His driver smirked, found an empty lane and barreled onto the entrance ramp for the FDR.
Romania. The home of her birth mother’s healer clan. But why? There was only one reason. Jack called Olivia from his cell phone. “Hey.”
“You find her?”
The black hole of the Brooklyn Battery loomed ahead. “I’m about to lose you. She’s on her way to Bucharest.”
“Romania?” Liv breathed out harshly. “Why?”
“Fuck if I know.” He was whining and that fact sent him over the edge. He swore he’d never let a woman get to him like that again. “She didn’t even tell me about the complications with her pregnancy. If she would have come to me and–”
“Really? Would you have honestly let her go off to Europe?”
“Hell no. The doctor said she needed to stay off her feet.”
“You guys really have to work on your communication skills.” She was cut off.
Jack swore and grumbled something unintelligible as he hung up the phone. His barely trained mate was on her own in another country, and running up against some of the strongest witches in the world. And it was all his fault.
Chapter 37
Zoe stumbled through customs and security in an exhausted daze, clutching her purse, and not quite knowing where to go. Most of the advertisements and airport directions she passed were in Romanian or Russian. She increased her pace and followed with the rest of the passengers through the main exit.
Families smiled and laughed, reunited. One by one, they exited with their suitcases in tow until she was the only one left from her flight. She desperately searched the crowd, not knowing who she was looking for.
“Don’t look back. Walk quietly. One sound and I’ll stick you.”
She didn’t need to turn around. His was the voice of nightmares. Finger-gun-man. Didn’t he ever give up?
Zoe moved forward, while the tip of something very sharp cut into her back. This was so not going to happen again. Who the fuck did he think he was, threatening her and her baby? As her anger grew, the core center of her new talent flared and loaded like a sprung bow.
Electrons gathered, causing her hair to stand on end. She tried to hold onto her power but it had a mind of its own. Wind and fire burst forth. She prayed there would be something left of the airport.
This time, the fiery tornado was contained. It exploded almost inside finger-gun-man’s head with a thunderous bang. He dropped his knife, fell to his knees, and both hands shot to his bleeding ears.
Behind Zoe, a slight woman screamed, “Bomba!”
From behind, a hand clasped hers tightly. Zoe spun around, ready to zap the person.
A teenage girl, with streaks of purple and pink in her jet-black hair pulled her in the direction of the door. “Come. Hurry. Car is there.”
“Roxanne?”
The girl nodded and continued to tug on Zoe’s arm. “We hurry. Now.”
Zoe and the girl piled into the back of a small compact vehicle. Before Zoe could catch her breath, the airport fell behind and the screams of sirens faded away.
In the front passenger seat, a twenty-something woman with big brown eyes and dark hair, laughed nervously. “Good you have no luggage. I fear we would not all fit. I am Lana. You have met my sister-in-law, Roxanne, and the driver is my husband, Dirk.”
The man gave her a small nod, then focused back on the road.
“We were very happy how well you get away from your uncle,” Roxanne said, her eyes huge as she studied her.
“My uncle?” Holy shit. Zoe’s mind raced. Her stalker was family. Bile rose in her throat when she remembered how he had unzipped his pants and almost raped her.
“Da, your father’s brother.” Lana’s brows creased. “You did not know? When we get home, we will explain everything.”
“Here. Eat.” Roxanne pulled out a small meat sandwich from her handbag and handed it to Zoe.
Zoe mumbled a quick thanks and ate while the modern city of Bucharest rushed by outside the car window. She wished Jack was here with her. He would know the right things to say and do. She should have told him. It just all happened so fast and her great aunt had been so insistent. What a mess. The last few weeks had been miserable without him and now she’d made it worse. He was never going to understand or forgive her.
Once they left the city limits, Zoe tried to absorb the exotic countryside, full of forests and hills. The healers hummed a strange folk tune laced with healing energy, and she was lulled to sleep with dreams of a beautiful dark haired baby with a dimple in her smile. When she woke, the car was pulling into an old mansion built into the side of a hill. Deep pine forests graced the back of the building.
