Chapter 10

It took a very long time for Tom, Shannon and Rhydian to come back downstairs. Eventually, once they'd plucked up the courage to volunteer Rhydian for the job, he sauntered down looking like he'd rather be at the dentist. Maddy heard him coming and looked up as he sat next to her on the sofa. It was impossible to hide the tears streaming down her face. He didn't say a word as he put his arm around her, gently pulling her to him. She let herself fall sideways until her head was resting on his lap, shuffling over to lie on her back. He just sat there, letting her be close to him and giving her all the time she needed to think things through. Amazingly, she realised that it was exactly what she needed. With that, she rolled onto her side, the picture clutched to her chest. She curled up and went to sleep in his arms.

Two hours later, her eyes opened. The clock on the opposite wall told her just how much time had passed. Tom and Shannon had emerged and were now watching TV. Shannon had hijacked Dan's armchair while Tom was on the floor. Maddy guessed it had gone the usual way. Tom had jumped into the chair before Shannon had put him in his place and ordered him down. They both noticed at the same instant that she'd woken up and were tempted to go over and see if she was okay. They seemed uncertain though. If anything, that was what hurt her the most.

"Okay." She let out a sigh and forced herself to sit up. "You can quit tiptoeing around me. I won't sit here and pretend to be fine, but what happened in the past is over and done. It's a part of my history and I can live with that." Relieved looks crossed Shannon and Tom's faces. Maddy felt Rhydian's arms, already looped around her to stop her from rolling off the sofa, squeeze her that little bit tighter. Instantly, she started to feel a bit warmer on the inside and started to feel more like everything would be alright again.

"So..." Emma and Dan walked back in with Dan carefully making sure no one saw his eyes. Clearly the discussion had affected him more than he'd let on when he'd walked away. "Sweeney and Dr Whitewood will be here soon. Maddy, you need to go and get dressed and have breakfast. Kids, I'll need your help just double-checking for broken glass anywhere around the back door and if there's anything else any individual person here needs to do then I'd get it done before they get here. Something tells me we're going to want to hear this so I don't want any distractions."

Everyone nodded and Dan started to plate up some bacon sandwiches for Maddy. He passed them to her and she began eating. Once she was done, she headed upstairs to get dressed. She worked her way through her wardrobe and drawers, picking out something to wear. Just as she was ready to start changing, a knock on the door made her jump a mile.

"Mads, are you there?" It was Rhydian's voice. She considered making him wait until she'd changed, but then realised that there'd be very little point. She'd just pent two hours curled up against him. With that in mind, she opened the door.

"Is everything alright?" she asked, nervously. She hadn't expected him to follow her up and so she was quietly cautious that he might be the shapeshifter. As far as she was concerned, anything coming into the house now, even a fly, could be looking to kill them.

"Yeah." Rhydian nodded, letting out a breath before wrapping his arms around her. She felt herself relax into him, his presence making her feel comfortable in a way only he could. It was definitely him. "Hey, I just wanted to say you're doing amazingly, okay? No one else could take half of what you've been through lately without at least one breakdown."

"Thanks." She really meant it, too. "I'll be fine provided you have my back." Rhydian nodded, one hand resting gently on the side of her face in a way that managed not to be intrusive.

"Always." With that, he leaned in. Their lips met and for Maddy it was like an oppressive fog had just been lifted out of her head. For the first time since the whole ordeal started she found herself able to think clearly. Reluctantly, she broke the kiss and stepped back a bit so she couldn't be tempted.

"Thanks." Maddy couldn't stop the grin from spreading over her face. "I needed that. Right, get out. I need to get ready and while my parents have become a lot more lax about you being in my room I think they'd definitely draw the line at this."

"Hang on a minute!" Rhydian protested. "You pretty much threw me on your bed yesterday. Twice!"

"Yes, well there's a big difference!" Maddy countered.

"Oh, really? What?"

"They don't know about that." With that, Maddy shut the door and let out a shaky breath. She could hear him heading back downstairs, trying to contain his laughter. Dammit, he knew what he was doing! The next time he brought up being anxious around girls or being socially awkward, his excuse had better be bulletproof!

Maddy emerged from her room just as she heard Emma open the door downstairs. Looking around the corner, she saw Dr Whitewood and Sweeney walking in, Sweeney's very presence casting a suffocating veil over the room. Maddy descended the rest of the stairs as Emma showed their guests to the table. Everyone crowded around as Whitewood and Sweeney took a seat.

"So..." Sweeney spread her hands out on the table and sat back in her chair. "Who wants to start?" Maddy instantly spotted that this was definitely them. Sweeney's usual stern mannerisms were all there, and the way Whitewood angled her head when she was absorbing information was something all of her own. It was something that was developed over time. It couldn't be mimicked on the spur of the moment.

