CHAPTER TWELVE
I was confused, I couldn't work out why I was seeing the place I was inside my head.
It didn't make any sense...
"Can you see anything?" interrupted Emma passing the door with a large backpack in her arms.
I was still crouched on the floor in Maddy's room.
"I don't know... It's not right..." I couldn't explain it to her. I was shaking my head trying to get a clearer image.
I took a deep breath and tried again. Still the same.
I stood up and moved to go down stairs to the others. Maybe Ellie had more of a plan.
Tom was already on the phone, I was amazed at his decisiveness, he was explaining to someone on the other end who he was and why he was ringing and what his role in all this was. New Tom. Shannon still looked shaken, nervously biting at her thumb nail and pacing the floor like a caged animal.
"It's OK Shannon, We'll find her." I went over to her putting my hand on her shoulder and looking her in the eyes. I wished I believed it myself but we really didn't know where to start looking.
Tom came off the phone. "That's Julia and David, they are on their way, they will be here in a couple of hours."
Shannon nodded once and gave a weak smile but she still didn't look relieved.
"What will you do about school?" I suddenly questioned, they had left without any explanation.
"Oh hell, the exam" muttered Shannon letting her shoulders slump, "I'd forgotten about it... to be honest I don't really care!" she said, suddenly looking up.
Tom nearly fell over, "Who are you and what have you done with Shannon Kelly?!"
"It will be fine" Shannon continued, "you can do us a couple of fake Doctors notes and get us out of it, we'll say we had homemade egg sandwiches for lunch and that we both had food poisoning" she shrugged.
"OK, now I'm freaked" said Tom under his breath.
"Pinch the notes from your Dad" Shannon snapped at him.
Tom's Dad was a Doctor, though from what I remember he was a specialist in a hospital in Manchester so getting a forged GP's note from him might prove tricky. To be honest I wasn't bothered if they weren't.
"I'm not moving until Maddy is found" stated Shannon, setting her jaw in that determined way I'd seen before.
"No, neither am I" said Tom reaching for the address book again and flicking to the next entry.
Ellie and Emma had joined us, Dan was turning the Land Rover round in the drive way.
"But where do you start looking?" questioned Tom.
"I really don't know" shrugged Emma, she seemed suddenly deflated and her eyes filled with tears. I couldn't bear the thought of her loosing it now, Emma was always so strong and determined, if she fell to bits then I knew we were in trouble.
"I've seen something but I don't know if I can trust it..." I began
"Well, what is it?" demanded Emma, "anything will be useful."
"I keep seeing Lindesfarne, you know, Holy Island..."
"Where Maddy first transformed?" Emma questioned.
"Yer, it's only flashes of it, but defiantly there. I keep seeing the castle ruins and the shore line where we ran."
Dan re-joined us from outside. "Do you think they would take her there?" he asked to all of us.
I shrugged. "They have seen images of me and Maddy together in my head but it's unlikely they knew the exact place, Wild wolfbloods don't use the same place names as us, they are much more general about areas rather than specific locations. Why would they take her there though? It's not a great place to hide."
"It's a perfect place to hide" said Shannon.
The rest of us all turned to look at her open mouthed.
"Think about it" Shannon demanded, "What better place to hide than in full sight."
We still all looked confused.
Shannon sighed exasperatedly while Tom shrugged and shook his head, waiting for an explanation.
She continued, "Holy Island is wild and remote, there are no woods to hide in but there are plenty of holiday cottages and lots of tourists to get lost amongst. Plus it's only accessible for a few hours a day thanks to the coastal road. From my research, wild wolfbloods might not trust the human world or want to live in it but they will still use it to their advantage if they need to."
I thought about it. "That's true, wilds will live in abandoned houses or build den's in the winter, Mum told me about some places they had stayed in and we stayed in a cave over the winter months."
"Plus" continued Shannon, "It's the last place we would think of looking for them, the images Rhydian is seeing in his head could be because the place holds affection for him and Maddy, and it's not their normal territory or hiding place."
"How will they get her there?" questioned Tom.
"Mum and Bert can both drive, though Mum has never passed a test. They will steal or borrow a car or van if they need to." The thought of Maddy bundled into the back of a van made my stomach turn over, Emma took in a sharp breath, she clearly had the same image in her head.
"It's as good a place to start as any" shrugged Dan picking up the back pack by the door. I didn't have any clothes other that the ones I had arrived in so I had borrowed some from Dan, the trousers were all a bit too short and the tops too tight but I couldn't complain; it was good to wear clean clothes again.
Ellie, Dan, Emma and I headed out towards the car, Shannon and Tom followed us out.
