Chapter 9

Reality

"That was quick." Dan said as Jana knocked on the back door. He opened it to let her in only to find Ceri standing there too. "That was very quick!"

"She was already on her way." Jana explained.

"I had to know my son was alright after the blood moon." Ceri fixed Dan with a steely gaze. "He is okay, isn't he?"

"Physically, he's fine." Dan nodded. "Emotionally, he's about as destroyed as the rest of us."

"So why did I sense he was in trouble?" Ceri's tone was accusatory. Dan willed himself to keep control and not let himself show how frantic he was feeling.

"Maddy tried to resist changing back at dawn." Dan explained. "The doctor we called said the best thing we could try is to find a wild Wolfblood healer and…"

"She did what?" Dan could see the colour drain from Ceri's face. "Show me where she is."

"It's this way." Dan led her to the stairs and started to head up to Maddy's room. Ceri cautiously started to work her way up, taking the steps one at a time as though each one might possibly detonate.

"Come on, Ceri!" Jana sighed. "Time is a factor here!"

"I've never gone up these…" Ceri looked at the staircase and faltered.

"They're called stairs and they're not that scary." Jana said as she moved over and rested a hand on Ceri's back. "I'm right here if you fall."

"Thank you." Ceri started up the stairs a bit more confidently. She got up the first flight without much problem but had to take the second half in stages since it was much bigger. Eventually, she made it up there and Dan pointed out which way Maddy's room was. He opened the door to reveal Rhydian perched on the side of Maddy's bed with one of her hands clasped in his.

"How is she?" Dan asked.

"She's still freezing cold." Rhydian replied before catching sight of Ceri. "Mum, how did you get here so quick?"

"I came in case you were in trouble." Ceri told him as Dan let her into Maddy's room. "How are you, my beautiful boy?"

"I'll be better when Maddy wakes up." Rhydian told her truthfully.

"How was the blood moon down here?" she asked as she moved over to the bed and started checking Maddy over. "Was anyone hurt?"

"Yeah, there was a human and his child along with a group of bad humans who set out to hunt us." Rhydian explained.

"I don't remember anything." Jana added. "From what Tom and Shannon have told me, that's not really a bad thing."

"Yes, how are your human friends?" Ceri asked.

"They're part of our pack." Rhydian answered. "They really went above and beyond that night." Dan and Jana nodded wordlessly.

"If it weren't for them, more people would have been hurt." Jana went and crouched down beside Ceri. "So, what can we do about Maddy?"

"Her scent is definitely that of a Wolfblood who is in wolf form." Ceri nodded. "There is a ritual we can perform to try and offer her some help, but it's incredibly risky. It can't be done without everyone's consent."

"I'll get Emma." Dan disappeared from the doorway and headed downstairs. A minute later, he, Emma, Tom and Shannon all appeared in the doorway.

"What's going on?" Emma asked.

"Ceri says there's a ritual, but it's very risky." Jana told her.

"So what if it goes wrong?" Emma's tone told them to pick their words carefully.

"The ritual involves bringing her to the brink of death." Ceri explained. "If it goes wrong she won't come back."

"If it works, what would happen?" Rhydian asked, trying to form coherent thoughts. As far as he was concerned, she was already a lot closer to death than he'd ever want her to be.

"If it works, I'll be able to bring her back to life after about sixty seconds and she'll be given an idea on how to find her way back to us." Ceri said. "In truth, no one knows the ins and outs of it. We use it on Wolfbloods in comas. I think it's the momentum of returning to life that gives the power to make it all the way."

"Yeah, that sounds incredibly dodgy." Tom agreed.

"Have you ever done this before?" Shannon spoke up for the first time since Ceri had arrived.

"I've used it on a pack member that was in a coma after hitting her head." Ceri sighed. "Unfortunately, I wasn't alive during the last of these rare blood moons. I know there was a case of a Wolfblood resisting the transformation like this, but the knowledge of what happened to him has sadly been lost to the years."

"So we don't even know if it'll really help." Tom sighed. "That's just great."

"Look, we know for a fact this is more than exhaustion." Rhydian cut in before Tom went on a full-blown rant. "I'm fairly certain that if we just leave her to her own devices like this, she'll probably die."

"Resisting transformation shows a split between the wolf and human forms." Ceri told him. "If such a split is left unattended, the Wolfblood will die on the next dark moon when their wolf vanishes. It would be like a human having half their brain or half their organs stop functioning suddenly." Rhydian shuddered involuntarily at the thought.

"Right, so surely we should try it?" he looked up at Emma and Dan hopefully. "Surely anything would be better than just leaving her like this."

"I agree with that much." Dan admitted.

"Hold on, are we actually considering this?" Tom looked ready to start tearing his hair out.

"Yeah, I agree we need to do something but there has to be another way." Shannon wrapped an arm around Tom who returned the gesture.

"I really don't like this at all." Emma knew it was an understatement, but she honestly couldn't think of anything to say.

"Okay, what other options that don't involve almost killing Maddy so that she stands a chance at not dying do we have on the table?" Dan asked. There was a pause while everyone considered, desperately trying to come up with something. "Can we try and avoid all calling out at once?"

"I hate to say it, but I've got nothing" Tom sighed.

"Everything about this seems totally counter productive." Shannon argued. "It's like Dan said. We'd be essentially killing her so that she doesn't die!" Tears had sprung to her eyes and she lifted her glasses to wipe them away furiously.

"But what other ideas do we honestly have?" Jana pointed out.

"Jana, we can't make this choice!" Dan practically spat.

"No, Dan." Jana countered as she reached up and gripped Maddy's hand. "You're the only ones who can."

Author's Note: Okay, so I know it's been a while since the last chapter and I'm sorry. Please feel free to review as always. As I've said, I've finished writing this story so it's just a matter of uploading it. Unfortunately, I haven't even had time lately to do that, let alone write anything new. I'll find the time eventually, but for now I'll just have to let events unfold as they will. I might even double-update next time to make up for the lost time.