34. Aizor
Chapter 34
Franklin kept coming to me and whining. Assuming he was hungry, I gave him food.
I still couldn’t locate Vanessa, not in the pools, our home, or in the dining area.
Where was she?
Finally, when Franklin wouldn’t leave me alone, I stooped down and held out my fingers for him to sniff. “Do you want pats? Vanessa gives you lots of pats.”
But Franklin only darted away, rushing toward a trail weaving into the woods. He stopped and looked back at me, whining again. I don’t know why, but an uneasy feeling shot through me.
I followed Franklin. He raced ahead of me onto the trail, stopping to look back as if he hoped I’d remain with him. I spied the plate lying on the trail ahead and jogged over to it and stooped down, noting the food Vanessa often fed Franklin. After, I started examining the ground around it.
That’s when I found evidence someone had fallen over the edge of the cliff.
With my heart on fire and fear bolting through me, I leaped, racing down the side at too fast a pace, bellowing my mate’s name. Partway down the steep hill, I found evidence someone had laid in the grass. It was crushed in a small enough circle that I suspected this was where Vanessa lay after she’d fallen. It had to be her. Rising, I peered around. Where was she now?
I worked in widening circles, slowly, until I picked up tracks. Many had been here. And since the tracks leading away were deeper than what I might make, I suspected one of them was carrying a person.
Nevarn had taken my Vanessa.
I was going to kill him.