Extreme Medical Services Box Set Vol 1--3

by Jamie Davis

  “I’m grateful for all of your support, especially from you, James,” Dean said. “I know that without Mansel Hood and your bail money, I’d still be in jail right now. It has been a long day, and I think I need to get some sleep. If I can do that, maybe I can try and get some perspective on this. I’m not giving up. I’m not quitting the fight, but honestly, I’m not up to figuring all of this out right now.”

  He started walking towards the doors back to the elevators. Ashley got up and followed him, with James and Brynne trailing behind. He pushed the down button and waited while his friends stood around him. Brynne broke the silence.

  “Good idea. Get some sleep, Dean,” she said. “James and I will keep working on this. We’ll keep you and Ashley in the loop as we work through some possible solutions.” She placed a hand on his shoulder.

  Dean nodded, turned and entered the elevator as the doors opened. Ashley joined him, taking his hand in hers again. He looked at James and Brynne standing there watching him with the worry obvious in their eyes, even in James’. Strange, how his opinion of his partner’s vampire boyfriend had changed over the last twenty-four hours. He did consider James a friend now, which was not something he could have said before the recent turn of events. He knew he would trade that friendship back in a minute if it meant he could get his paramedic status back and get back on the ambulance. The doors closed, and he was left with his Ashley, his Eldara angel. She gave his hand a little squeeze as if she knew he was thinking of her. At least she was still standing by his side through this crisis. He just hoped that would be enough to get him through it.

  5

  Dean woke the next morning to see that Ashley had already left for her shift at the ER. He had not slept well, but despite that, he didn’t remember her getting up. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was already past nine in the morning. It didn’t matter what time it was. It wasn’t as if there was anyplace he had to be that morning. He lay there in bed for a while, staring at the ceiling, lost in his thoughts of the previous day. Why couldn’t this all have been a vivid nightmare like the one he’d had the night before?

  After about a half hour of ruminating about the predicament, he was in, Dean grunted, rolled over, and got out of bed. He couldn’t do anything to fix what was going on, and the people who were helping him were all doing what they could, so he just had to wait. But, it wasn’t in his nature to just lie about all day. He got some breakfast, then changed into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and put on his sneakers. James had an excellent gym on the second floor of the building. Maybe a workout would help Dean clear his head and order his thoughts. He grabbed his smartphone, earbuds and the key-card to the apartment, and stepped out into the hallway, nearly colliding with another individual in a dark suit.

  “Oh, excuse me,” Dean muttered. He was surprised because he didn’t know anyone else was staying on the private residence floor other than he and Ashley. James had said he kept the furnished apartments for visiting VIP dignitaries from the Unusual community.

  “You should be more careful,” the man said in a thickly accented voice.

  Dean couldn’t place the language of origin, but it sounded sort of Eastern European or Russian. The man was dressed from head to toe in a black suit. He wore a black shirt and tie as well. His skin was pale, and the paramedic immediately suspected he was a vampire. One way to be sure. He extended his hand.

  “I’m Dean,” he said, smiling. “Dean Flynn.”

  The other man extended his hand, and Dean grasped the cold hand in a firm handshake. He knew he was correct based on the lack of body temperature coupled with the pale skin. He was getting better at identifying Unusuals when he encountered them.

  “Artur Torrence,” the vampire replied, smiling as well. “You must be the young human paramedic about whom I’ve heard so much. I was passing through your city on the way elsewhere to conduct some business and decided to stop in and see what James had going on here in Elk City.”

  “I hope you’ve heard the good things,” Dean said. “You don’t want to believe everything you hear.”

  “I have only heard good things about you,” Artur replied. “Though James was just mentioning something about a bit of trouble you were having. He also said that you were innocent of the charges leveled against you. I’m sure everything will resolve for you soon enough, one way or another.”

  Did Dean see the man’s lips twitch in a smile there at the last part? He decided it was his imagination and responded politely. “From your lips to God’s ears, Artur,” Dean said. “I’d like this to resolve quickly, that is sure.”

  Artur snorted. “I’m not sure God’s listening to anything from me, at least not for a very long time.” He glanced at his watch and back at Dean. “I’m afraid I must be going. The hour is late for me, and I have dinner waiting for me in my rooms. I had her selected especially for my stay here. Perhaps we shall see each other again, eh?”

  “Absolutely,” Dean said. “I was heading down to the gym anyway. Enjoy your, uh, meal.” Dean winced inwardly at the awkwardness of the way he said it. He was sure that the meal in question walked and talked just like him. There was a consensual arrangement with some human donors who would let vampires and other Unusual blood drinkers consume directly from them for a healthy fee. Dean smiled at the other man, forcing himself not to think about it. Artur nodded and turned, continuing down the hallway, turning the corner and disappearing from sight. Dean watched him for a moment, then he shrugged and headed to the elevators to get his workout in and sort out his thoughts. He wondered if James had any other Unusual guests staying on the floor that he didn’t know about. The elevator arrived, and Dean stepped inside, still wondering about the possibility of neighbors he wasn’t aware of, and whether they too, knew about him.

