Chapter 16

For such a warm day, the chill of the night was shocking as Maddy launched herself from her bedroom window. She knew she'd have nothing to worry about. Rhydian hadn't liked the idea one bit, but he'd agreed to cover for her. If her parents woke up, he'd made a dummy out of her spare blanket and several pillows that was almost certain to fool them at a tired glance. But he'd promised that if she wasn't back in three hours, he'd get her parents, Segolia and Tom and Shannon and come out to find her. The clock was now ticking.

Tom and Shannon had shown up shortly after her mini meltdown. They'd returned in fresh clothes and full of apologies for having left as they did. Maddy understood. She'd never remembered feeling that angry in her life. They hadn't left because they wanted to. They'd left because they knew she needed space. She hadn't told them about Sarah yet. She still had a headache thinking about it. Her parents had clearly known and she hated herself for keeping it all from Tom and Shannon as it had been kept from her, but telling them then would have just caused more trouble than she could have handled at that moment. She'd promised to tell them as soon as the time was right. Once the shapeshifter had been stopped, she'd sit down with them and she'd tell them everything. She'd never consciously gone back on a promise to them in her life and she wasn't planning to start now.

Pulling the hood on her hoodie over her head and checking it was zipped up properly, she took off at her usual inhuman speed, heading for the Moors. The trees passed by in a blur as she sped by them. In no time, she'd passed Jana's caravan, now sitting abandoned as a solemn reminder and ever-waiting refuge to the wild Wolfblood that showed up one day and slowly forged friendships that would last a lifetime. On this night though Maddy ignored it, merely accepting its presence there as something that always had been and always would be, and kept going. She knew where she was going. She'd picked up a scent just like the one her dad had described, like many scents layered on top of one another as though the person it belonged to had walked through throngs of people and the many scents were clinging to them.

She locked on and followed it, chasing relentlessly. That was when she heard the sound of running water. In that instant, she knew where the shapeshifter was. She was nearing the place on the Moors where she and Rhydian had interrupted the badger stakeout. Just how long had this creature been in their lives, hiding among them in a way they couldn't even dream and spying on them day-to-day? Who was it on the day that happened? Mrs Parish had definitely smelled human that day. One of the Year Seven kids perhaps? Among a group, the mixed scent of the shapeshifter would be difficult to detect.

As she arrived, she spotted the Wolfblood easily. He was standing on the edge of the embankment and gazing down at her with bright yellow eyes. He jumped gracefully from the verge he was perched on and landed silently, advancing towards Maddy. She glared up at him, unflinching and determined to hide her nervousness.

"I was beginning to lose faith you'd show." His voice was neutral, giving nothing away. She held his gaze steadily as she reached into her hoodie pocket and pulled out her phone, the earphones hanging loosely from her hand, and held it out to him.

"There's a message from my parents on here." She let him take the phone and turn it on. She'd disabled the passcode deliberately for it. "It's for you and you alone." Unable to hide his curiosity, the shapeshifter put the earphones in his ears as Maddy pointed out to him where the message was. It was a text she'd got from Emma's phone with an audio file on it. He hit the play button as Maddy took a step backwards.

As Maddy watched, the shapeshifter's face instantly contorted in pain. The veins in his forehead and neck flushed bright blue, beginning to stand erect under his skin. Maddy had never seen anything like it. She could faintly hear a high-pitched whining noise coming from the earphones and while it wasn't a noise she enjoyed her own discomfort was nothing compared to having it beamed directly to the eardrum as the shapeshifter was feeling in that moment.

"Nice one, Sarah." Maddy muttered as he collapsed to the ground and began to shudder violently. Her eyes burning yellow, she glared down at the creature in front of her. "You invaded our darkroom and destroyed it. You invaded my home twice. You tried to pit me against my family, who you've been stalking and methodically torturing for years. Now after all this time, we finish this here and now."

Unfortunately, she was so busy watching the shapeshifter convulse on the ground in case he managed to make a move, she forgot to check around her. The last thing she was expecting was for something to slam into her from the side and knock her down hard. She hit the ground with such force that she ended up rolling onto her side as all the air was forced from her lungs. She managed to look up and was stunned to see Shannon standing over her. But this wasn't the Shannon she knew. The ginger-haired girl's eyes blazed yellow, seeming to burn hot enough to light up the night around her.

"Twice?" The shapeshifter on the ground gave a harsh cough as he ripped out the earphones, cutting off the sound. He then threw the phone and attached earphones as hard as he could off into the darkness. Maddy didn't know where it landed but the resulting splash made her heart sink. What pushed it down even further was the realisation that this had just become so much worse. It was rammed home even further as the fake Shannon stepped closer, fangs emerging from under her top lip.

"I always wondered what they replaced me with." She glared down at Maddy, looking her up and down. "I'm not impressed."

"Yet you make the same mistake." Maddy smirked. The fake Shannon cocked her head in confusion before yelping out as another wolf tacked her from the side just as she had done to Maddy. She hit the ground hard enough that she bounced painfully before pulling herself into a roll and righting herself next to the shapeshifter as Rhydian morphed back to human form. He looked down, extending a hand to help Maddy up. She accepted it gratefully, turning to give him a glare she knew carried no weight to it.

"I thought I told you to wait at home."

"What, you think I was just going to leave you to have all the fun?" He seemed unable to keep the smirk off his face. "No way! And by the look of things, I'm just in time." He and Maddy tensed, getting ready for a fight as the two shapeshifters hauled themselves to their feet and the one disguised as Shannon began to shift forms. This time, there was no doubt in Maddy's mind. There was only one way that there could be two shapeshifters. The first had wanted an apprentice. It had wanted someone to pass its skill along to. And he'd found the perfect Wolfblood.

"Well then..." The older shapeshifter grinned maliciously as the younger one finished her transformation. "I think the odds are fairer two-on-two. Isn't that right, Maddy?" Maddy didn't dare answer. She knew as she looked at the blonde woman standing in front of her and using a glare she herself had made much use of, the shapeshifter hadn't been talking to her.