Page Peeks is a new feature here at The Happy Booker where readers can glimpse inside new and upcoming releases. Today’s spotlight is on Healer by B.N. Toler.
About the book:
Healer
by B.N. Toler
Paperback, 237 pages
Published July 15th 2013
Now just 99 cents for Kindle!
There is a balance in life most know nothing about. Some are put here to simply exist, while others have been placed here to ensure life. Healers, such as Aldo Lawson understand the power of their gift, although at times, it seems more a curse. Upon meeting a handsome young healer named Thomas, Aldo's life heads into a tailspin. With his arrival, Aldo's aunt, the woman who raised her, is forced to share a hard and scary truth--vampires exist. And not only do they exist, but they thirst for healer blood.
Despite this new and frightening information, Aldo longs for a normal senior year, and she's determined to have it. So close to achieving her goal, her world is turned upside down when her aunt is murdered and Thomas disappears. Riddled with questions, she sets out to find him.
Submerged in a world filled with sex and danger, Aldo hopes to find the vampires that will lead her to Thomas. When they find her first, she is forced to piece together truths, deal with her pain, and finds that not everything is what it seems.
Excerpt:
one
The road which has led me here has been long and tiresome. I wonder sometimes if I could have changed my path or was my journey destined. Was it fate? Fate is such a funny word. Some may see it as a romantic, whimsical term, but I see it differently. For starters, if fate is real, then we really don’t have any control over our own lives. I try not to think of it that way, but where I come from it seems real. For being twenty-four years old, I probably sound pretty cynical, and I guess I am to some degree. I was forced to learn hard truths early in my life. I’m talking about truths that would rock some people to their core. Truth. That’s another funny word. Some would say the truth will set you free. That’s just funny.
My Aunt’s yellow station wagon backfired as I pulled into the parking lot of the Dollar General. Two girls about my age pointed and laughed as I drove by them. Bitches. I parked the yellow beast, as my brothers and I called it, in the back of the lot, away from other cars, partly out of embarrassment and partly because I had a hard time parking the damn thing.
I emerged from the car, checked my back pocket for the five dollar bill Lucy had given me to purchase poster board for an English project, and smiled at the little girl bouncing a big pink ball on the side walk. There are moments in life that occur in the blink of an eye, yet as you watch them; it seems they play out in slow motion. I heard somewhere, that when something crazy is happening, such as an accident, a brain area called the amygdala, thank you Discovery Channel, becomes more active, making us believe it happens in slow motion.
I was frozen as I watched the ball escape the little girl’s reach, her step off the sidewalk after it, and the green F150 slam her down like a deer on a back country road. In my mind, I yelled to her, to stop her, but I can’t be sure if the words really came out or not. I was somewhat in shock and somewhat annoyed. I hate impromptu healings. I can’t deny, a large part of me wanted to get back into my car and leave, but I couldn’t. Not when such a young life hung in the balance.
I ran to the girl and fell to my knees beside her, glancing up momentarily to see her mother on the other side of her, lost in a fit of sobs and tears. The girl’s body was twisted, her face pale, and her pigtails lay perfectly fanned out against the pavement. She looked as if she were made of porcelain—a fragile, empty vessel made of clay. I focused, closed my eyes and listened for her energy. The sound of vibrations and pitches immediately filled my ears, and I heard her energy fading. Healers, like me, can hear energy through vibrations and pitches. The two were consistent, which told me she could be saved.
I darted my eyes in every direction, focused on the hunt for a source. Every face my eyes met, I zoned in and listened to the energy that radiated from them. Healing at the snap of a finger is tricky, especially given her level of injury. To heal a person, I have to pull energy from someone and transfer it. When I pull energy, I must find the perfect source to pull from. Ideally, I would keep a young, healthy sixteen to twenty-five year old in my back pocket at all times, but unfortunately I can’t do that.
