The Last Alignment: Cry of the Scorpions (9 page)

“
I’ve only been around
that dude for two hours and I already want to punch him in his
fucking mouth,” Hudson whispered. “I can’t stand guys like
him.”

“
I know,” Awbrey
whispered, “but I think the breaking of his jaw is an honor that we
need to leave to Androse.”

“
Well, if he doesn’t knock
some brains into him soon, then I sure as hell-”

Hudson stopped talking.

When they walked into the
living room there were three groups of chairs. On the left side
closest to the front door were four seats where Marcel, Regina,
Hallie, and a black man that Awbrey didn’t know all sat looking
dispirited. To the right, five were seated: Sylvia, Kate, Oren,
Charles, and an older woman with brown hair and green eyes who
Awbrey also didn’t know. And in between, front and center of those
two groups, were five chairs all perfectly lined up. Awbrey took
the one on the far left and Hudson sat down beside her. Androse sat
beside Hudson and then Natalye beside him. After a few seconds,
Zander lazily walked in, observed the scene, and then slowly took
his seat at the other end.
Complete waste
of sperm and egg
, Awbrey thought sighing
loudly.

“
First of all,” stated
Oren, “we want to apologize to the five of you for keeping you all
in the dark. Please understand that we have reason. But, to the
parents,” Oren said looking to the four adults to her right, “I
wish to apologize to you all as well from the bottom of my heart.
You have all been through this before, and now you are forced to go
through it again with your children as they have been called to
fulfill their duty.”
Duty
, Awbrey thought. “I know how
great your worry and concern is having gone through this not only
myself, but with my own son, and I thank all of you for your
willingness and understanding in bringing them here.” Oren paused
and then locked eyes with Awbrey who was sure that her grandmother
had never had her attention and focus the way that she did
now.

“
All five of you have
gifts,” Oren continued, addressing the teenagers before her.
“Precious, important gifts that are not there simply to just be.
There is a higher purpose for all of you, a purpose that until as
of late, we all thought had been taken care of. There is a name for
what you all are and it is the same name that four of us have
carried at one time,” Oren said placing a hand on Kate’s leg and
the other on Charles’ forearm. The woman on the end merely nodded.
“It is a title that Sylvia, Zander’s mother, still carries to this
day.”

Sylvia took this as her
cue and straightened up. “I am a Wielder,” she announced. “I
control lightning. I
am
lightning.” Awbrey looked at Hudson who had the
same confused expression on his face.
What
the hell is a Wielder
, she thought, but
before she could ask it seemed as if Zander’s mother was gearing up
to answer. Sylvia raised both her hands and Awbrey felt a tingle
spread throughout her body. Everyone else must have felt it too
because they had all started fidgeting in their seats with the
exception of those who were sitting in Sylvia’s row. Strands of
Awbrey’s hair started to rise up from her waist, and then flashes
of energy sporadically and swiftly emanated from Sylvia’s fingers.
Awbrey covered her eyes from the bright dancing lights, turned her
head away, and then unexpectedly jumped in fright; there were quick
consecutive bangs and it was a sound that Awbrey had never heard
before. She imagined that if you threw a bucket of water on an
electrical generator, then this would be the noise that it would
make. After a moment the racket ceased, so Awbrey slowly lowered
her arm and opened her eyes. There was a little bit of smoke in the
air along with an odd, metallic scent, and looking around no one
seemed all that much affected or amazed by what had just happened
except Awbrey and all of those in her row. Sylvia, content with her
demonstration and the response it received, continued.

“
All of you are sixteen
with the exception of Natalye whose birthday is on the fifth of
October. When the clock strikes midnight and marks the beginning of
that day, all of you will become Wielders just as we all did when
we turned sixteen, and you will all inherit great
power.”

“
You mean, we’ll be able
to do what you just did,” asked Awbrey, already imagining what it
would feel like to have lightning shoot from her
fingers.

“
No. Just Zander,” Sylvia
said eyeing her son. “As I stated earlier, I am the Wielder of
Lightning, and when the time comes, that will be Zander’s
designation and no longer mine.”

