Chapter 2 of The Paramedic’s Hunter hands the reader exactly what chapter 1’s cliffhanger promised — a second POV, this time from Jaz, the demon hunter who has been tracking the Oni since her clan’s oracle first detected it. Readers who enjoy dual-perspective urban fantasy, where the antagonist’s pursuer turns out to be just as compelling as the protagonist, will find Jaz an immediately magnetic addition to the cast.

Hunter clans and anti-magic lore readers are drawn to

Jaz belongs to the Errington clan, a family of monster hunters armed with a blessed katana, a silver-and-arsenic-loaded pistol, and a triple amulet that masks her heat signature and scent from supernatural prey. For readers who love urban fantasy series that build out an entire anti-magical or hunter-class faction — the humans who exist specifically to fight back against the supernatural — this chapter delivers exactly that kind of fully realized worldbuilding. Jaz’s contempt for the “Unusual-loving paramedics” of Station U, whom she privately compares to tree-huggers, gives the reader an outsider’s skeptical view of the very institution the series has spent three books making lovable.

Why readers love the “she doesn’t know she just saved the hero” trope

The action climax of the chapter is a single, silent, decisive blade strike — Jaz beheading the Oni demon in one stroke just as it lunges for Dean’s unprotected back. Dean never sees the kill happen. He only catches a glimpse of a “small blonde woman with a sword” in his side mirror as he drives away. For readers who love near-miss rescues where the hero remains unaware of how close they came to death, and the rescuer remains a mystery the protagonist cannot shake, this chapter executes the trope with real elegance.

“You two are tied together” — the line that sets up the rest of the book

The chapter closes with Yamo, the Hakutaku husband, confirming to Dean that he saw the hunter too, and warning him that hunters “live by their own code” and rarely associate with anyone who befriends Unusuals. For readers who love prophecy-adjacent dialogue that promises a future alliance between characters who shouldn’t trust each other, this is the exact kind of hook that turns a single chapter into an unmissable setup for the rest of the book.

✚  Meet Jaz the hunter — get The Paramedic’s Hunter on Jamie Davis’s website.Get the Book →

CHAPTER TEXT

The Paramedic’s Hunter — Chapter 2

Jaz had been tracking this particular demon since her clan’s oracle had detected its manifestation two days before. The small blonde hunter clanswoman shifted in her hiding place as she took in the scene in front of her. She was careful to make no sound. She crouched next to the bushes at the house’s corner. Jaz had been too late to stop the attack on the Hakutaku woman and she didn’t understand why the Oni had stopped short of killing the Japanese healing spirit, or her husband. Instead, the creature had moved to watch from a distance as the man wailed and cried over his injured wife.

This was very strange behavior for such a demon, and something that should be observed. She was close enough to see it on the roof above her. Maybe she could teach the other hunters in her clan something new about the Oni. Usually this type of demon was a blood-thirsty ravening animal and never stopped short of killing its target. They didn’t stop unless they were killed first. That meant one of two things to Jaz – this demon had been driven back by some charm on the couple in the yard. The old man had manifested some sort of light magic in defense. She had seen that. The second option was that these two were not the creature’s target.

The hunter thought back to her instructions, given to her by her father when he sent her out, alone. “Track this creature and when you have the opportunity, make the kill, fast and from hiding. The Oni are treacherous and not to be trifled with.” She had already known that. Jaz had seen a lot in her twenty-two years.

She had asked why she was being sent out alone. She wondered if the creature was so dangerous, shouldn’t a full strike team be used to kill it? All he would say was that the oracle had said it must be her, alone, to undertake this hunt. The whole situation was very strange. The strangeness continued as she started tracking it around Elk City two nights ago. The creature had made no kills on the previous nights’ prowling. It was like it was searching for something or someone and hadn’t found what it was looking for. The Oni, like many demons, was weakened by the daylight so it holed up somewhere in the city during the day. When it went to ground in the daytime, she lost the trail and had to wait until it surfaced again the next night. After it left its lair tonight, she had tracked it here and thought there was finally an opportunity to strike it down. They were away from the crowds of people that were always nearby in a congested city. Hunters must always try to hide their kills from the public they protected. The ignorant humans could not become aware of how close to death and damnation they were, each and every day, with monsters and demons all around them.

