Extreme Medical Services Box Set Vol 1 - 3

by Jamie Davis

  “I will be back close to dinner time and make sure you are still doing alright. My girlfriend is a nurse so she will probably want to check on you, too. In the meantime, you rest.” Dean waited until he was sure she understood, then he left and returned to his place upstairs.

  ———

  He stepped out of the elevator on his floor and saw Artur standing outside his door. The vampire lord had assumed a relaxed pose, leaning against the wall opposite Dean’s apartment door. He looked up as Dean approached.

  “I wanted to thank you for cleaning up my mess, Dean,” Artur crooned. “I thought she could make it on her own back down to her little dwelling below.” His grin grew broader. “Perhaps I was hungrier than I expected.”

  “Perhaps you should learn some self-control,” Dean quipped. He wasn’t in the mood to play games with this bloodthirsty monster. Dean had learned a lot about Unusuals, and he knew that, for the most part, they were just people, folks who wanted to live their lives like everyone in the human population. He also knew that every group had their bad apples. Artur was one of those bad apples from the Unusual barrel in Dean’s book.

  “Perhaps you should learn to respect your betters, young man. I think you should reconsider how you speak to me. I am not one to have as an enemy.” The grin was gone now. It had been replaced with a sneer.

  Dean glared at the vampire, meeting his eyes for a moment, then the paramedic turned away to open his door. Artur reached out and grabbed his arm, only to hiss in pain and draw away. Dean was surprised, but not as surprised as Artur was. The vampire stared at his hand for a moment, flexing his fingers as if testing them after getting a jolt from an ungrounded electrical appliance. He looked at Dean and then closed his eyes and inhaled deeply through his nose. Dean stood and watched, not sure what was going on. After thirty uncomfortable seconds, Artur opened his eyes, took a step back, and gave a brief nod to Dean. It was the kind of nod one fencer gave to another after a touch.

  “I had forgotten the Eldara and her involvement in this,” Artur said in an offhand manner. “Miss Moore and I have encountered each other before. I knew there was an Eldara Sister in the vicinity. I had not realized it was she who was your protector. This information changes the direction of things. I will have to come at this problem from a different direction.” The last part was not to Dean, but rather as if he were making mental notes aloud.

  “You know Ashley?” Dean asked, not sure what was happening. Was this vampire threatening Ashley in some way? “You stay away from her, Artur.”

  “She has nothing to fear from me, young man,” Artur laughed. “I have no desire to cross swords with her again, or her sister. Her insane sister is not in town, too, is she?” The vampire almost sounded concerned. When Dean returned a curious stare, Artur continued. “No, of course not. We’d all know if she were here. She is much more…direct, shall we say. Please pass my regards to Miss Moore. Perhaps we can arrange a meeting to discuss her purpose in being here. Let her know I will await her response.”

  Artur turned and hurried away around the corner to his rooms, leaving Dean standing in the hallway wondering what just happened. He looked at his arm where he still felt the steel grip of the vampire’s momentary grasp. Even though Artur had let go instantly, it had been intended as an attack based on the force applied by the vampire's grip. What had Ashley done to him that had the power to hurt the vampire lord? Dean turned and unlocked his door, going inside while still pondering what had happened. It had been a curious day all the way around.

  He was picking up the first aid supplies he had used to take care of Codi when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and glanced at the screen. It was Ashley. He answered with a swipe.

  “Dean, is everything alright?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “I sensed a — well, some sort of attack on you,” Ashley said. “Did something just happen?”

  Dean told her about his encounter with Artur and the vampire’s response when he grabbed Dean’s arm. He relayed the message from the vampire lord for a meeting and the strange comment about Ashley’s sister. That brought a surprised laugh from the other end of the phone.

  “I don’t think this is funny, Ash,” Dean said. “I get the idea that you and he have some animosity towards each other. He stopped short of threatening you, but I got the sense that he doesn’t like you very much.”

  “It’s not funny, Dean,” she replied. “At least not all of it. He’s right, though. If my sister were here, things would be a bit more interesting. Direct is a good way to describe the way she works. In any case, I’m in no danger. I’ve told you before; I can take care of myself. But Artur’s being here during this crisis cannot be a coincidence. I’m sure of it now, after this incident. He is mixed up with all of this in some way. I know it.”

  “What did you do to me that caused him to let go when he grabbed me? It was like he got a jolt of electricity or something.”

  “It is hard to describe. Because of our close physical relationship, my aura, for lack of a better explanation, extends partly to you,” Ashley explained. “There are some negative plane Unusuals who can have their energy drawn away when they come into contact with my aura if I choose it. Some of that power extends to you. If one of them touched you with the intent to cause you harm, they would encounter a jolt of pain. Understand, they can still continue to attack you if they choose to ignore the pain. It would not drain them the way my direct aura would. They can also use a surrogate to attack you, so don’t think this makes you invincible.”

  “I don’t think I’ll feel that way. My arm’s going to have a bruise where he grabbed me.”

