Soraya

 

It was a rare, rainy day in Los Angeles. We were sitting in a hospital waiting room and I was trying not to nod off over my laptop. We’d been here since midnight and would probably be here several hours more.

Next to me was my sister Talori, curled up and pressing her head into my side. On the other side of me, my mother sat with her head on my shoulder. Leaning into her was my brother Enele. Next to him, slouched into the corner of the couch, his arm thrown across the back and his other arm around the waist of Isla DeLuca, was my cousin Kai Weslark. All fast asleep.

My father had been sitting with my uncle Elias in the corner and quietly talking. But once sunrise had come and gone, they’d gone to get coffee and breakfast for everyone.

I had been trying to work, but I couldn’t focus and now the battery was almost gone. Picking up my phone, I sighed and squinted at a new message that had come through. I had a meeting later today and I grit my teeth. While I understood the importance of every active member of the Order being on call right now, my cousin Piper was giving birth.

It was ridiculous, but I’d had to call in every favor in my arsenal to get here. And I had no idea how Enele or Talori were here. In all likelihood, no one knew they were here.

My eyes drooped and I gave up. Closing my laptop and stowing it away, I glanced up. Roy Zima-Weslark, Piper and Kai’s cousin on their father’s side, had also nodded off. A small, amused smile pulled onto my lips. I still wasn’t quite used to this side of Roy – the human one – and I couldn’t help but look at him with a fresh burst of affection.

Especially as Kesari Iyer snoozed on him, hugging his arm and clearly the reason behind the smile on Roy’s face even as he slept. Hers was more serious and I found myself remembering those green-gold eyes focusing on me as I fell apart in front of her.

Her sturdy and warm hug, surprising in her petite, pixie-like form.

I was grateful to these two and felt the same fierce protectiveness towards them that I did all my younger cousins and siblings. While Roy balked at my fussing over him, hunching his shoulders and submitting to it under protest, Kesari seemed amused and delighted.

You don’t have a choice, I’d told them. I’m watching out for you now.

I had to. Roy’s other self-appointed big sister was now gone.

I let out a shaky breath as hot pain pressed into the center of my chest.

“You’re sad, Sora,” whispered a small voice and I looked down into Talori’s wide, blue-gray eyes. So much like Piper’s, people sometimes thought she was her little sister. Her short curls were soft under my fingertips as I shook my head. “I know, I miss her, too, but she’d want you to be happy.”

“Go back to sleep, To-To,” I whispered, my throat aching. “I’ll wake you when it’s time.”

Talori made a face but closed her eyes and I stifled a groan.

Ever since Bear Valley, almost two and half months ago at this point, my family had been tiptoeing around me. Overly worried. It was annoying.

My teeth gritted together. This wasn’t how it worked. It upset the balance and no one knew that better than I. Anytime in the past I’d shown vulnerability, I’d seen the uneasiness and uncertainty in their eyes. They didn’t know how to handle it and I didn’t want to make them.

So, I looked out for them. They didn’t look out for me.

Even my parents had become accustomed to strong and unbreakable Soraya.

I didn’t ask for help. I was the help. I was the one everyone called. I had two siblings and tons of cousins to watch out for, along with a job where I protected and saved shifters.

I didn’t have the luxury of being anything else.

In many ways, Piper was my partner in crime when it came to that. She was the one person I occasionally leaned on, but rarely. There were cracks in Piper. She’d shouldered more than her fair share in life, losing her mother so young and then everything that had happened to Kai. It was why I thanked the universe daily for Baltsaros. He was her rock, her everything, her best friend, and soulmate.

Sometimes, though, I envied that. I wondered what it would be like to have a partner, a life-long friend you rely on and help shoulder your burdens. Who loved you without restraint or question.

“Soraya,” said a husky, exhausted voice, thrumming with joy and wonder. A familiar one, accented with Greek and belonging to a giant, dark-haired man whose smile was like a ray of sunlight. “You can meet them now. Should we wake everyone up?”

“Huh?” My mother jerked awake and stared at Balt. “Balt – you’re – oh my God!”

Her shout woke everyone else, my brother grumbling, “Ma, my eardrums,” and Kai looking wide-eyed, jumping to his feet in excitement. Isla, meanwhile, had run forward and hugged Balt, Balt picking his little cousin up off the ground as she said congratulations.

Everyone crowded around Balt. When he turned to me, I reached up and held his face, trying not to cry. Balt, who I’d known almost his whole life, a father, and fiancée.

If only your Uncle Kyros and Aunt Maria were here, I thought and Balt gave me a soft smile as he kissed my forehead. They would marvel at how you helped hold the Weslarks together.

