by Jamie Davis
The hunter thought back to her instructions, given to her by her father when he sent her out, alone. “Track this creature and when you have the opportunity, make the kill, fast and from hiding. The Oni are treacherous and not to be trifled with.” She had already known that. Jaz had seen a lot in her twenty-two years.
She had asked why she was being sent out alone. She wondered if the creature was so dangerous, shouldn’t a full strike team be used to kill it? All he would say was that the oracle had said it must be her, alone, to undertake this hunt. The whole situation was very strange. The strangeness continued as she started tracking it around Elk City two nights ago. The creature had made no kills on the previous nights’ prowling. It was like it was searching for something or someone and hadn’t found what it was looking for. The Oni, like many demons, was weakened by the daylight so it holed up somewhere in the city during the day. When it went to ground in the daytime, she lost the trail and had to wait until it surfaced again the next night. After it left its lair tonight, she had tracked it here and thought there was finally an opportunity to strike it down. They were away from the crowds of people that were always nearby in a congested city. Hunters must always try to hide their kills from the public they protected. The ignorant humans could not become aware of how close to death and damnation they were, each and every day, with monsters and demons all around them.
Jaz had tracked the creature here, and the strange behavior continued with the non-killing of the Hakutaku couple. What was this Oni demon up to? She double-checked her triple amulet, a three-sided pendant hanging on a chain around her neck to make sure it contacted skin. The amulet performed three simple magics to help her on her hunt. It masked her heat signature, since most of her prey could see into the infrared spectrum. It reduced her scent from those who might be able to sense her presence by smell. The amulet also allowed her to see nearly as well as any Unusual creature or demon in the night’s near-total darkness. It was not perfect night vision, but it was better than any other human would be able to see on a moonless night like this.
Jaz checked her weapons to make sure all were at hand. The Glock semi-automatic pistol holstered on her left hip was of little use with this particular demon. The bullets loaded in the magazine were infused with silver and arsenic. Those projectiles would slow it down a little bit, until it regenerated. They were more suited to taking down various shape-shifters and vampires. The small Bowie knife sheathed on her right hip was blessed by a priest, and had been tempered in both holy oil and holy water. That would do the job, but she was loath to get in that close. Those talons looked wicked sharp. She had seen the wounds caused by them on the woman on the lawn. That would leave the katana across her back. She preferred it anyway, truth to be told. It gave her a bit of reach beyond the arm’s length of the demon’s claws. It was also a holy blade, blessed like the Bowie, but more significant because of the additional power it held. It linked to her very soul and drew power from her life force. Every hunter in the Errington clan was gifted with one such blade upon their coming of age at thirteen years old. It gave the Errington hunters stamina and power few other humans could match. Her blade had been with her ever since and she would have felt naked without it.
The peal of an ambulance siren tore her from her consideration of her weapons and Jaz checked her quarry. The ambulance was likely one of those from Elk City’s vaunted Station U. Those Unusual-loving paramedics were always out and about in the city, caring for anyone of the underworld’s denizens who called for help. Jaz knew that not all Unusuals were evil. Most weren’t, if she allowed herself the truth of it. What she hated was that so many of them tolerated those of their number who were evil, those who had done wrongs to humans. She snorted quietly. Those paramedics from Station U were relegated to a group that included the tree-huggers and rabid animal-rights types in her mind.
Jaz watched the demon vigilantly. She expected it to leave the area with all the attention and noise coming to the home with the ambulance. It didn’t move back from the roof’s peak but leaned forward, as if with anticipation. That was strange. Observing the Oni’s behavior as it watched the ambulance arrive, she noticed it tense and heard a small snarl coming from its position on the roof. Looking back at the ambulance, she saw that one of the paramedics, the driver, had come around the back of the vehicle just then. Could he be the real target of this creature? She settled back into her hiding spot and watched the scene as the paramedics set to work on trying to save the injured Hakutaku woman on the lawn. The demon watched as well.
The huntress was impressed with the efficiency and professionalism of the two paramedics. Even though they were caring for unusual creatures, they treated their patient no differently than she would have seen if the patient were human. Strange that they took so easily to helping the creatures living unseen beside their human neighbors. Jaz had been taught all her life that, while some Unusuals could be tolerated and even worked with, none of them were to be trusted. She watched while they stopped the woman’s profuse bleeding and bandaged her wounds. Then the driver went back to the ambulance on the street and retrieved the wheeled stretcher, taking it back to the patient.
Jaz shifted her gaze to check on the Oni on the rooftop. It was definitely tracking the movements of the driver, ignoring the other three potential targets. She had never heard of an Oni demon leaving a kill unfinished, let alone using one attack to lure its actual target into range of a later attack. Whoever had conjured the demon and controlled it must be very strong. Controlling such a demon reliably from any distance was close to impossible by everything Jaz understood about the process. She didn’t know of any human conjurer who would possess such power. The demon was clearly waiting for something. Jaz wanted to know what it was waiting for.
