. He’s, he’s…he’s had an accident.”

  “Whoa, slow down. I got Josh, here, too. On speaker. What’re you talking about?”

  “I think Jack was hit by a bus, maybe two. I can’t find out. The traffic on the parkway is backed up for miles.” She leaned against the bathroom wall, shaking, and slowly sunk to the floor.

  Josh’s voice came out of the little speaker, dry and emotionless. “What is it, Zoe? Do you think or do you know it was Jack?”

  “He was following me, then he wasn’t. And I heard a woman describe the Audi that got hit. Josh, he never would’ve left my tail, unless something really bad had happened.” Zoe’s throat tightened with the tears she hadn’t allowed herself to shed. “The Russian guy…I thought he got blown up with Kyle but he wasn’t…he tried to take me, but I maced him and stole his SUV. I’m at a rest stop, a few miles north, but–”

  The police band radio squawked in the background, drowning out Josh’s voice. He let out a stream of expletives and then commanded, “Get out of there. Get into that car now, Zoe, and drive.”

  “But Jack needs me.” Zoe couldn’t catch her breath. Her head was spinning. She wanted someone to come get her and bring her home, not send her away.

  Josh spoke slow and direct, as if she was a little kid. “If what you say is true, Jack needs to know you’re safe. So do what I say. Do you understand me?”

  “Okay.”

  “Are you south of Point Pleasant?” He sounded very much like a clan leader. Like Jack. And it broke her heart.

  “Yes, but–”

  “Listen carefully. That man’s car probably has GPS, as does your phone. You need to make sure you can’t be tracked. When you hang up, turn off your phone and find another ride. Follow the signs for the town of Point Pleasant. Buy a ticket for the city. Leave the car in the station. Do not turn the phone back on and do not go home. Find a place to stay.”

  “But I have to find Jack…” This can’t be happening. Pain pierced through her chest in waves. The grief was beyond measure, the not knowing, even worse.

  Josh kept talking but Zoe couldn’t pay attention. Not now. Not when Jack needed her. “…in command now that Jack is…well, we just don’t know. You and your baby are our biggest hope. Don’t let Jack down. This is what he would have wanted. Hang up. Do as I say. Now. Pick up a disposable phone and call as soon as you’re safe.”

  The line went dead and she let out a little whimper.

  Zoe stood and placed a trembling hand on her stomach. She wasn’t just fighting for her own life anymore. She would survive. She had to. For Jack and his unborn child, she would make certain of it.

  Chapter 20

  Jack’s foot itched to go faster. One of the first things he’d do is to buy Zoe a better car.

  He hated the fact that she insisted on time away from him, but he’d do whatever it took to make sure she was happy, that she remained his. She was his mate, his love, but it was more than that. He’d never met anyone like her.

  She was sexy, intelligent, and funny. Gutsy, too. He doubted any other woman would risk everything for a man she barely knew. It honestly made him nervous. She’d walk directly into any danger without a second thought.

  Jack caught a flash of metal in his peripheral vision. A hand with a gun pointed. Shit.

  He heard two shots and his car veered violently to the left. He tried to twist the steering wheel in the opposite direction, but the car spun out of control. There was a sickening crunch and his head snapped forward. The world rotated in a blur. The car went airborne and the meridian went by in a green flash. A bus horn blasted.

  He knew he was going to die. His mind went to Zoe and the baby he would never know. He knew his family would take care of them. At least she’d have a chance at finding happiness with another man.

  The vision of some other male raising his child and enjoying Zoe’s body yanked him from blissful surrender. That was not going to happen. He called upon the energy that created the universe, scrunched into a small ball, and surrounded himself with an electric shield. Zoe’s vortex gave him a level of talent he’d never conjured before.

  His car compressed around. Something pierced into his side as his shield started to give. Pain exploded in his head and chest. The sound of metal against metal screamed through his brain. Then silence. Around him, the world faded to black, and he surrendered, his last thoughts of Zoe.

