Chapter 3 of The Paramedic’s Witch introduces the book’s central supernatural problem with a truck barreling directly at Dean on a city sidewalk. He freezes, time slows, and at the last moment Jaz yanks him backward by the collar of his jacket, saving his life for the second time. Readers who love urban fantasy plots structured around a cursed object spreading chaos through a city will find the setup here both elegant and immediately threatening.

The bad-luck curse as a ticking clock

Dean has accidentally touched a demonic idol — a jade figurine — that has placed him under a cloud of supernatural bad luck. Jo cast a protection spell to mitigate the worst of it, but as this chapter makes clear, “mitigate” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. The truck was real. The accident site where the remaining figurines are buried is causing a string of worker injuries that the foreman describes as “fluke accidents.” Readers who enjoy urban fantasy plots where the supernatural threat is diffuse and environmental — spreading outward through a community rather than targeting a single individual — will find this premise a satisfying change of pace from the more direct threats of earlier books.

Dean, Jaz, and Jo as a functioning trio

Chapter 3 is the first chapter where the three of them operate as a real investigative team. Jaz handles the contractor negotiation to get them access to the demolished building site. Jo uses her witch’s sight to scan the rubble for traces of the idols’ aura. Dean spots the pattern connecting the worker accidents to the supernatural cause. Each of them contributes something the others cannot — exactly the dynamic that urban fantasy readers search for when they look for “ensemble urban fantasy with each character having a defined role.” The trio works because none of them overlaps; they are genuinely complementary rather than redundantly capable.

Why the construction site works as a setting

The half-demolished remains of the Errington Security building is one of the most emotionally loaded locations in the series. It is where Jaz’s parents died, where her clan’s history was housed, and where the cursed idols were presumably stored before the explosion. Bringing the team back to search through the rubble puts Jaz in the position of grieving and working simultaneously — a combination that reveals character more efficiently than almost any other narrative device. Readers who have followed Jaz since book four will feel the weight of this setting immediately.

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CHAPTER TEXT

The Paramedic’s Witch — Chapter 3

Dean, Jaz and Jo left the apartment building and started the short, two-block walk to the burned out remains of the former Errington Security headquarters. They had just gotten to the intersection across the street from the site when a delivery truck swerved out of passing traffic. It hopped the curb heading straight for Dean. He wasn’t paying attention. He was going through some emails on his phone and looked up, startled by the noise and shouts, to see the truck barreling towards him. He couldn’t move. He just froze in place.

He tried to move out of the way, but felt like he was mired in glue. Then he felt an iron grip clamp onto the collar of his uniform jacket and yank him backwards out of the path of the out of control vehicle. He fell backward as he lost his balance, and landed on top of whoever had rescued him. He realized after a moment of struggle that it was Jaz.

“You can get off me now,” she said.

“Oh, sorry.” Dean rolled off of her onto the sidewalk and got back to his feet. He extended his hand to help her up, and after looking up from the ground for a moment, she took it and he helped her back to her feet. “Thanks for that. I couldn’t move. It was all going in slow motion, kind of like one of those dreams where you can’t get away, no matter how hard you try.”

“Dean you need to be more careful. I mean seriously, Jo and I told you that you’ve touched a demonic idol that will bring you bad luck. You would think that you’d be more aware of your surroundings when you know your luck is compromised.”

“I thought Jo’s spell solved that problem.” Dean looked at his daughter. “What was all that mumbo jumbo back in the apartment about if it wasn’t to protect me?”

“It was a protection spell, Dad, and it worked. Mom grabbed you and saved your life. You were lucky. That truck could have splattered you all over the sidewalk.”

Dean turned to look at where the truck had come to a stop just before crashing into one of the shops that lined the street. The store owner had come out and was shouting at the driver. Dean looked around to make sure no one else was injured. There didn’t appear to be any other casualties, just his own pride.

“Come on, Dean, we need to get over there and find the other two figurines before it’s too late,” Jaz said.

Dean joined the two women and together, after carefully checking that all oncoming traffic was stopped by the light, crossed the street to the newly erected construction fence that surrounded the remains of the Errington Security building. The three of them had to walk halfway down the block to get to the construction entrance where trucks and workers were coming and going from the site.

“Let me talk to the construction foreman when we get inside. They are pretty careful about anyone but their demolition workers coming on the site,” Jaz said once they got inside. She walked up to an office trailer nearby and went inside.

While she was inside, Dean and Joanna looked around as the workers went about their work knocking down the remaining brick walls. A front end loader was scooping up rubble and filling a dump truck nearby.

“Do you see anything, Jo? Any sign of the other figurines?”

“No. They could be covered by the rubble and wouldn’t show as easily, but I think I would still see the aura emanating from where they were.”

Jaz came out of the trailer, followed by a tall man in work khakis and a blue button-down shirt. He was wearing a white hard hat and carried two others. Jaz was putting a similar hard hat on, adjusting it for her ponytail.

“Guys, this is Joe Anderson, the construction foreman.”

Dean shook his hand and took the offered helmet, putting it on. Jo did the same.

“Yeah, we need to be careful,” the foreman said. “I’ve had three guys injured in the last three days by fluke accidents and the insurance inspectors are due here any minute. Everyone on the site has to wear their helmets and I have to ask you three to stay back from the work. I know you are looking for some personal effects and I’ve had my guys keeping an eye out. We’ve been putting whatever we find over in that storage trailer over there. If you’ll follow me.”

The three of them filled in behind him as he walked over to storage container trailer nearby. Dean brought up the rear and leaned forward so that his companions could hear him over the machinery. “Fluke accidents sounds like we have a confirmation that the other idols were here, right?”

“I was thinking the same thing, Dean. Jo, keep your eyes open.”

“I am, Mom. Nothing pops out to me so far.”

Joe unlocked a padlock and opened the other trailer. There were a few boxes and dusty items set on tables inside. There was no light in the trailer, just what streamed in the door.

“I’ll be outside if you need anything. I’ve got to keep an eye out for that inspector,” Joe said. He stepped outside the trailer and left the three of them to look through the piles of stuff.

Jaz went in first. To Dean, it seemed as if her steps were tense and deliberate, as if entering the remains of her family’s legacy required a private act of will each time. He followed quietly, giving her space, and let Jo slip in beside him to begin scanning the dusty shelves with her witch’s sight.

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