Chapter 11

Maddy was thrown back, blood pouring from her mouth where the punch had hit. As she watched, thoroughly dazed, from the floor she saw Sweeney launch herself over the table at the thing disguised as her friend. It dropped back as Sweeney launched a kick upwards at it while Emma and Dan moved to drag Maddy away from the fight and Rhydian and Tom threw themselves into the fray.

The shapeshifter dropped low and tried to get under Sweeney's leg to tip her over only for Tom to swing a punch of his own at it. It seamlessly broke off its attack on Sweeney and turned to face him, gripping his wrist and twisting its body under his punch before delivering a savage elbow to his ribs and landing a reverse kick to his kneecap to cut his left leg from under him. It gripped his head ready to twist sharply as Rhydian struck, managing to connect briefly. His fist caught the shapeshifter's face as it turned to face him. The response was immediate. It unleashed a volley of punches into his torso. His attempts to block it were too slow leaving his arms just flailing defencelessly. Sweeney had taken the few seconds all this had happened in to recover, however. She'd taken the time to observe the intruder's fighting style and now knew what she was doing. She darted in and engaged as Rhydian hit the floor like a sack of dog food. It turned to face her and tried to begin grappling with her again as it had with Rhydian and Tom, but she was ready this time and resorted to open-handed blocks and hit-and-run punches with the occasional kick thrown in. Adapting quickly to the shapeshifter's fighting style, she forced it to cede ground.

Eventually, it got backed right up against the wall. Emma and Dan moved around to the sides to surround it as Rhydian tried to pick himself up. In her dazed state, Maddy was just about able to look over at Tom who was thoroughly winded. He was totally out of the fight, which looked to be ending anyway. Or so she thought. The shapeshifter managed to grab Emma's wrist as she got too close, twisting violently to get past her and causing Maddy to hear an audible snap. The creature in front of them jumped up onto the table, hitting wolf form by the time it landed. It darted past each of them and fled through the broken back door. Dan went to give chase only for Sweeney to stop him.

"No! It wants you to chase it into a more open area so it can pick you off. See to your wife. Rhydian, are you okay?" Rhydian flashed a thumbs-up from the floor as he moved closer to check on Maddy. She could see the worry on his face but her head was hurting too much for her to do much about it. This was the second blow to the head she'd taken in as many days and she could feel herself rapidly approaching concussion territory. He pulled her close and held her to him while she waited for the room to stop spinning. Behind them, she could hear Victoria rounding on Emma and Dan.

"This is your home! Twice this thing has invaded this house! Twice! And you didn't even think to check her scent?"

"We shouldn't have had to!" Dan protested. "She went up to the toilet and came down again just after Maddy came in from the back garden and went back upstairs to get changed."

"I never went into the back garden!" Maddy growled in frustration. She tried to stand up but her legs were refusing to work properly. "It got in the same way it went out again!" Emma and Dan let out a collective exasperated sigh. Sweeney looked like she was nearing boiling point.

"You're telling me that this thing is literally coming and going as it pleases and you're able to do nothing to stop it?"

"Well we're doing all we can!" Dan protested. "It's not easy when there's a whole pane of glass missing from the back door!"

"That wrist is looking rough." Whitewood stood up to tend to Emma. "Come to the table and I'll give it a look." Emma reluctantly made her way over as Sweeney went to drag Rhydian up. Maddy hated that she was out of action but allowed herself to be hauled up and into a chair at the table.

"So where's the real Shannon?" she asked. Suddenly, everyone looked at each other as though just thinking of that for the first time. That was when they heard the thumping noise coming from upstairs.

"That's the toilet door!" Dan realised. He and Sweeney ran upstairs and Maddy could hear them moving around up there. They trooped back down again with Dan supporting Shannon under the arms, a nasty cut on her forehead.

"So this thing now knows about the infra-red camera, our plans for the school and that we have an idea of its motive while we have nothing on it!" Sweeney's eyes flashed yellow. But then Maddy saw Whitewood move over to the camera.

"Not quite. I switched back to the regular vision mode and recorded the fight. We can study the footage to learn their fighting style."

"Well done, doctor!" Sweeney set Shannon down onto a chair. She moved to the tablet and picked it up carefully, rewinding the footage and watching it back. "Ah, as I thought! It's using Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Right. I'll alert the team and gear up for the operation. We'll get the gear set up at the school.

"You're still going ahead?" Emma was baffled.