The team of paramedics packed up their patient and rolled her to the ambulance. Jaz watched as one of the paramedics directed the woman’s husband to climb into the passenger seat while they loaded his wife into the back of the ambulance. When the paramedics loaded up the woman and the one paramedic climbed into the back with her, the driver shut the door. That was when the Oni moved.
Jaz heard the sound of the rushing attack before she saw anything. The sound of the creature’s claws, scrabbling down the roof’s shingles, was her first warning. Damn, that thing was fast. Jaz reached over her shoulder, drawing her katana. She sprinted from cover to try to catch the demon as it bounded on all fours towards the back of the ambulance. The huntress caught up to the creature in the street, just as the paramedic driver turned the corner towards the front of the ambulance. It was springing forward to sweep at the paramedic’s back with its extended claws. Jaz leapt forward in one last, desperate bound, her blade coming down and across beheading the demon in a single silent, slicing blow. The magical blade, which never needed sharpening, blessed by God, banished this demon back to hell with a single stroke.
The demon’s head bounced once on the pavement before the head and body turned to a red mist, glowing in the brake lights of the ambulance, leaving Jaz standing in the street watching the emergency vehicle pull away. She wondered who that paramedic was that made him the target of such an attack. She would have to report back to her father on this development. He would want to investigate further. She stood in the street a bit longer as the lights of the ambulance faded, then she moved back into the shadows and headed home.
Dean slid the ambulance into gear, checked to make sure his patient’s husband was belted in, then pulled away from the scene. He picked up the radio mic and notified headquarters they were on the way to the hospital. He was a little worried that the creature that had caused such a vicious attack was still out there. He made a mental note to notify James Lee, the vampire lord of Elk City about it, as well as the rest of the Station U paramedics. If one such attack happened, it was likely that more would happen soon.
As he drove away with his lights flashing, reflecting off the surrounding trees on this residential street, he shot a glance in the side view mir
ror. A small blonde woman with a sword stood there looking back at him. She wore all black, sported a pistol on her hip, and held her sword in a two-handed, Asian-style grip. She was illuminated only briefly by the ambulance’s taillights and rear emergency strobes while he pulled away from her, then she was hidden in shadow and gone from view.
Dean blinked to clear his vision. Had he seen what he thought he had seen? He had learned in the recent months with Station U to trust his own eyes and instincts. There were many strange things in the world out there. Lord knows, he had seen enough of them. From diabetic werewolves, to watching his former partner turned into a vampire in front of him, Dean Flynn had seen a lot of things never experienced by other humans. This woman with a sword should have been just another one of them, but something inside him told him that she was important. Somehow, someday, he knew he would see that woman again and he tried to remember her face, framed in blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail.
All the way to the hospital, especially every time he stopped the ambulance to check that an intersection was clear before proceeding through, Dean found himself checking his mirrors. By the time he got to the hospital trauma center, he wondered if he had imagined the whole thing. Then he was distracted by the work at hand as they unloaded their seriously injured patient and turned her over to the ECMC trauma team. Dean told Barry to start on the paperwork on the ambulance’s tablet computer, while he took the old man inside and showed him to the waiting area.
Yamo, the old Hakutaku man, took Dean’s hand as he turned to leave the waiting room after dropping the gentleman off there. Dean stopped and turned. The paramedic was sure the man was distraught about his wife’s condition.
“She was real,” Yamo said.
“What?” Dean asked. “Who was real?”
“The hunter girl,” Yamo said. “I saw her, too - in the mirror as we left. I think you two are tied together in some way. Beware, paramedic Dean Flynn. Hunters live by their own code, and they don’t easily associate with those who befriend Unusuals. You are tied, but for good or ill, I do not know.”
The Hakutaku man let go of his hand and returned his gaze to the door to the trauma rooms, waiting for word of his wife. Dean walked away, heading back to the ambulance bay at the hospital, thinking about what the man had said. If she was real, then what was she doing here in Elk City - and what was a hunter? Too many questions on top of his other worries. Dean sighed and walked back to meet up with his partner and put the ambulance back in service for the next call.
Chapter 3
Dean kept his thoughts to himself as he and Barry restocked the ambulance supplies at the hospital. They drove back to their station, tucked into the back of a run-down industrial park outside of the city. There was so much on his mind. Not the least of which was the woman with the sword he had seen in his mirrors at the scene of the earlier ambulance call. There was also the ongoing enigma of his missing girlfriend, Ashley. He felt guilty that he hadn’t been thinking about her more often, but work had him busier than normal with the flood of patient calls coming in to the Station U paramedics.
Ashley was an Eldara Sister, an angelic healer. The Eldara were the messengers of the Gods serving many tasks for the divine beings on earth. She and Dean had been together for several months now. At least they had been until about five weeks earlier, when she had left town suddenly on what she would only call an important errand. Then, early last week, Ashley’s twin sister, Ingrid, had shown up to announce to Dean that Ashley had been abducted. Ingrid said she needed his help to free her. Ashley’s twin was a force to be reckoned with. She was an Eldara too, of course, but not one of the healing sisters. Ingrid was a warrior maiden, a Valkyrie, intent on collecting the heroes from the world’s battlefields and escorting them to the afterlife where they would feast together and wait to return for the battle at the end of days.
