by Jamie Davis
“I’m not under a spell,” Dean responded defiantly. “I’m just not okay with hurting people to prove a point.”
“First, they’re not people, Dean. They are monsters and nightmares come to life.” Mike corrected him, his voice taking on an edge. “Second, sometimes you have to cause some temporary pain to treat a problem. You use a needle to give medicine. You have to cut to remove a tumor to treat the cancer. That’s what I’m trying to do.” Dean just stared at him in disbelief. The former mentor continued. “But, it’s clear from your defiance you’ve made up your mind, or it’s been made up for you.” He moved from the booth’s bench seat across from them and stood up. “Either way, I think it’s too late. I have tried to warn you both, and you both have decided not to take my advice. A change is coming. It’s coming one way or the other. You can get on board, get out of the way, or get run over by it. It’s your choice. I’ll no longer be held responsible for the consequences.”
Brynne and Dean watched in silence as Mike turned and strode away. Brynne shifted to the now unoccupied seat across from Dean and looked at him.
“He’s even worse now than when he got transferred,” Brynne said. “He hates all of the Unusuals now, not just James, just because they’re different.”
“And because he doesn’t like your boyfriend,” Dean added.
“Yeah, but you didn’t particularly like James either,” Brynne said. “It doesn’t make you want to go out and kill people just because they are linked to him.”
They paused their conversation as the waitress, Daisy, came over to take their order.
“I saw your friend leave, is he coming back, do you want me to wait to take your order?” Daisy asked.
“No,” Brynne said. “He won’t be back. We’ll order now. I’ll have the chicken tender dinner and a diet soda.”
Daisy looked at Dean. He was not sure he felt like eating, but he ordered anyway. “A grilled chicken barbecue sandwich with fries and cole slaw. I’ll have a Sprite to drink.”
“Great, I’ll get that started and be right back with your drinks,” Daisy said as she flipped her order book closed and walked away.
Dean watched her go and then looked at Brynne. “I can’t say I like James a lot. Maybe that has to do with his personality. Maybe it has to do with his - his feeding habits.” Brynne pulled at her characteristic turtleneck’s collar absently when he said it. Damn, that burned at him. Obviously James was biting her, but she seemed none the worse for the wear. Brynne started to say something, but Dean held up his hand to stop her.
“I’m not arguing the right or wrong of it, Brynne,” Dean continued. “It’s your life, and it’s none of my business. I don’t like it, but I’m not going to fight you about your personal choices.” He watched as her tension relaxed. “Ashley says he and I need to get along to stop all of this. Somehow, James and I are linked to this. She just has a feeling. I mean, jeez, what good is being a messenger of the Gods if you can’t be more specific with your messages?”
Brynne laughed aloud. “What does Ashley say when you ask her that question?”
“She says it’s part of human free will,” Dean replied. “She says that the higher planes all agree to keep hands off humans and let them make their own choices for major decisions. While they sometimes take sides, they have to act on the periphery. That way they offer humans the options to make decisions they hope their worshipers will make. In the end, though, she says it has to be up to us.”
“So what have you decided?” Brynne asked. “Are you going to put aside your feelings and work with James?”
“I have to, don’t I?” Dean said. “If I have a chance to stop these things from happening to innocent people, I have to do it. I just wish I knew what I was supposed to do. It would make life so much easier.”
“Me, too, Dean,” Brynne said.
Daisy returned with their drinks, and they sipped at them for a while in silence. Dean continued to think about how he could have idolized Mike so much and ended up being so wrong. It bothered him that he had made that mistake.
“What are you thinking about now?” Brynne asked.
“It bothers me that I looked up to Mike and tried to be the type of medic he would be proud of,” Dean said. “It turns out that I couldn’t have been more wrong about that. He is just awful. What does that say about me?”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Brynne consoled him. “Mike is still an excellent paramedic and a really good instructor. You learned your trade from one of the best. I would never have tagged him as being behind all of this, and up until this meeting tonight, I sort of denied it was true. He was a good guy, once. You have to look at it as two separate things. Kind of like one side is his professional side, which is excellent and appropriate, and one side is his politics, which are screwed up. You can learn a trade from him and gain the skills you need without getting mixed up with the other side.”
“But I am mixed up with it, aren’t I?” Dean asked.
“In a way, yes, you are,” Brynne said. “But you have chosen the correct side, while he has chosen the side that hurts innocent people. Like I said, I would never have pegged him as being part of this, even knowing how much he disliked my relationship with James.” The two of them were silent for a time after that, lost in their thoughts as they waited for their food. Brynne broke the silence after a bit.
“James had an idea that you may or may not like,” Brynne said. “He thinks you and Ashley should move into an apartment in his building downtown where you can be guarded under his security network. James owns an apartment and office building downtown. He has the whole building and keeps furnished apartments for Unusual VIPs who are in town for meetings and such. He and I live there, too. There wouldn’t be any danger to you while you were under his protection.”