  Chapter 21

  Zoe sat in finger-gun-man’s car and banged her palms on the steering wheel until they stung. How the hell was she supposed to turn off the car’s GPS? With a frustrated scream, she let the tears she’d been holding in stream down her face.

  She had to find Jack. He couldn’t be dead. She wouldn’t believe it. She’d go south, even if that meant walking twenty miles.

  She grabbed her knapsack, hopped out of the Escalade, and headed back to the building. A tattooed-covered man with a beard reminiscent of an old ZZ Top video strode towards a Harley across her path. She had an epiphany and followed him.

  He put on his helmet, and his boots stomped the starter, all the while ignoring her taps on his shoulder. Over the deafening roar of the engine, he leaned back and put the bike in gear. That wouldn’t do. She straddled his front tire, reached over the bars, and shoved her hand into his face. The reflection of a sparkling tornado reflected in his visor.

  He frowned and shouted over the din, “What the hell do you want?”

  “I want a lift to the accident.” The exhaust fumes clogged her throat and her eyes stung. She coughed and pointed south.

  “Sorry sister. No extra helmet.” The biker backed the bike out from between her legs.

  Before he could move forward, she threw the vortex, thinking to make a small hole in the parking lot. The ground shook and rumbled like thunder and three cars disappeared into a sinkhole.

  The biker’s mouth dropped open. “Get on. Shit, what was I drinking last night? What the fuck kind of demon are you?”

  “One that wants a ride. Drop me off and I promise to disappear forever.” She ran around the back and threw her leg over the back seat.

  “Not gonna be an easy ride, sweetheart.” The biker gunned the engine and popped a little wheelie. She screeched, almost toppled, but clung to his waist. She tried not to inhale the stench of cigarettes, beer, and sweat.

  He raced down the exit ramp on the shoulder’s edge. As he darted around traffic, he leaned, and the bike tilted. More than once, she could put her hand to the ground. When he reached the scene of the accident, she stumbled off the bike, and numbly mumbled “thanks.” The biker grunted, gunned the engine, and raced away.

  A bus lay on its side across two lanes of traffic. A second bus blocked the remaining lane. At least ten ambulances lined up like taxis in front of a tent set up in the meridian. Medics rushed around the chaos. Tow truck operators worked on removing the buses. An elderly couple sat under the shade of meager bushes with empty stares and blank faces. She scanned the scene for Jack’s car.

  The groan and crack of metal drew her attention.

  She nearly retched again when she realized what she was seeing. Jack’s car was a misshapen mass of crushed metal, half the size of what it used to be.

  “No, no, no!” Her screams tore painfully from her throat.

  A young
police officer bounded towards her and blocked her from the wreckage.

  She clawed at him. “Let me go. You don’t understand.”

  “You know the driver of that car, miss?” His kind but firm hand led her away.

  “That was my…my…friend’s car. Oh God, is he–” She had to swallow the bile rising in her throat. How could she go on and never feel his arms around her again? Or hear his funny snide remarks? Why had she insisted they take separate cars?

  The officer was still talking and she tried to focus on his moving lips. “…miracle, really. We’re working with the jaws-of-life but it may take a while. Miss? Did you hear me? He’s alive but he floats in and out of consciousness.” He moved into her face and stared. “Miss?”

  Blood seemed to rush back into her arms and legs. Zoe nodded numbly and let the officer lead her closer to the wreckage.

  A large, burly medic looked up when they approached. “Are you Zoe?”

  “Yes.” Zoe smiled and grimy tears of gratitude ran down her face.

  “You can wait over there beside the car. He got rather riled the last time he woke. I think your presence might calm him down while we free him. I’ll have someone call you over if he wakes again. In the meantime, report over there.” He pointed to a medic truck, and walked towards a woman who held an arm to her chest.

  A young man offered her bottled water and indicated where she should sit. She tried to keep up a polite conversation with an elderly couple, but noxious fumes threatened to turn her stomach. She moved away with an apology.

