Page 1 of The Healer and the Vampire
CHAPTER ONE
“Get back in there and take care of it, Conrad. Nobody has time for your little temper tantrum. Finish it and you damn well better do it right or I'll make you wish you had." Conrad sat on the back porch of the large house and stared out into the thick trees and bushes that filled the acres beyond the expansive, manicured lawn.
The place belonged to a rich woman with issues, and they were issues that his brother Patrick promised her Conrad could cure. Patrick considered himself a mover and shaker, and he had big ideas and plans. Those plans would eventually bleed Conrad dry mentally and emotionally, but Patrick had financial goals, and he didn't care who paid the price.
"They paid me a lot of money, Conrad, and I am not going to return it, so get the fuck back in that fucking house this fucking minute." Patrick grabbed him by the back of his collar and jerked him to his feet. "If you humiliate me, Conrad, I will kill you." He hissed and tightened his grip on his collar, making him cough and gag for air.
"Kill me, and your money train goes off the tracks." Conrad shot back sarcastically.
“If you’re not working, I make no money, so I might as well kill you," Patrick answered. Their cousins Lonny and Jim rushed out when Patrick called to them. “Take him inside and make it look casual.” He didn’t want to upset their client.
They each took one of his arms and led him back inside, where the lady of the house was sitting with their Aunt Lydia, Lonny, and Jim's mother. "There he is." She said with a lilt to her voice, although Conrad noticed the daggers she shot at him. "He just needed to go out and collect himself for a second, but he's back and he's ready, aren't you dear?" Her words were sharp, but the client interpreted them as kind. Aunt Lydia was not kind, and she was not nice, but she could act.
“Yes, ma’am.” Conrad was angry and fed up with it all, but he wasn’t stupid. There was no sense in blowing things up in this manner, and not in this nice lady’s house.
"Remi Toulouse, the Director of Coven Intelligence." Alpha Henrik introduced him to the new front desk manager of the Indigo Hotel. The Hotel was owned and operated by the Bay Harbor Wolf Pack, but many vampires from the Old Mission Coven also worked there, along with other shifter breeds. Alpha Henrik hired based on loyalty and skill, not species, which was quite progressive for the paranormal world.
Remi was loaned to the wolves by Master Emmanuel Cabot to help upgrade their security measures based out of the Hotel. The Pack had experienced an attack that had shaken them a little, and they were overhauling all of their security throughout their land and businesses. Alpha Henrik had enlisted several specialists to secure their holdings.
The Coven had experienced a similar attack on the same night, but the Coven had held them off due to theextensive security and surveillance measures utilized by Master Emmanuel. Alpha Henrik decided to accept the Master's offered assistance to help secure the Indigo, which was a major holding of the Bay Harbor Wolf Pack.
Remi would stay at the Indigo for the next few days, bringing everything up to the highest standards used by the Coven. He was given a nice room on the fourth floor and open access to the bar and restaurants. Everyone seemed welcoming, but there was a distinct coolness in the air when meeting the front desk staff.
The new manager, Trevor Rand, a wolf shifter, had worked his way up from a guest service attendant to manager, which was commendable. He seemed competent upon first glance, and their handshake was friendly, but his assistant, Jason Douglas, a fox shifter, was a different story.
Remi had met Jason earlier, and the man had a strangeness to him, nothing menacing, just suspicious. But hotel staff assessments were not what they wanted from him, so Remi dismissed the thought and focused on the job at hand. If Douglas was a problem, the Pack would figure it out fast enough.
Jason stood off to Trevor's left, watching the interaction with particular interest. Remi decided to keep a subtle eye on the man and his actions. Unlike his boss, Douglas was an outside hire, having worked previously at a family-owned restaurant. He turned and looked at Douglas pointedly, and the man immediately looked away awkwardly.