  * * *

  ———

  * * *

  Dean returned from his workout an hour later. The exercise on the circuit training equipment of the building’s gym had helped lighten his mood. Now he just needed a shower and to get cleaned up. He had to do some shopping. His old apartment was a crime scene now, and the police had confiscated his suitcase from his truck for evidence. He was going to need some more clothes before too long. He stepped off the elevator and started down the hallway to his apartment. Looking up, he was startled when he saw a young blonde woman staggering down the hallway towards him. She swayed and started to fall forward as he neared her. Dean reached out and caught her just in time as she fainted in his arms.

  He lowered her gently to the ground, and as he did, he saw the bite marks on her neck and shoulder. They were fresh, red and ragged looking. Not the simple double pinprick marks he had seen with other vampire bites. These bites were more vicious, more like an attack than a willing feeding. The woman’s eye’s fluttered open as she lay there and she started to rise. Dean placed a hand gently on her shoulder and pressed her back down.

  “Easy going there,” he said. “You need to rest for a little bit. You’ve lost a lot of blood. Who did this to you?” Dean thought he knew, but he asked anyway.

  “I just need to get back to my room downstairs. I’ll be okay,” the woman replied. “I don’t want to be any trouble. I need this job.”

  “You need an ambulance,” Dean said, pulling out his phone. “Let me call one for you and we can get you tended to. I’m Dean; I’m a paramedic, and you should get looked at in the hospital. What’s your name?”

  “Codi, Codi Beck,” the woman said. “And you can’t call an ambulance. Ms. Teal wouldn’t like it. I’ll be alright. I just need to get some rest.”

  “Celeste knows about this?” Dean knew Celeste was the vampire assistant to James. The redheaded southerner was charming and seemed kind enough. He found it hard to believe she would condone this behavior. He turned his attention back to his patient. “Do you always get drained like this when they feed off of you?”

  “No, uh, this was different,” Codi admitted. She struggled again to sit up and failed. “Lord Torrence is a
n honored and influential guest of Mr. Lee. I don’t want to cause any trouble.” Her voice trailed off as her eyes rolled back and then closed as she slipped into unconsciousness.

  Dean knew he should call 911, but decided to call someone else instead. He looked down at his phone, opened the contacts app, and flipped through them, selecting a name. He tapped it with his thumb to dial the number. The phone on the other end picked up on the second ring.

  “Yes, Dean,” the smooth southern drawl on the other end said. “What can I do for you?”

  “Celeste, you should probably come down to my floor,” Dean said. “There’s been an incident with one of your other guests and their dinner. I wanted to call an ambulance, but she insisted I don’t. Maybe you can help.”

  “I’ll be right there,” Celeste replied. “Can you get her up and into your apartment? I can see you on the security monitor. You are close to your door.”

  Dean looked up and noticed the small black domes in the ceiling of the hallway. He hadn’t paid attention to them before. “Uh, yeah. I think I can move her in there. Are you coming down?”

  “I’m on my way now.”

  Dean put his phone back in his pocket. Then he reached down and picked up Codi and carried her over to his door. She groaned a little when he lifted her up but then fell silent again. Her skin felt cool to the touch. She was going into shock. He needed to get her warmed up. Struggling a little to get his key card out, he waved it over the door’s panel and then opened it and went inside. He laid her down on the sofa and went into his bedroom and grabbed the blanket off the bed. She needed to be kept warm to reduce the effects of shock on her body. There was a tap at the door; then it opened, and he heard Celeste’s voice as she leaned over him to check on Codi.

  “How is she?”

  “She needs a hospital and at least two units of blood,” Dean replied. “She shouldn’t be here in my apartment.”

  “This isn’t the first time something like this has happened,” Celeste said coming over to his side. “We are prepared for these things.” She set a large medical bag down next to him on the floor, not unlike the ones he used on the ambulance. She was also holding a small, ultra-compact heart monitor, which she placed on the coffee table next to the sofa.

  Dean opened up the heart monitor and attached the leads to the sticky pads and attached them to his patient. He applied the blood pressure cuff and slid the pulse oximeter sensor over one finger. He cycled the machine to start taking vital signs and then unzipped the bag. Inside were IV supplies and tubing, fluid bags, and some bandages and dressings. He began prepping her arm to get an IV line in place to get her some fluids.

  There was a tap at the door as he was finishing up. Celeste went over to answer, and he heard a murmured conversation. The door closed, and the vampire assistant returned holding something out to him.

  “Here, Dean,” she said, holding out a bag of blood. “It’s O-negative, the universal donor type. It’s been screened and is safe to give her.”

  “I’m just a paramedic,” Dean said. “I’m not licensed to give blood products.”

  “You’re not a paramedic right now, Dean. You are suspended. You can do what you want,” Celeste said. She said it as a matter of fact, not to be mean. Celeste continued. “This is what she needs. You know it.”

