Snippet Saturday: Just a Bear an excerpt from Wraith

Take Note: This excerpt needs some serious editing. I haven't posted in a couple weeks and I have no idea what day it is half the time anymore, so realizing it's Saturday, I grabbed a section I was working on to post.

Hours had passed by, and while I’d hoped to get some sleep, I merely drifted in and out of a fitful rest in the passenger’s seat. I felt the hair raise on my arms and a tingle, that seemed all too familiar like an old friend, run down my spine. At the very moment I gasped, Bastian accelerated the car.

I was about to ask him why when a large beast breaking from the tree line drew my attention. There was no mistaking that the mass of fur and muscle was feline, but I’d never even seen a tiger or lion as massive as this thing was, let alone a native cougar. While the darkness and speed of the car made it difficult to get a good look, I could see it looked very similar in color to a lion, but it lacked a mane, and at its size I would assume it would be a male. I, however, had no experience with large cats, other than the occasional run-in with a cougar, and the thing was no fucking cougar.

“Bastian, stop the car! Pull over!” I shouted. “There’s a fucking lion back there. It must have gotten loose from a zoo or something.”

“What are you going to do, stop it and take it back? Besides, it was just a bear,” he said, accelerating even more.

“That was not a bear.” I look at him incredulous before looking back out the window. “Look, it’s still there. Like it’s trying to run alongside us.”

“I’m telling you, it’s a bear. I think you’re a little too stressed out.” He changed lanes, moving away from the animal and accelerated further.

I saw the beast turn and disappear back into the woods. Yeah, I didn’t know what I’d planned to do had Bastian actually pulled over, but something told me I needed to come face to face with the large cat. I remembered the tingle down my spine and the hair raising on my arms, and I wondered if it was merely a coincident. Something niggled at the back of my mind, something Innocence had said once.

“Let’s get something straight, the next time I tell you to pull my car over, you damn well better pull it over. Understood?” I said to him.

“Sure thing, Coral Ann. Would you prefer to drive?” He looked at me, and I shook my head. “It was just a bear.”

“Okay, sure. It was a bear.” I blew out a breath. “How long before we get to her place?”

“Probably nine or ten hours. You still have time to sleep if you want,” he said, his tone softer and more caring than before, and I closed my eyes.