The Paramedic's Doom Read online

  Her hunter instincts were rarely wrong about things like this. She always kept an eye on her surroundings.

  Keeping a smile on his face, too, Dean said, “What do we do?”

  “Stay where you are so you’re blocking their view of me.”

  Dean nodded and pretended to stare out over the water at the distant band in the lighted pavilion. He tried to get a look out of the corner of his eye at the threatening figure but he couldn’t see anything but darkness.

  Next to him, Jaz drew her Glock, holding it down at her side while she leaned in for another kiss.

  “He’s coming this way. When I say drop, hit the deck.”

  Dean’s lips brushed against hers. The floral hints of her perfume wafted past his nose. Everything seemed to slow down.

  “Drop!”

  At Jaz’s shouted command, Dean fell to the bridge’s decking expecting an attack of some sort.

  Jaz assumed a shooting stance above him, one hand bracing the other holding the pistol.

  A soft white light filled the center of the bridge, coming from behind him in the direction of their assailant. Dean turned at the sound of a man’s calm voice.

  “You may relax, Jaswinder Errington. I mean you no harm. I am here to talk with your companion.”

  “You shouldn’t sneak up on people in the dark like this if all you want to do is talk.”

  “Perhaps, however, I’m here now. May I approach?”

  “You may, Eldara,” Jaz said. The pistol dropped back to her side.

  Dean twisted on the ground to look behind him.

  A man in his early forties approached. He wore gray slacks and a black sweater. Well, not a normal human man, Dean admitted, not with the fading nimbus of white light still surrounding him. Jaz’s assessment it was one of the Eldara seemed an accurate one. With a glow like that, it was a good bet he was one of those heavenly messengers from the gods, known as angels to some, and by many other names to others.

  The fact he wanted to speak to Dean didn’t bode well in his experience. Dean scrambled to his feet and stood next to Jaz.

  The closer the man got, the more familiar he seemed to Dean as if he should know this Eldara. There was something about his face, something about the way he carried himself that triggered a distant memory in Dean’s mind.

  The nimbus of white light faded entirely by the time the Eldara reached the couple. Soon they were left with nothing but the soft glow of nearby lampposts spaced along the length of the bridge.

  Dean resisted the urge to snap at the angel standing before him. All his plans for Jaz had been dashed by some sort of divine plan. Dean knew his anger would be wasted on the Eldara, especially if he was here delivering some message from above. Hopefully, he’d say whatever he had to say so Dean could get back to the business of proposing to Jaz.

  Plastering a fake smile on his face, Dean met the man’s eyes and said, “I’m Dean Flynn. You said you came to see me. I assume there’s some sort of message from above?”

  The Eldara shook his head and smiled.

  “I’m surprised you don’t recognize me. You should feel something, a distant memory of me, I would think.”

  “I”m sorry, I don’t know who you are. You haven’t introduced yourself yet.”

  The wrinkled brow and pursed lips showed confusion spreading across the Eldara’s face. He didn’t seem to know what to say at first. Then the man’s smile returned, along with his confidence, it seemed.

  “My name is Gabe, Dean. I’m your father.”

  Chapter 9

  “I’m sorry, what?” Dean asked.

  It was his turn to be confused.

  “I’m your father, Dean. Your mother must’ve told you something about me.”

  Dean’s mind raced with thoughts and memories swirling around all at once. After his dream earlier that afternoon, he remembered his mother calling for a man named Gabe. Now, that name attached itself to another hazy memory from his early childhood. It was so long ago, the man known as Gabe was little more than a shadowy figure to Dean. He couldn’t have been more than two or three years old the last time he was around.

  As some of those earlier memories were jogged, he remembered his mother had never referred to any one man as Dean’s father. Other than the possible memory he’d dredged up in his dream, she’d never talked about anyone named Gabe at all.

  Except now the man called Gabe stood here in front of Dean, claiming to be his father. He decided to try and get rid of the guy. Even if he was Dean’s father, he didn’t have any desire to get to know him now at this point in his life.

  “I’m sorry, Gabe, my mom never talked about you. You must be thinking of someone else. You’re not my father.”

  “You can’t lie to me, Dean. You may not know much of who I am, but you remember something about me. I can tell.”

  Gabe moved closer while Dean tried to come up with an answer to the accusation. His emotions jumped around in his head from anger to betrayal to sadness about never having a father around.

  Jaz stepped up next to him while he fought his internal struggle. Her voice was cold and hard like ice.

  “I think you should take a step back, Eldara.”

  Gabe turned his gaze on Jaz. His eyes blazed with an inner light.

  “I’m not accustomed to taking orders from humans Huntress. You would do well to understand that.”

  Jaz didn’t back down but neither did she threaten, Dean noticed. She kept her weapon down at her side. It would be of little use in this situation anyway unless she had some sort of Eldara-killer rounds in there.

  “And I’m not one who responds well to threats from supernaturals. I’m not without my protections, Eldara, and I know the strictures as well as you do. If I offer you no harm, you may not attack Dean or me. Besides, I recognize you. I know who you are.”

  Jaz nudged Dean with her elbow, never taking her eyes off the angel standing opposite them on the bridge.

