by Jamie Davis
Dean took in the frumpy vampire, dressed in his brand-new store-bought uniform pants and shirt. He carried what looked like a trauma bag and an oxygen tank bag as he stood in the doorway.
“Gibbie, what are you doing here?” Dean asked.
“Asha called me,” Gibbie replied. “She said she needed help and to come fast. I picked up Kristof on the way here because it sounded like I’d need some help. He’s bringing more bags in from my van. What are you doing here, Dean? I thought you were suspended?”
“I am,” Dean said. “I was here seeking some help from the coven. Now they need our help. Let me see your bag and see what supplies you have.” Gibbie handed Dean his trauma bag and set down the oxygen bottle on the floor. He looked around and then back at Dean.
“Dean, what do you want me to do?”
Dean handed the vampire responder a couple of packs of gauze and some rolled bandages from the bag. “Start over there and attend to any bleeding you see. Stop the bleeding like I taught you and then bandage the injuries. Ashley and I need to attend to the more seriously injured.”
Just then, Kristof Algar, the owner of Sabatani’s restaurant, and another of Dean’s Unusual Community Emergency Response Training students came in the front door with additional first aid supplies in his arms. He looked around in surprise.
“Kristof,” Dean said as he saw the gray-haired Djinn, or Genie, enter. “You help Gibbie with the bandaging.” The man nodded and moved to help his companion. Dean wondered how Asha had known to contact them but decided that was a question for later. For now, he, Ashley, and the two volunteer first responders had their hands full with the patients at hand.
It took twenty minutes to treat what injuries they could between the supplies at hand and what Gibbie and Kristof had brought in with them. Dean stood in the center and discussed the situation with Ashley. The thirteen women who had been injured in the blast were all going to live. Ashley admitted to him that a few could use a CT scan to rule out brain bleeds from traumatic brain injury, and most had signs of at least a mild concussion. The blast had been significant enough also to cause a few broken bones and numerous bruises and contusions. All of the women refused to go to the hospital though, so that option was out for the time being. They needed to be reassessed throughout the night to make sure nothing developed, and he and Ashley decided to stay there at the home. They were still talking over the disposition of their patients when Gibbie approached holding his cell phone.
“Dean, I’ve got another call for assistance. I’m going to go, okay?”
“What do you mean you’ve got another call for assistance?” Dean asked. “You mean other folks are calling you instead of calling 911?”
Gibbie shuffled his feet a little and stared at the floor in embarrassment. “Uh, well, yeah.” He looked up at Dean. “People are afraid to call 911 anymore because of the attacks on the others. I decided to let it be known that I was available at night and that Kristof and the others from our CERT class, they take shifts during the day. If someone needs to call us, we will show up and try to offer what help we can.” Gibbie dug in a pocket and then held out a business card to Dean.
Dean took the card and read it aloud so Ashley could hear. “Gibson B. Proctor, CERT, Volunteer Medical Responder.” It had a cell phone number that Dean recognized as Gibbie’s, and a stylized EMS star of life emblem.
“I got the cards made up online,” Gibbie said. “I know this isn’t what you told us to do when you and Brynne trained us, but this is different. Everything is changed now since you got suspended. Our people are in need of assistance, and they are too afraid to call the Station U paramedics anymore. Someone has to help them.”
Dean didn’t know what to say. He had trained Gibbie and the others to keep the vampire from freelancing just like this after he decided he wanted to do what Dean and Brynne did as paramedics. The Federal CERT training program seemed the perfect fit to make Gibbie feel like he was contributing and to build community resilience for situations of disaster and extreme need. This situation with The Cause was desperate, that was true, and there was a definite need. He looked at the vampire, in his brand new EMS uniform, and shook his head in resignation. He handed Gibbie back the card.
“Go, do what you can,” Dean said. “Hopefully, you can do some good since I cannot. Call me, though. I want to have a talk with you about this. Maybe we can arrange for Brynne, or maybe James, to get you some better supplies and gear.”
Gibbie grinned and nodded with enthusiasm while he picked up his bags. He called to Kristof, who waved to Dean, and the two Unusual responders left to tend to their next patients. Dean watched him go and wondered if things would ever return to normal here in Elk City. Asha’s voice broke through his contemplation.
“Dean,” the Wiccan leader called to him from across the room where she sat in her uprighted chair. “Come here. We were able to find out some things before the protection spell rebounded to strike back at us. The price was higher than we expected, but the bargain was struck, and we will hold to our end of it.”
Dean and Ashley crossed over to the elderly woman where she sat amidst the devastation of the coven’s casting chamber. She watched them approach and waited until they both stood in front of her before she continued.
“The conflict centers both at the fire department headquarters and somewhere downtown,” Asha began. “We were able to penetrate the Fire Headquarters quite quickly. There were no substantial protections there. There are two individuals who oppose you there. One is known to you already, and there is a personal connection there. The other is still hidden. It is someone whom you have not met before and is also unknown to us. You will have to figure that person out on your own. We were also drawn to the building of James Lee. It was there we had to penetrate not only the defenses of a supernatural target but the defenses of the vampire lord of Elk City. We did not definitively identify the source of the troubles there, but it is one who is ancient, powerful, and evil. Also, the focal point of this ancient evil power is not on you, but on James Lee.”