"This thing seems desperate to get something." Sweeney told her. "If we proceed and literally open the school gates for it, it won't be able to resist making an attempt. If it's desperate enough, it can't do anything else but play right into our hands. I'll need one of the kids to show us where the darkroom is. Since it was converted from being a different room, it won't be marked on any maps."

"Absolutely not!" Emma jumped in. "Look at the state of these kids! They're beaten black and blue! I won't put them in any more danger!" Maddy knew it made sense and that Emma was only trying to protect her, but it was too late for that.

"We're all in danger already." She sat up, feeling groggy but not wanting to let it get the best of her. "This thing seems to want something and it's willing to go through us to get it. We don't know what it wants, but the search for truth begins with belief. If we're going to find out this thing's motives or have any hope to try and beat it then we need to help each other and work together. This constantly getting at each others' throats isn't going to help. We'll show her where the darkroom is. Once that's done, so are we. If they can't get it in the school, then let's hope they have a plan B." Maddy's words hung in the air until Emma nodded, knowing she was beaten.

"Just make sure you come back alive." She let out a sigh as she let herself down into a chair. "God, I'm going to hell for letting you do this." Maddy nodded and stood up. Her legs threatened to give way under her and Rhydian caught her. He went to help her upstairs but she brushed him off, promising she was okay. She managed to make it to the stairs and threw herself on her bed, stars erupting in her vision as the room began spinning ferociously. She closed her eyes and waited for things to re-centre in her own head, fighting the urge to throw up. Eventually she was able to relax and managed to reach into her pocket, pulling out her phone. There was only one person she trusted who wasn't already downstairs. Right now, she'd take any ideas that were going. The phone rang twice before the person on the other end picked up.

"Hey, Mads. I was starting to get worried. You haven't called in a while."

"It's been about a week, Sarah." Maddy sighed.

"I work in tech support now. That's a lifetime." Sarah replied. "Seriously! It's so boring here! 'Well have you tried turning the computer on, madam? Oh, I see! So that's when you trod on the plug. Well why wasn't the plug in the wall socket where it should be? Yes, madam, that would help!' I swear to god technology is only having to get smarter because these people are getting more stupid!" Maddy laughed in spite of herself. Even when they were kids, Sarah always had a way to get her smiling. For the longest time, all that had ended when-

Maddy stopped abruptly. She wasn't going to dwell on it. They were back in contact now. That was what mattered. She took a deep breath, feeling the black veins that had been creeping up her arms receding.

"Sarah... I need your help." Maddy explained everything. She left nothing out. She went through it detail-by-detail and Sarah stayed silent the whole time. Maddy knew she was listening. Eventually, she finished up with the events that had just happened downstairs. When she finished, there was silence on the line for a full twenty seconds. For the first time, Maddy began to doubt that her friend was still there. She couldn't even hear breathing on the other end. Eventually, she had to break the silence. "Are you still there?"

"I am." Sarah's tone carried a dangerous note to it. "I've never heard of a shapeshifting Wolfblood, but it sounds like they're gunning for you. I can't allow that. I want to help. When you get to the school, access a computer and log into the mainframe with your account. I'll provide whatever support I can."

"I can log on with my phone once I'm there." Maddy nodded, forgetting that Sarah couldn't see it. "Thanks. It'll be good to have you by our side."

"Just doing what I can to make amends."

"What?" Maddy sat up a bit, not sure she'd heard her correctly. "Sarah, what the hell do you have to make amends for? You haven't done anything wrong. Not to me, anyway. You don't owe me anything."

"I only wish that were true." Sarah replied. "Never mind that, though. It's a story for another time. Once you get into the building, log on as soon as you can. I can get all the access I need from there." That was fine. Maddy knew they always left the servers up so the students could log on from home. She never expected she'd have to go to school at the weekend, but at least getting into the system would be easy enough. Once she'd done that and shown Sweeney to the darkroom, that was her part done. She found it a pity that Jana had left to assume her mantle as alpha of the wild pack. They could have used her right then, too. But in her absence, Maddy knew they had everyone standing behind them that they could get. With that, she hauled herself up and endured her injured body screaming in protest as she made her way downstairs again. For now, she'd try to act normal and bide her time. The Segolia team would raid the school tomorrow. There was nothing she could to until then.

Author's Note: Sorry about the long break between chapters. Work got a bit manic. I am going to try to put a more regular update schedule in place for this story over the next couple of weeks.