The Last Alignment: Cry of the Scorpions (14 page)

There was silence. Surely her father didn’t
just say what she thought he said, and Natalye knew that the others
were in a state of disbelief as well.

“
I’m sorry, come again,”
Zander asked.

“
All of you are going to
stay here at Oren’s house with Sylvia, Emma, Charles, and Kate
where they can protect you until Hektor gets here,” Marcel said
clapping Patrick on the shoulder as he sat back down. “And then
after that, all five of you are going to be moving up to Montana
with Hektor. He owns a house and land up there in Lillarey. Your
parents, grandparents, and so forth all trained there, and so
that’s where he’ll train you guys too.”

Natalye stared at her father the whole time
that Marcel spoke, and because she saw the hurt in Patrick’s eyes,
she tried her best to not get upset because she knew that the
decision must’ve been as hard on him as it was on her. In all
honesty, it wasn’t that big of a move. Of course she would miss her
father and her older brother, Allen, but Natalye was homeschooled,
so it wasn’t like she was being ripped from her life. However, even
though she didn’t attend public school, she was still able to make
friends with people in her neighborhood and surrounding area thanks
to her waitressing job, and what really hurt her was the
possibility that she wouldn’t be able to see any of the people that
she had come to love ever again. They were essentially being taken
into protective custody, and while it made everything more real,
Natalye still didn’t feel like she was in any danger.

“
I know that you guys
aren’t happy about all of these changes,” Marcel continued, “but
understand that it’s necessary. And speaking of change, in order to
not arouse suspicion, Regina, Patrick, and I enrolled Zander,
Androse, and Natalye into Vancent.”

“
No way
,” said Hudson.

“
What’s ‘Vancent,’”
Natalye asked.

“
Vancent E. Redding High
School,” Patrick clarified. “Awbrey and Hudson already go there. We
couldn’t have it to where Androse and Zander just didn’t show up to
their schools, so Sylvia and Regina told them that they were moving
and withdrew them, and I terminated your homeschooling.”

“
So, for all intents and
purposes, you guys enrolled us into a whole other school just for
us to not show up there either,” Zander questioned.

“
It’s complicated,” said
Marcel. “We thought about homeschooling you all, especially since
Pat homeschooled Natalye, but-”

“
We’re under ‘protection,’
but we still have to go to school,” asked Awbrey.
Please don
’
t let this get out of hand like it
did earlier
, Natalye thought.

“
No,” said Hallie. “I
think it’s safe to say that school is currently out of the
question. As far as Vancent knows, you five are out of the country
and won’t be back for a couple of weeks. That gives us time to
think, but it’s entirely too risky to let you guys go to
school.”

“
Does that mean that we
are going to be holed up here until Hektor comes?” Zander sounded
as if his own personal hell had been realized.

“
Yes, giovanotto,” sighed
Marcel.

“
Well,” Zander huffed
standing up. “I must say. This is some complete and total
bullshit.”

“
What did you say?!”
Marcel hopped out of his chair and Natalye, Androse, Hudson, and
Awbrey all scooted back not wanting any part of what was about to
go down.

“
You heard me, Pop,”
Zander said holding his ground though he looked hesitant. “I’m
sorry, but I can’t do this anymore! You and Mom can both slap me
until lightning shoots out of my ass if you want to, but it’s not
fair for you guys to sit there and turn our lives upside down and
expect us to just sit here and take it and not get upset! You know
that I’m right! I think all five of us are allowed a curse word or
eighty!”

“
You are not an adult,”
Marcel said clutching his fists.