"We'll stay here and keep ringing round, keep us informed of how you are going" demanded Tom.
Ellie and Dan climbed into the front of the Land Rover and Dan started the engine. Emma and I were in the back.
We set off towards the main road.
The journey was only about an hour, twisting and turning down Northumberland's sheep trail roads. It felt like so much longer bumping around in the back of the Land Rover. We were all silent and tense. I daren't look at Emma; I couldn't stand to see her trying so hard to hold it all together.
After what felt like an age we arrived on the small country lane leading to the causeway that crossed over to Holy Island, we could see that the tide was in before we got anywhere near the shore line.
Dan stopped the Land Rover in a lay by just before the start of the causeway.
"How long before we can get across?" questioned Emma.
Dan took out his phone and began to look up the times on the internet, it took a while to get signal but when he did it wasn't great news.
"The tide is coming in, it will be a good few hours before it starts to turn and we can get across." He told us with a resigned shrug.
"Is there any other way across?" questioned Emma.
I was so frustrated, I could feel my limbs begin to shake and tremble, I looked at my hands, the blood pulsing through my veins was turning dark and my eyes begin to change to yellow.
"I could swim across" I growled.
"Only as a wolf and you'd be seen, besides we need to stick together, six against two aren't great odds" ordered Dan.
Emma could see me begin to change "you need to calm down Rhydian, you can't change here".
"She'll be OK" soothed Ellie, "they won't hurt her".
I put myself in Maddy's place, she would be angry and upset and confused about what they were going to do to her, she would be worried about Emma and Dan too, I hoped that she would be worried about me too, but I wouldn't have blamed her if she had been furious with me for putting her in this position in the first place.
This was my entire fault, if I hadn't come back, if I had spent more time with the wild pack assuring them that we would never want to turn them tame then maybe they wouldn't have felt the need to take Maddy.
I felt sick with guilt and worry.
I took deep breaths and tried to calm down. Maddy would be rightly angry with me but there was nothing I could do about that now, I just had to know that she was safe.
We sat huddled in the Land Rover all looking out towards the Island. We were silent. There was nothing to be said.
Emma was crouched on the bench seat curled in a ball, her face tucked into her knees with her arms wrapped around herself, she was breathing deeply, I know she was trying to use all her wolfblood instinct to find Maddy. Emma wouldn't use Eolas but she could search for Maddy using a mother's love.
We must have sat there for nearly an hour before I cracked.
"I can't sit here anymore" I suddenly shouted, reaching to open the back door and climb out.
I was off and running before the others could say anything.
I ran south along the coast line as hard as I could, burning off the nervous energy that had accumulated in my limbs. What were they dong to her? Would they hurt her? I trusted my Mum but then I had never expected Bryn, my own brother, to attack me, even if he was going for Maddy.
I skidded to a halt breathing hard; I crouched to connect with the earth again, looking hard for all of them. I felt my scenes skim across the water towards the island. I searched the places where I had been with Maddy, when she had first transformed a couple years ago.
We had 'accidently' become trapped on the island when I had faked an injury so as not to return with a school trip. We had all been stuck on the island for a full moon. Maddy's first transformation. She had refused to leave me when she thought I was injured delaying the school minibuses departure and so we had all been trapped here.
Shannon and Tom had suspected that something was wrong and had gone looking for us, they had almost caught us as wolves too but thanks to Maddy's quick thinking we managed to stay hidden. I owed Maddy so much; she has saved my skin on more than one occasion.
I felt the sand beneath my fingers and focused on the island. I could see images but nothing clean like I was used to, I couldn't understand how they were blocking me, why couldn't I see Maddy?
I stood and faced the island, howling deep and loud.
I howled until I was breathless, thank goodness we were miles away from anywhere and no humans would hear me.
I finally fell to my knees in desperation. I closed my eyes and let my head slup forward. Even when we made it onto the island we still hadn't the first clue where to start looking for her and if we raised suspicion the wilds might whisk her away to another location or worse, hurt her.
As I knelt there on the edge of the shore, my knees in the water, I felt defeated. My breathing had slowed and I had closed my eyes.
Suddenly Maddy was in my head, I could hear her chanting my name over, repeating it like a mantra. Was I imagining her? She became clearer. She was huddled on a bed, her hands and feet bound together, a large chain tethering her to the metal framed bed.
She was silently rocking backwards and forwards, her eyes closed, arms wrapped protectively around her knees, just like Emma had been in the back of the Land Rover.
It was only a flash of an image but it was enough, I could see her!
I took a deep breath, the sea salt smell clearing my nose; I focused on the sound of the waves and on Maddy again.
This time I could hear her before I could see her. She was calling my name, over and over.
Maddy.