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

by Wilson, Tia

  Lana's foot sank into a shallow hole of damp sand. The shock of the cold water filling her boot snapped her out of her trudging trance. She tried to pull her foot out and her other foot began to sink below the surface with a loud sucking sound. She pushed down again to leverage herself out of the boggy hole and her legs sunk in deeper. The cloying black sand was now up to both her knees and she could feel herself getting pulled in deeper. She tried to kick her legs and it felt like she was encased in cold wet concrete. Dark brackish bubbles popped on the surface of the sand and as the cold spread up her legs Lana let out a long loud scream for help. The rapidly approaching fog seemed to swallow up her screams, folding it into the soft white peaks. Lana's skin prickled as the fog enveloped her in its ghost like veil. She shouted again at the top of her lungs, the screams of a flailing ghost heard by nothing more then birds high above the fog bank.

  Cold water shocked her as it filled her underwear and grit and dark sludgy sand flowed over the top of her belt buckle. Her skin buzzed as she twisted back and forth at the hips trying to wriggle free. The sand was now past her her stomach and the earth emitted great bellowing wet slurps as it sucked her ever deeper. She pounded on the surface, thrashing wildly about to try to get some sort of leverage. Her body felt compressed and she could feel the air being pushed out of her lungs by the weight of the sand. Her fingers scratched and reached about wildly trying to find some stability. Everywhere she grabbed she was meet with nothing more then damp shifting sand.

  She screamed again as the sand pulled her down further and covered her shoulders. Her scream came out as nothing more than a raspy whistle. The fogged rolled on, the waves crashed and the birds called.

  She stopped trashing and tilted her head back to in a vain attempt to slow her demise. Her arms were sucked beneath the surface. She felt disconnected from her body as she gave into exhaustion. She couldn't fight anymore, the heavy wet volcanic sands felt like she was encased in a metal coffin all movement restricted to the fluttering of her eyelids and the laboured crushed activity of her lungs.

  A cold sludge of sand and water flowed into her ears as she sank. The only sounds she could hear was the thud thud thud of her heart. It was faint and off in the distance as the earth swallowed her whole. The fog broke above her, a tiny moving window that allowed her to see a fleeting shock of the most vivid blue sky. She croaked out one final plea for help and then held her breath. The thud thud thudding of her heart grew louder in her ears as she sank below the surface and oblivion wrapped her in its gritty embrace.

  Chapter 11

  The world was diminished to black. It encased Lana and slowly crushed her as it pulled her down into its onyx depths. The sound of her thudding heart grew to a thunderous roar and then stopped. Light and sound completely nullified by the black void. Lana's lungs burned and she knew this was the end, she could not hold on anymore as the earth devoured her.

  The complete obsidian blackness split open wide and a strip of blurry light coming from above was suddenly visible. Strong hands dug under Lana's arms and pulled her up. She coughed and spluttered wet clogging sand from her mouth. The sweetest breath of a cool sea breeze filled her lungs. Sand clogged her nose and ears and all she could hear was the scrit scrit scrit of sand, a thousand mosquitoes buzzing in her ears.

  The strong arms looped around her and now her head and shoulders were above the quicksand. A voice said something behind her that she didn't recognise and she felt herself being slowly dragged out of the sucking tomb like maw. The arms around her held her tight in their steely grip as the sand slowly receded. Lana stared up through squinting eyes at the sky, she could make out a blurry moving mass of swirling colours and nothing else. Seconds ago she thought she was dead and now she was breathing in great lungfuls of clean air.

  She felt one of her boots get sucked off her foot and the ground emitted one last slurping sound as she was freed. She was dragged a few more feet and then the strong arms let her go. She lay on the beach panting, her chest rising and falling as it reacquainted itself with breathing again.

  “Hang on a second,” said a mans voice from beside her. It was a melodic and lyrical Icelandic accent speaking in fluent english.

  The man got up and Lana could hear the heavy breathing of some large animal behind her and then a ripping like the sound of heavy fabric being pulled apart. She looked around and all she could see was coloured blobs moving about. “I cant see,” she cried out.

  “It's the sand, I’m getting you some water to wash out you eyes,” replied the man who had saved her.

  He returned to her side and held her face gently with his hand, his skin was warm and course against Lana's cheek. “I’m going to pour some water on your eyes hang on a second,” he said as he began to pour. The water ran down her face and Lana blinked again. She winced in pain as the grit was washed away and balled her hand into a fist. Her eyes stung and all she could see was streaming blobs of colour dancing about.

  “I cant see,” She said, as she could feel the terror and fear rise in her body.

  “I’m going to get you to help immediately. I have my horse with me and we can ride into town. Keep your eyes closed. Sit here and I’ll get you a blanket and then lift you onto the back of my horse.” He got up and Lana heard him rummaging in a bag. A cold chill was biting into her flesh where the black sand clung to her in damp clumps. She sat up and dumped some of the water over her face and felt the sand run off her in gritty rivulets. She rinsed the grit from inside her mouth and spat onto the ground beside her.