  “This isn’t just any random Eldara delivering a message, Dean. He’s one of THE Eldara, one of the senior members of that clan of divine messengers. He’s an Arch-angel. This the angel Gabriel himself and he’s just as full of himself as all the stories say he is.”

  Gabe smiled and relaxed his stance, taking a step backward. He gave her a nod of respect.

  “You remember your lessons well, Jaswinder. I applaud you for determining my identity so quickly.”

  “I’ve known others of your kind, and they’re much more attuned to proper conduct in a situation like this. You aren’t. That means you don’t associate much with humans. There’s only one Gabriel in the lore who fits that bill. It wasn’t much of a leap.”

  Dean recovered his thoughts enough to jump in again. His anger took over as he shook a finger in Gabe’s direction.

  “How do you get to be my father and why should I care if you are? My father left my mother alone and destitute a long time ago. He never came back, not once. We learned to get along without you well enough and I don’t need you in my life now either.”

  “That is all stuff your mother told you, Dean, but it is not true. I stayed as long as I was allowed to stay. Then I had other divine duties to attend to. I resisted at first but the higher powers finally tracked me down and I was called back to the upper realms to deal with those duties. I didn’t want to leave. I never want to leave when I’m called to create a Nephilim, a child of my progeny.”

  Dean seized on that last point. His anger spilled over in his words.

  “So I’m merely a creation of yours, a so-called Nephilim, something you just created with a random woman before you returned to the heavens above? You’re just some sort of heavenly gigolo, taking advantage of women here on Earth.”

  “You’re twisting my words against me, Dean. You’re better than that. I may not have been part of your everyday life but I’ve watched you grow up. I watched you become the type of child any father would be proud of. When the time came to help you, help arrived, usually handled by one of my cousins here on earth while they tended to their other duties.”

  Dean searched his mind for what Gabe meant by his words.

  “You mean help like Ashley? Like Ingrid? They were just placed here to help me out?”

  “You know the answer to that already, Dean. Ashley said as much when she was here with you. She said she was searching for someone who needed her help. She told you that when you first got to know each other. There was no subterfuge involved. Perhaps she didn’t tell you everything she knew, but there are rules about how much we can reveal to our charges on earth.”

  “But now, at this particular moment, you chose to come down to earth and reveal your true identity to me. I suppose that means I will soon need your help with something.” Dean let out a wry, sarcastic chuckle. “It must be something pretty big if you decided to come yourself rather than send some lackey to deal with me. Let me guess; I’m in some sort of danger.”

  “You all are. You’re in greater danger than you could possibly know.”

  Burning anger welled up like a volcano within Dean.

  “Why, because the Agents of Chaos are on their way here to Elk City? Because I’m living in the midst of the apocalypse, the end of the world? I already know that, Daddy. I don’t need you or your help.”

  Jaz’s head whipped around and she faced Dean.

  “The Agents of Chaos, they’re coming here?” She asked, firing off questions in rapid succession. “How do you know that?”

  “I didn’t have a chance to tell you, Jaz. We weren’t even sure it was real.”

  “We, Dean? Who? James and Brynne, I suppose.”

  “I stopped in after work this morning to check on something Barry and I heard while out on a call yesterday. The topic of the four horsemen came up with James and B
rynne and James shared what he knew about the Agents of Chaos from the past. I was going to tell you but it never seemed to be a good time. I’m sorry.”

  “Dean you’re telling me you forgot to let me know the end of the world was coming.”

  “It’s just something we heard on the street. I wasn’t even sure it was real.”

  Jaz pointed at Gabe.

  “That’s the Trumpet Bearer himself, Dean. He’s the one who will call the heavenly hosts to the final battle. Now he’s here, and he turns out to be your father to boot. I think it’s a tad more important than you thought.”

  “I didn’t know he was my father, Jaz. I’ve told you everything I know about my father, everything my mother told me about him. Besides, this could all be some sort of Eldara trick.”

  “Dean,” Gabe said. “You know the Eldara do not lie. We might not reveal the truth at every opportunity, but when I say I am your father, I am not lying.”

  Dean tried to fight down the knots twisting his guts into pretzels at the moment. He felt like he was being pulled underwater and he couldn’t find his way back to the surface. He needed to breathe.

  This was all too much to process. Why had his mother lied? Gabe was correct. Dean did recall a vague memory of a man resembling Gabe from his childhood, but his mother never connected that memory to his father. According to her, his father was simply someone who drifted into her life and left her to raise a child alone.

  “Does my mother know you are here?”

  Gabe shook his head.

  “I thought it would cause too many old memories to rise up to the surface for her. I cared very deeply for her during brief the time we were together. I still do.”

  “But you’re alright turning my life upside down in the midst of one of the most important moments of my life?”

  Jaz shot him a puzzled glance at his choice of words then looked back at Gabe again. She must have sussed out what Dean had planned. Her eyes blazed with fresh, hot anger that hadn’t been there before. She seemed pissed at both of them now.

  “I am sorry if I interrupted something important, Dean. I had to reach out to you and I thought it would be better here in this secluded space away from prying eyes and ears.”

