Hellcats: Anthology

by Kate Pickford

  A different woman’s voice answered this time. At first, Leah thought it might be the store manager. “You need to open the door. I’d rather not rip it off the hinges.”

  “You will not like what you see in here if you do,” Leah replied.

  “Listen, I’m here to help you. I’m Lieutenant Brynne Garvey from the Elk City Fire Department. I’m a paramedic and I have medicine that might help your friend. Unlock the damned door or I will break it down.”

  Leah reached out with one hand and undid the latch. The door popped open. A woman’s face appeared. She had long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. She wore a light-blue uniform shirt with a silver badge on her chest. The Star of Life patch on her shoulder had the words “Maryland Paramedic” surrounding the logo.

  A whiff of musty decay wafted in from the hallway as the newcomer opened the door more.

  Leah’s eyes widened when she recognized the odor. “You’re a vampire! How can you be a—?” Seeing another Unusual creature in the guise of a human paramedic caught her by surprise.

  “A paramedic? It’s a long story. Look, I’m here to help if you’ll let me. Tell me what happened while I get my med kit opened.”

  Leah related the events leading up to their call to 911 while the other woman set a blue bag on the floor and unzipped the top. Boxes and vials of medicine lined the pouches inside.

  The paramedic pulled a clear bag of fluid and some tubing from the kit, assembling it with quick precision. She glanced at Kat and Leah as she worked. Kat had now almost fully shifted into were-puma form in her efforts to contain the wildly struggling Amber.

  “Her blood sugar is dangerously low,” the paramedic said. “I can smell it. Can you two hold her still enough for me to start an IV line in her arm?”

  “I think so,” Kat said. “Leah, I can hold her body still if you can hold the arm. She’s crazy strong.”

  Leah gripped Amber’s upper arm while the vampire grabbed the girl’s wrist with the power of her undead strength. She held the limb rigid as she inserted the needle into the vein. She taped off the intravenous tubing with the speed of many hours of practice in the field and hung the bag of fluid from the doorknob. “Keep holding her and don’t let her pull that line, no matter what.”

  Leah nodded.

  The paramedic pulled a pair of plastic cylinders from a small box. She screwed them together to form a large syringe full of some clear liquid.

  “What’s that?” Kat asked.

  “D-fifty. It’s a sugar solution. I need to inject it into her vein through the IV tubing.”

  “Will it hurt her?” Leah asked.

  “No, but she might struggle a little until it gets into her system. Hold her while I administer it. It’ll start working quickly and reverse her change.”

  Leah nodded again. She and Kat held onto their friend while the paramedic pushed the plunger to give the medicine Amber needed.

  Chapter Three

  “I was just trying to drop a few pounds. I didn’t think it would hurt anyone,” Amber said, sipping at the juice box. She sat sideways on the cot in the back of the ambulance.

  Kat sat beside her, with her uninjured arm around her friend’s shoulders. The lead paramedic, named Dean, tended to Kat’s wounded arm.

  “I’m so sorry,” Amber said, as Dean applied a bandage and wrapped gauze around Kat’s arm.

  The other paramedics had arrived with their ambulance soon after the vampire had injected the sugar into Amber’s arm. They’d insisted Amber and Kat come out with them to the ambulance for a quick check and to tend to Kat’s injuries. The lieutenant had followed behind with Leah.

  Dean finished wrapping Kat’s arm and turned back to Amber. “It’s got to be hard managing your diabetes while away from home. Maybe you need to have a chat with your doc about some better ways to manage your diet so you can lose weight safely. It would be better than dropping your blood sugar so low you go all were-panther in the middle of a department store.”

  “I guess I could do that.” She blushed and shook her head. “I don’t need to go to the hospital with you now, do I? You said you had to wait and see.”

  “I don’t think so. Let me check your blood sugar again. If it’s stabilized, I think we can let you go with your friends. One of them should drive, though. When you get home, make sure you eat something with some complex carbohydrates and adjust your insulin dose accordingly.”