“
We might as well be! It’s
a pretty adult thing that we have to do, isn’t it?!” Marcel had no
response, yet he looked as if he were gearing up to tackle his son
through a wall. Part of Natalye wanted to stand and back Zander up
because she felt like he was right, but she decided that it would
be better to remain out of dodge. “For starters,” Zander said a
little more confidently, “you guys drove us here refusing to tell
us where we were going or what this was all about, and then you
tell us that we have this huge responsibility that we have to drop
everything for, and…”

Zander trailed off and
then his eyes widened in realization. “
That
’
s
why you guys let me run wild last
week! You knew that might be the last time that I’d get to see any
of my friends!” Marcel nor Sylvia answered, but they looked at each
other as if to say, “Well, he finally figured it out.” “That’s
fucked up,” Zander shouted.

“
I have had just about
enough of your mouth,” Marcel hissed walking forward.

“
Marcel! Sit down,
now!”

Sylvia stood up and put herself in between
her husband and son, but faced Marcel. “Please, love. It’s alright.
Sit.” It seemed like he was going to argue, but Marcel took a few
steps back and then sat down. Sylvia then turned to face Zander who
moved so fast that he fell back into his own chair. “I’m not going
to hit you,” she assured him returning to her seat.

“
That’s because you’re
going to shock me,” Zander said staring at his mother’s
hands.

“
Zander Miran Rostino!
Don’t be stupid! I would never shock you, dumb-dumb,” Sylvia said
moving to the edge of her chair. Zander relaxed, yet he still
looked uncertain. “Sweetheart, even though I don’t like how you
expressed yourself, I can still acknowledge that you are absolutely
right. It isn’t fair for us to expect you all to not get upset.
Your father and I especially have been really hard on you since we
got here, and we’re sorry for that,” she said looking at Marcel
whose face read the complete opposite of what his wife had just
said. “If I remember correctly, I didn’t take the news of being a
Wielder so great either when I was your age, and neither did Pam or
Nicolas. Tyler and O’Ryann were the only ones that embraced it
straight away. We got taken out of our schools, we didn’t get to
see any of our friends and family, and we were isolated as well all
at once. I know how you are feeling which is why I’m giving you a
pass, but if you ever talk like that to us again…”

Sylvia finished the sentence with her eyes
and though she was looking at Zander, Natalye almost said “Yes,
ma’am” out loud.

“
Okay,” Oren said taking
over the room. “Here is how it’s going to work. Marcel will be
going back to California, Regina will be going back to Idaho, and
Patrick is going back to Colorado. The three of them are leaving
tomorrow morning and they will send any belongings that they feel
you all will need here. Hallie is going to stay and help out for a
little while before going back to Vairlden with Andrew.”
What
, Natalye thought.
She locked eyes with Patrick at the news making no effort to hide
how she felt. He was leaving her here? If they were in as much
trouble as they said, then how could he? “Now,” Oren continued,
“Zander, you are going to be sharing a room with Hudson and
Androse.”

“
Figured as much,” he said
under his breath.

“
And Natalye,”
Please
,
don
’
t say it
, she thought, “you will be
sharing a room with Awbrey. So, ground rules,” said Oren. “There
aren’t many, but the ones that we do have are simple and it is
highly important that you follow them. For starters, none of you
are permitted to leave this house for any reason. If there is
something that you desire or need, then all that you have to do is
ask. Secondly, tell no
one where you are.
The only people who need to have that knowledge already do. And,
after some careful deliberation, we are going to allow you all to
keep your cell phones so that you can at least talk to your
friends, but do not tell them where you are. We’ve asked the high
school not to disclose to any of the students that you all are ‘out
of the country,’ so they have no idea about your whereabouts. If
any of them ask persistently about your location or try to get you
to tell them anything, then you are to alert us immediately.
Basically-”

“
Basically it’s all a
bunch of common sense which I’m hoping to the heavens that you all
have,” said Charles. “If you use your brains, then we won’t have
anything to worry about and everything will go smoothly until
Hektor gets here.”

