Chapter 3 steps away from Dean entirely to introduce one of the series’ most intriguing new figures: Joanna, a sharp, guarded woman with an eyepatch and twin pistols who’s clearly not from the world readers have come to know. When her motel room turns out to be occupied by Gabe, an archangel who happens to be Dean’s estranged father, the chapter reveals their relationship is layered with old grievances, careful manipulation, and a shared, urgent goal that Gabe doesn’t fully understand yet.

What makes this chapter so effective is how much it withholds while still moving the plot forward. Joanna insists Gabe pressure Dean into fixing something Dean started when he closed the interplanar portals, but she won’t explain why the timing matters so badly, and hints she’s operating from decades in the future are dropped with just enough specificity to intrigue without over-explaining. Her fear of Gabe recovering his full angelic power, and her quiet admission that she’s already killed his kind before, reframes the entire Eldara mythology the series has built so far.

The chapter closes on Joanna alone with an ancient tome on interplanar magic, the same book she used to travel back to this point in time, searching for the one path forward she’s willing to take. It’s a genuinely unsettling scene, not because of any action, but because of what it implies: whatever Joanna is planning, she believes it’s the only way to stop a war that kills billions, and she’s willing to manipulate an archangel and, indirectly, Dean himself to make it happen.

📖 Start Dean’s next case — get The Paramedic’s Sorceress on Jamie Davis’s site:

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The Paramedic’s Sorceress — Chapter 3

Joanna walked up the steps to the second floor of the motel and down the outdoor walkway to her door. She took the brass key from her pocket and slid it into the lock. She froze.

The door popped open on its own as soon as she’d inserted the key. She’d been sure to lock that door when she left, and there was supposed to be a do not disturb sign hanging on the knob. That guy at the front desk was going to get a piece of her mind if he let the maids clean the room after she specifically told him to leave it alone.

Leaving the key hanging in the doorknob, Joanna swept back the long, black duster she wore, reaching down with both hands to draw the twin pistols on her hips. Willing her night vision to engage, she stepped inside the darkened room, scanning from left to right, both pistols outstretched in front of her.

She’d only gone two steps before a voice behind the door spun her around to face the small table and chair there. “Goodness gracious, Granddaughter, is this any way to greet me when I go to the trouble of coming all the way down here to visit you?”

Joanna lowered the pistols, but only halfway. “What are you doing here, Gabriel?”

“You left a message you needed to speak to me.” He spread his arms and nodded at her. “Here I am.”

Joanna shook her head. “I told you I’d come to you. How did you find me?”

“It wasn’t that hard. I knew you didn’t have a lot of resources here in the past, so I figured you were staying somewhere like this dump.” He looked around, his lip curled up a little in disgust. “This is only the second one I checked. You’d be surprised how easy it is for people around here to remember a person like yourself. You’re quite striking, you know. The eyepatch in particular stands out.”

“I’ll have to have a talk with the clerk at the front desk. I paid a little extra to have some anonymity.”

“You’re a little hard for people to forget that way, Joanna. I made one mention of a woman with an eyepatch at the convenience store across the street and the guy practically fell over himself telling me all about your coming and going back to this motel.”

Joanna ground her teeth. So much for trying to fly under the radar. She had to wonder if anyone else had noticed she was in town. No one knew her back in this time and place, but she didn’t want to draw any attention to herself. She’d already taken too many risks as it was, and she had to limit contact with people connected with her in this reality.

“Relax,” Gabe said. He gestured at the chair across from him at the table. “I’m here, now. Tell me what it is you want.”

Declining a seat, Joanna said, “I want to find out why you haven’t leaned on Dean to get him to do what you’ve asked of him.”

“It’s not that easy. He doesn’t like to hear from me on the best of days. Now that he owes me something, he avoids me like I want money from him.”

“Then you need to go see him instead of coming here. He made a deal and he’ll stick by it. You just have to lean on him a little.”

“Why is this so important to you? You’re acting like there’s some kind of hurry. Judging from your age, you’re at least 30 years in the past. Certainly, you have had plenty of time to do whatever it is you need to do.”

“Never mind about that. Just make a point to see Dean face to face and make sure he knows what you expect of him.”