But they had died when Balt was fourteen and he’d gone to live with the Piper, Kai and my Uncle Elias and Aunt Palila. He’d become their rock when Palila died not soon after.

Letting him go so my mother could kiss him again and squeeze his neck, images played behind my eyes. A younger Balt, tagging after Piper and grinning at her. Hauling Kai back from the edge of danger. Patiently listening to Enele. Holding Talori’s hand at the beach. Ruffling Isla’s hair.

And slinging an arm around my shoulders in solidarity.

You’re the best big sister, Soraya, Balt had told me once, with the earnest gravitas of a ten-year-old. What would we do without you?

At that moment, Elias returned and Kai flashed to his side. The look on my uncle’s face was blissful and he roughly hugged his youngest son, before moving over and hugging his eldest.

Even though none of us were Kazans, except Isla, we were Balt’s family. I knew some of his relatives from Greece were going to fly in for a visit, but right now, this was for us.

And I couldn’t help but smile around at the faces I loved best.

Dr. Hakedo was waiting outside of the room as we trooped down the hall. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet and beaming. He’d delivered almost all of us and he seemed a bit teary-eyed, too. “They’re waiting for you,” he said, waving us in.

The next generation, I thought.

Piper was cradling two small bundles to her chest, her face a little different. Gentler and wiser, but also younger and clearer. Her smile was mischievous as we filed in.

“Oh, you have so many people excited to meet you, I’m not sure who gets to go first,” Piper said as my heart pounded with joy. “Meet Kalea and Leo.” I let out a laugh at Leo’s name, a nod to Balt’s lion shifter heritage. “Dad? Auntie Tish?”

My mother fluttered overly happily behind Elias as he took Leo and my mother took Kalea.

I was trying not cry even as my smile hurt my cheeks. I haven’t smiled much lately, have I?

Behind me, I heard Kai mutter something mutinous under his breath about not being first.

“Boy,” my mother said, fixing Kai with a glare and he let out a nervous squawk. “Not today.”

We all laughed and my father moved forward, one hand on my mother's shoulder and the other on Elias's as they looked down at the serious, precious faces.

“Hi, Kalea,” my dad said, his warm Samoan accent washing over us. “Oh, Piper, Baltsaros – they’re so beautiful. Congratulations.”

I moved in closer and my mother passed me Kalea. “Hi, beautiful,” I whispered, kissing her soft forehead. “You ever need anything, you come to me, okay?”

Meanwhile, Kai was now holding Leo and beaming like the proudest of uncles. “Hey, lil man, you gotta watch out for your great-auntie Tish, she’s beautiful and sweet, but only if you always obey her. Letter of the law, man.” To that, everyone laughed except my mother.

She instead was asking Piper, “How are you feeling, baby?” There was a wistful note in her voice and I knew she was thinking of Palila.

Someone else who should be here, I thought sadly.

“A little sore,” Piper joked tiredly and Balt was instantly there. She placed a hand over his and they smiled at each other. “But I think Balt is more relieved than me that it’s over.”

“You weren’t too happy with me and I couldn’t blame you,” Balt said, his fingers tracing across Piper’s cheekbone as though she were made of precious glass.

Dr. Hakedo had slipped in behind us and he now handed Piper a glass of water. “Piper, you did perfectly. “Eight hours of labor and barely a hiccup.”

“Was it eight hours?” Balt asked, sounding dazed.

“When were they born exactly?” Uncle Elias asked.

“Kalea was 6:58 and Leo was 7:02 a.m.,” Balt replied. “Right around sunrise.”

“How come we weren’t told sooner?” Kai asked indignantly and Piper laughed.

“I needed to catch my breath, little brother,” she said indulgently.

Kalea yawned and I let out a joyful squeak, while Talori gasped, “I need my phone.”

After I handed off Kalea to my father, I moved over to the bed and sat next to Piper. Her long dark hair was messy and she was paler than usual. But as she leaned into me, I could feel the happiness coursing through her and for a moment, I was completely content.

We watched as Kai, Talori, and Enele posed with the babies, then my father and mother, then Elias. Balt was taking pictures and Talori was scolding him for not focusing the camera properly. Piper and I glanced at each other, both grinning as Balt’s big shoulders hunched.

I held her around the shoulders and then kissed her temple. “I’m proud of you, cousin.”

“Thank you,” she whispered back. “Soraya, you just got back from–”

“Not talking about Order of Anubis, today,” I interrupted her.

“But I haven’t heard anything for weeks,” Piper said and I gave her a look. “I’ve been on lockdown and so has Balt. Can you at least tell me if things are okay?”