I stared down at the small child, while I assessed the nearby energy sources. The child’s mother had her face buried in her hands, lost in despair. She looked about thirty-five, but I eliminated her as an option because the little girl would need her when she came to. The young driver who hit the girl looked fairly young, strong, and strapping, I wagered he was maybe twenty. He would do. Pulling from the ideal source won’t hurt them, but it can make them feel fatigued. I eyed the driver once more as he knelt beside me and decided he would be my source.
My soon to be energy source and I set about gently stretching the young girl’s limp body out as I listened for his energy. How could I touch him subtly, so I could assess a connection? It doesn’t take a constant touch to make a connection, just a simple touch. I could have pulled energy without touching him, but that would’ve required too much focus, and I would have unwisely wasted crucial time establishing a mental connection.
I was about to touch the young man, when he touched me, very briefly on the shoulder.
Our eyes met and I felt a connection, but not one I had made. Suddenly, I felt as if my energy was being sucked out of me through a vacuum tube. This had never happened to me.
I was momentarily paralyzed with shock, unable to react in any way as panic ran rapid within me. I watched the young man touch the girl and I could hear her strength start to regain.
He was healing her. He was pulling from me and saving her. I was the ideal source.
He pulled fast and strong. Way too fast. Maybe he was a rookie or panicked, as he was the one who hit the little girl.
Dizziness swarmed my head like a hive of bees, so I pulled back as hard as I could, afraid he may drain me unconscious.
His pull snapped like a rip cord. His head whipped towards me. His eyes rounded, and his mouth opened in shock. Our eyes met, and an eternity seemed to pass as we recognized each other for what we were.
I tore my eyes away, returning my attention to the small child, who lay still as a lake after a storm. I immediately regretted cutting the connection. Without another thought, I grabbed the girl’s arm and pushed my own energy into her.
As I blacked out and my body hit the concrete with a thud, I remember thinking; Lucy is going to kill me.
When I woke up, I lay on a gurney in front of an ambulance. Someone held my arm and vibrations tingled through my body.
The man who had tried to steal my energy, smiled at me. He was healing me, or more like re-energizing me. Out of sheer shock, I jerked my arm away.
He recoiled.
Ma’am, please lay down. Your blood pressure is very low.” The hefty, black paramedic pushed slightly against my shoulders.
“No. I’m alright. It’s normally low, and I get woozy around blood. Is the little girl okay?”
“She will be,” the energy thief reassured me, speaking to me as if he knew me. We eyed each other briefly as we tried to size each other up, but the paramedic interrupted by demanding my attention again.
“Yeah, she’s going to make it. She’s on her way to the hospital now. Please lay back down.”
“No, really; I’m fine.” I threw my legs over the side of the gurney and slid off.
“She’s good; trust me,” the handsome young man assured her.
“Whatever,” she rolled her eyes and wheeled the gurney away.
I turned to address the young man, but before I could, a tall, female officer approached me with questions. Twenty minutes later, she released me, after I had answered all of her questions and provided all of my contact information.
Feeling so weak a light breeze could have blown me over; I slowly dragged myself to my car. I could get the poster board later. I climbed into the driver’s seat and shut the door. I sat for a brief moment while I sorted my thoughts, before I lay my head on the steering wheel. The afternoon’s events left me fatigued, but much to my surprise, I was also excited. I had met another healer. Well, technically I didn’t meet him, but I knew for sure that other healers existed. I never knew anyone else like myself or my family. It never even occurred to me there could be someone like us, despite my Aunt Lucy’s stories about our people. I don’t know why, it just didn’t. I guess I thought we were like The Last Of The Mohicans or something.
I sat up and thought about the young man’s gorgeous brown eyes. I needed to know him, but how? I didn’t even know his name.
About the Author
B N Toler is a happily married, mother of three who lives in Virginia. She enjoys reading and lives for a good book she can’t put down. HEALER is her first self-published novel, and she is currently working on part two of the HEALER series, HYBRID, available in 2014.
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