by Jamie Davis
The hunter looked around the room, seeing little of the aftermath you would ordinarily see in such a desperate battle. That was the way it was with fighting demons and other netherworlders. You destroyed them, sure, but you often had no bodies on the battlefield to mark your success. In those situations there was nothing to show but your own wounds and exhaustion.
“You had a message for me from the Eldara?”
“She told me to tell you that Artur Torrence is behind this attack on you and your family,” Dean said, spitting out the words like venom. “I assume that means something to you? It means something to me. Now I have an additional score to settle with Mr. Torrence.”
Jaz stiffened at the mention of the hunter clan’s hereditary adversary’s name. Artur Torrence was the reason behind why the Erringtons had long ago become a clan of hunters. Legend had it that they had been nothing more than peaceful farmers, coming from somewhere in what was now the Middle East. Artur Torrence had come upon their farm and almost succeeded in wiping out their simple farming family before he tired of his sport and moved on. Her surviving ancestors followed, seeking vengeance. Over the intervening years, the family legends say they came close to catching up with him many times. Often they were able to foil his sinister plans, but always missed out on finishing him off.
“Mom,” The teen’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Artur has never come after the family before like this, has he?”
“No,” Jaz replied. “I don’t know if it was because he never had the opportunity, or if it was because we had him on the run so often that he could not spare the time and energy to do it.”
“We need to find him and finish him,” Jo said.
Jaz turned her head and looked in the girl’s eyes. She saw a familiar face as she looked at the Wiccan girl. Her blue eyes reminded Jaz of her own eyes, and her mother’s. She still didn’t want to accept the revelation that Jo was her daughter, back from the future, but the concept was growing on her. There had never been a witch-trained hunter to her knowledge. It was why she resisted her instincts that the girl’s claims were valid. Dean didn’t deny it. He had accepted it far easier than she did. Jaz knew that she needed to get over her doubts. They were all that was left of the clan, after all.
“Yes Jo, we do,” Jaz said. “We need to finish him, together.”
“You aren’t alone in this, ladies,” Dean said. “I want in on this vendetta, too. Artur’s machinations have hurt those I care about twice now. I’ve met the vampire lord, and I’ve seen the way he views and treats humans and others he considers lesser beings. I want to be there when he gets brought down.”
“It might take a while, Dean,” Jaz told him. “We Erringtons have been tracking and chasing him for centuries. If the legends are true, our vendetta dates back to the beginning of recorded history, before the Christian era. We’ve learned a certain amount of patience in that time frame.”
“I can be patient, as long as we are successful,” Dean said.
“Then welcome to the family, Dad,” Joanna said. “You’re an honorary Errington now.”
He sort of smiled at that, Jaz saw, as she watched him packing up his EMS supplies and donning his black backpack. Dean Flynn wasn’t a bad sort of fellow. She had never had time to get involved with anyone before, and she certainly didn’t have the time now, but she admitted he was the kind of guy she had always imagined for herself. Strong and confident, but willing to let her be the hunter she was trained to be.
“Come, on, let’s get out of here,” Jaz said. “I want to get back to the outside, and I want to make sure we seal up this room before we leave.”
“But we closed the portal,” Dean said. He pointed to the section of wall where the pulsing purple doorway to the netherworld had been just minutes before.
“That portal is closed, but the tear in the wards between worlds will not heal completely,” Jaz said. “Another could come here and try to force the doorway open again if they were able to harness enough power. By sealing off this chamber, we can go a step further and limit easy access to this location. It’s not as much as I would like to do, but it will have to be enough.”
She watched as they all stood up, each looking more than a little beat up. Time to get this team back to base. The three of them walked out of the cavern, returning up the passage they had used to enter. When they passed the place where she had placed the C-4 plastic explosive charge, she double-checked with her good hand to make sure it was still there above the support beam. She took them further down the passage, turning a bend in the mineshaft before stopping them about two hundred feet away.
“Dean, you can do the honors,” Jaz said.
The paramedic took the wireless detonator from his pocket and flipped up the safety cover, revealing the button underneath. He looked at her again and she nodded. She watched as he thumbed the button twice, clicking it quickly in succession. The rumbling blast sent a rolling wave of rock dust down the passageway at them and she heard the continuing fall of rocks tumbling down from the heart of the mountain above them. The portal’s location was sealed away for now. It would have to do. Turning to look at her companions, Jaz nodded and led them out of the mines, beginning the long trek back to the cabin in the woods.
Chapter 27
Dean was exhausted by the time they returned. It was near dawn as the trio trudged into the clearing surrounding the lakeside cabin. They approached with caution. There were some broken windows visible to show that something had happened here, but no other signs of the battle. As Dean, Jaz, and Joanna walked up to the front porch the door opened and Anya the dryad stood there with Ingrid and Albion on either side of her. She smiled as she saw them.
“Paramedic Dean, it is good to see you and your companions return to us safe and sound,” the dryad woman said.
“We are safe, but some of us are not so sound,” Dean said. “What happened here, is everyone safe?”
