Black Bear Rising: A BWWM Paranormal Romance (Black Bear Saga Book 1) (15 page)

“You continue on that way and the road becomes a dirt one after a mile or so, and then it leads deep into the forest and connects the clan members who live solitary lives to the town. Do you want to turn back?” Anne asked.

Grace looked back down the road from atop the hill they had climbed, sun dappled the dark shadows of the overhanging trees and the shadows swayed back and forth with the movements of the breeze. The vantage point looked across the tree tops towards town on one side, behind her was the gentle slope as the elevation increased towards the mountain range. She could picture herself living here with Tom, the place seemed like a slice of paradise. Wide open spaces, fresh air in abundance and a feeling of community with the people in town. This would be a perfect place to. Anne cut her thought off and said, “I’ve seen that look before. You’re imagining your future here, maybe what it would be like to raise a family, how peaceful and unreal this slice of heaven seems.”

“How can you tell?” Grace asked.

“I saw the same look on my husbands face when I first brought him up here. We were only dating a week and I brought him up this road to a spot higher up to have a picnic in the woods. I remember stopping up here and he turned around and looked back over town like you are doing now. He had this lopsided goofy grin on his face as he surveyed the land. What is it I asked him? He turned to me, and I’ll always remember the look on his face, he said he was picturing growing old here, taking hikes up this hill with our children and our grand children. Tears had begun to sting my eyes as he said this to me. He got down on one knee pretty much where are standing now and proposed to me. We were married in town three weeks later, and it’s been twenty years together. The best years of my life. I told you we shifters and the humans we fall for have intense feelings,” Anne said wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.

Grace rubbed her eyes too, it was so beautiful she thought to herself. Everything about this place made her feel good and she could feel an ache in her heart at Toms absence. Anne threw her arms around Grace and hugged her tight.

“Don't worry about Tom. He's one of the best trackers this clan has ever seen. He can nearly sense danger before it even happens. He’ll have his team with him and be back from the border before you even know it. I know how separation from the one you love feels. In our first two weeks of dating we spent a total of three days apart. On those days I was despondent, with no energy and I felt grey. Thats the only way I could describe it. It felt like all the colour had been sucked out of me while he was gone. Once we were back together at the end of those three days apart we vowed never to do that again. We have never spent a night apart for more than twenty years now. I don't think I’d be able to handle it. If it really effects you especially at night you are more than welcome to call into my place and I can make up a bed for you to stay the night,” Anne said.

“You’re too kind,” Grace said. “Do you want to head back?” she asked Anne.

“Sure thing. The walk has worked up an appetite for some of Al’s waffles. I think I could eat a stack of them,” Anne said.

“I could do with some too. I didn't have anything to eat this morning I was in such a daze. I sat around thinking of Tom and staring into space for most of the morning. If you hadn’t of come and got me I would have spent the day in a funk,” Grace said.

“That’s what friends are for,” Anne said smiling.

They headed back down the hill towards town. The forest was silent as they passed by the thick foliage crowding the sides of the road. The air was cool as the sun was blocked out by the overhanging canopy of the trees. Anne stopped and sniffed the air her eyes wide. Her whole body stiffened as she moved her head side to side inhaling the air. “Whats wrong?” Grace asked.

“I don't know. Somethings not right. Lets get moving,” Anne said picking up the pace. They started to speed up and Grace could feel panic start to rise within her. What had Anne picked up that she hadn't Grace wondered. She could see the clearing ahead, another minute or two and they would be out of the forest.

Gravel crunched behind them and they both jumped and Grace let out a frightened whimper. They turned around and standing behind them in the middle of the road was a man with a scarred face and one damaged and unseeing eye.
 

“Ladies, don't take another step. I have three rifles trained on you right now and if one of you as much as twitches my guys have orders to shoot,” Nasak Tresode said.

Grace looked wide eyed and frightened at Anne who nodded her head.

“Listen to your friend. She can smell the rest of my group, she knows they are out there,” said Nasak.

“I could scream and the whole town would be out searching the woods for you,” Anne said through gritted teeth.

“Try me. It will be the last sound you make before we blow your head off,” Nasak said.

Anne edged in front of Grace, putting a barrier between her and Nasak. Grace could feel her body awash with the surge of adrenaline, her muscles felt like tense piano wires and the thought of turning and running was flashing in her mind, the only thing holding her back was what would happen to Anne.

“What do you want,” Anne said in a low rumble. Grace could feel heat coming off Annes body in waves, a dry warm heat of a blast furnace. She's going to change Grace thought, her feet rooted to the spot.

“I want what any child who has been lost for an age wants. I want to go home,” Nasak said and glanced towards the forest.

Grace heard a buzz like an insect whizz by her ear and she saw a metal dart with a feathered yellow end dig into Annes neck. Anne turned to Grace, already going down on one knee as her eyes began to darken and her skin pulse on the edge of transformation. “Run,” she said in an animalistic growl.

Grace turned and ran, her legs freed from the concrete shackles that had held her in place. If I can just make it to the edge of the forest I might be seen by someone, her panicked mind screamed. All sound seemed to be extracted from the world as only the sounds of her heavy breathing and footfalls echoed in her ears. She got a few steps and thought I’m going to make it. The sound of a dart whistling through the air broke the spell as it dug into her neck in a burning pinch. I feel like I’m running through glue Grace thought as her legs began to slow down. She turned around and her legs gave out under her and she hit the ground hard. The cracked gravel of the road dug into her cheek as she felt the debilitating effects of the tranquilliser course through her body.