~*~*~

The rest of the day went by quickly. After
the meeting, Natalye wasted no time in hauling her stuff up to her
guest room, but she didn’t unpack and spent as much time as she
could with her father before he retired for the night. Patrick was
leaving in only a few hours, but it hadn’t sunk in to Natalye just
yet; she was still having a hard time grasping the whole situation.
She knew what she was told, but for some reason she still found
everything hard to believe. Nevertheless, here she was in an
unfamiliar house with unfamiliar people feeling like the last
twenty four hours of her life had flown by.

Accepting her inability to
sleep, she got off of her air mattress and walked over to the
bedroom door. Normally she would try to be as quiet as possible
when maneuvering around at night, but given that Awbrey didn’t care
very much about other people’s views, Natalye didn’t care about
whether she “accidently” woke her up or not. When she got out into
the hallway, however, Natalye stood there and sighed as she checked
her watch; it was one-forty in the morning.
Now what
, she thought. Back home,
she could always depend on her brother to be awake and would hang
out with him until she was tired enough to fall asleep, but Allen
wasn’t here, and so she went to plan B and started making her way
downstairs to the kitchen.
I hope Oren has
some ice cream stashed away somewhere
, she
thought, but when she got there the light was already on and there
were two people seated at the table with bowls and spoons in front
of them. Androse and Regina both smiled at Natalye when she walked
in.

“
Hey,” Regina greeted as
she got up and pulled her robe closer around her. “Have a seat. Can
I interest you in some strawberry-lime sherbet?”

It
’
s not ice cream, but
it
’
ll
do
, Natalye thought. “Sure, but I can get
it myself.”

“
Sweetheart, have a seat,”
Regina said taking a bowl out of a cabinet. Natalye nodded and then
sat down next to Androse who had been clearly playing with his
sherbet instead of eating it.

“
Am I disturbing
anything,” Natalye whispered. “I was getting time in with my dad
all evening, so if you want, I can take my sherbet somewhere
else.”

“
You’re fine,” Androse
said dropping his spoon. “I was just apologizing to my mother about
something and she was telling me stories about my dad from when he
first found out that he was a Wielder.”
Cool
, she thought.

“
Here you go,” Regina said
setting a bowl down in front Natalye.

“
Thank you,” she said
picking up her spoon.

“
So, how are you holding
up,” Regina asked returning to her seat.

“
Idunreaknow
,” Natalye answered
through a full mouth. “Sorry,” she said after swallowing. “I don’t
really know. It’s kind of hard to take. Our grandparents and Sylvia
are all super serious about it, but I can’t be because I don’t
exactly feel like I’m in any jeopardy or anything.”

“
Androse was just telling
me the same thing,” said Regina. “I think it’s always like that
when you guys are first told about everything. You live your lives
up until the moment you find out what you are and what you’re
supposed to do and then it almost seems unreal, like it can’t
possibly be true. Nicolas felt the same way.”

“
Wait,” said Natalye,
careful to make sure that her mouth was sherbet-free, “you and
Nicolas knew each other when you guys were sixteen?”

“
Yes,” Regina smiled
fondly. “High school sweethearts. I knew about his powers even
before he became a Wielder, though. I thought that he was the most
handsome boy that I had ever laid my eyes on, and combine that with
supernatural abilities…my teenage self was smitten,” she laughed.
“I fell, and I fell hard. It’s a little embarrassing, but I used to
fantasize that he was Clark Kent and I was Lois Lane. I think that
Charles would’ve killed him if he’d known that Nicolas told me back
then.”

“
That’s so cool,” Natalye
beamed.

“
Yeah, it is, but I will
say this,” Regina said sliding her sherbet to the side, “I don’t
know how it feels to be in you two’s shoes. I can only speak from
having watched Nicolas and knowing what he told me, but
please…
please
don’t take this situation lightly.” There was such care in
her voice that Natalye forgot that she had a spoon sticking out of
her mouth. “I can’t even begin to explain all of what Nicolas and
the others went through. It got so chaotic when they first became
Wielders because not all of them took it seriously from the
beginning.”