“
You, Awbrey, will become
the Wielder of Fire,” Oren said importantly.
Fire
, Awbrey thought. She clenched
her hands and visualized them as two flaming fists.
So
,
there
’
s a
whole other power that we haven
’
t even tapped into
yet
. A small smile came to Awbrey’s lips
as she wondered what she would potentially be able to
do.

“
Androse,” Charles spoke
up, “you will be the Wielder of Wind and Air.”

“
Hudson,” said Kate, “you
will be the Wielder of Water.” Awbrey put a hand on Hudson’s thigh
and squeezed, but upon looking at his face she realized that he
wasn’t nearly as excited as she was about the declarations being
made.

“
Natalye,” said the woman
that Awbrey didn’t know.

“
Yes, Grandma,” Natalye
responded nervously.

“
You will be the Wielder
of Earth and Nature.”

A thought occurred to Awbrey that quelled
her excitement and replaced it with an all too familiar dull sense
of disappointment. “Wait,” she said trying to settle her now racing
mind. “Grandma, if you, Charles, Kate and…I’m sorry, I don’t know
you…”

“
I’m Emma, dear,” the
woman said kindly.

“
Nice to meet you,” Awbrey
said. “If you guys aren’t ‘Wielders’ anymore and Sylvia is, and
she’s Zander’s mother, then does that mean that-”

“
It means that currently,
Sylvia, O’Ryann, Tyler, and Pamela are the present Wielders.
Nicolas was as well,” Oren added somewhat bowing to
Androse.

“
My Mom
,” Natalye spurted out.

“
Yes, Pamela is a
Wielder,” said Sylvia. Awbrey looked at Natalye and saw that she
had tears in her eyes.

“
Grandma, this whole
time-”

“
Yes, Natalye,” Emma said
consolingly. Natalye bit the insides of her cheeks clearly in an
effort to keep quiet. “Most of you have had very unfortunate
circumstances growing up, I’m afraid. A lot of your parents…they
changed, for lack of a better word, but there are reasons why they
did.”

Awbrey’s eyes hadn’t left
Natalye. There was something about the look on her face that she
identified with and then she noticed the absence of certain people
that should be there with them; her father, Hudson’s father, and
Natalye’s mother. They were all Wielders and would be passing their
powers down to them in a little over a month, yet they were nowhere
to be seen. Then Awbrey remembered her mother yelling over the
phone, “What do you mean you’re too busy,” “It’s your
responsibility to tell her,
not Oren’s,”
and it sank in, filling Awbrey with a renewed disgust for her
father.
He is such a fucking
asshole
, she thought disbelievingly. She
didn’t think O’Ryann could be any worse of a dad and yet he always
seemed to manage.

“
Your parents went through
a lot,” Emma continued.
Yeah
,
well
my father has put us through quite a bit too
, Awbrey thought. “Yes, they are Wielders, but at the same
time, they are human. There were things that they had to do that no
normal person would ever dream they had to. There were things that
they had to see that-”

“
What reason could there
possibly be,” Awbrey questioned, unable to resist the compulsion.
“My parents used to be so happy together and then before I knew it,
they were divorced. There is no reason that can possibly justify
him changing up on us the way that he did.” Anger started to rise
in her when she thought about how all of those years that her
grandmother trained her to use her powers could have been time
spent with her father if they had indeed had a good and healthy
relationship. Awbrey loved Oren and despised O’Ryann, but there
were still parts of her that wanted that father-daughter bond.
Knowing now what she was and how much more directly connected she
and her father were only made Awbrey feel somewhat closer to
O’Ryann and she hated it. “Don’t sit there and tell me that being a
Wielder all of a sudden made my dad treat my mom like-”

“
Awbrey
,” Hallie said tearfully. “Please listen. Do not disrespect
her.” Awbrey locked eyes with her mother and could see the
seriousness in Hallie’s face. Relaxing, she settled back into her
chair and Hudson put his arm around her and pulled her closer to
him.

