CHAPTER ELEVEN

RHYDIAN

"WHAT THE F..." I stopped short.

I'd started running as soon as I saw the wilds at the school in my head, screaming for Dan and Emma to follow me.

We must have covered about a mile before I stopped suddenly.

"They've got her" I screamed, "They've tricked her and got her".

Emma and Dan caught me up.

"What do you mean they've got her" spat Emma.

"Ceri, Bryn, Rocky and the others, they tricked her into thinking that they were coming after me and they trapped her."

"Have they hurt her?! What are they doing to her?!" she yelled into my face.

"I don't know, I can't see. They are blocking me. Stopping me from looking for her."

I knelt down, feeling the earth beneath my fingers; connecting with the place I knew I had last seen her. It was no good, all I could see was darkness, it was uncomfortable to do, like I was trapped too. I groaned with the effort.

"Dan you try" Emma begged.

Dan was already on the ground. He had dabbled with Eolas in his teens but he hadn't been able to use it for a long time now.

We all waited, holding our breath.

"It's no good." Dan whispered. "I can't see anything, just woods and sky and blackness. It's like they are trying to put images in my head, like a televisions that is out of tune, all pixelated".

"Can they do that?" Emma sounded desperate. "Oh, God, what are they planning to do to her."

"They can't hurt her Emma." Ellie came running up behind us, she was very out of breath and looked just as desperate as Emma and Dan.

"You said that the Pentagram would protect her. How could they even take her if we are protected?" I spat at Ellie.

"I don't know Rhydian" Ellie trembled "but they must be fighting it somehow, it will be hard enough to take her against her will, to fight the Pentagram, to hurt her would do immeasurable damage to the pack. Tear them apart. Of that I am sure".

"I hope your right Ellie" said Dan, barely keeping the anger out of his voice.

"We've got to find her, I need to go and find her". I was off and running again.

I could hear Dan, Emma and Ellie follow but I was faster.

How could I have let this happen? How could I have left Maddy at the school all by herself? I was so angry I couldn't even focus.

I'd been keeping an eye on her throughout the day; it was more habit now more than anything. I was so used to tuning in to her every time that I used Eolas that I had become curious. She would have never forgiven me if she knew I zoned out of the real world every so often just to glance at her. I wasn't creepy or weird about it, I wasn't stalking her, I'd just missed my friends so much while I was living wild, that it had felt like a moment of 'normal' to look at what they were all doing.

Meeting Maddy had been so amazing, she was my best friend, she had understood me like no one else. She stood up to me when I made stupid choices and stood up for me when the world was against me.

I had freaked when Mum had told me about the predictions. It had taken me three days of living by myself to get my head round the idea that I not only loved my best friend but to realise that I was in love with her too.

I knew I had to come back to her. I knew that I owed her the truth, that Dan and Emma hadn't told her and wouldn't until they were sure who Fillin's descendant was.

Maddy had filled my head; it made the rest of the pack furious. All they could see was Tames every time we communicated. They were convinced that I would try and turn them all tame, drive out the wild wolf and eventually stop the transformations all together. Stop who we were.

They weren't even sure who I was, that I really was Ceri's son but the more Ceri talked to me the more I realised I was so like her. I couldn't forgive her for abandoning me as a child, accident or not, but they way that all the wilds lived their lives still fascinated me.

The wilds found it hard to accept anyone new into their pack, even transient wild wolfbloods were kept at arm's length, so to suddenly have me and my tame ideas thrust upon them caused deep distrust.

I had run hard and got to the place in the woods where they had taken her quickly, there were signs that she had put up quite a fight, I could picture the scene... I couldn't smell any blood though so they hadn't injured her.

I covered the area quickly, tracing round in a spiral to cover all the area as quickly as possible. I could smell them all, Mum, Bryn, Rocky, Toby, Bert and Grace and Maddy most of all.

Six against one. Not great odds, poor Maddy she didn't stand a chance.

"Why have they taken her? Where will they go?" Emma, Dan and Ellie had caught me up.

"Quite a struggle. Even a human would notice that something untoward had gone on here." Muttered Dan, looking around at the area of churned up earth and bent tree branches.

"If they've hurt her, I swear I'll..." Growled Emma, she didn't need to finish.

"No sign of blood Emma, just one hell of a fight" said Ellie covering the ground with a clinical eye and sniffing carefully over the area where she had obviously been taken.

I was trying to find out which direction they had taken her in, working out from the spot where Maddy had been, trying to follow their scent but they had been clever, they had all covered this spot frequently over the last few days backwards and forwards to cover their tracks, they had even been up in the trees.

They could have taken her in any direction.

"It's no good, we can't follow them" muttered Dan.

"Well what do we do? How do we get Maddy back?" howled Emma.

"We need to go back home and get some help" said Ellie decidedly.

I swiftly touched the earth again, checking the cottage was safe. I couldn't see anyone from the wild pack but Tom and Shannon were on their way, they would see that the house was just as we had left it so suddenly, the back door was still open, Ellie's cup of tea half drunk on the kitchen table, my drawing pad and pencils strewn across the bench in the yard where I had been sketching.

I hoped they would stay put until we got there.

