The Last Alignment: Cry of the Scorpions (24 page)

A cough broke their silence, so Androse
looked around at the others; Natalye was staring at the ground in
her own world, Zander was looking at his leg which now had a long
scar going down it that Androse hadn’t noticed before, and Awbrey
and Hudson were holding hands, the former still shedding tears
while Hudson looked ill. Androse slid his hands inside of his
pockets, dreading the moment when they would get to their
destination because he would then have to deal with his grandfather
who was undoubtedly furious. He examined his shirt, and even though
Hektor had somehow managed to remove all of the blood off of all of
them, he could still see it and his mind went back to where he was
a little over half an hour ago.

After Amanda opened fire and panic erupted,
Androse and Hudson got swept away down a hall and ended up in the
library. Amanda had followed and even bypassed some students
clearly hunting them down, but Hudson got out and sprinted to
another part of the school and Amanda was quick to tail him. When
she left, everyone either ran out into the hall or crawled out of
the library windows, but Androse stayed, intending to go after
Hudson and help when he saw her. It was the same girl that had
smiled at him in front of the school earlier and she had been shot
in the chest. Androse knelt down, picked her up, and rested her
back against his thighs and abdomen not knowing what else he could
possibly do for her.

“
W-what is your name,” she
asked, swallowing and coughing.

“
Androse,” he said using
the bottom of his shirt to wipe some blood away from her mouth. She
smiled up at him, tears overrunning her light brown eyes. She went
to speak again, but then she gave one last cough and her head fell
to the side. Androse sat there with her for a moment wondering what
her name was, who her parents were, if she had any siblings, who
her friends were, and his eyes welled up for her knowing that she
was probably thinking about all of those things before she took her
last breath. It wasn’t until he moved her off of him that he
realized that the bullet had gone straight through and that he was
drenched in her blood.

“
Stop.”

Hektor held out an arm catching Androse in
the stomach and pulling him out of his thoughts.

“
What is it,” asked
Hudson; they were about thirty feet away from his house. Hektor
stood there for about two seconds, and then without a word he
disappeared.

“
What the,” started
Zander, but Androse interrupted him.

“
Something’s wrong,” he
said squinting at the house.

“
What do you mean,” asked
Natalye, but it wasn’t something that Androse could
explain.

“
Come on,” he said
breaking into a run. He got a few feet away and then realized that
no one had followed him. “Guys, come
on,”
Androse implored turning around, but then even he stood still. They
all looked from one to the other, and in that moment there was
complete and total understanding between the five of them; they all
felt in over their heads and overawed. Natalye started crying and
Zander put his arm around her. Awbrey and Hudson huddled closer
together and then Androse remembered that the two of them were also
mourning the death of a good friend. There was so much pain and
fear between them and Androse once again recalled his mother’s
words; “
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
.” They hadn’t taken it
seriously, but they certainly hadn’t taken it for a joke either.
Androse felt just as bad as the rest of them, but there was nothing
that could be done. They had to press forward and he needed them to
understand that. “Look,” he said walking back over to stand with
them. “I know that we-”

“
Stop, Androse,” Natalye
said letting go of Zander. “We all know that we’re in store for a
lot of talking once we get inside of that house. Besides, I think
that we’re all on the same page anyway.” She moved to stand beside
Androse so that they were all standing in a circle. “We get it now.
It sucks ass, but we finally get what our parents and grandparents
were trying to tell us this whole time.” Hudson wiped his eyes.
“This is just the beginning, you guys. This is our reality now, and
it’s only going to get crazier and harder from here.” Everyone was
looking at Natalye except Awbrey whose gaze was settled on a crack
in the sidewalk. “Our families are going to tear us several new
ones when we get in there,” Natalye continued, “but I don’t care.
Zander, I can’t even begin to tell you how much I appreciate you
after all of that. If it weren’t for you, I don’t think that I’d be
here right now.”

“
We helped each
other, Nat,” Zander said shaking his head. “You
did as much for me as I did for you.”

“
Exactly! That’s my
point,” said Natalye. She opened her mouth again but then she
swallowed, seeming to not even want to try and piece together all
of what was going through her head. “Look, all I’m asking as a part
of this…Alignment, is that regardless of personal feelings or
anything else, we stick together and have each other’s backs.
That’s how we’ll survive and that is where our strength is.” Once
again, they all looked at each other apart from Awbrey and nodded,
acknowledging to one another that they all accepted their
circumstance.

“
Well, things can’t
possibly get any worse, so let’s go ahead and get in there,” said
Zander.

They slowly broke into a
run, jumped the fence that led to Hudson’s backyard, and then ran
around to the other side of the house. The front door was open so
they kept going and then Androse and Hudson stopped causing Awbrey,
Natalye, and Zander to run into the back of them.
“
Wait
-
wait
-
wait
,”
cried Androse, not wanting to take another step.

There was a woman lying face down in the
floor. She was dead.

Chapter
20

Zander

I can
’
t handle another dead
body
, Zander thought, though he had been
greatly relieved when he realized that it wasn’t his
mother.

Hudson walked forward and Awbrey pushed
passed all of them to get a closer look. “Sarah,” she exclaimed to
Hudson. “That’s Sarah!”

“
Who is Sarah,” asked
Natalye.

“
She was my caretaker,”
Hudson said stooping beside her on the verge of tears. “I’ve known
her for almost ten years.”

Kate and Sylvia walked out into the entrance
hall from the living room, both of their faces red and tear
streaked and their eyes were swollen. Awbrey and Hudson backed away
from the body as did all of them; the moment that they had been
heavily dreading was finally upon them where they would get chewed
up and spat back out. Zander had half-a-mind to run out of the
front door, but it closed and locked behind them without anyone
touching it. Sylvia’s gaze settled on her son and she then threw
her tissue down to the floor.

