The Last Alignment: Cry of the Scorpions (15 page)

“
Let me guess. O’Ryann and
Tyler,” asked Androse.

“
Yes,” said Regina. “Your
father didn’t like them very much initially. Those two walked
around like they were superheroes or something. Everything, and I
mean
everything
was fun and games to them. It wasn’t until they got their
first taste of Mordikin that they changed their tune. Don’t be that
way. Listen to Sylvia and the others and do exactly what they tell
you to. Mordikin is ruthless and he’ll try any and everything to
get to you. I’ve even been attacked before.”

Natalye narrowed her eyes and looked at
Androse who now sat up a little straighter with the same puzzled
look on his face. “What happened,” he asked, but Regina ignored her
son.

“
I just want you guys to
be prepared. I don’t mean to sound like I’m trying to scare you,
but it’s just like what Sylvia was trying to say. You five have
hell ahead of you and you’re going to need each other to get
through it. And speaking of needing people,” Regina addressed
Androse, “try and get along with your grandfather while you’re with
him. Talk to him. Pull him aside and say to him what you said to me
just now.”

Androse sighed and slouched back down.
“Easier said than done, but alright,” he consented returning to his
bowl of sherbet soup. Natalye noticed that Androse didn’t look like
Regina, but he did have her hair and eye color which reminded
her.

“
Is there a picture of
Nicolas that I can see so that I can compare,” she
asked.

“
Funny you should mention
it,” Regina said pulling a little orange book out of her robe
pocket and handing it to her. “I was just going through these with
Androse.” Natalye opened it and didn’t blink; everyone was
right.

If it hadn’t been for the short, dark blonde
hair and blue eyes, Natalye would have thought that it was a
picture of Androse. “How old is Nicolas here,” she asked.

“
He was eighteen. If you
turn the page you can see a picture of Nick with Tyler and O’Ryann
when they were all sixteen.”

The next picture was of three guys, all with
arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders and bright smiles on
their faces. Nicolas was on the right end, and the guy in the
middle had red hair accompanied by unusually tan skin. He was still
handsome, though he had a very interesting look about him. The guy
on the left end had dark brown hair and green eyes and there was a
mischievous and playful quality to him. “So, O’Ryann is the one
with red hair, and Tyler is the other one,” Natalye guessed.

“
Yeah,” said Regina.
“O’Ryann is Awbrey’s father, and Tyler is Hudson’s. You know all of
those pictures in the stairwell of the little red-haired boy next
to Awbrey’s and Andrew’s baby pictures? That’s O’Ryann. Androse
thought he had recognized him, so I was showing him pictures of
everyone when they were younger. Or, did you know who he was
already?”

“
No, I didn’t. I’ve never
even heard of them up until today. It’s just Oren has brown skin
and Awbrey has red hair, so I put two and two together,” Natalye
said taking a closer look at Tyler. Hudson looked nothing like his
father and Awbrey looked nothing like hers. “Is Oren Native
American?”

“
Yeah, she is. I forget
which tribe, though,” said Regina. “It’s funny because O’Ryann got
his mother’s skin and his father’s hair. Oren told me that when he
was little people used to ask her if she dyed it,” she said
replacing her spoon into her now empty bowl. “Hopefully you all
will get the chance to meet Oren’s husband. Ryan should be getting
back in the country in a few weeks. He’s actually on a business
trip with Talia. They’re trying their best to cut it
short.”

“
Who is Talia,” Natalye
asked. The name sounded familiar.

“
Sylvia’s mother,” said
Regina. “She was a Wielder with your grandmother, Oren, Kate, and
Charles. As soon as they get back she is going to join you guys if
Hektor doesn’t get here first.”

“
Oh,” Natalye said still
examining Tyler.