"It showed up at school." Maddy decided to just get everything out there so they knew exactly what they were dealing with. "It disguised itself as Scott from the school magazine and broke into our darkroom. It was looking through our photo archives until it attacked me and I chased it. I think it ran round the corner then transformed into Mrs Parish before doubling back. She's in a lot of trouble now."

"Not a problem." Sweeney's mouth twitched into the closest thing they'd ever seen her do to a grin. "We can make all that go away."

"I ended up getting angry and grabbing the real one." Rhydian confessed. "I thought she was the one who'd locked Maddy in a room and left her. Is there any chance you could make all that go away, too?" There was a pause as Sweeney considered.

"No promises. The records I've dug up say your punishment is a week's detention cleaning classrooms. It's not exactly hard labour and since you grabbed the real Mrs Parish before you even knew there was a fake one- so you can't even use that as an excuse- they might say it's still warranted."

"Yeah, speaking of records, I thought I asked you to seal the ones related to Maya." Dan crossed his arms and faced Sweeney across the table. "How did they get unsealed and this whole thing become public knowledge?"

"We're still in the process of working that out." Sweeney replied. "Anyway, what happened next?" This time, it was Emma's turn to take up the story.

"Well, we invited Tom and Shannon over for a relaxation evening and then Tom showed up. But he wasn't acting like himself and we guessed what was going on easily enough. He and Rhydian fought, the back door got smashed and Dan and I had to sleep in shifts last night to watch it." Sweeney looked past them at the back door to study the damage. Maddy knew what was giving it away. The light coming through the empty frame was slightly brighter than the light through the double-glazed panes.

"Maybe if you'd stop buying glass from that Stuntman guy that wouldn't have happened." She shrugged nonchalantly and Maddy could see Emma begin to get angry. "Don't look at me like that. Stuntman's Double Glazing has never been reliable. One star on the Google Maps reviews! Segolia will finance the repairs if you promise to go somewhere else this time." Emma didn't like it, but knew Sweeney was the one holding all the cards.

"Fine."

"I think it impersonated the head teacher as well." Dan offered. "When I was in his office he brushed me off onto another staff member and when he showed up in the technician's office he was like a different person. Maybe that's because he was."

"I see." Sweeney nodded. "So we have no way of knowing really how deep this has gone already. Well the good news is that we have something that might help. Doctor, do you want to show them?" Whitewood nodded and bent down, picking up a blue nylon case. She put it on the table and unzipped it, taking out something and showing it to them. At the sight of it, Maddy instantly perked up.

"Is that a thermal imaging camera?" This time, Sweeney's grin was a proper one of amusement. Maddy guessed she was right.

"I had a feeling that you'd be the one to recognise that." Now this isn't a perfect solution, but it'll be helpful. Wolfbloods always run hotter than humans. We're going to mount patrols at the school over the weekend in case it tries for the darkroom again. If it didn't get what it wanted, it might have another go. Doctor, if you turn the camera on, I think we'll give them a demo." Whitewood hit the red button on the side as Sweeney booted up a tablet and turned it to face them.

"Maddy and Shannon, can you bunch up together?" she asked. The girls did so, standing right next to each other and looping their arms around over one another's backs to get even closer. "Okay, it's just going to warm up and then we'll show you exactly what this thing can do."

"So are there any defining characters to the shapeshifter?" Sweeney asked. "While I know that seems like a stupid question, there is method in that madness. Are there any characteristics that have been unified across all your encounters with it that you've noticed? Any motive, behavioural traits, literally anything?"

"Yes!" Maddy remembered. "Photos. When it trashed the darkroom, it was looking for a photo and when it impersonated Tom it wanted to look through old photos of us."

"Old photos?" Maddy realised Sweeney was making mental notes. "Okay, this could definitely be about something in the past, then. An old grudge, perhaps. That's concerning. What about its behaviour?" This time, Maddy didn't miss a beat. This had been something that had nagged at her ever since she'd met it in the darkroom.

"The way it fought." She looked at Rhydian for confirmation and he nodded in response.

"That thing has definitely had training."

"Yeah, but it wasn't fighting like it should, either." Maddy added. That caused a puzzled look to cross Sweeney's face.

"How do you mean?"

"Well, when I fought it, it was impersonating Scott. Scott went to the Judo club's taster session and when Jimi asked him he said he'd never done anything like it before. If he should have been using anything, it would be the limited Judo he would know. That thing knew what it was doing and it wasn't using Judo."

"Ah, well spotted." This had Sweeney full-on beaming, something that Maddy knew to be almost unheard-of. "If we understand the way it fights, we can know what to expect." She was about to say more when Whitewood cut across her.

"The camera's on. I'm switching to thermal. The tablet should have an image any second." Maddy and Shannon's image appeared on the tablet. When Whitewood switched to thermal, it took her a second to realise what she was seeing. Two identical heat signatures stared back at her. She stared at it dumbly for half a second before a yell from Victoria snapped her back to reality.

"Maddy, move away from it!" She didn't have time to register anything else before the punch came.