  Kat nodded. “I’ll make sure she eats something. You’re not going to tell her mother, are you?”

  Dean shrugged. “You’re all over eighteen. What you tell her parents is up to you. How’s your arm feel?”

  “It’ll be alright. Shifters regenerate so it’ll be good as new in the morning.”

  He nodded and glanced at Amber. “Let’s get that sugar checked.”

  Leah watched the paramedic work on her friends and smiled. This Dean Flynn guy was nice and acted like he cared about Amber and Kat, even though he knew they were shifters. He treated them both like they were just another patient. Leah had always been taught to be wary of humans and never let them know anything about the supernatural, secret world hidden from human view. Leah had always suspected that had more to do with her father’s underworld connections than any real prejudice. It was nice to see her instincts proven right.

  Someone cleared their throat in the parking lot behind her. Leah turned to see the vampire paramedic, Brynne, standing there.

  “You and your friend did a good job helping out. I would have had a hard time on my own handling her without it.”

  “I just wanted to help her.” Leah shrugged. She nodded at Dean and the others in the back of the ambulance. “I didn’t know humans and vampires worked together like this. Don’t you find it hard to…?”

  “Work around blood all the time? Yeah, it was a whole thing at first, but if you believe in your calling to help others enough, you can overcome anything.”

  The words struck a chord within Leah. She wondered why it was so hard for her father to see how important that part of her was. Even this vampire understood it. “Are there a lot of folks like us doing this kind of thing?”

  “Unusuals?” Brynne asked. “No, most supernaturals have stayed away from these types of jobs. It’s a shame. It’s a rewarding position and you get to see some pretty amazing things. There are a few of us out there, though. The ER has an Eldara Sister who’s a nurse right now.”

  Leah gave a little laugh. “An angel working at the hospital? That’s hard to believe.”

  Brynne raised her right hand. “Honest to God. She’s probably the most normal person I’ve ever met, aside from being about the best nurse ever. You forget she’s an Eldara most of the time.”

  “I guess you see lots of blood and guts out here on the street.”

  “Not as much as you’d think. Mostly it’s like your friend. Just normal people with everyday medical problems who need some help. We help them feel better and take them to the hospital if they need it. There are specially trained human docs and nurses there who keep their special patients’ secrets, so the rest of the human population doesn’t learn about the Unusuals living next door.”

  Leah lifted her eyebrows. That was sure news to her. “That’s amazing. My father has always said the Elk City special ambulance program was a fraud. Just a way for the local Vampire Lord to hold on to his control over the Unusual community.”

  Brynne stiffened a little at the mention of the vampire lord, and Leah realized belatedly they probably knew each other.

  “I’m sorry. I guess he’s a friend of yours?”

  Brynne smiled. “You could say that.” She changed the subject, pointing at Leah’s arm, now back to normal. “I saw your coloring when you’d shifted back in the changing room. You’re a were-jaguar, right? They always led me to believe you all were pretty rare and reclusive.”

  Leah shifted on her feet, suddenly uncomfortable. “It’s just that there aren’t that many of us and we like to keep to ourselves.”

&n
bsp; Brynne nodded. “It makes sense you’d have a hard time trusting others you don’t know.”

  “That’s part of it. It also has a lot to do with the way my father has to control everything around him. He doesn’t like the lawful authorities very much. They get in the way of things he wants to do.”

  “Really? I haven’t heard anything about a were-jaguar causing problems around town?”

  Leah shrugged. “Dad’s been out of town for a while. I’m here attending college.” She found it strange, but this vampire wasn’t like the few others she’d met. Of course, all of those had worked for her father. Brynne wasn’t haughty and rude like them. She acted like she cared about her patients and enjoyed what she did.

  Leah let her guard down for the first time in a long while. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure.”

  “What’s it take to become a paramedic like you?”

  The question caught the vampire by surprise, but she recovered quickly and smiled. “Think you have what it takes to do this? It’s a lot of hard work over long hours, and the pay sucks.”