Ingrid gave a broad smile, “My battle sisters and I have not had such fun in years. It was a great way to prepare for the final battle. It will be a story that will make the other battle maidens jealous.” She looked at Dean. “I felt Ashley leave for the home planes. Thank you for freeing her.”
“But I didn’t save her, Ingrid,” Dean said. The guilt that told him he had failed wracked him. “I couldn’t bring her back with me.”
“You succeeded in keeping the revenant from using her to create a breach between the worlds,” the Valkyrie said. “She is not destroyed, and she will return to this plane to help people again. It will not be long. You saved her very existence, Dean, take heart in that.”
“How did the battle here go?” Joanna asked.
“It was glorious,” Ingrid said. “My sisters and I pinned the demons against the cabin when we attacked them from behind. We destroyed five of the eighteen before they even realized we were here. When they turned to face us, the shifters exploded from the cabin’s entrance and pushed them into our blades. We destroyed twelve of them with our heavenly blades, and the shifters sent the others back to their masters in hell. None escaped.”
“That’s good,” Dean said. “It was better than I hoped would happen. Were there any major injuries on our side?”
Albion shook his head. “A few of the shifters suffered some bites, cuts and bruises, but they have all regenerated. Ingrid told us that she sensed your success in rescuing her sister, so the others all returned to their homes. Anya and I waited for your return to see if there was any further assistance we could provide. We owe you a debt for ridding our valley of this threat.”
“We banished the revenant for now and sealed the portal. We also blocked off the mine shaft with explosives,” Jaz said. “There should be no further trouble here.”
“There is one thing, Ingrid,” Dean said. “Artur was behind all of this again. I don’t know how, but he rebounded from the last failed attempt to disrupt lives in Elk City and instituted this whole series of attacks to provide the revenants a foothold in this world.”
Ingrid’s eyes burned with a feral gleam. She looked at Jaz and said, “Your adversary returns, Ms. Errington. I, too, have long had a score to settle with this one. I have looked for him over many years, in between my other travels. I know that your clan has been hunting him as well.”
Dean watched Jaz for a response, but it was limited to a hardening of her eyes and pressing her lips together until they disappeared. She had found out back at the cave that the vampire lord Artur Torrence had destroyed the rest of her family. Now he discovered that Ingrid and Artur had history, too. It was something else that connected the two of them.
Ingrid continued, “Jaswinder Errington, I pledge my services to you and yours now and in the future in the hunt for this creature. We have been working separately, but now let us work together to track and defeat this evil.”
Jaz looked the Valkyrie in the eyes and nodded, extending her good arm to clasp hands in agreement.
“Good, that is settled,” Ingrid said. “I will watch for signs on my travels and send word of anything I find. Dean knows how to invoke me if you need my assistance, since the two of you are tied together in this, as well. Until then, I must return to my work gathering souls of warriors in preparation for the last battle.” She turned to Jo and pulled her in for a quick hug. “Hang in there, kiddo. Your parents are good people. Give them the time they need to get used to having you in their lives.”
“I will, Aunt Ingrid,” Jo said.
Ingrid took a step back away from the cabin in the clearing, manifested her great white wings again, and launched herself skyward with a few broad strokes. Then the Valkyrie was gone, blinking out of sight as she sped away skyward.
Anya took the opportunity the break in the conversation offered and came forward to Jaz, pointing to her injured arm. “And your injuries? We must do something for you. Come inside and let Zora and I make you something to eat and treat your wounds. Come.” The dryad woman gestured to the open cabin door and Jaz led the way inside to enter and rest.
Dean watched her go inside and turned to Albion. The werelion had been a strong ally in this fight for the valley’s residents and against the demon incursion into this world. Dean hoped he could keep that friendship alive. He stepped forward and extended his hand to shake the other man’s hand. Albion took it and merely nodded, then he turned and started off into the forest. Dean watched him leave and then turned to go inside. Jo had already gone in following Anya and Jaz.
Once inside, they sat while Dean looked at Jaz’s injured left arm again. She needed stitches to properly close that gash in her shoulder, as well as an antibiotic and a tetanus shot. They could stay here for a few hours, but he needed to get her to a hospital for the needed treatment. Anya and her daughter set to work providing a breakfast for all of them. It was good to sit and relax in relative safety for a change. Dean looked around the room at the assembled group. Anya walked around with a smile serving the breakfast meal and doting over Jaz, worrying over her injuries. Jo and Zora were in the corner chatting together, bonding as only teens in the presences of adults, or in this case, parents, could. They were close in age and he was glad that Jo had relaxed enough to find a friend here.
He felt like someone was watching him and when he looked around the room again, he caught Jaz staring at him. She smiled a little when their eyes met. A lot had happened to them in the last few days. He was concerned about her. She had yet to deal with the loss of her family in the explosion back in Elk City. Dean knew that it was probable that she was the last of her hunter clan. A series of giggles from the two teens on the other side of the room distracted him and he remembered that, no, she wasn’t the last of them. Somehow Joanna was the continuation of the Errington line, and while he had trouble believing in the beginning when it was revealed to them, he could see what might attract him to Jaz. It was not impossible at all that, in some way, the two of them would end up together.
