Extreme Medical Services Box Set Vol 4--6 Page 40

“I don’t care if it’s above your grade or not,” Barry said. “You’re not using that as an excuse to make us go in there and deal with her alone. You’ve had the same inoculations we’ve had. At the least, you can help us secure the woman so we can escort her to the hospital.”

  “I guess I can come in with you and help with that. You’re dealing with all the nasty stuff, though. I don’t do blood.”

  Dean shook his head as the three of them started walking up to the funeral home doors. Dean pulled on some purple exam gloves then he reached out and opened the door, holding it for the others and following Barry and officer O’Malley inside.

  They could hear the woman snarling and scratching at the inside of the closet door as soon as they got inside. Dean was able to figure out which door it was right away. He walked up and tried talking to the woman through the door. He saw a sign at the entrance to the larger funeral parlor room with an announcement printed on it. It had her name and dates of birth and death. He tried to call out her name to get past her current bloodlust.

  “Gladys, I’m Dean Flynn. I’m a paramedic, and I’m here to help you if you let me.” He waited. The scratching and snarling stopped. He put his ear up to the door to listen and jumped back as the woman on the other side slammed into the opposite side hard enough to pop the door open and knock Dean over backward. Before he knew what happened, he had a bundle of snarling grandmother on his chest, snapping at his face with her mouth.

  He was screaming in alarm and trying to fend her off. He couldn’t understand why Barry and O’Malley weren’t coming to his aid. Then he realized the sounds coming from the opening and closing mouth above his face weren’t quite right. He looked up at the face inches above his and realized that she didn’t have any teeth. The sounds weren’t teeth snapping together but rather a dull squishy sound of drooling gums rubbing together. That was when he heard the laughing coming from his partner and the police officer.

  “Will you guys get control of yourselves and come over here and get this woman off of me?”

  “I’m sorry, Dean,” Barry said, wiping tears from his eyes. “You look ridiculous there screaming for help with that ninety-pound dead woman on top of you. You’re able to hold her off you with one hand, but you’re screaming and yelling like it’s a tiger or something.”

  O’Malley stopped his belly laughing long enough to chime in, too.

  “Didn’t you tell me not to worry because we all had our shots?”

  “That doesn’t mean she can’t hurt me,” Dean shouted over the snarls. The drool was starting to spray all over his face. “Come on, guys. Help me out here.”

  The two of them came over and hooked the weight of the woman off of him by grabbing her under the arms and lifting straight up. They were easily able to manage her struggling by themselves. Dean got up and wiped his face with a gauze pad he had in his pocket.

  “I can’t believe it took three officers with riot shields to manage this woman. I was expecting much worse.” Dean shook his head and continued, switching to treatment mode. “You two hold her here,” Dean announced. “I’ll go and back the ambulance up to the doors, so the family doesn’t see her like this. Hopefully, we can figure out what’s animated her corpse and maybe get her back to some semblance of herself before we tell the family what happened. I’ll talk with the health department lead and see where they want us to take her.”

  He headed outside and looked around the parking lot at the surrounding bystanders and remaining funeral visitors who were still lined up and had to talk to the health department teams. He thought about the woman being restrained inside. Something about this didn’t make sense. He had the nagging feeling that grandma’s turning wasn’t a spontaneous accident. Shaking his head while he tried to work it out in his head, Dean walked over to bring the ambulance up so they could transport their patient to Elk City Medical Center or wherever else the docs wanted him to take her.

  Chapter 2

  Artur watched Dean Flynn climb into the ambulance from his vantage point across the parking lot. The vampire lord had been able to conceal himself amidst the initial rush of people out the doors of the funeral home once the ambulance arrived. He had not counted on such a rapid response to the attacks. It had been his plan that the woman would attack all the people and they would disperse so that the local authorities would be unable to locate all of them. That would give them all time to start the turning of a larger zombie horde in the city and surroundings, creating a final confrontation between the humans and Unusuals here in Elk City. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen tonight.

  He reached into his overcoat’s pocket and felt the withered finger he held there. The artifact had been hard to locate and even more difficult to obtain once he’d discovered its location. The relic was the detached finger of the great Occulus, the Eldara warrior from the earliest days of the conflict between good and evil on earth. He had lost his right hand during a battle with the demon lord Asmodeus somewhere on the Assyrian Plains around four hundred B.C. The people of the time had divided the appendage up into individual relics that were used to do everything from heal mortal wounds and fatal diseases, to endow warriors with nearly endless endurance. This particular appendage, the ring finger, imparted on the user the ability to control the dead, either turning away and controlling Unusuals of undead types or creating new ones from the freshly dead.

  Artur had used a substantial amount of the power stored in the relic that day to animate Gladys tonight. It had nearly worked out. Now he had to let the finger recharge for a day before he could use it again. He’d have to plan more carefully in the future if his plans were to work. There was also the challenge of avoiding the young human paramedic who seemed always to be there to counter him at the worst possible time. Mr. Flynn needed to be dealt with at some point, too.

