Chapter 7

Maddy lay on her bed with Rhydian next to her. She Nuzzled into his neck and held him close, wishing this moment could last forever. It was one of those rare moments that she wished they could have more of. She had one hand wrapped around the back of his head while both of his rested under the base of her shirt in the small of her back. She could feel the heat rising between them, knowing it was going to boil over any second. Any minute now, her life would become like a dream that she would never want to wake up from. She knew he could feel it too. But just as they were about to hit that point where everything in the world would feel right again, the doorbell rang. Maddy sat up reluctantly, able hear Tom at the door.

"There really is no rest for the wicked, is there?" she muttered, not wanting to get up.

"I guess not." Rhydian sighed and sat up with her. "Well to be fair, you did invite them round. Too late to cancel now." With that, he got up and held a hand out to her. She took it gratefully and held onto it as they walked downstairs to meet their friend.

"Hey, Tom." Maddy plastered a grin to her face as she saw him, but they all knew it was fake. There was absolutely nothing to grin about after today. "Where's Shannon? Do you know?"

"I'm sure she'll be along." Tom shrugged. "Anyway, how are you feeling now?"

"I'm fine." Maddy nodded gratefully as Rhydian went over to stand near Tom. He seemed to be watching him very carefully for some reason. That was when Maddy saw it for herself. He wasn't moving around as much. He wasn't as full of life and energy as usual. And why had he shown up without Shannon? Something was clearly off. Emma and Dan had clearly noticed their reactions and their stances had changed too.

"Would you like a drink, pet?" Emma asked as Maddy pulled out her phone and started texting.

"Oh, that would be great, thanks." Tom's face lit up, but something about it seemed forced and fake. "Have you got any orange juice?"

"Yeah, but it's the kind you don't like." Emma shrugged. "Will blackcurrant do?"

"That'll be fine, thanks." Tom nodded before turning back to Maddy. "Hey Mads, I was thinking when Shannon gets here why not have a look through some old pictures of us and have a laugh at some of the embarrassing childhood memories?" At that moment, Maddy's phone went off. It was a reply from Shannon.

'Me and Tom are coming. We're bringing movies!' Maddy looked up at Rhydian. If this Tom hadn't already confirmed her theory, that text just had. One look into her eyes got the message across. Without warning, he struck out at the fake Tom. But even no warning was somehow enough for him to twist out of the way before tackling Rhydian from the side faster than they could blink. His reflexes were superhuman. No. They weren't human at all. Emma and Dan were either too stunned to move or too afraid to get in the way as the boys grappled on the floor with Maddy looking for a chance to jump in and help her boyfriend. To everyone's surprise, the fake Tom was winning and fast. But even his technique was out of place. Tom had trained with the Judo club just like Scott. Judo was about throwing an opponent to the ground and playing off their strengths. The imposter seemed to be in his element now that Rhydian was on the ground and wasn't using the same gentle or refined technique that Tom was trained in at all. This was a different martial art entirely, and exactly the same style that had been used by Scott in the darkroom.

Seizing her moment as Rhydian used both feet to kick the imposter into the air, Maddy launched a kick of her own. The fake Tom managed to vault over the counter and dodge it, letting Maddy's kick sail into the kitchen counter. The wood on the back of cupboard splintered under the force of the blow while the fake Tom landed with the grace of a gymnast, right into Emma's grip. But even this was short-lived as he quickly began to morph right in front of them. It was under a second before a wolf now stood where Tom once had, its fur a pale white colour and a bare patch of skin on its right foreleg. Then Maddy realised her mistake. The fur wasn't white at all. It was clear!

The wolf didn't give anyone any time to think. It darted towards the back door, smashing through the glass pane and into the back garden in a shower of glass cubes that glinted like diamonds in the sunlight as they fell. It didn't break stride as it darted into the woods behind the house and vanished from sight.

"Come on! We're going after it!" Rhydian growled as he jack-knifed to his feet with his eyes blazing yellow and went to run out through the now empty frame. Maddy was there in an instant to stop him.

"No. That's what it wants. It wants us to follow it so it can pick us off one-by-one." Rhydian realised she was making sense. The black veins pulsed in his arms and neck in time with his heartbeat, his wolf straining to be unleashed. Maddy had never seen him this angry before. That was when the doorbell rang. Dan cautiously opened it to reveal Tom and Shannon on the other side. This time, Maddy instantly knew it was them. They walked in and surveyed the damage, looks of utter shock on their faces.

"Jesus Harold Christ, what the hell happened in here?" Tom studied the broken glass and splintered cabinet in disbelief. "Did you and Rhydian have relationship problems again?"