  She wanted to text Josh and Olivia, but Josh had said to keep her cell off. She certainly didn’t want finger-gun-man to find her again. She was about to ask someone if she could borrow their phone, when the officer nearest Jack’s car beckoned her over with a shout and a wave.

  She prepared for the worst as she slowly approached the gnarled mess. Jack’s moans made her run to the gaping hole. An alien cocoon blanketed him in metal. Oddly, there was no blood and his cuts seemed minor.

  “I’m here.” Her legs almost gave out with the rush of relief.

  “Zoe?” Jack’s voice was muffled, his head faced down, his body in a fetal position.

  She put her hand through the sharp mass of metal and rubbed the rough stubble of his cheek. “It’s me.”

  Jack sighed with a whoosh of air. “You’re okay.”

  She smiled through the tears stinging her eyes.

  “They’re going to get you out of there. You’re going to be fine.”

  “I’m so fucking tired,” he said brokenly. “Lost too much energy. Understand? My body needs to recoup…” His voice was a weak whisper. “Need Olivia.”

  Zoe got it. Leaving her hand on his cheek, she closed her eyes and pulsed healing energy into him until she had no more to give. She braced herself against the car and held his head until he fell asleep.

  A medic put an arm under her shoulder and helped her away. “He’s going to be okay, Miss. But we’ll know better once we get him out of there.”

  “Can I stay with him?” She turned to the annoying beep-beep-beep of a huge tow truck backing up.

  “This could still take a couple hours. You’re going to have to step back onto the green.” The medic led her back onto the meridian. The multiple flashing emergency lights caught in her peripheral vision, causing an odd sense of vertigo. The smell of oil, gasoline and burnt rubber added to her discomfort.

  Zoe placed her head between her legs and sat on the green that stretched for miles. The pneumatic motor of the jaws-of-life growled and the car frame screamed and screeched in protest. Cars slowed on the north side of the parkway as they passed the scene to rubberneck. Occasionally, brakes squealed and horns honked.

  Josh’s voice boomed above her. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  She squinted into the now midday sun. Olivia was there, too, wearing a disapproving frown.

  “He’s my mate. I needed to be here.” Zoe jutted out her jaw.

  “We snuck right up on you. Do you have a death wish?” Josh scolded.

  “She’s safe. That’s all that matters.” Olivia sat down beside her and placed an arm over her shoulder.

  Together they waited while Jack’s car was split apart. Eventually he was extracted from the wreckage into a waiting ambulance, and Zoe felt like she could breathe again.

  Chapter 22

  Jack woke to Zoe’s gentle snoring. Her body snuggled into his chest, and the scent of fresh strawberries mixed with an overpowering antiseptic smell. He opened his heavy eyes to an unknown bed and an unknown room. An IV line strung from a hole in his arm to a plastic bag above. Metal bars framed the sides of the bed. Outside the room, a nurse sat at a desk.

  He wiggled each of his appendages and one didn’t respond. Shit. He extracted a tingling arm from under Zoe and flexed his hand. Not broken. Just asleep.

  Zoe stirred, yawned, and flashed him a sleepy grin. “You’re awake.”

  “How long have I been out?” He touched her mussed hair and looked into her sunken, exhausted eyes.

  “Not too long.” She was lying.

  “It’s dark out. Last thing I remember it was morning and I was driving home–” His chest clenched as memories assailed him. “An accident.”

  “I thought I’d lost you.” Her voice was clogged with emotion.

  She looked away but he pulled her chin back towards him. Her big brown eyes glistened like obsidian in the dark. She leaned up, parted her lips, and he tasted heaven. She squirmed closer on the tiny bed and squeezed him until his bruised ribs complained.

  He didn’t care. He wanted her right where she was. Forever.

  “Was anyone hurt?”

  “Mostly minor injuries, but a couple were hurt pretty seriously when a tour bus flipped on its side.” She sat up and rested her soft hand on the side of his face. “They say you lost a tire and spun out. Do you remember anything?”