  “Who are you?” Lana croaked out through cracked and dry lips, her voice sounded like it had been swallowed by a desert.

  “I’m Einar,” he said as he wrapped the blanket around her and picked her up in his arms, “I heard you shouting for help as I rode along the beach.”

  She rested her face against his neck breathing in his scent of sea salt and freshly dried hay. His body emanated heat against Lana's rapidly cooling one. He walked with strong assured steps as he carried her in his arms. The horse snorted and shook its head as Einar sat Lana into the saddle. He got on sitting in front of her and said, “Hold on tight. I’ll get you to the doctor as quick as possible.”

  Lana wrapped her arms around Einar's waist and lay her head on his broad back. She could feel the tight muscles in his torso move as he raised the reins and the horse began to gallop across the beach. His body emanated heat like a furnace and Lana pressed against it trying to draw out as much of its warmth as possible. She opened her eye a crack and winced again in pain. All she could see was a smudgy grey and black pulsating mass as they sped across the beach. The horse kicked up sprays of black sand as Einar tapped his heel against the horses flank. The wind whipped by them and Lana gripped Einar as the horse took a slight uphill path. Nothing could make her let go of him and she held on tight.

  The horse slowed its pace and then the soft clumping noises of his hooves changed as they left the beach and headed into town across asphalt. They rode on for another minute or two and then Einar brought the horse to a stop. Lana did not want to let go of Einar and it wasn't until he tapped her on the shoulder that she released her grip. He lifted her off the horse and said, “Can you walk?”

  Lana stood unsteadily for a second and then walked a few steps before her legs nearly buckled under her. Einar grabbed her by the waist and held her up and said, “Lean on me, I’ve got you.” He lead her into a building and spoke to someone in Icelandic. Lana could feel any of her last dregs of energy start to fade away. Everywhere was starting to hurt and the pain in her eyes was beginning to intensify. Lana's legs gave out beneath her and she felt herself start to fall and then she was floating as Einar picked her up in his powerful arms and carried her into a small room and placed her on a bed. They were in the small three room clinic that serviced the town of Vik.

  “Thank you Einar for saving me,” Lana said as she lay back on the bed. She reached out for his hand and he took it, his large coarse fingers entwining with hers. “
Don't leave me alone, will you stay with me?” she asked.

  “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay by your side for as long as you need me,” Einar said.

  The door to the room opened and a short balding man wearing wire rimmed glasses came in. The few tufts of hair left on his head stuck out and gave him the look of a mad professor. He spoke a few words to Einar who then translated, “The Doctors english is not so good so I will translate for him. A nurse is going to come in to help you get out of your wet clothes and then we will come back.”

  Lana heard the men leave the room and then a nurse touched her gently on her shoulder and helped her to strip. Her clothes scratched painfully against her skin as she peeled them off like a clinging second skin. She dried herself with a soft towel and then the nurse helped her into a pair of light cotton pyjamas and helped her into the bed.

  “I’ll take your clothes and dry them off,” said the nurse as she left the room.

  The doctor and Einar returned and without asking Einar took Lana's hand again. The skin on the back of her neck prickled at his touch and she gave his warm strong hand a squeeze. The doctor and Einar spoke and then he translated it for her. “The nurse is going to wash out your eyes with a sterile solution and then the doc will check them.” After Lana's eyes were cleaned of any remaining pieces of grit the Doctor gently opened her eyelids with thumb and forefinger and shone a thin beam of light into them. Lana could see cream coloured blobs dance back and forth in her vision and pulsating areas of black near the corners.

  “Am I blind?” she asked and she could hear the rising fear in her voice.

  Einar squeezed her hand and then translated again. “The doc says you are going to be ok. The sand scratched your corneas and did some damage. He says your sight is going to be blurry for a week or so. He is going to bandage your eyes and the dressing will be changed every morning. The quickest way to recovery is to rest them.”

  “So I’m not blind am I? You would tell me the truth if thats what the doctor said. I can handle the truth.”

  Einar took her hand in both of his and gently rubbed it and said, “I would never lie to you. I can see you’re a strong person. I’m telling the truth, a week of rest and the doc says you will be back to normal. Look I know you have just been through hell and it must be scary being in a foreign country but I will help you as much as you want.”

  “Will you stay with me for a while, once the doctor is finished?”

  “I will. I need to go out and check on my horse. There is a field beside the clinic I can let him roam in. Will you be ok on your own for a few minutes?”

  Lana nodded and he let go of her hand and left the room. She felt powerless and alone sitting here in the room as the doctor began to apply protective covers on her eyes and then bandage them. I was seconds away from death she thought and then it hit her. It was like the tide going out and exposing the rotten beams of a small jetty, she was no longer in shock and what had just happened finally set in. It felt like the cold black sand was pressing in on her again. She could feel it under her fingernails, scratching inside her ears and slowly filling her mouth. Her chest tightened as the sand crushed her and she gripped the bed sheet in a steely grip.