  The plan had been simple. Artur had shown up at the viewing and funeral with the intention of setting the woman loose on the visitors. He pretended to be a family member and mingled with the crowd. He blended in, playing the part as a distant cousin of Gladys McKellin. Even the closest family had not seen through his ploy, so there was not even need to use his vampire powers to charm anyone. They had invited him to visit the deceased in the casket, and he had accepted, waiting until he was alone to pull out the relic and touch the fingertip to the woman’s forehead and heart three times as the ritual demanded.

  Then it was merely a game of waiting for the ceremony to begin. He was offered a seat in the front row with the surviving family members. He graciously accepted. It would be enjoyable to have a front-row seat for the coming festivities. He was not disappointed. He muttered one word under his breath while gripping the relic in his pocket.

  “Rise.”

  The gasps of alarm from those seated around him when she suddenly sat upright in the casket had been delightful to him. When she vaulted from the raised platform to attack the minister, who was delivering a tiresome sermon on living a virtuous life, the alarmed gasps turned to shrieks and screams of fear. He particularly enjoyed the memory of one little girl who sat crying through the whole attack, asking the same thing over and over again.

  “Grandma, why?”

  He had to admit it started out as one of the better schemes and one he had ever seen implemented in his long un-life, but that all changed when he ran outside with the others in the crowd to find the ambulance pulling into the parking lot. Once again, the cursed Station U paramedics showed up, plied their trade, and saved his victims from their fate. Artur contemplated more than once racing over to snap the necks of the paramedics, ridding the world of at least two of them once and for all. He thought better of it, though. He remembered the shocking touch he’d received before when contacting the Flynn boy.

  The last time he’d tried to lay hands on that one, the contact had nearly undone him, though he covered it well. He wasn’t sure if Dean was under that protection anymore. He had managed to dispose of the Eldara bitch, even if only temporarily. There was no telling, tho
ugh, if she had bestowed some lasting benefit from her presence on him. Over the past few centuries, she and her infernal Valkyrie sister, Ingrid, had done many things that had surprised him and foiled his plans. Artur would be more careful and bide his time on this go around. He had plans for paramedic Dean Flynn.

  He was distracted a moment later from his contemplation of what he would do to Dean Flynn some day. An attractive brunette woman in a reflective orange and yellow vest that read “Health Department” walked up to him in the parking lot. He had been careless standing in the shadows so close by. She had noticed him standing on his own and came over to ask him to join the others.

  “Sir, excuse me, but have you been inoculated against the infection from the outbreak?”

  She laid a hand on his arm, and he spun on her in anger, gazing into her eyes. He was frustrated by his failed plan this evening. Perhaps this young cutie would offer him some entertainment for the night, as well as a meal later on. He bared his fangs at her in a broad grin as he poured the power of his charm ability over her like a deluge of water. She had a moment’s fear in her eyes, and then her face went blank.

  “What is your name?” The ancient vampire asked.

  “Felicity. Felicity Richards.”

  “Well, Felicity, do you live alone?”

  “I do, sire.”

  “Did you drive here on your own or did you ride with a group?”

  “I came in my car, sire,” she answered in a monotone.

  “Excellent. I would like to leave here now without anyone noticing. Bring your vehicle over here so I may enter from the shadows. Then you may drive me to your abode.”

  “Yes, sire. It will be as you ask.”

  He watched as the young woman walked back through the parking lot to where a small sedan was parked. She had a wooden, awkward gait. The charm worked on the surface mind, commanding the body and muscles. Inside she was trying to fight. She wouldn’t win that fight, but it pleased him to see her fighting so. Perhaps she had promise as a disciple with a fire inside like that. Felicity soon returned, driving the car around the outskirts of the lot until she had pulled up next to the shadowed area in which he hid.

  Stepping from the shadows, Artur pulled the passenger door open and slid into the seat in a single fluid motion. Once inside, he gave her instructions to drive back the way she had come, around the perimeter of the lot to avoid as many people as possible. Most would not notice him leaving or remember the old cousin from all that happened the midst of the chaos that evening. He would remain in the shadows exactly as he wished so that all his plans could be put into motion. This was only a minor setback, nothing more. There was still plenty of time to succeed in this town and take control from the existing vampire lord of Elk City, James Lee.

  Artur’s hand strayed to the relic in his pocket as Felicity drove them away from the scene of his crime. He knew the sphere of control over Gladys would fade as he drove off. She would remain a zombie, a true undead one, but by morning she would regain her human memories and no longer be the mindless creature that attacked the family at her funeral that night. That was all right. These fragile humans died all the time, so there was no lack of bodies to animate. He’d find another to animate or perhaps use the powerful relic to control a higher form of undead. It would be fun to exert even limited control over a fellow vampire with the mummified Eldara finger.

  Felicity drove from the parking lot and turned right onto the main avenue in front of the funeral home just as the struggling figure of Gladys was carried from the building and into the back of the waiting ambulance. Artur smiled at the way the paramedics and policeman fought to retain a hold on her as he drove away. Maybe she’d manage to bite one of them before she was done being his unwilling tool for evil that evening. One could hope.

  Chapter 3

  Being undead sucked. Brynne stared at the ceiling in the darkened room and thought of all the glamorous stories that made it into powerful immortality or something out of a gothic romance.

