AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I saw we were only seconds from where the pink dot was.
Crimson?
Malachi skidded to a stop, and I jumped off him. I watched him start running again as if he chased after something.
"Malachi!" I called out, but he was already gone, having disappeared from my line of sight.
Shit .
That's when my ear picked up on the sound of Aki's whimpers. The soft noise made me whip my head around to where he stood. I rushed over to him, worried Crimson might be hurt under the pile of broken trees, but what I discovered made my heart drop and world spin. I fell to my knees, needing a moment to breathe when my eyes landed on Crim's phone laying on the ground.
I reached out to pick it up with my trembling hand and read the note that reflected on the screen.
No...no, no, no! This can't happen again...I can't go through this again.
"HARU! AKI!" Yoshi called out, but I couldn't move, tears rolling down my cheeks.
"Where did Malachi go?"
"Haru? What's wrong...where's Crim?!" Itsuki demanded.
"Aki...hey, what's wrong?" Quil whispered, but Aki's whimpers only got louder.
The sadness in those sounds made a sob escape me, and I let my tears fall as I gritted my teeth.
"Ha...ru...Shit!" Itsuki cursed.
I noticed his feet in front of me, and he knelt down before me. He slowly pulled the phone out of my trembling hand, which dropped to the ground, now feeling just as heavy as the rest of me did.
Itsuki was quiet for a moment before whispering,
"Fuck...Erica."
"What? Is there a note? Where's Crim?" Yoshi snapped.
"She's...gone," I whispered, my voice breaking as more tears rolled down my cheeks.
Why? Why didn't I say something?
"He took something I loved and broke her. It's now my time to take something of his and destroy...her. Revenge is...bliss," Itsuki choked, reading the message out loud while his hand gripped the phone for dear life, even though it trembled.
Yoshi was silent, and Aki continued to whimper, digging his paws into the ground in frustration.
Quil rubbed his back soothingly, trying to calm him, but I could see the anger on his face, and his red eyes were changing colors nonstop.
"Quil, track Malachi," Yoshi ordered. "We should be tracking Crim!" I snapped.
"Malachi is the only one of us who isn’t letting their emotions fuck with them. He's tracking Crim's scent, and since he's not back yet, it means he hasn't lost her trail. We haven't lost Crim yet," Yoshi reassured.
"I can track her," Itsuki announced. We turned to him as he pulled out a tiny device that almost looked like a phone charger. A cherry blossom with a gold stone hung at the end. He pulled out his phone and pushed it into the charging dock.
"What's that?" Quil asked.
"A tracking device I inserted into Crimson's hair ornament. It will videotape everything when it's pulled out of her hair,” he revealed.
"And why would you make it activate when it's pulled out of her hair?!" I asked. Itsuki met my gaze and I bit my lip, trying my best to control my rage.
"Erica isn't the delicate type. If she's doing this for revenge, she'll want to hurt Crimson. What would you do to try and hurt someone? Us shifters value items given to us by others, especially significant others. I can guarantee if Erica's objective is to physi- cally and emotionally hurt Crim, those hair ornaments will be the first to be pulled out and tossed somewhere that Crimson can see them. I can tell Erica is going to try and erase her trail, but we'll have locked onto the area, thanks to Malachi. Once she pulls out those hair ornaments, we'll know exactly where Crimson is, and we'll be able to find her," Itsuki revealed.