  Jack closed his eyes, his head pounded, and he tried to remember. “I crossed the meridian and put my shields on max. That little vortex saved my ass. Other than that, everything is foggy.”

  “I remember being worried about you.” He moved his IV tube so he could pull her back down to his chest. “I need to take you home, angel. Something’s not right. Please get me out of here.”

  “Your family’s sleeping in the lobby. I have to go tell them you’re okay.” She maneuvered herself off the bed, and frowned down at him. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. If I had shared your ride, like you wanted, none of this would’ve happened.”

  “You don’t know that.” Jack grabbed a hand to tug her back.

  “Yeah I do. It’s me he wants. You, he just wants out of the way.”

  “Who, Zoe? Who was it? What the hell happened?” Jack sat up, suddenly very awake.

  “The stalker guy.” She met his gaze with eyes wide. “He didn’t die in the explosion. After he ran you off the road, he did the same to me.”

  Jack caught his breath and swore.

  “He wants me alive. I think he wants our baby.” She took a step away, her eyes haunted.

  Shit. Jack rubbed her cold fingers and brooded over how best to kill the bastard.

  “I’ve been thinking. He must’ve known all along I was a witch. Even before I knew. The first time I saw him was right before my parent’s funeral. How could that be?”

  “Not sure, honey, but we’re going to find out. Don’t worry. Go get Josh.”

  “Okay.”

  “Zoe.” Jack closed his eyes as he remembered her healing touch in the wrecked car and the overwhelming relief he felt when he knew she was safe. He knew his words were going to be inadequate even as they left his mouth. “Thanks for coming back to check on me.”

  “I had to.” Zoe’s brows furrowed. “I love you.”

  She turned quickly and dashed out of the room.

  Jack stared at the void and wondered what he might’ve said if she’d stayed. Relieved that he didn’t have to face that issue in that moment, he
picked up the phone beside his bed and dialed.

  A gruff voice answered on the second ring. “Detective O’Brien here.”

  “Hey Liam. It’s Jack Fialko.”

  “What’s going on? I thought you were taking some vacation time?”

  “I was. Some ass-wipe of a stalker has been after my…girlfriend. Tried to run me off the parkway yesterday to get to her. Probably saw it on the news?”

  “Shit. You okay?”

  “Yeah. I’m heading back to New York and could use that new super-computer you guys installed when we get there. I’ll have Josh send you everything I know.”

  “Sure. Give me a shout when you get to town.”

  “One more thing?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Josh is going to be arranging more security. Can you let NYPD know the situation?”

  “That can be arranged. Anything else?”

  “Yeah. Pray we get this guy before it’s too late.”

  Chapter 23

  High up in the Hummer Josh rented, Jack drove while Zoe studied the road’s reflection in the passenger side mirror. In her mind, the dark SUV barreled towards them, intent on death. In the real world, Jase followed three car lengths behind.

  Zoe shuddered. “You should’ve stayed in the hospital for another day.”

  Jack chuckled. Today his light brown eyes flashed with golden flecks, reflecting the sun, and the stripes in his silk tie. His dark pants held a sharp center crease and an expensive navy blazer hung under plastic in the back. She missed beach-bum-Jack, but go-to-work-Jack would’ve had her creaming, if it weren’t for the sense of danger she couldn’t shake.

  He smiled her way as if reading her mind.

  “How do you know we’re safe? That stalker could be anywhere.” Zoe wished she was home already. Her stomach was tied in knots.

  Jack patted the steering wheel, and smirked. “He’s no match for the two of us and this big baby.”

  Zoe glanced over her shoulder at the raven-haired teenager in the backseat. The girl gave her a tentative smile, then looked back out the window. Jase had found her wandering the parking lot after the explosion. Apparently, she was the girl Kyle had convinced Jack he’d mated with. Zoe shuddered, she couldn’t have been more than thirteen. Zoe had tried to have a conversation with her, but the girl’s English was limited to two-word sentences. All Zoe really knew about her was that her name was Erina.