Nasak pushed Anne with his boot and her body lay motionless. He nodded towards the tree line and walked towards Grace. She moved her lips and nothing but a weak moan like air being released from a tire came out. Nasak looked down at her and then knelt down beside her. His damaged eye stared ahead while his other one looked down at Grace. “Don't fight it,” he said stroking her cheek. “It will soon be over.”

Grace could feel her heart beating as if it was buried under layers of cotton, it felt disconnected from her as if it beat in someone else's body. She tried to move her arm to push his hand away from her face, her hand twitched feebly by her side. I’ve been poisoned and I’m going to die in these woods and never get to see Tom again, she thought as she stared into the scarred and bearded face of Nasak. Her vision began to dim as she saw movement at the roadside. People emerged from the undergrowth and her mind went into free fall as twisted aberrations left the woods and walked towards Nasak. Creatures more beast than man walked over to their leader and stood watching Grace as the tranquilliser dart overpowered her body. Grace looked up at the twisted and mutated faces of the creatures watching her. I am in hell she thought to herself, before the darkness engulfed her and everything turned to black.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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“Is she dead?” asked the older of the two men.

“No Clay, she isn’t, but she came real close,” replied the other man barely concealing his disgust. “What do you want me to do with him?” he asked motioning towards the naked body lying on the bed and half covered by a blanket. The dead bodies foot was sticking out from under the quilted duvet
 

“Dispose of him and leave no trace of us in this room,” Clay replied cooly while getting up from the bed. He was naked with a blood stained towel wrapped around his waist. Two large welts stood out on his chest and he admired them in the large mirror on the wall. “He had some fight in him, you’ve got to admire that” he said in a half whisper to himself. Clay slicked back his grey hair which still had some of its original colour at the temples and smiled at his reflection. It was the kind of smile that made people trust him almost immediately, “Hey we’re in this together,” the smile implied, it opened doors and wallets and its practised warmth was the last thing that several young men and women saw before the light dimmed on the last few frightened seconds of their lives.
 

Clay went in to shower leaving his longtime fixer Brad Johnson to clean up his mess once again.
 
Brad slid the heavy duty holdall out from under the bed and unzipped it. He laid out his tools in neat rows on the single bed in the corner. Across from Brad the young African American woman lay sprawled naked on the bed, her head twisted at an awkward angle. A thin rivulet of blood ran from the corner of her mouth and stained the duvet in an ever expanding blood blossom. Her chest rose and fell in raspy inhalations. She had high cheekbones and deep brown skin, her looks had once been described as interesting by an old boyfriend. My God Brad thought to himself she cant be much older then twenty one. He removed an extra duvet from the wardrobe and draped it over her naked body in a futile attempt to somehow make himself feel better. She was lucky, if she had of seen Clays face she would never have left this room alive. Brad rolled the word lucky around in his mind. Did luck really apply to this situation? The girl and the young guy had both been out cold just the way Clay liked it and the young guy now dead in the corner had somehow floated up to consciousness from his drugged out state and seen Clays face. The young guys fate was sealed as soon as his eye lids fluttered open and saw Clay.

 
Lately Brad had been losing his stomach for the job. At first he tried to tell himself he was going soft as he got older. That didn't work and with each passing month he worked for the mighty Clay Robertson he felt the rot take hold in his soul ,eating away at the timbers until he could feel an imminent collapse pressing at the back of his skull like the cold steel of a snub nosed revolver.

The noise of running water and Clay singing loudly to himself as he showered filled the bedroom like a veil of white noise. The boisterous singing chilled Brad but he was also thankful for some sort of background noise as he went about rolling the dead body of the male prostitute onto a large square of heavy duty plastic he had laid out on the floor. The staccato rhythm of the high powered shower spray hitting the marble floor, Clays off key singing and the start of a black cloud migraine helped to block out the grisly sounds as Brad broke elbow and knee joints on the corpse.
 

Sweat beaded on his forehead and stung the corners of his eyes as he folded the body , wrapped the plastic around it and rolled it into the large carrier bag. He then ran a cloth over any surface they may of touched and threw the cloth into the bag. He gathered up Clays clothes and the blood stained towel and threw it in with the body. Brad had left a new suit hanging in a bag on the back of the bathroom door for Clay to change into. Later that night he would bury the body and everything else in a forest out of town, in a sad desolate place where only black deeds were performed in the darkness of night.

When he finished wiping everything down he sat on the edge of the bed staring at the half open bag and refused to look away from it. From this angle all he could see was a corner of heavy plastic sticking out and a bunch of clothes. What was once a young man, Brad thought to himself is now nothing more then trash to be buried and forgotten about. He needed a drink, hell he needed a whole bottle. The skin of his lips tingled at the thought of the first burning sip of whiskey flash frying and coating his insides as he swallowed it. That first sip, nothing could top it. Brad squeezed his eyes shut now hoping for the sickening pain of a migraine to burn him up. He hadn’t touched a sip of booze in fifteen years and knew nothing good would come if he started up again. Lately its call had been getting stronger and stronger as Clay pulled him closer into his sickening world. Brad needed the pain of this migraine to obliterate any thoughts about booze. There was a time in his life when he would feel a greasy tightening of his stomach when he felt the first fingers of a migraine flex in his brain, now he was wishing for them and almost embracing the deathly hum behind his eyes.