Chapter 18
"Come on." Maddy felt herself going numb as she was hauled away by Rhydian. He moved in synch with the two Wolfbloods that broke off from the group and together they moved through the Moors. It all seemed to pass by in a blur for Maddy as she walked with him back to the house. When it came into view, Rhydian nodded to their escorts. She knew his message was clear. They weren't needed anymore. They returned the nod to show they understood, hitting the buttons on their wrists to engage the weird cloaking mechanism built into their suits. In seconds, they were gone. Rhydian and Maddy headed back in through the bedroom window, knowing that even if her parents were awake they wouldn't dare try to interfere.
"What the hell was that?" Maddy growled as she whirled around to glare at Rhydian. "She was my sister, Rhydian! We've just let them take her!" Rhydian was about to reply, but at that moment his phone began to ring. He pulled it out and Maddy took one look before swiping to answer it. It was an unknown number, but she could hazard a pretty good guess as to who it might be. Sure enough, Sarah's voice came through the speakers.
"Ah, sorry. Lost you there for a second. I assume they destroyed Maddy's phone? Don't worry. I've already made arrangements for that."
"Yeah, they did. Do you know anything about those Wolfbloods?" Maddy asked. "They had some weird camouflage tech. Rhydian and I had real trouble seeing them. They had these automatic helmets as well."
"Huh." There was a pause as Maddy guessed Sarah was scanning the databases to see what she could find. "Wow, they actually got those working! I have to say, I'm impressed! Yeah, they're Segolia's elite tech division. No idea what they'd want with the other Maddy and her abductive father figure, but if I'm being honest, it's probably for the best. She's spent her whole life under the wing of an evil man. Just like me with the Morwal, there's probably no way to save her. I know you don't want to hear it, but it's true." Maddy sat down on the bed with a heavy sigh. Before she even knew what was happening tears rolled down her face. In an instant, she felt Rhydian's arms wrap around her. She leaned in as he pulled her close and rested her head against his chest. They sat there for some time. As soon as she could trust herself to speak, Maddy lifted her head up and turned to face Rhydian.
"How are you doing, anyway?" she asked. "He stamped on you pretty hard during that fight."
"It's nothing." Rhydian's response was way too quick. She knew he was lying.
"Take your shirt off." As soon as she said it, Rhydian had to fight not to choke on his own breath.
"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you? Can I remind you, Maddy, that your parents are only in the other room?"
"They won't come in here after yesterday." Maddy shrugged dismissively. "Also, guilty. Now take it off." Rhydian rolled his eyes and let out a heavy sigh as he grabbed the bottom of his shirt and went to lift it. As he did, Maddy put a gently hand on his arm.
"Slower. Don't strain yourself. Take your time."
"I thought you said there'd be a cute girl in attendance." He flashed her a wink to let her know he was joking, but his voice sounded strained. He couldn't hide the pain from her. She knew him too well.
"Shut up and take it off!" With that, he did. As soon as she saw the damage, Maddy couldn't help but stare in horror at the angry black bruise that was coming out on his chest. The night air had helped to bring out the swelling and the savagery on display was nothing short of disturbing. He'd been carrying this around with him for almost an hour and never said a word. "You should have told me you were hurt, you idiot!" Maddy ran her hands through her hair in frustration as she racked her brain for ideas. "Okay, the full moon is in a few days. The biggest problem is Mrs Vaughan. If she sees that she'll go ballistic. Do you think you can hide it until then?"
"I hide a lot worse from her." Rhydian shrugged, wincing as he quickly regretted that movement. Maddy nodded as she mentally tried to work through everything. With the sheer amount of information and loose ends to lies and excuses she was having to process, it was bound to be a losing battle.
"Okay, I'll get you some anti-inflammatory gel from the bathroom." As she said it, a suggestive look crossed her face. "Want me to rub it in for you?"
"Uh, can I remind you that I'm still here?" Sarah pointed out from the phone. "And I don't mean on the line, either. I can actually see through the phone camera. Nice bruise by the way, Rhydian." Maddy let out a sigh, rolling her eyes as she flopped back onto the bed.
"You are such a killjoy!" she fumed. "Also, he's my boyfriend so stop flirting!"
"I think you're barking up the wrong tree there." Maddy heard Sarah laughing through the phone. It was a weird sound and she guessed that for all her abilities while confined to her current state, she'd forgotten what true laughter sounded like long before the events she'd described.
"Fair enough." She couldn't help grimacing, unable to prize her brain out of its mental rut. "I just... I don't know how we're going to come back from this! That thing out there was my sister! I was about to get answers and you dragged me away!"
"Look, I'm sorry." Rhydian sat down on the bed next to her and gripped her hand, running his fingertips across her knuckles. "We couldn't do anything against them. Whatever they planned to do, they were going to do it and we weren't going to be able to stop them if we wanted to. I didn't think you'd want to see that. They dropped both those shapeshifters before we even realised they were there and they were much better equipped than us. We wouldn't have stood a chance. The best thing for us was to get out of there." It was hard for Maddy to hear it. It was the last thing she wanted to hear. But she knew it was the truth. He was right. There was nothing they could have done.
"Still, what am I going to do about my parents?" Maddy wondered, her grip tightening against Rhydian's hand out of stress. "I don't see how we're supposed to be a family after all this. I want to move on, I want to forget about it and put it behind us, but there's no way I can do that!"
"Oh, isn't there?" Sarah's voice intruded again and it was almost enough to make Maddy jump. For a second, she'd completely forgotten she was there. Suddenly, it dawned on her what Sarah was getting at. As she sat up and she and Rhydian gathered around the phone, the picture began to form in her head. It wasn't the best idea. It was far from perfect and would leave a lot of unanswered questions. But if she ever wanted her family to be able to call themselves a family again, it was the only option they had.