“I’m not even sure he knows how to do what you want him to do.”

“What WE want him to do,” Joanna said. “This is in your interest, too, remember?”

“Tell me again why I want my son to do this?”

Joanna hesitated for just a second before continuing. “Are you happy with being stuck here on earth like this? I would think you’d want to be back in the heavenly planes where you belong.”

Gabe studied her, his eyes seeming to bore into her soul. Joanna held his gaze. She couldn’t let on how she was manipulating him. It was possible he suspected she was up to something. She could never let him know what the world became and how he had a part in that.

“I’ll reach out to Dean again as you ask. Maybe he’ll make some time to come see me. When he does, I will need to know the plan. Tell me what it is we want him to do. I’m still not sure how you expect him, of all people, to correct the error he made when he closed the portals.”

“You let me worry about that. I’ll have information on what he’s to do, but first we need him to commit to being ready when you send him instructions. He can’t avoid you. Understand?”

Gabe nodded. He got up from where he sat, turning to slip between Joanna and the table before stopping at the door. He glanced over his shoulder. “I don’t like it when humans try to trick me, girl. I know you’re up to something. When I figure out what it is, you’d better hope I don’t think you’re working against my best interest.”

Joanna said nothing.

Gabe nodded and left, pulling the door closed behind him. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath. She let it all out with a long sigh. Part of her hated just being around the archangel. She wanted to execute the Eldara every single time she saw him. It wouldn’t be a simple thing to do, but she’d killed his kind before. Now that he was grounded, she’d have a better chance than if he discovers how to recover most of his powers here on Earth. Once that happens, Joanna feared she’d never be able to stop what was to come. Right now, he was her only opportunity to fix things.

She moved to the window, looking out over the parking lot, she watched as Gabe climbed into his used sedan and drove off. She still enjoyed hearing the running of a car’s engine. Funny how things like cars, or even guns that still had ammunition were such common place objects in this world of the past. It had been so long since she’d seen either that it made her want to stay here, even though she knew that could never happen.

A thought occurred to Joanna. Gabe had been in here for some time before she got back. She got down on the floor to check under the bed. She relaxed when she spotted the package, still wrapped in plastic, sitting under there. Reaching for it, Joanna slid the bulky object out into the open. She stood and pulled the curtains closed before unwrapping the plastic. Taking great care, she lifted the leather-bound tome up to the table and flipped it open. She stared at the ornate calligraphy before turning to the position marked by a slip of paper.

Gabe was right about one thing. She did not know exactly what it was she needed her father to do. All she knew was that Dean had started this process and, given her understanding of magic and how it worked, he was the only one who could set things right. She sat down and leaned forward, studying the ancient tome on the history of magic and interplanar travel. This was the book she’d first used to come up with her spell to return to this time and place. Now it was the book that hopefully held the answer to how she would get her father to save the world from a war that would kill billions.

It was almost dawn when Joanna found what she was looking for. At first, she didn’t want to believe what it said had to happen. She considered searching the book again to see if there was any other way to go about this. Shaking her head, she realized that would only delay the inevitable. This was the only way, and there was a sort of circular synergy to it.

A plan formed in her mind as she sorted out how she was going to get this done. Getting up and stretching a little, Joanna moved to the bed, laying out a towel on the patterned bedspread. As she usually did when confronting troublesome problems, Joanna found it relaxed her to clean her weapons. While she was thinking about how to get this all to work, she disassembled both her pistols and began cleaning them.

Joanna reassembled both before beginning again. She went through this process three times before she slid both weapons in their holsters and set them aside. She got up and walked into the bathroom to stare into the mirror once again.

“Am I really going to do this?”

The face on the other side said nothing in reply, and she shook her head. There’d always been a fear of what she’d discover once she got back here. All she could do now was face up to it and try to get a few hours of sleep before she put things into motion. Waiting for a better plan wasn’t an option. She was already almost out of time. She pulled the burner phone from her pocket and tapped out a message to Gabe so he could get the ball rolling.

📖 Loved Chapter 3? Keep going — get The Paramedic’s Sorceress on Jamie Davis’s site:

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