  Dean clenched his fists. He wasn’t going to let a simple apology make up for the ruined plans and the shocking revelation of his paternity.

  “Fine, Daddy,” Dean said, drawing out the name, letting sarcasm drip from his tone. “You’re here now. Give me whatever cryptic message you came to leave me and go back to the heavenly plane you come from.”

  “Dean, I’m not here to deliver a message. The Agents of Chaos are coming. I’ve come to fight at your side in the final battle over who is to rule this earthly plane.”

  “What, fight in some armageddon of divine creation? I’m not interested. I’ll take care of my own here in Elk City and the rest of you can fight amongst yourselves.”

  “You don’t mean that, Dean,” Gabe said. “I know what the humans and other people of this city mean to you. You’ll fight to save them with every once of your energy, just as you have done in the past whenever they’ve been endangered by outside threats.”

  Dean ground his teeth together. Gabe obviously knew him. He knew Dean too well, it seemed.

  “I said I’ve been watching over you,” Gabe continued. “You’ve never truly been alone in the world. I or someone else has always been close to you, watching over you.”

  “Like Ashley?”

  Gabe nodded. “And others, too.”

  Dean thought about that statement. Who else in his life was an agent for the gods, watching over him?

  “So nothing in my life is mine. Every choice I’ve made has been made for me.”

  “Not true at all. There was guidance when you needed it but the choice was always yours to make, or not make. There were certainly times when you did not make the choice I thought you would or would have chosen for you. Still, it all worked out in the end. We are here and you are ready to assume your place at my side to help turn the tide in the final battle.”

  Dean searched for something to ground him and steady his resolve. He reached out and took Jaz’s free hand in his. Her touch, the warmth of her hand pressed against his gave him renewed strength.

  “I’m not playing the game by your rules, Gabe.” Dean used the Eldara’s proper name rather than name him as a father anymore. “You said I make my own choices. Fine. I choose to stop this fight from happening. There will be no final battle at all. If that battle happens here and now, in this city and around it, thousands, perhaps millions, will die. Many more will be injured. That is unacceptable.”

  “Once events start down a path, Dean, they may not be altered,” Gabe said. “This is a prophecy told long before you or even I.”

  “James said the Agents of Chaos have come before and they’ve been stopped and send back to hell. If it can be done once, it can be done again, without the end of the world happening alongside it.”

  “Dean…” Gabe started to say.

  “Don’t tell me it can’t be done. Go back to where you came from Gabe and tell the powers that that be that I’m not playing their game or by their rules. They can have their war to end all wars somewhere else and at some other time.”

  A memory of something else came to him and he added on more thing before leaving.

  “I almost forgot. A gnome by the name of Alfonse told me he needs to speak with you. I told him I’d deliver that message to my father if I ever met him. I never thought I’d have to pass it along.”

  Dean shrugged and tugged on Jaz’s hand.

  “Come on. I don’t have anything else to say to this angel of bad tidings.”

  Jaz holstered her pistol and gave Dean a reassuring smile, nodding. He noted a hint of worry in her eyes when they met his but he also saw the support she sent him. He was more grateful for it than she knew.

  Together they turned their backs on Gabe and walked towards the far shore, leaving the Eldara standing alone on the bridge behind them.

  * * *

  “Well, that went well,” Ingrid chuckled as she landed on the bridge beside Gabe, tucking her white-feathered Valkyrie wings against her back as they faded from view. “If there was ever any doubt whose child he was, that stubborn streak proves it’s you, cousin.”

  Gabe watched Dean and Jaz disappear into the darkness at the far end of the bridge.

  “It’s possible I miscalculated some in how I revealed myself to him.”

  “You think?”

  “You would’ve chosen a different path?” Gabriel asked.

  “This isn’t ancient times or even the middle ages, Gabriel. You can’t just show up and flash your aura and expect to get blind obedience. It might suffice to get you into some woman’s bed but most of the people of this time want explanations. They need to understand the choices they face before they’ll adhere to the will of the gods.”

  Gabriel felt his shoulders sag a little. He’d been so confident Dean would welcome him with open arms after never knowing his father. He’d not anticipated the vitriolic response from the boy.

  “What would you recommend, Ingrid?”

  “He needs to talk with someone he trusts, someone with whom he’s confided before.”

  Gabe nodded. “Someone like your sister.”

  Ingrid’s shock registered as she shot him a glance.

  “I was thinking of myself, but Ashley — is that even possible? She’s still regenerating her corporeal form after her body died during the kidnapping. It’ll be years before she’s able to return.”

  “There are ways to speed up that process. It’s open only to the most powerful of us, and it is not without its own risks. Still, this situation warrants risk, does it not?”

  The Valkyrie nodded.

  “Then I have an important request to make up above. Let’s see what I can do to expedite your sister’s return to this plane.”

  Chapter 10

  Dean stared out the SUV’s passenger window. He and Jaz hadn’t said a word to each other since they left the footbridge in the park.

  His hand traced the lump of the jewelry box in the pocket of his jeans. He’d planned everything. He’d thought out every aspect of what he would say, imagining Jaz’s response of surprise, joy, and eventually saying yes to his request to marry her.