  “I can’t breath, I can’t,” She spluttered as it felt like her throat began to be filled with the course volcanic grit. She thrashed her head back and forth as her heart hammered in her chest, “Choking, the sand is choking me,” she shouted.

  The Doctor yelled something and the nurse ran into the room with a syringe. Lana felt a sharp sting in her arm as the nurse withdrew the tip of the needle from her. A liquid warmth began to spread up her arms, her chest began to relax and her wracking breaths slowed down as it became easier to breathe. She lay down on the pillow and its softness seemed to beckon her down into its welcoming embrace.

  “What did you give me?” She said slurring.

  “A sedative, it will help you to relax. You were starting to have a panic attack which is understandable after what you have been through,” the nurse answered.

  The doctor finished bandaging her eyes as Lana lay there on the precipice of sleep. Her limbs wouldn’t move as if they were magnetised to the bed. If she tried to raise them they immediately fell back down onto what felt like the softest bed cover she had ever touched. Her whole body hummed at an agreeable frequency and she couldn’t fully piece together where she was. She knew she had gone fishing with an old man, maybe she had fallen overboard was the best answer her woozy brain could throw up.

  Einar came back and spoke to the doctor and nurse before they left him alone with Lana. The noise of a chair being dragged to her bedside sounded like a trumpet played down a long concrete pipe. He took her hand again and squeezed it and said, “The doc said you may drift off to sleep in a few minutes. I’ll wait here until you wake up.”

  Lana had a dim recollection of who was talking, had he saved her from drowning she thought. She liked how his hand felt wrapped around her. It felt like she was melting into him and they were becoming one interconnected person. Could he hear her thoughts she wondered and then realised she had said it out loud.

  Einar laughed and said, “I think thats the meds kicking in, you are a little loopy.”

  It came back to Lana in a fragmented and broken flash, this man holding her hand had saved her life. She owed him her life. She spoke and her words come out slurred, “Can I kiss you, you’re my hero,” she said as she puckered her lips and then the sedative took hold and like a light going off she was unconscious.

  Einar looked down at her as her breathing relaxed. “I’m no hero,” he said and got up and left her room in search of a cup of strong coffee.

  Chapter 12

  Gus looked through the browser history on Lana's computer. “Look at this,” he said pointing to a line of text on the screen.

  Brad knew next to nothing about computers. He relied on his brain and his brawn and the combination of both had gotten him this far, he wasn't going to start relying on some electronic device now. “Enlighten me, what does it mean?”

  Gus sat cross legged on the couch beside Brad, his silk kimono was open and exposing more of his flesh than Brad was comfortable seeing. “Its Lana's search history. Its what she did on the computer the morning before she came to me with the supposedly only copy of the video. This shows that an hour before she met me she accessed a digital locker and uploaded a file named video0002. The bitch has a copy saved and she can access it any time and any where,” Gus said.

  “Can’t you just delete it from her account.”

  “Nah, the bitch was careful. Her account locked itself as soon as the file uploaded. I have a guy who can take a look, maybe she got careless and he can hack the account. It could take hours or days, who knows with these sort of things. We need to squash this thing before it snowballs out of control. Pick them up and bring them here. We can deal with them then. I was hoping not to have to lose such good earners. The black one especially, the clients loved her.”

  “Are you sure you want me to bring them back here?” Brad asked.

  “Ive grown bored of this place. I was thinking it was time to move on any way. Try not to hurt them, there will be plenty of time for that once they get here.”

  Brad nodded and got up to go and then turned back to Gus. “I might have been seen at the dorm earlier today. I’m going to bring on two other trusted men to handle the snatch and grab. I’ve used them before, they are both pros.”

  Gus nodded and said, “Use whoever you need to. Remember it comes from your cut. And Brad darling don't fuck up, you don't want your boss finding out about the existence of this video. You know how it will end if he does.” He blew a kiss in Brads direction as he turned his back and left.

  Brad sat in his parked car and rubbed his temples. He could feel the slow tectonic plates shifting beneath him, slowly sliding over each other until out of nowhere they slammed together sending shockwaves reverberating outwards. He felt completely powerless and knew in his weary bones
that a tsunami of shit was heading his way. He flipped open his phone and dialled. After two rings someone picked up on the other end. “I need some help on a job,” Brad said into the cell phone, “The usual. I need you and another trusted guy.” Brad nodded his head as the voice on the end of the phone spoke and then he continued, “It will probably be broad daylight. Yep you get extra for that and I need your help in less then two hours. Ok I can do that, I’ll pick you up there,” and he flipped the phone closed and ended the call. He gunned the engine and headed to the designated pickup spot.