“
If you two think Sylvia
is something, wait until you meet her mother. Zander comes from a
long,
long
line
of attitude. And when Talia and Kate get together,” Regina laughed,
“no one is safe. I don’t know how Charles managed being a Wielder
with four other women. At least you have Awbrey. She seems like she
has a good head on her shoulders.”
Awbrey
this
,
Awbrey
that
, Natalye thought raising the book
higher so that Regina couldn’t see her roll her eyes.
Everyone just loves fucking
Awbrey
. “And Androse, you having two other
guys is really-”

Regina was interrupted because Natalye broke
out in laughter after realizing what she had just thought; she was
definitely tired. “I’m sorry,” she apologized as she got ahold
herself. “I think I’m finally getting sleepy.” She turned to the
next page of the photo book and her laughter quickly subsided.
There was a picture of five teenagers; O’Ryann, Nicolas, Tyler, a
young, pretty, and dark-haired Sylvia, and Natalye’s mother,
Pamela, who did not look anything like the woman that Natalye knew.
She looked so fresh and happy with her curly brown locks and
twinkling hazel eyes, and feeling like her heart was going to leap
out of her mouth, Natalye quickly closed the book and returned to
her second dessert.

“
Well, it’s a couple of
minutes passed two,” Regina said after looking at the clock on the
wall. “You both should probably get to bed. So should I, come to
think of it. I have a long drive ahead of me in a few
hours.”

“
Actually,” Androse spoke
up, “Mom, would you mind sitting out on the porch with me for a
little while?” He sounded as if he was embarrassed to ask and
feeling intrusive, Natalye focused on her last morsel of sherbet.
“Not for too long, I just…will you sit with me?”

Regina considered him and
then smiled, her eyes slowly filling with tears. “There is
absolutely nothing else that I would like more. But, Sylvia is out
there right now keeping watch.”
Keeping
watch
, Natalye thought as she kept her
gaze down. Was she Sensing?

“
Oh. Never mind, then.
Just forget it,” Androse said going red in the face.

“
Honey, she can keep watch
from the living room just as well,” Regina said standing up and
holding out her hand. Androse smiled ever so slightly as he took it
and they both walked toward the front room. “Goodnight, Natalye.
And if I don’t get to see you before I leave, know that there won’t
be a day that goes by where I’m not thinking about you
kids.”

“
I know,” Natalye said
holding back tears. “It’ll be the same for us. It was really nice
meeting and talking to you.”

“
Likewise.” And with that,
Regina and Androse disappeared around the corner.

Not knowing what else to do, Natalye picked
up their bowls and carried them over to the sink. She turned on the
faucet, grabbed a sponge, and began to wash them while a few tears
rolled down her cheeks. That moment between Androse and Regina
reminded her of how much she didn’t want her father to leave
because she didn’t know when she would be able to see him again.
Natalye felt so blindsided with everything and she wished that they
would have decided to go about the whole situation in a different
way. Nevertheless, there was no wishing or hoping; there was only
what was, and she supposed that in the end she would make herself
adjust. That was all that there was to do regardless of how she
felt, and when she turned off the faucet and dried her hands, she
heard the front door close.

She cut off the kitchen
light and walked quietly to the doorway of the living room to see
Sylvia sitting Indian style in the middle of the floor. Her eyes
were closed and she rested her palms on her knees. She was
completely still and looked as if she weren’t breathing, and
Natalye studied her the best that she could.
That is awesome
, she thought.
Exactly what and how was Sylvia Sensing, and how far could she
Sense? Natalye wondered what she was feeling and what it was like
to be able to mentally identify other people and at that last
thought, Natalye supposed that Sylvia must have known that she was
standing there watching her. Somewhat embarrassed, she went to
sneak up the stairs when Sylvia spoke.

“
Goodnight,
Natalye.”

Chapter
12

Awbrey

Awbrey hit the snooze button on the alarm
clock and didn’t get out of bed. Her feelings of “maybe today’s the
day,” or “he might be downstairs right now” went away just as
quickly as they came. So, she decided to lie there with her eyes
closed until someone knocked on the door or yelled for her to get
up.

Two long weeks had passed since Patrick,
Regina, and Marcel left, and for two long weeks there had been no
sign of trouble and no sign of Hektor which made everyone restless
to say the least. Being told that they were in a world of danger
and that they had such a huge undertaking ahead of them, though
daunting, made Awbrey wish that something would happen just so they
could get the hell out of her grandmother’s house. While Charles
mostly stayed to himself, Oren, Hallie, Emma, Sylvia, and Kate all
tried their best to make it as fun for them as they could by doing
little things here and there that didn’t really make sense; like
celebrating Awbrey’s birthday a whole three weeks after it had
passed. Her birthday was back on the tenth of August, but Emma
decided that they needed to celebrate it anyway because it would be
a good “bonding experience” for the five of them which let Awbrey
know that the adults were not only noticing, but paying close
attention to how they were interacting with each other. Problem
was, there wasn’t very much interaction going on.