“Brynne,” Dean said. “I don’t want to live downtown. I like the suburbs where I am now. Besides, I could never afford the rent on a place like that while paying a lease on my own place.”
“He’s offering it for free, Dean,” Brynne answered. “James knows what you and I make as city employees. He just wants to keep you safe so that you can be around to make that decision Ashley says you need to make.”
Brynne paused briefly before continuing. “There’s another side to this as well. There’s Ashley to consider. You don’t want her hurt in any of these attacks, do you?”
“Of course not,” Dean said his voice rising with anger. “What would make you say something like that?”
“Mike knows who she is, Dean. He’s made the connection to you, and that means that he could put a target on her to get to you. If you move in downtown, she’ll likely follow to be closer to you, to offer what support she needs to in order to help you.”
“I’ve expressed concern about this to Ashley after the arson at Sabatani’s,” Dean said. “She insists that she can take care of herself.”
“Do you believe her?” Brynne asked.
“I did until this past weekend,” Dean replied. “After seeing her become so weak following the trip to the lake and healing the Dryad girl, I’m not so sure. She could not even walk on her own right afterward, and if someone had attacked her then, I don’t know what she could have done to stop them.” Dean pondered a moment, thinking again how helpless Ashley had been. “I’ll talk with her about it. If she comes because of me, then I’ll think about moving.”
“I’ll let James know that you are thinking about it,” Brynne said. “He’ll hold two apartments open for you guys in case you decide to come in. He’ll even make sure they’re on the same floor.” Brynne finished the last with a wink and a grin.
“I don’t know if she’ll go for it or not, but I’ll ask,” Dean said.
Their food arrived, and the two paramedics dug in immediately, as emergency medical providers usually did by habit since they were often called away suddenly during meals. There wasn’t much else to say between the two of them. They had become very close in the months since Dean left the academy and c
ame to Station U.
Brynne had demonstrated for him a level of professionalism and poise in difficult situations that he had not known existed, and he was glad that he had developed another mentor in the absence of Mike Farver. She was now the paramedic he most wanted to emulate. Her caring approach to patient care was evident in every call, and her knowledge and commitment to learning more every day set the bar very high for him to reach, which was just fine with him. He had always striven to be the best. They finished their dinner in relative quiet, with only some small talk about work and the community, then left to go their separate ways, each heading home for the night. Brynne made one more pitch about the apartment downtown before she got in her car and drove off. Dean thought about it as he drove home, wondering if he or Ashley were in danger or not.
23
Dean drove home from the diner and thought more about the confrontation with Mike. There was no doubt now that he was involved with The Cause. He had also alluded to the fact that he had someone else working with him in the organization. That meant that there was someone in charge above Mike, running the whole thing. That was new information, which was at least, a little bit of good news. He and Brynne had hoped to get some new information out of Mike during the meet up at the diner after work. Bringing Brynne along had been a good idea.
He arrived home at his apartment above the garage and saw Ashley’s car parked out front. She had a spare key so she must have let herself in. Dean parked his pickup and grabbed his gear and stethoscope and headed up the exterior stairs to his door. It swung open as he approached, and he saw Ashley there inside. She was sitting on the couch smiling at him as he came in. She still had signs of the physical toll the use of her healing powers had on her. Her eyes still had circles underneath, and her color was still a bit pale. He wanted to chastise her for not going straight home after work, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He would have missed her if she hadn’t come over.
“Good, you’re finally home,” Ashley said as he came into the room and set his keys and work stuff down on the counter. “What happened? Did Mike show up?”
“Hello to you, too,” Dean quipped, surprised. “How did you know we met with Mike?” He wasn’t mad at her for finding out, but he did wonder how she knew. She smiled, walked over and threw her arms around him.
“I’m glad to see you, of course,” she purred in his ear as she squeezed him in a hug and then stepped back. “I’ve just been dying to hear what happened at the meeting. James texted to see if I had heard anything about it since he hadn’t heard from Brynne. I got the sense that somehow it was important, not just for you and Brynne, but for all of us, so I came over.”
“We found out that Mike is not in this alone,” Dean said. “Someone is helping him, and The Cause, in the attacks. Someone who brought him into The Cause in the beginning when he was moved to the Academy. That happened after an incident with James and Brynne a few years back.”
“That’s interesting. That would be just after I came here to Elk City,” Ashley said. “I wonder if this is something that is part of a larger movement instead of just something locally here in Elk City? Did he say anything about that?”
“He didn’t say anything like that,” Dean said. “He seemed to focus on the problem as he saw it here.” He crossed the apartment and sat down on the couch. Ashley came over and sat next to him, leaning against him as he lifted his arm and pulled her close. “I have to wonder, though, who this other mystery person is? Mike’s pretty highly placed in the Elk City Fire Department, and his history as a former Station U medic gives him access to information about the whole community that another person in his position wouldn’t ordinarily have.”