  “Exactly, so you should be careful around Artur. Knowing you, you made a rude comment to him, and being who he is, he didn’t take kindly to it. Still, now that he knows I’m here, I don’t think he’ll take direct action like that again. But that is no reason to take any chances.”

  “Are you coming home soon?” Dean asked. He glanced at his watch. Her shift was over soon.

  “I am getting ready to leave. I just need to do my shift report and hand over my patients to the next nurse on duty. Why don’t you contact Brynne and see if she and James are available to catch up tonight? I think this situation with Artur requires us to look at this in a different way.”

  “Okay, I’ll shoot her a text,” Dean said. “See you when you get back.”

  He disconnected the call and went back to cleaning up the medical supplies and repacking the trauma bag Celeste had brought down. When he was finished, he texted his former paramedic partner about meeting upstairs in James’ penthouse later that evening. It was strange how his life had changed over the last two days. He’d been charged with a crime, suspended from his job, pissed off a visiting vampire lord, and discovered that his girlfriend, and apparently her sister, were badass enough to scare off said vampire lord. Just when he thought his life couldn’t get any more mixed up, it got even crazier.

  Chapter 58

  Brynne responded to his text message almost immediately. She urged him to come up as soon as Ashley got back from the hospital and had a chance to change. James would order up some dinner for the four of them, and they could sit and eat while they discussed the day’s events. Brynne had been out all day in the ambulance responding to the attacks on the Unusual community while Dean was here, in what was supposed to be a haven, responding to attacks of a different sort.

  Ashley returned from the hospital and texted him from her apartment next door that she’d be ready in a half hour after she got a shower. He watched some of the evening local news and saw more reports of the attacks from earlier that day. The news anchorwoman even made a joke about the internet stories on monsters living among the people of Elk City. Dean shut it off. That was a sure sign that the attacks by The Cause were starting to have their desired effect. If the human population started wondering about what was going on with their weird neighbors, the Unusuals in the community might start getting exposed for real. Nobod
y in the Unusual community wanted that. They depended on their anonymity.

  He got up at a tap on his door and opened it to see Ashley standing there looking as beautiful as ever. She had changed from her ER scrubs into jeans and a loose-fitting blouse with a low-scooped neckline. His eyes lingered over the hint of cleavage there.

  “Hello to you, too, Dean,” Ashley said.

  “Sorry, Ash. I’m just amazed that a gorgeous woman like you picked a guy like me to hang out with.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Flattery will get you nowhere, at least not right now,” she replied with a wink. “We are expected upstairs, yes?”

  “Yes, but I will take a rain check on that ‘not right now,’ okay?” Dean proposed.

  “Perhaps, but let’s focus on the things at hand, shall we?” She held out a hand, and they walked together to the elevators and headed upstairs to the Penthouse level.

  Brynne had already opened the double doors to the Penthouse apartment when Dean and Ashley arrived off the elevator to the entry hall. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans as well, and had on a duty t-shirt with the Elk City EMS logo printed on the pocket. The t-shirt exposed her neckline, and Dean immediately noticed the double red pinprick dots there that showed where James had been feeding on her. It made him think back to the much more severe wounds on Codi he had cared for earlier. Was there a difference? Dean thought he had resolved his feelings about Brynne’s and James’ private arrangement, but the events from earlier in the day had brought them back to the surface.

  “Won’t you come in?” Brynne said. “How are you guys? Dean, I heard you had a productive day.”

  “Yeah, you could say that,” Dean said as he and Ashley walked into the spacious apartment that looked out over the city around them. “I heard that there were more attacks associated with the Station U ambulance calls?”

  “Yes,” Brynne replied. “It’s getting more and more dangerous. I am surprised by the speed with which things have ramped up, especially since they found Zach’s body. I would have thought The Cause would have slowed down with the loss of one of their own.”

  James came over to greet them and said, “That might be true if they thought we were responsible for his death. Since we know that is not the case, I have to assume they have made this all part of their plan, including his murder. In that case, it would not slow them down at all.” The vampire lord of Elk City led them to the dining area where the table was set and ready for dinner. They sat down, and as they removed the warming covers from the platters of food, Dean realized how hungry he was. He hadn’t eaten since breakfast. The incident with Codi and the run-in with Artur had distracted him from needed sustenance.

  They started filling their plates. Well, everyone except James, who sat back at the head of the table and drank from a white ceramic mug, setting it down on an electric warming plate between sips. Dean knew what was in the cup that needed to be kept warm. He preferred not to think about it. He returned his attention to his food and dug in. As the rest of them started eating, James broke the silence.

  “Dean, I wanted to thank you for caring for Codi today. I do not like it when my employees are harmed in the course of their work for me. I’m glad you were available to take care of her.”

  “It was your guest who caused the injury,” Dean said, finishing a bite of food. “I assume you had a discussion with Artur about this so that it won’t happen again?”

  James glanced at Brynne and Ashley, then looked his way and answered him. “It’s not quite that simple. I cannot issue orders to Artur. He is my guest, not my vassal. Usually, a guest is more respectful of the hospitality of their host in our society. Artur, however, is more resistant to change than some others. He considers himself better than most of those he encounters.”