  Dean hesitated for a moment then took the bag from her. It was warmed already which should help, too. He read the label carefully, verifying that is was indeed O negative blood type. Then he took some more IV tubing out of the bag and spiked the bag before attaching the other end to replace the IV fluid tubing he had already flowing. The blood was better than straight fluids. He knew he needed to watch her carefully for adverse reactions from the blood. There should be none if the blood had indeed been screened for her but sometimes things were mislabeled. Celeste brought over one of the barstool chairs from the kitchen area and took the bag from him to hang from the back of the chair to keep gravity flowing the blood from the bag into the patient. Dean cycled the monitor again to collect another set of vital signs and then looked up at Celeste.

  “Your guest was a little rough on her,” he said. “Someone should have a conversation with him about how to treat people who volunteer to provide him with a meal.”

  “This is a delicate situation, Dean,” Celeste said. “Artur Torrence is an old rival of James. Their relationship goes back centuries. To top it off, Artur is older than James, and there is a hierarchy that must be observed. Technically, James can’t tell him what to do, even in his own domain like Elk City.”

  “And James let this guy visit as an honored guest?” Dean asked. “That’s ridiculous! He nearly killed this woman.”

  “I’m sure James will have a word with him about it,” Celeste said. “But there’s not much he can do. He’s not even sure what Artur is doing here. He is not the type to just drop in. Artur is up to something, but James is not sure what. He is afraid it has to do with the unrest in Elk City. It could be a sign from James’ superiors that they are not confident in his ability to rule here.”

  “So Artur is here to take over?” Dean looked down at his patient, still unconscious on the couch. “I’m not sure I want this guy running things around here. I don’t think it would be safe for people based on the way he treated Codi.”

  “That is an understatement, Dean.” He waited for her to say more but she didn’t.

  The two of them fell silent for a while. Dean kept monitoring Codi’s vital signs every five minutes or so and checking that blood was flowing smoothly. The bag was almost empty. Her color was getting better, and her blood pressure was coming up. When the blood bag fluid ran out, he detached it and reattached the plain saline solution and continued slowly giving her fluids. He was pretty sure she would survive this attack, and that was good. He didn’t have any garlic extract to counteract the effects of the vampire potentially turning her if she had died. That couldn’t happen unless she drank from him as well, but you never knew what went on in these types of situations. The paramedic turned his attention to dressing and bandaging the bites to her neck and shoulder while she slept.

  Celeste watched him work. “You’re good at what you do, Dean. I’ve never seen you at your job, but you seem to know what you’re doing, and you do it well.”

  “It’s all I’ve wanted to do for a long time, Celeste,” Dean replied. “Of course, I’m not going to be doing it much while I’m suspended. Who knows, Codi might be the last patient I ever care for.”

  “I’m sure that is not the case. James has investigators of his own working on the case. Plus, your lawyer, Mansel Hood, is one of the best in the state. We’ll make sure you get through this and back on the ambulance. You just have to be patient.”

  “I don’t think I have that kind of patience,” Dean snapped back. “I’ve got nothing to do while I’m waiting for the disposition of my case. I’ve been suspended, with pay at least, but suspended indefinitely nonetheless.”

  “Well, maybe we can find something for you to do in the meantime?” Celeste proposed. “Let me talk to James. There are sometimes incidents like this one here in the Nightwing building. We always have different clients in town from James’ various businesses and partnerships. You could be our on-call medical assistance in the time frame it takes to get this all straightened out and we get you reinstated.”

  Dean thought about it and knew that she was creating something here just for him. It was likely she did not really need it. It was a position offered just to keep him busy, but it would be something to do and keep his mind off his troubles. Plus he’d get a chance to keep his skills up and take care of people. “I guess I could do that. What would it entail?”

  “I don’t know. Let me talk to James about it. I think we could set up an office for you downstairs on the second floor. Once down there, you could help check on people like Codi here to make sure they don’t go back to work until they meet the required rejuvenation of their blood levels. It would be only part-time, but it would be s
omething to do.”

  “I think I would like that,” Dean said. “Thank you.”

  “No problem, Dean,” she replied. Celeste looked at Codi, resting peacefully on the sofa. “I assume you have her squared away?”

  “Yes, I’ve got this. She just needs to rest,” Dean said. “I’ll sit with her until she wakes up and I will make sure she gets back to her room downstairs in one piece.”

  “Excellent, then I’ll go and see what we need to do to get you set up in your new job.”

  6

  Ashley called to check in with him at lunchtime. Dean was glad to hear from her. He told her about the patient on his couch and the conversation with Celeste. Ashley seemed alarmed when he told her about his encounter with the visiting vampire lord.

  “Artur Torrence is in town?” she asked. “That’s not good news. He thrives on chaos and death. I’ve encountered him before in my travels over the years. He must be sensing some weakness in support for James at higher levels. I’ve seen him come in like this in the past and try to take over things during a political disruption in the community.”

  “He’s not a very nice guy either,” Dean responded.

  “You need to stay clear of him, Dean,” Ashley cautioned him. “He is very old-school and wouldn’t bat an eye at removing you from this earth if you get in his way. Because you and I are connected, there is some protection I can offer you, but it is not a certainty if he wants to do you harm.”

  “I can tell what he thinks of humans, Ashley. I’ve seen the way he treats his meals. Don’t worry, I’m not going to cross him anytime soon. I just need to take care of the patients he leaves in his wake while he’s here.”