Dean shook his head. Ashley was only a few hours gone. What was he thinking? He felt guilty that he was considering another relationship so soon. But, this was different, wasn’t it? The two of them had not hit it off in the beginning, but the last few days of events had brought all three of them closer together than he would have thought in the beginning of this quest.
The paramedic’s thoughts drifted back over the previous year. He thought about his time in the fire academy to become a paramedic, his initiation into the Unusual world at Station U, his realization that, despite the true nature of his patients, they were people in need of care just like anyone else. Now he had fought his way through a series of battles that had truly been about good versus evil. It was so different than what he had become used to. Getting back to Station U and the ambulance calls serving his Unusual patients would be a welcome return to normal. It would be good to get back home.
Epilogue
Ingrid had only flown a short distance away, using her innate ability to mask her presence in the mortal world to disappear from view of those on the ground. The Valkyrie stopped and hovered in the air over the cabin. The other shining form before her exuded a blinding light that dazzled even her divinely created eyes. Vaguely humanoid in shape, it hovered before her in the air where she flapped her great wings to maintain position.
“Does he know his true nature yet?” the light pulsed as the form spoke to her, more like words echoing directly in her mind than spoken in the air.
“No, my lord,” Ingrid said, inclining her head in respect. “He did not question how he could handle the heavenly blade without harm, nor his position in this conflict. I followed your instructions to keep it from him if I could, though you know I cannot lie in response to a direct question.”
“It is well that he remains in the dark for the time being,” the form pulsed. “It is not yet time to reveal his relationship to all of this.”
“My lord, Dean Flynn is not an ignorant or foolish man,” Ingrid said. “He will begin to question what happened here in this valley and the things he was able to do.”
“When the time comes I will reveal myself to him and explain his place in the world,” said the voice in her mind. “For the time being, I must attend to your sister. She was sorely injured by the revenant scum. I will assist her recovery so that she may regenerate faster and return to earth to continue her work there.”
“Thank you, my lord,” Ingrid said, bowing slightly again. “I know my sister will appreciate that.”
“In the intervening time, Ingrid, you must undertake the task of watching over him, assisting him to fulfill his destiny. My son must come of age in his own time but time is short and he must be ready for the battle when it comes. Everything depends on it.”
“It will do as you say, my lord,” Ingrid said, bowing in the air again as the form faded from sight. She glanced back down at the cabin below before soaring higher into the blue morning sky, setting off to Valhalla, awaiting the time when she was needed again on the earthly plane. Needed again to help Dean Flynn realize his destiny.
Read on for a preview of Book 5 - The Paramedic’s Witch
The Paramedic’s Witch
Chapter 1
The baby werewolf tried to bite him while he worked on his assessment. “How long has she been like this?” Paramedic Dean Flynn asked the concerned parents standing in the doorway of the baby’s bedroom.
“We heard the growls coming from her room about 15 minutes ago,” the mother said. “When we saw her we called 911 right away.”
Dean was glad to be back on the job at Station U after the events of the past few weeks. He had rescued his kidnapped girlfriend Ashley, an actual angel from heaven, only to have her slip away as a result of her injuries during the ordeal. She wasn’t dead, but it would be years before she could manifest again in person on earth. Along the way to rescuing Ashley, he had teamed up with a female demon hunter named Jaz Errington and a witch or Wiccan named Joanna. The surprises and complications continued when he and Jaz found out that Jo was their daughter, returned from the f
uture to assist in their quest to rescue the angel.
So managing the snarling werewolf baby in the crib in front of him was a welcome change of pace back to his normal life of treating his special type of emergency patients. Those patients were the creatures of myth and legend, called Unusuals, who lived alongside their unknowing human neighbors. Dean, his partner Barry, and the other paramedics of Elk City’s Station U were tasked with helping these underserved members of the city’s community.
“I thought that Lycans didn’t start changing until they reached adolescence?” Barry asked, trying to hold the baby without getting bitten by the were-child. “What do you think is going on, Dean?”
“My guess is that the baby is having a seizure of some kind that is causing it to shift and change sooner than expected,” Dean surmised. He turned to look at the concerned parents standing nearby. “Has she been sick lately, had a cold or flu bug, or anything?”
The mother answered. “She has not been sleeping well and had a fever last night when I put her to bed. I didn’t think anything of it. Did I let this happen? Is it my fault? I’ve never heard of one of us shifting form so young before. Is she going to be alright?”
“I think she is going to be fine,” Dean reassured her. He wasn’t sure, but he thought the baby was having a febrile seizure. It was a common enough occurrence in some infants when they spiked a high fever suddenly. It kind of caused the brain to reset. That might be what happened here. The seizure must have triggered the change to werewolf.
“You’re thinking febrile seizure?” Barry asked.
Dean nodded. “So what do we do?” The paramedic asked his probationary partner, testing him.
“Actively seizing infant, we give Midazolam IM or IN,” Barry replied. He meant give the drug commonly known as Versed by injection or aerosolized spray up the nose. It was a sedative that would break the seizure and hopefully, the baby would return to human form. Hopefully.