“
It’s okay, Hallie,” said
Emma. “No, Awbrey. That isn’t what I was saying at all. Though
being a Wielder is life changing in and of itself, it was the
duties that came with the territory that changed all of your
parents. You have to be so much stronger, braver, and wiser than
the average person. It altered us, and it will no doubt transform
the five of you as well. Unfortunately, though, I think Awbrey,
Hudson, and Natalye got the worst of it.”

“
How can you say that? My
father is dead,” Androse spoke up. “I never even got to know him.
You don’t think that’s ‘the worst of it?’”

“
Androse!” Charles and
Regina had both shouted.

“
Androse, that is
certainly not what I meant,” Emma said going a little red in the
cheeks.
Just keep digging yourself a
deeper hole
,
bitch
, Awbrey thought. “I am so
incredibly sorry that you never got to know Nicolas,
but-”

“
Yeah, you and everyone
else are always sorry that I never got to know him,” Androse said
angrily. Awbrey’s pulse quickened. “That’s all I ever hear from
anyone.”

“
Androse, your father was
a good man,” said Emma. “If he were still here your situation would
have been drastically different and nowhere near as complicated and
as hard as-”

“
You think that life
without him has been easy, huh? No complications? What about my
mom? What about-”

“
That is
enough
!” There was a
steel finality in Charles’s voice that made Awbrey’s hand fly to
her mouth. She looked at Androse whose chest was heaving and then
she saw a tear fall down the side of his face.
Oh
,
God
, she thought.

“
Grandpa,” Androse said
cautiously, “you and Mom won’t even tell me how he died! Do you
know how hard that’s been for me? How long do you expect me to go
on without knowing anything about it? How can you-”

“
OKAY!” This time everyone
jumped, and all eyes were on Charles. “Alright! You want to know
how Nicolas…how my
son…”

“
I’ll tell you, Androse,”
Sylvia said.

“
How can
you
tell me,” Androse
asked impertinently, though Awbrey was sure he hadn’t meant
to.

“
Don’t talk to my mother
like that,” said Zander.

“
Zander, you better watch
it,” Marcel threatened. “What did I tell you when we were outside
earlier?”

“
STOP IT!!” Sylvia yelled
at the top of her voice. Awbrey could tell by the looks on most of
the adults’ faces that things weren’t going quite the way that they
had planned and she thought them irrational for thinking that
something like this could go over even semi-smoothly. “Androse,
sweetheart,” Sylvia continued, “I can tell you how your father died
because I was there when it happened.”

Chapter
8

Hudson

Hudson’s eyes had been glued to Androse. He
himself felt so much anger when he thought about his own father and
his lack of involvement, but here was Androse. Not only did he not
know what it was like to actually have a dad, but he also didn’t
even know how his father had died. Hudson couldn’t imagine being
kept in the dark when it came to something like that and unsure of
what to do, he rested a hand on Androse’s shoulder.

“
I’ll tell you with
Charles’s and Regina’s permission,” Sylvia added. Charles, having
calmed down, nodded as did Regina who was dabbing her eyes with a
tissue that Hallie had given her. Hudson thought it inappropriate
for Sylvia to tell Androse; this was something that he needed to
hear from his own family, but he kept his opinion to himself and
listened.

“
The reason that we all
have the powers that we do is because of one man. His name is
Mordikin. He is a malevolently dangerous man and he is in search of
something that he wishes to destroy so that he can do as he
pleases. This something is called the Allumina, or the ‘Gem of
Light.’ Mordikin already possesses the Abbadow, or the ‘Gem of
Darkness’ which makes him stronger than what he already is. The two
gems counterbalance each other, but the circumstances are
different. If the Allumina is destroyed, then Mordikin will have
the freedom and power to do what he wishes. But if the Abbadow is
destroyed, then the Allumina will extinguish itself because it
won’t have a reason to exist anymore. Our job is to protect the
Allumina and to destroy the Abbadow, but to destroy it, we have to
kill Mordikin wherever he may be and that is exactly what Nicolas
was doing when he passed.”