Fuck
, Zander thought as his fear spiked. “Mom,” he said stepping
in front of Awbrey, “I’m sorry!
We
’
re
sorry! I promise that we didn’t
think that anything would happen if we-”

Sylvia ran forward and Zander covered up,
but there was no need to; instead of hitting him, she latched on to
him and began sobbing into the side of his neck. Zander was
dumbfounded.

“
I’ll k-kill you later,”
Sylvia bawled squeezing him tighter than she ever had. “I’m just
glad that you’re alive!” Hudson walked forward, but his grandmother
held up her hand and he stopped.

“
Androse,” Kate said
weakly, “we need you to come into the living room. All of you,
actually.”

“
Grandma-”

“
Hudson Eric Williams, I
don’t want to hear anything that you have to say! I’m glad that
you’re okay, but just…don’t speak to me right now. I’m not ready,”
Kate said before storming back into the living room. Sylvia let go
of Zander’s neck, but then took his arm and held it close to her.
Hudson hung his head and Natalye walked up and put a hand on his
back. Slowly, they all moved to the living room and Hektor, Oren,
Emma, Hallie, and Andrew all had their backs to them. They were
looking down at someone who was lying on the floor and after seeing
the top of the person’s head, Zander knew who it was.
Oh
,
no
, he thought looking at Androse
who had walked up to stand beside Hektor. Charles, lifeless, was
sprawled out on his back with blood running down the side of his
mouth.

“
Androse, I am so sorry,”
said Kate, putting a tissue up to her nose. Sylvia started
quivering and Zander could tell that she was fighting back
sobs.

“
What happened,” Androse
asked flatly. He stared vacantly at Charles’ face. No tears, no
expression.

“
It was Sarah,” Hektor
said addressing Hudson whose mouth barely opened at the news. “She
was an Agonimin.”

“
She p-poisoned h-him,”
Oren choked, and Awbrey ran over and embraced her
grandmother.

“
Sarah got here this
morning at about nine-thirty which is standard,” said Kate. “Last
night, Charles told us to go downstairs so that we could have beds
instead of having to sleep on the couches. We offered to have him
share the room with us, but he refused and slept up here by himself
instead. Sarah normally comes and makes breakfast during the week.
I’m guessing that she had been showing up since we left checking to
see if we were back yet. This morning she must’ve seen all of our
cars. We all slept in a little so when she came, Charles got up and
let her in. Sarah m-made breakfast, poisoned it, and Charles ate,”
Kate sniffled. “When he died, Emma, Oren, and I f-felt it. That’s
what ultimately woke us up. Then Sylvia woke up and-”

“
I rushed upstairs and I
caught Sarah moving Charles’ body back to the couch. She was going
to make it look like he was still sleeping. She was going to kill
all of us,” Sylvia said holding Zander’s arm closer to her. “Once I
realized what was going on, Sarah attacked me as Hallie came out
into the main hallway. She went back into the den, woke Andrew up,
and then rushed him upstairs. She said that she was going to wake
the kids and I told her to not let any of them come down. It took a
few minutes, but Oren, Kate, and I killed Sarah while Emma guarded
the stairs in case she had tried to go up. After everything was
over, Hallie came back down and said that you five were all
missing,” Sylvia said looking at Zander. “We thought that maybe
Sarah had been a distraction and that you all had been
kidnapped.”

“
One of your neighbors
called and told us to turn on the news,” Oren said addressing
Hudson. “We did, and that’s when we found out what was going on at
Vancent. Sylvia was getting ready to glide there figuring that was
where you all were, but then Hektor showed up.”

“
I was at the airport in
the lobby. I had just gotten to Arizona maybe ten minutes prior and
it was breaking news on most of the televisions. I glided straight
to Oren’s house, but no one was there, and then I got Sylvia’s
message about you all moving here to Tyler’s house. I glided here
hoping that you all were confined and safe, but before I even got
within ten miles of the place I knew that the five of you were at
the high school. I Sensed, and Zander and Natalye were the first
two that I found. I felt that Zander had been hurt, so I used
Natalye to heal his leg. That is why you fainted,” Hektor said to
Natalye. “It was magic far beyond your current ability level. I
then burst into the school through the classroom window where you
and Zander had barricaded yourselves, and after much screaming and
sending desks flying at me, I finally got Zander to calm down and
he told me about everything that happened with Isabel.”

“
Isabel
,” asked Sylvia. She looked down at Zander’s leg. “Did she do
that to you? I’ll kill her!”

“
Mom, I did that,” Zander
said wrapping his arm around her. “I’m sure that if Isabel would’ve
gotten to me like she wanted to, I’d be in a much worse
state.”

“
Hold on, do you guys know
Isabel,” Natalye questioned.

“
We have all fought her
before, so yes. We know her very well,” Emma answered.

“
What do you mean you’ve
fought her before? How old is she,” asked Zander.

“
Well, we don’t know how
old her soul is, but she has been killed multiple times. Isabel is
one of Mordikin’s ‘generals’ as we call them. It’s safe to say that
out of them all, she is the low man on the totem pole, but that
isn’t saying that she’s a pushover. Mordikin really likes her and
for good reason. She’s ruthless. Every time Isabel dies he
reawakens her,” Emma said as she rubbed Kate’s shoulder. It was
then that Zander remembered Isabel’s last words;
“
I
’
ll be back, Hektor. You know that I
will
,” and the realization that he was
going to have to face her again was more than
perturbing.

“
Actually, the scar on
Zander’s leg is because of both of us,” Natalye piped up. “We were
rotating broken glass trying to protect ourselves. We heard
gunshots and we lost control.”