Ashley placed her hand on his chest as she leaned her head on his shoulder. “It has to be someone else highly-placed, or somehow aware of the Unusual community in some other way,” she said.
“Well, who else knows about the Unusuals living among the human population?” Dean asked.
“There are those humans who have been invited in, either because of their affinity for us or because of their position in higher levels of government,” Ashley explained. “There are always those who just figure it out. You know, they have a quirky neighbor, so they start paying attention to their quirks and strange behaviors, and it suddenly dawns on them what is really going on next door. Usually, when that happens, if their reaction is negative, the Unusual neighbor just moves away. Everyone after that just assumes the person was crazy or was making up their stories about us.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t explain the animosity that this other mystery person has for Unusuals,” Dean said. “There has to be a reason for them to back and support The Cause, and people like Zach and Mike.” He thought for a moment about the patients he had encountered in his work as a paramedic at Station U. He thought back to one human patient they treated near the beginning of his tenure where a young woman was being turned to a vampire, and the process was botched, requiring him and Brynne to resuscitate her. He wondered what her family might think about it.
“Maybe it’s a family member of a human tied up with Unusuals in some way,” Dean thought out loud. “That’s why Mike got mixed up with this. He got involved because of Brynne’s involvement with James. He didn’t approve. So what if there’s a group of humans, family members and loved ones of those who are mixed up with the darker side of Unusual communities?”
“That might make sense,” Ashley said. “There are those who cross the line in the way they deal with humans, abusing their powers. Some brag about taking advantage of humans for their own gain, or worse, for sport. Every group has their rotten apples.”
“I don’t know how we’re going to narrow this down,” Dean said shaking his head. “There are so many possibilities.”
“Don’t beat yourself up over this, Dean,” Ashley said as she soothed him. “You just found out about the presence of this other person above Mike who’s orchestrating The Cause. We need to keep looking. Something will turn up about it. We need to be patient and keep doing what we are doing.”
“But that won’t stop the next attack on you, or me, or anyone else we care about,” Dean said. He remembered something else that he and Brynne had discussed at the diner. “Brynne and James had an idea that might help us stay safe while we figure all of this out.”
Ashley raised an eyebrow in question as she looked up at him. “What did they come up with?”
“Brynne suggested that in order to keep you and me safe while all of this plays out, we could move into some apartments that James has downtown,” Dean said. “Apparently he has a whole building that has apartments and offices in it. He has a security team there and can keep us safe. I just worry that since The Cause is targeting Unusuals who are close to Brynne and me, that you might be a target, too.”
“Dean,” Ashley said. “I told you, I can take care of myself.”
“I know you think you can,” he responded. “I also know that there are those who would like to hurt me and any person close to me. I couldn’t bear to have anything happen to you. You’re still weak following what you did for Zora at the lake. What is going to prevent someone from taking a stab at getting to you?”
“I don’t think it’s me we need to worry about, Dean,” Ashley said. “You are the one who is the most important player on the chess board right now. We need to protect you. I think you are too exposed here in this apartment, so maybe you should move in temporarily downtown and then we can see what happens.”
“I won’t move without you, too, Ash,” Dean said. “If I’m important to this situation, then you’re important to me. I’ll move if you’ll move with me.”
“Are you asking me to move in with you?” Ashley asked with a sly smile.
“Uh, no, uh,” Dean stammered. “I mean, I only meant … There are two apartments. You’ll have your own place.”
Ashley giggled and hugged Dean. “I’m just teasing you. I know what you meant.”
“Yeah, well, I’m
serious,” Dean said smiling at her. “I’ll only move in at James’ apartment building if you come with me. I have to know you’re safe, too.”
Just then there was a thump from the porch outside the door to Dean’s apartment. It sounded like someone fell on the stairs up to the landing. Dean got up and went to the door to look out the window, He didn’t see anything, but he couldn’t see down the stairs, so he unlocked and opened the door to see if something had fallen from the roof. As he unlocked the door and went to step outside, the door pushed in against him, and a figure rushed inside, knocking Dean to the floor in the kitchen.
Dean rolled over and looked up to see a dark figure rushing at Ashley. Dean quickly climbed to his feet and rushed over to her, then stopped as a voice sounded and sent ice to his soul.
“Stop, Dean,” Zach’s voice said. “If you come any closer, I’ll kill her.”
Dean stopped, his fists clenched as he watched Ashley struggle briefly with Zach. He stood behind her. He had her arm wrenched behind her back and a large folding pocket knife opened and at her throat. It glinted in the dim lights of the apartment and looked razor-sharp.
“Zach,” Ashley said calmly as she stopped struggling. “You don’t have to do this. I know you. You’re a good paramedic, and this isn’t something you want to do. You’re being influenced by someone else in this.”
“Shut up, Bitch!” Zach snapped, pressing the point of the knife closer to her neck and drawing a pinprick of blood. “You are not going to use your spells to charm me like you have Dean. He’s beyond hope because of you. That’s what Mike said, and I believe him now that I’ve seen the two of you together.”