"No." Emma walked over to the sofa, shutting the door as she went. "I think we now have our answer about what happened at school today. We also know what might have happened with that school quiz on Wednesday." She sat down heavily on the sofa, burying her face in her hands and letting out a shaky breath. "I think we're being targeted by a shapeshifter." There was a shocked pause as her words registered with everyone.

"I'm sorry, what?" Shannon seemed to turn pale. "Did you just say shapeshifter? Like, 'could literally be anyone' shapeshifter?"

"I did." Emma nodded as Dan headed towards the den. He came back up a second later carrying a particularly battered old book and set it gently on the table, blowing a layer of dust off it before sifting through the three-page-long Contents section and finding his page. He moved through the book until he found it, turning each page with such delicacy that it was enough to make Maddy wonder if they'd detonate under any stress at all. He got there eventually. As the kids listened, he began to read the passage.

"On very rare occasions, a Wolfblood may possess an abnormal talent for transformation. Examples include faster transformations, controlling the order in which their extremities transform and so on. But even rarer than this is the ability to control one's appearance upon assuming human form. While a Wolfblood will never assume any form other than human or wolf, mimicking the body of another human is possible with practice. These Wolfbloods are known as shapeshifters.

While they can control their human appearance, their wolf will always stay the same. This power is very similar to one rumoured to be possessed by an ancient Wolfblood known as Andeddu- the wolf who lived a thousand lives, who was said to have gained the power to transfer his life essence into the body of another. The myth even goes further, stating that since two shapeshifters have never been reported at any one time the known shapeshifter is Andeddu himself. Another speculation is that Shapeshifters are able to live longer than regular Wolfbloods, able to morph into continually younger bodies to preserve their lives and ensure they never grow old. This is doubtful, however. As previously stated, the wolf will always stay the same, so would be unaffected by any level of anti-age shapeshifting. The wolf would simply continue to age and the shapeshifter would die when forced to transform on the full moon.

While little is known about shapeshifters, one thing is universally clear: this power has never once been used for good. Shapeshifters are bringers of chaos and seen in every Wolfblood culture as an abomination on the level of the malefic Wolfbloods of the twelfth century or the Shadow that plagued Stoneybridge Village back in the nineteenth. They are to be treated as such and any Wolfbloods seeing them have a duty to kill them if and when possible. But since they can be anywhere or anyone, this is easier said than done."

Dan slammed the book shut with a heavy sigh and walked over to the sofa, flopping down on it. As he did, Maddy ran her hands through her own hair in frustration. They were up against an enemy that could hide by posing as her closest friends. That meant she couldn't even let Rhydian stay over tonight. Anyone from outside the house was out of bounds, and even to an extent the people in it.

"So what are we going to do?" Emma asked. "It didn't say anything in there about how to beat them?"

"No, it just alerted us that they're a thing." Dan shrugged dejectedly. "I think we could have already guessed that."

"Yeah, I hate to say it but that's not the end of the bad news." Rhydian shrugged sheepishly, pointing to Maddy who for a brief second wondered what she'd done wrong. "It's not that much longer until the full moon. Now on the night before, Maddy likes to go outside and stare at the moon since she's so full of energy she can't sleep. She usually does it barefoot. I know because I've been with her a couple of those times. And thanks to the abomination, there's now glass all over the entrance to the back garden. That means we're going to have to spend a good chunk of our evening picking up every single piece so that she doesn't cut herself to shreds." There was a collective groan as everyone realised he was right.

"Go on, kids." Emma rummaged under the cupboard before pulling out a dust pan and brush. "The quicker you get started, the quicker you get finished and I start ordering Chinese." That motivated everyone. In seconds they were pulling on gardening gloves and down on their knees, scooping up bits of glass as Dan came over with a bag.

"Why do they call it safety glass? It isn't!" Maddy groaned as she looked around, taking in the measure of how far it had gone. No one bothered to answer her.

"So what happened then?" Shannon asked as they worked.

"Tom showed up early, but it wasn't him." Maddy grimaced. Tom looked over curiously.

"How did you know it wasn't me?"

"He didn't have your energy." Maddy told him. "That and he was prepared to drink blackcurrant juice." Tom gagged involuntarily as soon as she mentioned it. "Oh, and he wanted to look at my photo albums." Maddy continued. "It's weird. When it was disguised as Scott, it was rifling through our photos. When it came here, it wanted to look through photos. What's this obsession with the photos?" It was a troubling thought, and one that continued to plague them over the next two hours as they worked.