“Where are we?”
“Slobozia.” Roxanne gave her a wide grin. “Our home.”
“It’s beautiful.”
Fields of ferns and wild flowers crisscrossed the lawn in a beautiful spectrum of colors. Every shade of green on the face of the planet was represented in the huge garden. An enormous greenhouse stood to the side of the house, blooming with color.
Lana smiled, her love of the land, obvious. “Romania has some of the most ancient forests in the world, full of primeval plants with healing properties. With the internet, we send our seeds all over the world. Come, you must meet my Gram. You call her Bunica.”
An ancient woman stood waiting at the top of a long and winding driveway. She opened the door and embraced Zoe in an enormous hug, overflowing with healing energy.
Lana translated her few words. “She gives thanks to the Goddess you are here, safely.”
The two spoke again, and Lana’s face lit up. “You are pregnant?”
Zoe nodded.
Roxanne danced around the car with a great big grin. “Bunica always knows when there is another life in the clan.”
The old woman put a hand on Zoe’s stomach. Instead of smiling, her mouth formed a large O. She stepped back, old eyes creased in pain, and made a healer’s sign to ward off evil. Tears dripped in the corners of her eyes. “Why?”
Zoe looked to Lana. “Why what?”
Lana listened while the old woman ranted excitedly. When they finished their exchange, Lana turned to Zoe. “Why would you mate with a…a…Warrior?” She spoke the last word filled with contempt and disgust.
“We were pulled by the solstice.” And because she was part warrior. Had she forgotten that, or just dismissed it?
Bunica cursed in Romanian. Zoe guessed at the meaning and started to get dizzy. She’d been up for almost two days straight.
“He raped you?” Lana motioned for her to sit down.
“No, no. He’s not like that. I love him.” Zoe sat, held her stomach.
“Tell me you did not match.” Lana squatted beside her.
Zoe nodded miserably. “We have augmented each other’s powers.”
Lana interpreted for Bunica, her voice getting more and more agitated. Her hands went to her hips when she said, “So you have the wind tunnel from your father’s side and what else?”
Zoe shrugged, held out a hand, and brought forth a small tornado with a raging fire burning within. She quickly put it out and sat on her hands.
The three women gasped, spoke simultaneously, and then nodded in agreement. What would they do with her now?
“We will save you from your evil mate,” Lana said, nodding as if it were confirmed.
“What?” Zoe stood abruptly, and the room started to spin. “He’s not evil. Tell everyone he’s a good man. You must.”
Zoe had to swallow hard. She closed her eyes and broke out in a cold sweat.
“No doubt this warrior has put you under his spell.” Lana motioned for Zoe to sit down again, then patted her hand. “We will fix you.”
Zoe let her head fall back onto the couch and closed her eyes. The world spun out of control. “No, no, he’s a philanthropist… I keep telling you. A good man.”
Lana stood, paced, and answered with anger. “Your uncle? The one who just tried to kidna
p you? He pretends to be a good man. Zoe, the warring clan deals opium, and sells children into prostitution. They would sell their own mothers if there was profit in it. It is the warrior witch’s way. They are warlocks. Liars.”
“The men who are after me are my birth father’s family? What do they want with me?” Zoe tried to think clearly. The odd time zone, the pregnancy, and the flight were making things worse.
“It is obvious, no?” Lana took a deep breath and spoke as if to an ignorant child. “Before you were even born, clan warriors were bartering for the right to try to mate with you, to have your father’s power. That is why your parents tried to leave the country. They died in that effort. Somehow, you were lost. Now that you are with child, and have given yourself to another clan, they want the child you carry. And then, perhaps will want to seed you with one of their own.”
“They want my baby?” Zoe moaned. When would this nightmare end? These people talked about pregnancy like she was a race horse.
Roxanne brought some refreshments into the room on an old silver tray.