Jaz had tracked the creature here, and the strange behavior continued with the non-killing of the Hakutaku couple. What was this Oni demon up to? She double-checked her triple amulet, a three-sided pendant hanging on a chain around her neck to make sure it contacted skin. The amulet performed three simple magics to help her on her hunt. It masked her heat signature, since most of her prey could see into the infrared spectrum. It reduced her scent from those who might be able to sense her presence by smell. The amulet also allowed her to see nearly as well as any Unusual creature or demon in the night’s near-total darkness. It was not perfect night vision, but it was better than any other human would be able to see on a moonless night like this.

Jaz checked her weapons to make sure all were at hand. The Glock semi-automatic pistol holstered on her left hip was of little use with this particular demon. The bullets loaded in the magazine were infused with silver and arsenic. Those projectiles would slow it down a little bit, until it regenerated. They were more suited to taking down various shape-shifters and vampires. The small Bowie knife sheathed on her right hip was blessed by a priest, and had been tempered in both holy oil and holy water. That would do the job, but she was loath to get in that close. Those talons looked wicked sharp. She had seen the wounds caused by them on the woman on the lawn. That would leave the katana across her back. She preferred it anyway, truth to be told. It gave her a bit of reach beyond the arm’s length of the demon’s claws. It was also a holy blade, blessed like the Bowie, but more significant because of the additional power it held. It linked to her very soul and drew power from her life force. Every hunter in the Errington clan was gifted with one such blade upon their coming of age at thirteen years old. It gave the Errington hunters stamina and power few other humans could match. Her blade had been with her ever since and she would have felt naked without it.

The peal of an ambulance siren tore her from her consideration of her weapons and Jaz checked her quarry. The ambulance was likely one of those from Elk City’s vaunted Station U. Those Unusual-loving paramedics were always out and about in the city, caring for anyone of the underworld’s denizens who called for help. Jaz knew that not all Unusuals were evil. Most weren’t, if she allowed herself the truth of it. What she hated was that so many of them tolerated those of their number who were evil, those who had done wrongs to humans. She snorted quietly. Those paramedics from Station U were relegated to a group that included the tree-huggers and rabid animal-rights types in her mind.

Jaz watched the demon vigilantly. She expected it to leave the area with all the attention and noise coming to the home with the ambulance. It didn’t move back from the roof’s peak but leaned forward, as if with anticipation. That was strange. Observing the Oni’s behavior as it watched the ambulance arrive, she noticed it tense and heard a small snarl coming from its position on the roof. Looking back at the ambulance, she saw that one of the paramedics, the driver, had come around the back of the vehicle just then. Could he be the real target of this creature? She settled back into her hiding spot and watched the scene as the paramedics set to work on trying to save the injured Hakutaku woman on the lawn. The demon watched as well.

The huntress was impressed with the efficiency and professionalism of the two paramedics. Even though they were caring for unusual creatures, they treated their patient no differently than she would have seen if the patient were human. Strange that they took so easily to helping the creatures living unseen beside their human neighbors. Jaz had been taught all her life that, while some Unusuals could be tolerated and even worked with, none of them were to be trusted. She watched while they stopped the woman’s profuse bleeding and bandaged her wounds. Then the driver went back to the ambulance on the street and retrieved the wheeled stretcher, taking it back to the patient.

Jaz shifted her gaze to check on the Oni on the rooftop. It was definitely tracking the movements of the driver, ignoring the other three potential targets. She had never heard of an Oni demon leaving a kill unfinished, let alone using one attack to lure its actual target into range of a later attack. Whoever had conjured the demon and controlled it must be very strong. Controlling such a demon reliably from any distance was close to impossible by everything Jaz understood about the process. She didn’t know of any human conjurer who would possess such power. The demon was clearly waiting for something. Jaz wanted to know what it was waiting for.