Awbrey stuck with Hudson, and Natalye and
Androse seemed to really take to each other which bothered Awbrey
for a little while before she let it go and stopped caring. Zander
chose to spend most of his time alone with his MP3 Player and his
cell phone, and when he did get tired of being by himself he went
to learn sign language with Andrew. Awbrey knew that the only
reason Zander asked her little brother to teach him was to annoy
her and in all honesty it did, but she held her tongue because of
what Zander said about her acting like she was the “head honcho.”
Awbrey hated that she was now paying more attention to her actions
and what she said because that meant that somewhere inside of her,
she felt that Zander may have been right.

Awbrey got the trait from Hallie who was all
about self-determination. She constantly encouraged her children to
take charge and to stand up and be heard. Thing was, Awbrey took
the “be heard” advice to heart, so much so that at Vancent she was
widely known as the “school bitch.” Boys didn’t seem to really mind
her attitude; some of them even told her that they thought it was
“sexy” which made her sick to her stomach. Girls in particular
didn’t like her very much, but that was mainly because Awbrey was
normally what stood in between them and having a shot at Hudson. He
was quite popular not only because he was easily one of the best
looking boys at Vancent, but because he was also a sincerely nice
guy who talked to everyone and Awbrey felt it her duty to repel any
girl that she considered worthless; which was basically every girl
at school. There had been a few instances where Hudson got mad at
her for getting in the way with girls that he had been interested
in, but Awbrey thought that a few days of dealing with an upset
Hudson was well worth it. She knew that she could be a little
domineering when she felt strongly about something, but she never
thought that it made her come across as being dictatorial or
pompous as opposed to concerned and helpful. Awbrey turned over
onto her side intending to go back to sleep, but her cell phone lit
up and vibrated. She grabbed it off of the nightstand and unlocked
it.

What’s the deal? Did u and Hudson just move
away and decide that u weren’t gonna tell me?

-Amanda

“
SHIT,” Awbrey shouted,
shooting straight up. “
Oh
,
no
,
oh
,
no
,
oh
,
no
,” she repeated hastily. Amanda
Lyerly was her one and only female friend at Vancent and Awbrey
loved her to death. “I am so sorry,” she spoke and typed at the
same time. “I’m…I’m…out of the country…”

Awbrey paused, thinking. She didn’t want to
lie, but at the same time she couldn’t be honest, so she erased the
last part. Not knowing what else to say, she merely sent “I am so
sorry” which Awbrey knew wasn’t enough. She knew how much Amanda
relied on her and she buried her head in her hands feeling
horrible.

Amanda had been
relentlessly teased and picked on since Awbrey met her in the sixth
grade. Her father had been in the military, so Amanda moved around
a lot prior to settling down in Vairlden where her father chose to
retire. Mark Lyerly was a tall and burly man, and unfortunately,
Amanda inherited his height and body frame. She stood at six foot
two, had wide, broad shoulders, and there was no femininity to her
body whatsoever. Her main tormentors were boys and jocks who would
often walk by her and say “sup, bro” in greeting, ask her for
protein powder because they ran out, or they would congratulate her
on having the courage to go forward with the operation to go from
being a man to a woman and would ask when the process would finally
be complete; at which time they would finally call her Amanda
instead of Adam. Girls would simply ignore her most of the time,
but whenever Amanda entered a bathroom it had become customary to
remind her that it wasn’t the men’s room and that she was probably
too fucking dumb to remember which one was which. If they were
feeling particularly nasty, they would run out into the hallway
yelling for security because there was a “big scary man in the
bathroom that was trying to touch them.” Awbrey and Hudson were her
only two friends in the entire school and now, she had been there
for two whole weeks by herself.
Fuck my
fucking life
, Awbrey thought as she ran
her hand through her hair. Her phone vibrated again and she was
slower to open the message this time.