Dean started to speak and ask a question, but she forestalled him with a raised hand. “We can tell you no more. Our intrusion was detected, and the backlash of that attack followed us back here before we could discover more. You will have to make do with that limited knowledge.” Asha paused and considered him for a moment before continuing. “Do not return to us for further assistance until you have paid the debt you owe us. We will await the time when that payment is received. In the meantime, we must see to ourselves. It will take us a long time to recover from this casting, and we must heal.”
The paramedic watched as she stood and turned to check on her sisters, leaving him standing there with Ashley wondering what to do next. That there were two individuals at headquarters concerned him. He knew of Brynne’s mentor and his academy instructor Mike Farver. He had some personal reason to be involved in this mess. The other had to be someone pretty high up in the department leadership. They were funneling private information to The Cause directly from dispatch. As far as the focal point at the Nightwing building downtown, he suspected that he knew the source of this ancient evil aimed at James. They had already voiced their suspicions to each other about Artur. The question was what they could do about it? The whole situation was so convoluted; it gave him a headache. Dean needed to talk this out with Ashley, Brynne, and especially James. Now that they had confirmed he was the ultimate target, they needed to figure out why Dean was so important to the situation with James. That didn’t make sense at all. Dean had nothing to do with James aside from his working with Brynne. Looking to Ashley, he reached out and took the angel’s hand and gave it a squeeze. They had come here looking for information and answers. They would leave without many answers at all, and a lot more questions.
Chapter 62
After seeing to their patients at the Wiccan house one final time, Ashley drove them back downtown. Dean shot a text to Celeste Teal to see if James was available. James’ assista
nt responded almost immediately. She said he would be in an hour or so and asked if everything was alright. Dean replied that he’d explain when they arrived back at the Nightwing building. He was glad it would take James an hour to free up his schedule. Dean wanted to clean up a bit and gather his thoughts.
Ashley drove in silence, leaving him to his deliberations. She hadn’t said much back at the Wiccan house. She had told him that he had to make all the decisions there on his own, but he wanted to hear what she thought. He valued her opinion of him and his choices. As she pulled into the underground garage in James’ building and parked, Dean turned and looked at her.
“What?” she asked. Ashley smiled and reached over to lay her hand on his. “You have something on your mind. What is it?”
“I want to know what you think of my decision back there. Do you think I did the right thing?”
“I don’t second guess you, Dean,” the Eldara replied. “You had the decision to make. Only you could make it, and if I had influenced you in any way then it would not have been just yours, it would have been mine too. I think you are more concerned about what I think about you, than the decision itself. All I can say to you is this - I have seen good things come about from both good and bad decisions. Over the years, I have seen people struggle to do the right thing for the wrong reasons and make choices that spelled certain disaster, only to have them work out in the end. You made a difficult decision, and the fact that it is so hard for you to reconcile that decision about your future, and your child, only shows me that you are a good person at heart. That pain and reconsideration of your choice doesn’t make it a wrong decision, just a hard one.”
“It wasn’t easy, but I was thinking about the here and now, not the future,” Dean said. “I wanted to fix the problem we have at the expense of a person’s future life. On top of that, it’s my own future daughter’s life I used to pay that price. Doesn’t that make me a monster?”
Ashley laughed, and Dean flinched back as if she were laughing at him. She pulled him closer and answered him. “No, I don’t think you are a monster. You’re just human. You made a decision that your daughter will be raised as a Wiccan. Some people decide their kids will be football players, or lawyers, or doctors. Those children grow within the boundaries set for them and are still successful. She will be what she will be. That will be between her and the Coven.”
“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” Dean mused. He was quiet for a moment, mulling it all over in light of what Ashley had said. He smiled after a bit and said, “It doesn’t make me feel completely better, but I guess I’m not as worried as I was.” His phone chirped, and he glanced down at it. “Celeste says that James and Brynne are upstairs waiting. I texted that we needed to meet up about the recent discoveries.”
“Well, then. Let’s go upstairs,” Ashley said, grabbing her car keys and climbing out of her classic sports car. Dean followed her to the elevator and headed up to the Penthouse suite. This was important. He’d clean up later.
———
Brynne met them at the door to the apartment on the upper floor of the Nightwing building. After greetings all the way around, they sat down and Dean explained the earlier events at the Coven’s house. He omitted the part about his payment, but left everything else in, including the arrival of Gibbie and Kristof after the explosion. The part about the self-appointed volunteer responders brought a surprised chuckle from Brynne. Dean continued describing the events with the Wiccans and got to the part with the discoveries from the divining spell. He told them about the locus of the problem being in this building as well as at Fire Headquarters. Dean paused and looked at James and Brynne.