  Leah shook her head. “It’s not about the money, and I’ve never been afraid of hard work, despite my family’s position. I guess I like the idea of someone helping people like us. Unusuals shouldn’t have to rely on the kindness of a few humans. At least, not when there are those of us who can step up and take care of our own alongside them.”

  “If that’s the way you really feel, here’s my card. Think on it for a day or two. If you’re still interested afterward, call me and I’ll see what I can do to get you a spot in the fire academy’s next paramedic class.”

  Leah took the card and slid it into her jeans pocket. “Thanks, I’ll do that.”

  Brynne nodded and went over to talk to the paramedic who’d accompanied Dean.

  Kat climbed out of the ambulance and came over to Leah. “What was that all about? Did she give you something?”

  “I think she gave me a purpose in life, Kat.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing. Here comes Amber.”

  Amber joined them on the sidewalk by the store’s entrance. The paramedics closed up the ambulance and drove off toward the highway ramp. It was after-hours now. The parking lot was mostly empty.

  Amber crossed her arms, saying, “I’m pissed. I really wanted to get those outfits.”

  Kat laughed. “If you promise to eat something before we come back, I’m sure they’ll let you buy them tomorrow.”

  Leah laughed together with her friends as they started back towards her brand new Jag parked nearby. She knew if she defied her father, she might not have the car much longer. She’d probably have to give up all the things like the cars, clothes, and other stuff she’d grown up with.

  Kat and Amber wouldn’t understand why she was willing to turn her back on all of it. They’d been sent along to college with her to make sure she returned to the family business. For the first time in a long while, though, Leah thought she might have a way out.

  And that was enough to keep her smiling all the way home.

  Jamie Davis is a nurse, retired paramedic, author, and nationally recognized medical educator who began teaching new emergency responders as a training officer for his local EMS program. He loves everything fantasy and sci-fi and especially the places where stories intersect with his love of medicine or gaming.

  Jamie lives in a home in the woods in Maryland with his wife, three children, and two dogs. He is an avid gamer, preferring historical and fantasy miniature gaming, as well as tabletop games. He writes LitRPG, GameLit, urban, and contemporary paranormal fantasy stories, among other things.

  Find out more at jamiedavisbooks.com.

  57

  Iconography

  By Wunji Lau

  A WWII airplane crashes in a field, setting off decades of linked events.

  1944

  The Hellcat was a wreck, a charred metal tangle at the end of a trail of strewn parts and furrowed earth.

  From the crashed plane’s empty cockpit, discarded harness straps and bits of cloth sketched a line from the mangled wing stump, over patches of exactingly placed flowers (only slightly, and recently, charred), to a figure sitting, panting, on the wet soil.

  The pilot looked over at her broken charge, its blue paint dark in the light of a slivered moon.

  Bulbous, stumpy, with disproportionately broad wings. All straight lines and chunkiness. A funhouse mirror image of an airplane. Beautiful.

  The ruined garden was surrounded by pruned hedges and trees, over which the top floors of a manor house peeked with stony brows cresting a vast breadth. Lights were coming on here and there. Around a row of tall hedges, a flashlight probed toward the downed plane, and a voice called out.

  “Hello?”

  A woman, tall in silhouette, bundled against Long Island’s springtime chill, resolved out of shadow. The pilot rose to her feet, her khaki jodhpurs darkened with mud and her jacket collar raised up under brown curls. The silhouetted woman swung the flashlight over.

  “My God, are you hurt?”

  The pilot smiled wanly.

  “Only in my pride.” Her accent was faintly southern, but more brownstone than plantation.

  The woman with the flashlight stepped closer. If she was surprised by the pilot’s sex, she made no sign, beyond anxiousness attributable to other concerns.

  “Were you shot down? Are we attacked?” Above the flashlight’s glare, pale hair framed high cheekbones, a ridgeline nose, and smooth skin.

  “No, no, nothing of the sort. I fell out of the sky on my very own.”