The team of paramedics packed up their patient and rolled her to the ambulance. Jaz watched as one of the paramedics directed the woman’s husband to climb into the passenger seat while they loaded his wife into the back of the ambulance. When the paramedics loaded up the woman and the one paramedic climbed into the back with her, the driver shut the door. That was when the Oni moved.

Jaz heard the sound of the rushing attack before she saw anything. The sound of the creature’s claws, scrabbling down the roof’s shingles, was her first warning. Damn, that thing was fast. Jaz reached over her shoulder, drawing her katana. She sprinted from cover to try to catch the demon as it bounded on all fours towards the back of the ambulance. The huntress caught up to the creature in the street, just as the paramedic driver turned the corner towards the front of the ambulance. It was springing forward to sweep at the paramedic’s back with its extended claws. Jaz leapt forward in one last, desperate bound, her blade coming down and across beheading the demon in a single silent, slicing blow. The magical blade, which never needed sharpening, blessed by God, banished this demon back to hell with a single stroke.

The demon’s head bounced once on the pavement before the head and body turned to a red mist, glowing in the brake lights of the ambulance, leaving Jaz standing in the street watching the emergency vehicle pull away. She wondered who that paramedic was that made him the target of such an attack. She would have to report back to her father on this development. He would want to investigate further. She stood in the street a bit longer as the lights of the ambulance faded, then she moved back into the shadows and headed home.

*   *   *

Dean slid the ambulance into gear, checked to make sure his patient’s husband was belted in, then pulled away from the scene. He picked up the radio mic and notified headquarters they were on the way to the hospital. He was a little worried that the creature that had caused such a vicious attack was still out there. He made a mental note to notify James Lee, the vampire lord of Elk City about it, as well as the rest of the Station U paramedics. If one such attack happened, it was likely that more would happen soon.

As he drove away with his lights flashing, reflecting off the surrounding trees on this residential street, he shot a glance in the side view mirror. A small blonde woman with a sword stood there looking back at him. She wore all black, sported a pistol on her hip, and held her sword in a two-handed, Asian-style grip. She was illuminated only briefly by the ambulance’s taillights and rear emergency strobes while he pulled away from her, then she was hidden in shadow and gone from view.

Dean blinked to clear his vision. Had he seen what he thought he had seen? He had learned in the recent months with Station U to trust his own eyes and instincts. There were many strange things in the world out there. Lord knows, he had seen enough of them. From diabetic werewolves, to watching his former partner turned into a vampire in front of him, Dean Flynn had seen a lot of things never experienced by other humans. This woman with a sword should have been just another one of them, but something inside him told him that she was important. Somehow, someday, he knew he would see that woman again and he tried to remember her face, framed in blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail.

All the way to the hospital, especially every time he stopped the ambulance to check that an intersection was clear before proceeding through, Dean found himself checking his mirrors. By the time he got to the hospital trauma center, he wondered if he had imagined the whole thing. Then he was distracted by the work at hand as they unloaded their seriously injured patient and turned her over to the ECMC trauma team. Dean told Barry to start on the paperwork on the ambulance’s tablet computer, while he took the old man inside and showed him to the waiting area.

Yamo, the old Hakutaku man, took Dean’s hand as he turned to leave the waiting room after dropping the gentleman off there. Dean stopped and turned. The paramedic was sure the man was distraught about his wife’s condition.

“She was real,” Yamo said.

“What?” Dean asked. “Who was real?”

“The hunter girl,” Yamo said. “I saw her, too – in the mirror as we left. I think you two are tied together in some way. Beware, paramedic Dean Flynn. Hunters live by their own code, and they don’t easily associate with those who befriend Unusuals. You are tied, but for good or ill, I do not know.”

The Hakutaku man let go of his hand and returned his gaze to the door to the trauma rooms, waiting for word of his wife. Dean walked away, heading back to the ambulance bay at the hospital, thinking about what the man had said. If she was real, then what was she doing here in Elk City – and what was a hunter? Too many questions on top of his other worries. Dean sighed and walked back to meet up with his partner and put the ambulance back in service for the next call.

✚  Get the full Extreme Medical Services series — available now on Jamie Davis’s website.Get the Book →