  Bullshit.

  You lost everything when you changed. You missed half of every day. You lost your friends and family. You even lost control over your own body. You can’t turn off the massive sensory input you get all the time. As a vampire, she was bombarded by all the information from her enhanced senses needed to make her the apex predator she was. She could hear human heartbeats through walls now. That wasn’t a good thing when you couldn’t look at a normal human without wondering how they’d taste. She was thirsty all the time, thirsty for warm blood.

  Brynne thought she knew a lot about. She had studied them for her work as a paramedic at Station U. Hell; she had dated a vampire in an exclusive relationship for over five years. Then, when everything was finally working out for her, she was almost killed in a nightclub shooting by a crazy ex-mentor who secretly coveted her for himself. To save her life, her boyfriend, James Lee, had changed her into a vampire moments before her heart beat out its last pulse of life. It wasn’t like she wasn’t thankful for what he did. She was grateful. She appreciated what had gone into that choice. It had not been an easy decision for James or her human paramedic partner, Dean.

  Still, here she was. She was spending another sunny day in this sunless un-life, resting as she stared at the ceiling in the room she shared with James. It was like she had nothing to look forward to anymore. She was a virtual prisoner in their apartment. She knew she shouldn’t complain. It was a beautiful apartment, sitting on the penthouse level atop the high rise Nightwing building in downtown Elk City, Maryland. The place had every amenity she could hope for, and she knew James would install anything she wanted if she asked. The fully stocked kitchen gave her access to blood of every type and almost every nationality. There were some who would say she had everything she could need in life, except it wasn’t a life at all, not anymore.

  She forced a breath into her lungs and let out a long sigh. It was for effect only. She didn’t need to breathe except to talk and for dramatic emphasis, like now.

  “Brynne, dear, is something bothering you?” James asked from where he lay next to her on the bed.

  “I’m bored, James. I need something to do. I need a real life and job to give me purpose. I’m just a caged tiger here in this apartment, pacing the enclosure, longing to run in the forest and have a real life again.”

  “It’s almost time,” James said, rolling over onto his side so he could look at her. “You’ve gained a lot of control in these last few months, Brynne. It won’t be long now. Soon you’ll be able to go out and mix with people again, I promise. Think about how it would devastate you if you lost control and injured someone because you couldn’t control your bloodlust. Imagine what you would feel like if you killed some poor innocent just because they cut their finger on a thorn when you walked by.” He shook his head. “You have to give it time.”

  “You’ve had centuries to adjust to this type of life, James. I’ve had just a few months. I’m not suited to being cooped up, kept from doing anything useful. I need to be working, helping people. It’s who I am. I don’t stop being the person that became a paramedic just because I’m a vampire now. I have to have something to give my new life purpose.”

  “I understand, my dear. I really do. Consider this merely a convalescence after an illness. You’re almost well, and we will find something constructive for you to do. You can have any job or role you want here in my business ventures; in our business ventures. I noticed how frustrated you are. I’ve had Celeste pick out a few likely opportunities for you. Would you like to begin trading in securities based on your medical and health care knowledge? That can be very exciting if you give it time.”

  Brynne snorted a laugh at his last statement. “I don’t want to be a stock trader, James. There is nothing exciting about that life. I’ve been on the streets. I’ve seen excitement firsthand and know what it feels like. I know that stock trading is how you make most of your money these days, but that is not what I’m supposed to be. I’m a person of action. I
need to do something constructive and active with my time. I want to go back to being a paramedic.”

  “That is impossible, Brynne. You’d cross over and give in to the bloodlust the first time you ran a call for a person with a simple cut.” James reached over and turned her head towards him so she could see his eyes.

  She looked at him and realized he wasn’t kidding. He really thought it would be impossible for her to return to her former job as a paramedic.

  “You have no faith in me, then.” Brynne knew she was pouting and she hated it. She also hated how set in his ways James could sometimes be. He assumed things couldn’t be done if he’d never seen it done before.

  “Brynne, it’s not that. It takes years to master yourself to the point that you could even consider returning to a career in the medical field, let alone the unpredictable chaos of emergency medical services.”

  Brynne sat up and turned away from him. He kept telling her the same thing. He said it would take years until she was ready. She was determined to prove him wrong.

  “Let me take the test, James. I’m ready now.” Brynne turned to look down at him laying next to her. She couldn’t believe she’d said it. Was she really ready for the test? It was a series of challenges for a new vampire to determine if they had gained enough control over their predatory nature to avoid killing humans when they encountered them. The test was a relatively new process for a race of Unusuals who had, only a few centuries before, routinely fed on humans without regret, killing without remorse the people who lived in this world alongside them. It had bred an adversarial relationship between humans and their Unusual counterparts in the world, the vampires, werewolves, shifters, fairies and other creatures of myth and legend.

  That was different now in the modern world. The Unusuals lived in secret alongside their human neighbors, known only to a few humans in the government and some local businesses. They lived in peace because the Unusuals policed themselves and made sure humans weren’t harmed by anyone whose powers could be used to overwhelm or take advantage of them in some way.