  “Well, that’s a relief. The first part, of course. Sorry you fell out of the sky, though. It’s, ah, not going to explode, is it?”

  “If it hasn’t already, chances are it won’t, but keep back, just the same.”

  The woman took a step back, and looked around the devastation of what must have been a floral array of obsessive order and pageantry in the time preceding the past five minutes.

  “Someone’s going to come and get it, won’t they? Clean up this...” The flashlight went akimbo, following the arc of the arm that held it. “Mess?”

  “I had the tower on radio when I went down. They’ll know roughly where I am. Your garden will be good as new, Mrs. Ashford. Eventually.” The woman stiffened, turned back around and leaned forward for a better look. The pilot noted the raised eyebrow and bemused smile.

  “We haven’t met,” the pilot said. “Your poster is still up at the theaters. You’re Gladys Ashford.”

  Gladys smiled, teeth flashing in the moonlight. “Sharp. But it occurs to me that you might not have me at a total disadvantage. Aren’t you in a cigarette advertisement? ‘That Girl Can Fly,’ or somesuch?”

  The pilot shook her head.

  “Wasn’t me. One of the other girls. Teddy. We don’t look much the same in the daylight. And Teddy would have gotten Virgil here back home in one piece.”

  “Well, I suppose one of you flying ladies looks about as dashing as the next. Apologies for the mistake.”

  The pilot waved it off.

  “It’s nothing. I’m Catherine. Catherine Cordon.” She extended a hand, and the woman took it.

  “Nice to meet you.” Her eyes flicked down. “Miss.” And back up. “Cordon.”

  She released Catherine’s hand and motioned toward the nearby cottage.

  “Do you want to go inside? No reason to sit out in the cold.”

  Catherine sat back down, grinning up at the other woman.

  “I’ll stay with the plane. Since you were out here at night, after all.”

  “Suit yourself. And yes, I do like an evening walk.”

  Heedless of the squelch, Gladys plopped down next to Catherine. Catherine looked around at the remains of the arrayed flowers.

  “It looks like it was a lovely garden.”

  “My husband loved it. You didn’t hit the buildings. Thank you for that. They’re not what they used to be, but they’re sti
ll worth keeping.”

  Catherine peered up at the distant, grand manor. “I heard Ashford Manor is quite a sight.”

  Gladys murmured a bit. “That was before.”

  Catherine looked at her for a moment, then turned back to the fallen plane. “I did my best to land well. I was actually aiming for the pasture, back there. The plane helped, I think. Virgil was a good one, but he has—had—a mind of his own sometimes.”

  “It’s a...” Gladys waggled a finger in thought. “Hellcat?”

  Catherine nodded. The Grumman factory’s activities were a common topic in local newspapers.

  “My son trained on the old Wildcat,” Gladys said. “I’ve seen pictures. This is bigger, I hear.”

  Gladys leaned in and pointed her light to get a closer look at the image painted on the fuselage.

  A black cat, limned in crude flames, spreading bat-like wings. Below, letters: V, I, R, and then black soot obscuring. Further back, along the tail in large white block, was the word TEST.

  “The ones we ship out to the boys are clean, of course,” Catherine said. “Virgil was for us test pilots, so we personalized him a bit. Your son should end up in one, if he hasn’t already.”

  Gladys smiled. “He would have, I’m sure. Would have liked that cat picture.”

  Catherine gave a start. “I’m sorry.”

  “No, it’s all right. Thank you, though. It was last year. It’s more of a dull ache these days.”

  They sat in silence for a while, then Gladys pointed at the manor. Catherine squinted. Under the moonlight, the broad roof sagged, windows were cracked, and decorative flourishes were broken or missing.

  “The elder Ashford never much liked me,” Gladys said. “After losing, well, everyone, he let me have the house, but not much more. I didn’t want to push him on it. I don’t even live there anymore,” she finished, nodding at the cottage.

  Catherine sat in thought, hesitated, then ventured.