"We'll get you set up in the surveillance office, and my men will give you a briefing on protocol and the systems that we currently utilize." Henrik led the way. "Your contact person will be Koa, who is the head of Hotel security." Remi listened and followed Alpha Henrik into the surveillance office. There, heintroduced him to Koa, a large wolf with a friendly smile and a very welcoming handshake.
"Javier and Shasha both extolled the benefits and exactness of the Coven system, and I look forward to learning all that I can." Koa took his hand. "I'm pleased to meet you, Remi. I've heard a lot of good things about you."
"Pleased to meet you, too, Koa, and I will strive to live up to your expectations." Remi smiled.
"Can't ask for more than that." Koa returned the smile, and in that moment, Remi realized that of all the wolves he'd met, Koa was hands down his favorite. He was built tall and solid as a tank, an obvious threat, and yet he operated with a natural effortlessness and approachability that put everyone around him at ease. It wasn't long before Remi had a good working knowledge of their system and began to examine and review for changes and upgrades.
Remi headed up to his room following an afternoon of picking apart the Hotel surveillance and security protocol. He was going to meet Javier, one of Alpha Henrik's enforcers, for dinner at Peno's in an hour. He was going to bring his mate Sasha as well. Remi was well acquainted with Javier's mate, Sasha, a skillful Mage. Sasha's grandfather had been instrumental in designing the Coven's border security.
He looked forward to catching up with Sasha and tossing around a few ideas with him in regard to the Hotel security. As he made his way down the hall to his room #412, he noticed a silence that seemed unnatural to him. It was like the very air stood still around him. Remi stopped and took in the hallway in front of him and behind, and the doors on either side, but nothing stood out as important.
After a few minutes, he started walking again, and the atmosphere lightened, but he continued to experience a sense of something off, or rather, simply strange. It didn't feel bad, just extra was the only word that seemed to fit.
Perhaps it was just a reaction to the Hotel in general. The Hotel was a very public place with dozens upon dozens of different lives and personalities passing through. He probably just picked up on an event or a desperate moment from the past. He decided to forget about it; he didn't have time to analyze his feelings. Remi found his room and quickly closed the door on anything extra.
Conrad returned to the living room and to the woman sitting in her overstuffed chair, clutching the front of her sweater, striking an anxious pose. She shifted her eyes to him as soon as he stepped close and sat on the stool directly in front of her. He smiled that well-rehearsed smile and reached out for her hand. She gave it readily.
He glanced over at his Aunt Lydia, who was seated to the lady's right in a folding chair, and then beyond to where Patrick stood in the doorway with his arms crossed, looking as unpleasant as ever. There was a man standing beside him who hadn't been there before. Conrad stared at him for a moment but then turned his attention back to the client.
"Can you help me?" She asked in a weak voice.
"Yes, I can help you." He responded, and then for the next few minutes, he held her hand and concentrated on what she was asking. His family assumed he was a fraud, but a talented fraud that could be used and manipulated for their own ends. They didn't believe the stories or the evidence; they only believed in the cash.
He was important to them because he had a reputation that was growing among the upper class; they had money, and Patrick liked money almost as much as Aunt Lydia. That woman would pistol-whip her own mama if someone paid her. This shtick, as they called it, started when Conrad was fifteen years old, and he happened to be seen healing a beagle puppy that had been injured by a car. They figured it wasn't as hurt as it seemed, but saw a way to spin that act into a thriving scam of sorts.
Conrad knew what he could do and had successfully hidden it from those around him until that moment on the road with the little beagle. They still didn't know the extent of what he could do, only that desperate people believed and would pay them for relief or hope. Conrad was not a fake, and he was not scamming anyone. When he healed, they were healed, but he couldn't heal everyone. There were limits to what the universe had gifted him.
The woman in front of him was not ill; her issues were psychological, brought on by stress and loneliness, but his family wanted theater, so he had to put on a proper show. He bowed his head, mumbled a few nonsensical things, and then threw his head back and let his eyes roll back in his head.