Ingrid had left as quickly as she had arrived, giving her sister’s boyfriend instructions to await her return. Great! Tell a guy he needed to rescue his girlfriend, then tell him to wait for an indeterminate time frame. That had been a little over a week ago. Since then, Dean had gone on autopilot, working extra shifts along with his regular rotations to keep himself busy while he waited. It was agony. He realized that tonight’s call with the demon attack was the first time he had not been thinking about Ashley at all. He felt both guilty and relieved. He knew that he couldn’t stay in that constant state of worry forever, which explained his relief. The fact that he had been able to forget her at all explained his guilt. Well that, and his distraction by the blonde girl’s face in his rearview mirror.
All of this was on his mind as Dean returned to the station with his probationary partner. Barry was an experienced paramedic, but was new to the world of Unusual patients. Dean was his preceptor and was supposed to help break him in and oversee his adjustment to caring for their particular group of patients at Station U. Overall, the new guy was getting acclimated to their patients pretty well. He was doing his research in the station’s extensive library of mythology and legend, and he was open-minded. Those were the keys to being a good Station U paramedic.
Paramedics normally had the mantra of Sempre Gumby - meaning always stay flexible. Every paramedic was forced to adapt and overcome challenges with every patient they encountered, even the humans. With Station U and their unique patients, that mantra became multiplied exponentially as they were forced to adapt to both the medical problems faced by their patients, and adapting to the individual mythical nature of each of them.
Dean pulled into the parking lot at Station U and waited while Barry got out to help him safely back up into their garage bay attached to the station. Once inside, he went about his normal post-call tasks of getting everything ready to go for the next 911 call. There was always a next call. Barry went into the station’s squad room to complete his patient paperwork on the computer there, and prep it for sending off to the hospital and headquarters after Dean had a final look at it. Dean was heading over to the squad room door to check on Barry’s progress when he got the text from Ingrid.
“Back in town. We need to meet up. Where are you?”
“I’m working,” Dean replied back.
“Stay there. I’m on my way.”
Ingrid was nothing like her sister, though they looked identical, except for a few extra piercings and tattoos. The differences didn’t stop with the superficial items. The Valkyrie was much more direct in her approach to everything, Dean had learned. Ashley had once told Dean that she didn’t want Ingrid coming to town to help them solve any problems because she usually left a certain amount of carnage in her wake on the way to getting the job done. He didn’t want carnage, but action of any type would be preferable to just waiting as he had been doing.
Dean slid his smartphone back in his pants pocket and went into the squad room. Barry was still working on the computer, writing his patient care report for the injured Hakutaku woman. Since most Unusuals had pretty much normal human anatomy and physiology, the write-ups looked surprisingly mundane to the casual eye. The report system had a separate tab on the software’s screen where the Station U medics could enter any additional care or details that pertained to their specific inhuman nature. A gravelly voice to Dean’s left drew his attention away from his partner.
“I made a midnight snack for you guys when I heard over the radio you were on your way back. I have some cheeseburger sliders with sweet potato fries,” Freddy said. Freddy was the station’s resident chef. He was also a zombie. The paramedics had sort of adopted him after his run-down house trailer was firebombed by terrorists a few months before. He could never work in a restaurant again after his voodoo priestess girlfriend had turned him into a zombie for cheating on her. He was just about the best chef Dean had ever met, as long as you made sure all his parts were intact after he was done cooking.
“Thank you, Freddie,” Dean said. “That will certainly hit the spot.” Dean looked over at this partner. “Barry, how’s that report coming?”<
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“I’m finishing up with it right now,” the other paramedic replied. “I just need you to look it over and then we can send it in to the system.”
Dean walked over to the other computer workstation and logged in to his own account. Because he was the preceptor, Barry’s reports automatically came through his system for his approval before being sent in to headquarters and the hospital, to become part of the patient’s records. Barry had been a paramedic for a while, longer than Dean, in fact. He was only getting the probationary treatment because of his lack of experience with the particular types of patients the Station U paramedics dealt with. Dean gave the report a quick review, found nothing that needed changing or adjustment, clicked the checkbox that added his electronic signature, and sent it off.
He was just getting up to go grab one of the mini-burgers Freddie had made when the locked parking lot door opened and a tall brown-haired woman dressed in a head-to-toe black leather ensemble stepped into the squad room. Dean didn’t know how Ingrid was able to get past the lock. He knew she didn’t have a key. Locked doors never seemed to bother her somehow. She just sort of ignored them. Maybe it was a hidden power of all of the Eldara, or maybe it was a Valkyrie thing. Either way, she always made her entrances unannounced.
“Hello, Ingrid,” Dean said as he picked up a burger from the plate. “I’m glad you could make the time to come back. Now maybe you can help me find your missing sister. It’s not like I was going crazy waiting for you or anything.”