  “So there’s nothing you can do to keep it from happening again?” Dean asked in disbelief.

  “I have talked to him about it. He merely offered to compensate me for my trouble,” James said. “Honestly, I didn’t expect much more. Artur is much older than I, and I have no way to compel him to act differently.”

  “Maybe Ashley can do something,” Dean said. “She’s had dealings with him before.”

  James raised an eyebrow at this revelation. He looked at Ashley, and she waved a hand in front of her mouth while she finished a bite of food.

  “It has had more to do with my sister than it has with me,” she said. “We first ran into Artur during the Crimean War in the early 1850’s. I was assisting Florence Nightingale with her work in the British military hospitals. My sister happened to be there, too, where she always likes to be, near a battlefield.”

  “Wait, I thought all the Eldara Sisters were healers,” Dean asked. “Why wasn’t she helping you in the hospital?”

  Ashley smiled. “It’s a common mistake when I talk about my sister. The Eldara Sisters are the healers of the Eldara. It’s like a person having different types of jobs. The Eldara Sisters are our healers. It just so happens that I also have a twin sister. She’s about as far from a healer as you can get. She is what you might call a Battle Maiden.”

  Dean and James both laughed when Brynne nearly did a spit take while she was drinking her water. After she had finished coughing, she gasped, “Your sister is a Valkyrie?”

  Dean stopped laughing at Brynne and looked from Brynne to Ashley. “Seriously? A Valkyrie? The winged women of Norse legends who carry those who die heroically in battle on to Valhalla?”

  “Yes,” Ashley sighed. “You have to understand, my sister and I are very different. We are two sides of the same coin. She attends the fallen heroes on battlefields, personally ushering the most deserving of the fallen souls onward in their spirit journey while I heal the surviving injured and wounded. In the Crimea, there was a sudden surge in vampire attacks in the areas around the battlefields. Some of the wounded soldiers in the hospital died and were turned as well, so I went east to the battlefields to investigate. There I found Ingrid. She was looking into a sudden decrease in the available souls after the battles and took issue with Artur coming out at night and finishing off the wounded and dying on the field of battle, turning them into his vassal vampires. He, too, sought out the strongest and best among the warriors.”

  “Artur always fashioned himself as something of an armchair general,” James said. “It doesn’t surprise me that he would want to associate with former warriors. So your sister took offense?”

  “She took it personally and spent the better part of two months trying to hunt Artur down,” Ashley said. “Eventually, Ingrid and I were able to track his vampires back to his lair. There was a confrontation in that country inn involving too many vampires to handle on our own, and we had to fight together to kill most of them. In the end, Ingrid confronted Artur, but he ended up getting away before she could reach him. She could have stopped him permanently had she caught up with him. In the end, he escaped and left the battlefield wounded to me, and those who were dying to her. She swore she’d never forget what happened. There have been a few other run-ins over the years where Artur had other close calls. He always managed to escape in the end.”

  “Your sister sounds like a bit of a badass,” Brynne said with a chuckle. “Would she have staked him if she had caught up with him?”

  “Oh, most definitely,” Ashley said. “She is a powerful and capable woman. She wouldn’t have used a stake, though. The Eldara can manifest heavenly blades of pure silver, wrought in the forges of the upper planes. With that in her hands, she would have been more than a match for even an elder vampire lord like Artur, had she been able to bring him to a fight.”

  James chuckled, “Artur has always been such a pompous ass. I would love to see him turn tail and run, and settle this thing once and for all.”

  Ashley looked around at the three others at the table. “Which brings us back to the matter at hand. Why has Artur shown up here, at this particular time? He is always working some angle. It has to be connected.”

  “James, you’ve known Artur
longer than any of us,” Dean asked. “He’s your friend. What could he be up to?”

  James held up a hand in response. “He’s not a friend, Dean. I’m extending him hospitality according to tradition; that is all. He and I have never been what anyone would call friends. I thought it curious that he came here. We have never gotten along. I assumed he was just passing through on business and needed somewhere to stay while he accomplished his work. I thought he stopped here just to annoy me with his little slights like the attack on Codi. Now, I’m not sure.” James pulled out his phone and tapped a message on it while the others watched. “I’ll have Celeste look into what Artur has been up to while he’s been here.”

  “I’m almost certain he is connected to what is happening here in Elk City,” Ashley said. “It all makes sense now and perhaps is why I was chosen for this assignment, in this time and place, given my prior encounters with him.”

  “It gets tiring that your bosses can’t seem to send you a direct message explaining everything to you up front. It would make things so much easier,” Dean said.

  “I told you, I’m a change agent. I influence things based on my instincts and impressions of the people I’m working with. If the gods interfered directly, there’d be no such thing as free will, ever. The most they can do is work through agents like the Eldara to help people realize their choices. In the end, though, it’s up to them to make the decisions.”

  Brynne interrupted them, “But Artur has only been here for a week. How could he be involved? The attacks have been going on for several months.”