Bunica spoke to Lana slowly, pointing her fingers at Zoe, in emphasis.
Lana nodded and translated “The wind power had only been in the Russian hands. They want that back, along with the fire that you have from your husband.”
“We didn’t marry,” Zoe muttered miserably. She wouldn’t trap him legally. It was bad enough they were trapped by mating.
Lana translated, and Bunica went off again.
“What is wrong with you Americans? You have baby, you get married. It is simple. Will he not give your baby his name and his honor or is it as I suspect, he raped you?”
“I love him.” Tears had gathered in her eyes and she blinked them away.
The old woman answered back in a mixture of broken English and Romanian. “There is no love from a warring witch. If you want love, you should have chosen to mate with the healing side of your nature. We understand the heart.”
“It’s too late. Will you help me keep my baby or not?” Zoe clenched her fingers into fists and tried to fight back the panic crawling up her skin.
“I must think. This time it may be better to let nature keep its course.” The old lady paced back and forth across the parlor.
“But you helped my mother.” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. After she’d traveled all this way?
“Our clan was going to use your mother’s power to protect us from the Russian,” Lana said, translating her grandmother’s words again. “What good did that do?”
Bunica stared out a full picture window onto the vast gardens and was quiet for some time.
Zoe tried to plead again. “Please Bunica, I’ll show you his family online. You can speak to Olivia, a Healer and his childhood friend. She’ll speak for him. Things are different in the US. Please, I already love this baby and love her father. I cannot go on without them. I will not.”
The old woman’s face softened, but she smiled kindly for the first time. Her voice was gentle when she spoke again.
Lana translated. “She says cannot do this thing you ask without speaking to the rest of clan. For now we will keep you both safe. Go rest. We will meet with our clan this evening.”
“Thank you.” Zoe gave a small smile.
Lana led her up a graceful staircase, into a bedroom, and turned down the white comforter. She closed the heavy violet wool drapes, leaving the room almost completely dark.
Zoe sat down, took off her sneakers, and laid her head down on the pillow.
“You are a huge risk to the whole world.” Lana pulled up the blankets, patted Zoe on the shoulder and sighed dramatically.
“I didn’t plan this. It just happened.”
“Go to sleep now,” Lana stated quietly. “I’ll wake you when it’s time to go.”
Chapter 38
Zoe walked up the aisle of the dingy gray auditorium, surrounded by her new family. Noisy clan members sat in well over two hundred metal folding chairs. Some pointed and stared, while others held heated discussions. What little she could translate did not bode well for her baby. She took a deep breath, slowly climbed three stage stairs, and took a seat next to Bunica on the podium.
After one of the witches gave a benediction, it was Bunica’s turn. She spoke slowly so Lana could translate.
“So you see, I don’t feel that a decision as great as allowing this baby to survive should rest solely on my shoulders.” Bunica turned her back to the audience and nodded.
Zoe swallowed hard, coughed, and tried to unlock her fingers wrapped around her note cards. The microphone sat, waiting like a cobra with a skinny black stand for a body.
A middle-aged woman spoke up from the audience. “Have her show us what she can do.”
Zoe looked at Bunica who gave her a small nod.
On trembling legs, Zoe stood and made her way to the podium. She raised a shaking palm, created a small tornado, and then extinguished it quickly. Many in the assembly gasped and several people made signs to ward off evil.
A large man with a potbelly stomach stood. “Why would we want more of that in the world?”
Zoe clenched both her trembling hands behind her back and leaned into the mic. Her voice boomed and she jumped. “The baby wouldn’t be theirs. She’d be mine. She’d be raised in love. Surely you wouldn’t deprive her, one of your own clan, at a chance at life?”
Another man stood. “I say just let nature take its course. Healer should never mix with warring. It’s an abomination.”
“So, is that what you all think of my worth, too?” Zoe glared. She raised her arms theatrically and summoned the wind. Her dark hair came out of its braid and three pieces whipped around her face like Medusa’s snakes.