I was off and running again, it would be so much quicker as a wolf but I daren't risk being seen, even in the woods. I could hear Emma, Dan and Ellie follow.

It seemed to take so long to get home, though it was only minutes I felt like I was travelling so slowly even though I was running so fast. I pushed on as hard as I could.

I cleared the wall at the bottom of the garden in a single bound, I really didn't care if anyone saw me, I could answer questions later.

Shannon and Tom we sitting outside the back door looking extremely anxious. They stood as I hastily approached them.

Shannon took a deep breath, preparing to tell me what had happened to Maddy but I was one step ahead of her.

"They've got Maddy. Ceri and Bryn and the others, they captured her in the woods."

Shannon's face crumpled, Tom looked furious. "What? How?!" He shouted at me.

"They tricked her and grabbed her in the woods, they have taken her somewhere but we don't know where."

Dan, Emma and Ellie caught me up, all breathing hard.

Emma ushered us all inside. Shannon was muttering to herself, under her breath "How could they have got her, why would she be so stupid to fall for a trap, where would they have taken her?"

Tom looked terrifying. I'd never seen such tension in his face, he was so angry.

Emma was frantic. "What are we going to do Dan? How do we find her?"

I was so desperate to run that I was shaking all over, I could barely think straight.

"Enough" Ellie shouted, her face was contorted; she looked about as wolf while still being fully human as she could. Everyone in the room fell silent.

"This is my pack and I'm in charge" she growled, "We are going to find Madeline. It was her that they wanted and we don't know why but we are going to need help if we are going to get her back to us quickly."

"The pentagram will protect her from harm but we are going to need reinforcements to cover search for her. They could be planning to take her anywhere."

"Tom, Shannon, we need you to stay here and co-ordinate the search. Dan, Emma, Rhydian, go and pack. We might be gone for a few days. Emma, where is your list?" Ellie was firing orders like an army general mobilising his troops.

"I'll get it" said Emma moving towards the dresser.

Emma took a small note book from the bottom of a draw and gave it to Shannon who was still shaking. "This is an address book for all our Tame wolfblood friends, start ringing them and tell them what is going on. Rhydian, look at me, we need you to find her. Where are they taking her?"

Emma was so intense her eyes were turning yellow; Shannon and Tom both took a step back.

I couldn't breathe; the room seemed to be too full of people so emotionally charged. I wanted the world to stop moving, only for a minute while I could gather myself and look for Maddy but it was like everything was moving too fast, spinning out of control.

I stepped outside breathing heavily. Maddy where are you? I asked myself.

Crouching to touch the stones outside the back door I tried to connect with the earth. I could see the woods where we had just been, see the tracks that we had followed there and back but I couldn't see Maddy. I could feel the earth around me, smell the scents of the garden and the woods beyond but I still couldn't find her in any of it.

I suddenly worked out what I needed to do. I bolted back into the house and shot up the stairs, taking them 3 at a time.

Her bedroom, I needed to connect with Maddy, not the earth. It felt strange being in her without her permission, without her. I was uncomfortable, what would Emma and Dan think about me being in here?

I looked around the room at all her little bits and pieces, school books and folders in piles on her desk, a hoodie over the back of her chair, her boots with thick socks stuffed in them at the bottom of the bed, the bed hastily made this morning before her exam. Next to her bed was a small book, I picked it up and read the cover 'Poisons, Potions and Aphrodisiacs by the Duchess of Northumberland' not Maddy's usual reading style, must be one of Shannon's. I flipped open the book and noticed writing on the first page 'Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything at all' Muhammad Ali. Happy Sweet Sixteen Maddy, Lots of Love Shannon. XXX'

I flicked through the book thinking about Maddy reading the pages and looking at the pictures. I smiled when I thought of her getting such a strange little present from Shannon.

My eyes moved around the room, taking her in, an eclectic mix of teenage girl who had had to grow up a little too quickly when faced with the responsibility of a secret that must be kept. Books, CD's, clothes, all in their place, not obsessively tidy but not strewn about the way they would have been if the room had have been mine.

My eyes rested on the picture on the wall, the drawing of the view from the bench in the garden. That morning hadn't exactly gone as I had planned it so carefully in my head. The truth was that she had taken me by surprise by kissing me so suddenly. I expected I would have to take my time, win her over, change her mind about moving from friend to something more.

Typical Maddy, always surprising me. Just when I thought I had her figured out she would do something to shock me.

Where was she and why couldn't I see her?

I closed my eyes and crouched down by the bed. I normally touched the earth to connect with it but as I had become better at Eolas I hadn't needed to so much but it was still a position I was able to best connect in.

I breathed in deeply smelling Maddy all around me.

The sensation disarmed me; I couldn't focus clearly, the images I saw swam and churned in my head making me feel dizzy and sick. It was like being drunk.

I'd only been drunk once, a deeply unpleasant experience. I went out and got smashed with some older boys from the foster home I was staying in. It was just before my first transformation and my world was a pretty messed up place at that point.

After that and then smashing up my room three days later when I first transformed, I was shipped out and on to the Vaughn's pretty quickly.

Being drunk wasn't something I wanted to try again anytime soon.

Never the less, I needed to find Maddy so I took some deep breathes and focused on her.

An image flashed into my head.