Book six of the Extreme Medical Services series opens with one of the most economically effective scene-setting chapters in the entire run: Dean and Barry arrive at a funeral home to find multiple people streaming out with bite wounds, a zombie still loose inside, and no police backup. The call type is “multiple victims of an assault.” The reality is considerably worse.

For readers who love urban fantasy thrillers where the supernatural threat escalates quickly and the procedural response is immediate, chapter 1 of The Paramedic’s Nemesis delivers exactly that combination. Dean and Barry are now genuine equals — no more probie dynamic — and watching them divide responsibilities at a chaotic multi-casualty scene with calm efficiency is one of the payoffs of following a character’s competence arc across six books.

The returning villain readers have been waiting for

Chapter 1 saves its most important reveal for the villain POV buried inside it: Artur, the ancient vampire who has been orchestrating chaos in Elk City since book three, is back. He was at the funeral personally. He used a relic — the detached finger of an ancient Eldara warrior — to animate the corpse of Gladys McKellin right in her casket during her own viewing. For readers who love urban fantasy series with a persistent, intelligent antagonist who thinks in centuries rather than weeks, Artur’s return is the hook the chapter hangs everything on. He is not impulsive. He plans. And his plans involve a “zombie horde” that would force a final confrontation between the human and Unusual communities of Elk City.

The relic as a new type of threat

The Occulus relic — the severed ring finger of an ancient heavenly warrior — is the book’s central supernatural MacGuffin, and it is introduced with exactly the right level of mythological specificity. It can control the undead and create new ones from the freshly dead. It needs time to recharge between uses. It is the kind of precisely defined supernatural weapon that makes urban fantasy world-building feel internally consistent, and readers who love series that track their rules carefully will appreciate the care taken here to establish the relic’s limits alongside its powers.

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CHAPTER TEXT

The Paramedic’s Nemesis — Chapter 1

Paramedic Dean Flynn walked into work ready for another night on the ambulance at Station U, the team of paramedics that served the creatures of myth and legend making up the Unusual community in Elk City. No sooner had he dropped his backpack on the break room table when the tones sounded from the overhead speakers for the first ambulance call of the night. He sighed. Dean had been a little late getting in today, so there’d be no time for dinner tonight before the shift. It was a shame, but that was the life of the working paramedic. Their live-in zombie chef, Freddy, would keep dinner warm for him until he returned in a few hours. His partner, Barry, had arrived early enough to wolf down what looked like an amazing Pasta Bolognese before their shift started. Dean waved at the departing day shift and headed to the ambulance bay with Barry.

“Do you want me to drive?” Barry asked.

“No, I’ll drive. You can have the first run tonight.” As full partners now, Dean and Barry divided the workload for their ambulance calls. They’d alternate who took the lead all night so they’d each get an equal chance to manage individual patients. Even with their unique and Unusual patients at Station U, most 911 calls were routine. Even the creatures of myth and legend got regular chest pain and had trouble breathing after an asthma attack.

The dispatcher’s voice sounded from the speakers as the two paramedics climbed inside the ambulance. “Paramedic U-191, respond to 1327 Central Avenue for multiple victims of an assault. Unknown at this time if the assailant is still on scene or not.”

Barry picked up the mic from the center console and keyed it to answer. “U-191 responding. Confirm if the police are responding as well?”

“Police units are responding but may be delayed due to an additional incident across town,” the female dispatcher’s voice replied.

There were special police units assigned to respond to Unusuals who needed law enforcement assistance as well. If there were some mythical creature rampaging and attacking people, it’d be good to have knowledgeable police officers there to back them up while they took care of any victims. Most of the human residents of Elk City were unaware of the true nature of their Unusual neighbors. Most Unusuals kept a low profile preferring to live quietly among the humans of the city.

Dean pulled the ambulance out of the bay, checking to make sure the garage doors were closing behind him before he pulled out onto the street and headed off to the scene of the incident.

“We need to stay on our toes, Barry. It could be anything.”

“Agreed.”

Dean had been Barry’s training officer until a few months ago, and he still slipped into instructor mode. The new Station U paramedic had lots of experience with human patients, even more time on the street in total than Dean did. But Dean had gained a lot of knowledge about their special class of patients in his short time on the Station U ambulance, and he had worked to bring the more experienced medic up to speed. Barry was a quick study, and he quickly passed his Station U probationary period, graduating to equal status with Dean.

It took them seven minutes to get to the address the dispatcher gave them. Dean pulled the ambulance into the parking lot of a funeral home. People were streaming out through the doors into the lot. Some of them were clutching bleeding wounds. Dean looked around for signs that police had arrived but saw no flashing blue and red lights that signaled law enforcement units were on the scene. He should have checked before they got to the location so they could stage at a safe distance. It was too late now, though. The injured funeral home visitors saw the flashing red and white lights of the ambulance as Dean pulled into the parking lot and started moving in their direction.

“It looks like the assailant is still inside from the way they are all running out of there. Let’s set up here, and we’ll start treating the ones in the parking lot until police arrive,” Dean suggested.

“Sounds like a plan,” Barry agreed. He unlatched his seatbelt and popped open his door to jump down and start pulling out supplies to treat whatever traumatic wounds the victims had.

Dean knew that often, in the case of an Unusual attack, it would be bite or claw wounds. Usually, they were not too serious as far as wounds went. The problems came from the magical side effects such bites tended to have. Every creature that bit humans could cause different problems. That made it necessary to identify the type of attacker as soon as possible so they could initiate counter-measures. There were herbal extracts and simple vaccinations that could treat most Unusual bites if they caught the victims in time.

Hopping out of the driver’s side, Dean turned and reached back inside the cab and switched on the perimeter floodlights that lit the area all around the ambulance. It was just getting dark outside, and they were going to need the light to assess any significant number of patients tonight. It would also help them spot any potential attacker mixed in with the retreating human victims. On the way to the rear of the ambulance, Dean got out their emergency bites kit from a compartment on his side of the unit which had all the vaccines and herbal extracts he might need for whatever was attacking people. He jogged around to the back of the unit to open the back doors and prep for receiving their first patients. Judging from the people streaming across the parking lot, it wouldn’t take long.

A woman walked up assisting a middle-aged man in his early fifties. They were the first to arrive. Dean smiled at her, all while watching around and behind her for signs of any disturbance that could signal the arrival of the assailant. He wanted to be ready to defend himself if needed. He and Barry had both been inoculated against most of the infectious magics that Unusuals carried. That didn’t matter much if you didn’t survive the initial attack.

*   *   *

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 he had ever 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, though, 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.” She turned and walked away to fetch her car. Artur smiled. The evening had not been a total loss after all.

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