Several healers screamed and ran out of the hall.
“The baby’s father’s clan are good people. They are police officers, firefighters, doctors and psychiatrists. They are dedicated to making life better for healers and warriors alike.” That sounded so lame and the faces out there totally agreed. She took a deep breath and prayed for strength, for the right words. “You need my mate’s clan…my clan, to protect you from the Russians.”
The crowd grumbled.
“I promise you, Jack Fialko comes from an old and noble family.” She stood taller, and her voice lost its quiver. “Our joining is the will of the Goddess who rules us all.”
What other words would convince? Her brain went blank, her cheeks burned, and a couple people in the audience cleared their throats in the silence. Sweat trickled down her sides and her body odor wreaked of failure.
How could she ever face Jack again? If their child died, it would be her fault.
It must have been the thought of him that caused the six inch vortex to appear before her.
No fire burned within it, just beautiful violet, sparkling, healing energy.
As it twirled into a long spiral, she closed her eyes and remembered. She poured all their hurts, their laughter, and their love into that vortex. Her gut wrenched and her throat constricted, but it wasn’t enough. She added her childhood pain, her friendship with Nan, and finally the essence of her whole being. The vortex grew larger and intensified in spin and color. She sobbed. Never had she felt so alive, nor ached so much.
The spiral moved up into the center of the ceiling, crackling and humming like a top. The seated clan members gazed up with eyes and mouths open.
Without warning, the energy cloud exploded and tiny violet lights floated down onto the heads of all. For a moment, everyone’s skin glowed with eerie lavender and then understanding filled their faces. When smiles and tears looked upon her, she knew they understood.
She closed her eyes and lifted up a silent prayer of thanksgiving. Her child would live. Zoe’s heart clenched with relief.
Zoe started back to her seat, then froze. She hadn’t sensed him until that moment, but there was no denying the sensations that wrapped around her, drawing her attention like a magnet. In the far corner of the auditorium, hidden i
n the shadows, was the man she loved.
Chapter 39
Jack stood with Nan, listening to his mate’s plea for their unborn and his heart had swelled with pride. He’d started for her when she’d panicked, but stopped when the vortex had appeared. When a piece of her light hit him, he leaned against the wall, gasping for a breath. Never in a thousand years would he have guessed the intensity of her feelings. The damnedest thing was, perhaps due to lack of oxygen, in that moment the fog cleared.
He’d been such an idiot.
His chest clenched. He loved her. There was no denying it any longer. She wasn’t just his mate. She was his heart.
He stepped into the middle of the room. There was a collective gasp, but his gaze stayed steady on the only person who mattered—his Zoe.
“I’m Lord John Makepeace Fialko, principal of the American East Coast Iesco clan. Whatever assurances you need from my clan, I will fulfill. I too, beg for my child’s life. My clan will owe you. We always pay our debts.” He turned slowly and met the eyes of the crowd. “If you do not, I will be a revengeful adversary.”
“What good will your protection be, Fialko, if we’re all dead?” said a wiry nervous man near the back.
“My family protects its own.” Jack stepped further into the room. “When Zoe mated with me, you all became my family. When the baby is born, I will be bound to you by blood. I will honor that blood with the blood of my clan.”
The crowd gasped at his bold oath. What was he doing? He had all but declared war on the Russian mafia.
An ancient woman stepped forward from where she was sitting on the makeshift podium, “We are honored, Jack Makepeace Fialko, leader of the Iesco clan, to accept your protection. In turn, our clan will provide healing and comfort from now until the twilight of time to you and yours. Welcome little brother.” Like a grand queen, she glared out into the audience. “Are we all in agreement?”
From the back of the room, Nan put her hands together in a single clap, and one by one everyone joined in. Jack sighed. Damned if he knew how he would keep his new family safe from halfway across the world, but he’d deal with the fallout later. All that mattered was that Zoe and his child were safe.
Dark Vortex: Mated by Magic Page 18