The two sitting opposite Dean and Ashley glanced at each other, and James sighed. He got up and walked to the large wall of windows looking out over the city skyline at night. The other three waited for him to respond. Brynne looked concerned.
“I’ve been looking into why Artur is here,” James said. “I asked a few friends I have at the Minotaur’s court in Washington, DC, to see if they had heard anything about what he was up to. The answers I got were vague and dodgy as if they didn’t want to respond.” The Minotaur and his court currently ruled over all of the Unusual fiefdoms in North America. James, the vampire lord of Elk City, turned around and looked at the three of them. “I’m afraid that we have stumbled into a coup for my position here as the leader of the Unusuals in the region.”
“Then why in the world are you still letting him stay here?” Dean blurted out. “I’d have kicked him out as soon as I found out what he was doing.”
Brynne spoke up. “It is not that simple, Dean. There are protocols, and not just for how high-level Unusuals expect to be treated when visiting another of their station. There are also considerations between vampires who are of a different rank.”
“But you’re the lord of the city; surely you outrank him,” Dean said.
“Actually, I don’t. He’s older than me by at least a thousand years, maybe more, and he has held larger fiefdoms than I in the past,” James said. “He could almost, but not quite, just come in and ask me to step down. As it is, he is working to discredit me with both my people and my superiors, while positioning himself to be the one chosen to replace me.”
“And believe us when we say that you don’t want someone like Artur running things for the Unusuals here in Elk City,” Brynne said. “Artur is very old school. He still very much sees himself as an apex predator, and humans as his prey.”
“Wait a minute,” Dean stopped her. “I thought that sort of thing was pretty much finished. I thought we were all about trying to make sure that the two populations could live peacefully together without problems anymore.”
James crossed the room and sat on the arm of the sofa next to where Brynne was standing. “Artur has been trying to garner a place in the new world for about one hundred fifty years. All of the progressives in the Unusual European community came to the Americas with the first group of European settlers and set ourselves up here very early. We saw an opportunity for something better than our adversarial lives of the past. Over the years, we made peace with the human governments, and helped create this enlightened, new world.”
“Then the leaders from the old world in Europe saw what we were doing and tried to muscle their way in and take over control from those of us who had worked so hard to create this new society. We successfully pushed them off. It was in the 1820s, and that conflict was part of what influenced the Monroe Doctrine. The Americas would rule themselves, including the Unusuals who were here, and further European colonization and control would be discouraged.”
“Wait, the Monroe Doctrine I learned about in grade school history was started by you and your Unusual cronies?” Dean asked.
Ashley laughed. “It’s not that hard to believe, Dean. The human and Unusual communities have been living side by side for millennia. Sometimes peacefully, other times, not so peacefully. But they have always been parallel to each other in many ways. That is why so much depends on how both sides work together, even in the shadows. It is why I think you and James still figure to be the pair who influence the outcome of this problem in Elk City. I still see that connection. It is more tenuous since your arrest, but it is still there.”
“So you see the conundrum, Dean,” James said. “I cannot openly oppose Artur, any more than he can publicly come against me. But, he can work behind the scenes to discredit me. He is using the Station U program, which has some detractors among a few of the leadership, to undermine the perception of my control over this region. Unless we bring The Cause out into the open and stop them from continuing their attacks, Artur will continue to work his machinations to bring me down. There is nothing I can do to stop him directly. My hands are tied.”
“Well if we can’t fight Artur directly, and definitely not here in this building, then we have to reach out and fight back against him out there,” Dean said, pointing to the nighttime skyline of the city around them. “If I still figur
e in this equation somehow, I can’t do anything about it sitting here. I’ve got to get back out on the streets. It is where I belong, and it is where I can do the best I can do.”
Brynne shrugged. “Chief Ari and I are trying to work something out, but your suspension is written in stone. You’ve been implicated in a felony, and until you are cleared, you’re off the streets. Plus, it’s clear from the Wiccans’ divination that there is a force operating against you at headquarters, too.”
“That has to be Mike Farver, doesn’t it?” Dean asked.
“He doesn’t have the pull to leak patient information about specific ambulance calls in the system,” Brynne said shaking her head. “Someone else higher up is at work here. Maybe one of the other deputy chiefs or the Fire Chief himself? I’m not sure. We will have to tread carefully. I know it’s not EMS Chief Ari, but he might have some ideas about who it is. Until that all gets exposed, you’re still off the street, Dean.”
Dean walked across the room to look out at the streets below. “I’m off the streets, yes, but officially only,” Dean said. He had an idea, and he turned to face them so everyone could see his smile.
“What did you have in mind, Dean? That smile means you’ve got something up your sleeve,” Ashley said.
“What did you and I do tonight at the Coven?” Dean countered. “We were out, on the street, providing care. Okay, we were in a house, I know, but bear with me here. Yes, I am suspended from working in any official capacity, but nobody said I couldn’t volunteer my time. I could be a Good Samaritan. Headquarters couldn’t stop me from doing that, and I could do a lot of good. I even have a way to get the job done.”