“Things are fine, but,” I said, smiling at her, “your only job is to worry about those two, new and precious little lives. So, are you gonna hyphenate like Roy? Weslark-Kazan?”

Roy, who’d been skulking behind Kesari and Isla as they had their turn with the twins, shot me a look. But then it turned to alarm as the two girls turned around, offering up the babies.

“I do not, um, hold babies,” he said, his gruff Icelandic-Russian accent poorly masking his fear. A nervous hand went to his neck and gripped it as Kesari stood up.

“Roy, you’ll be fine,” she said brightly, shaking back her short, dark hair.

“Oh, sit down and be a man, Roy,” Kai said, loping over and pushing him down in a chair. “First Leo,” he said, as Kesari placed Leo in the crook of Roy’s arm. “And little Lea.”

“Oh, Leo and Lea, cute,” I said. “I didn’t think you’d do alliteration, Piper.”

“I don’t,” she said in an undertone, both defeat and affection in her voice. “That was all Balt.”

Talori was snapping pictures of Roy, who was holding the babies with a valiant effort, Kesari mooning a little over her boyfriend. But something tugged at my heartstrings seeing Kai and Enele helping him on either side.

It reminded me of rare moments when they’d been boys together and getting along. Roy’s blond head had always stuck out next to the two brunettes. It was nice to see them all smiling now, cousins and friends as they should be.

Other images came in. Enele and Kai racing each other up the beach, sitting side by side and reading a story. Talori toddling after me, holding out her hands and wanting to be picked up. Piper begging my mom to let her sleep over and staying up all night. Balt learning how to drive from Uncle Eli and my father, almost backing over the mailbox. My mother sitting down she was laughing so hard. All of us crowding around the table as kids, listening to stories about the Shifters of Anubis.

Now we were in those stories.

How did they all grow up so fast?

Suddenly Kalea opened her little mouth and began to shriek.

I fell into helpless laughter at the rate at which color drained from Roy’s face. But Balt swooped in, the big man graceful as he took his daughter up and nestled her against his shoulder. Leo began to scream as well, both Kai and Enele backing away as my mother plucked him up.

“They’re hungry, I think,” she said sagely and Kai, Enele and Roy all but fled from the room, my father and uncle trailing them and roaring with laughter.

I lingered for a moment, brushing back Piper’s hair and kissing her forehead again. “Congratulations, you two,” I whispered as I stood up and walked out. “See you later.”

My mother, sister and I got out into the hall, a little teary-eyed, hugging each other. Kesari and Isla were there as well. Realizing it was almost ten, we made plans to get breakfast.

Isla suddenly sucked in a breath and gripped my forearm. Instantly my body poised for danger, turning around and stepping out so they were behind me.

I held up my chin as I recognized the two people at the end of the hall, lip curling.

Anubis agents who worked for Drax.

Something new that had happened in the months since Bear Valley. A change to our ancient order that no one except Drax and his lackeys seemed to care for.

“What do they want?” my mother hissed under her breath.

“They want to talk to me,” I said grimly. “Go on, I’ll deal with this.” Stalking down the hall, I shot the two agents, both at least six years younger than me a cold look. “Well?”

It clearly wasn’t what they were expecting and the boy shot the blonde a nervous look.

“We’re here to let you know about a new assignment, Agent Lafi,” she said.

“I don’t think so,” I said dismissively. “Perhaps you mean my brother or sister, but I report to Mirois. Not Drax. He has no authority to send me anywhere.”

The boy said nothing, merely handed me a letter. I all but ripped it open.

I had no choice. -M

Her seal was stamped underneath. My hands shook slightly as a dizzy feeling came over me. This was legit. Looking up, I saw the two Draxians, as Kai liked to snidely call them, were looking smug until I tore the letter in half.

“Where’re my orders, then?” I asked testily as the girl fumbled in her bag. “Today.”

Handing me a black folder with another seal, I shook my head as I opened it and quickly skimmed through it. A startled, incredulous laugh burst from me.

“This is bullshit,” I snarled, causing the two agents to cower as Balt and my brother appeared out of nowhere. "Tell Drax to go straight to hell, I'm not getting booted off the front lines!"

“Soraya,” Enele said in an undertone, grabbing the folder I was flailing around. “Easy.”

“She’s a little sleep-deprived and over-excited,” Balt said. “You guys can run along.”

“Balt–!” I started to say, but a hand had clapped itself over my mouth.

“You cannot be shouting in a hospital, Soraya,” my mother whispered fiercely in my ear. “Calm down. Now,” she asked as she let me go and turned me around. “What is this all about?”

I didn’t respond, only tore myself away and ran down the hall. I couldn’t cry in front of them. I couldn’t show any weakness. Even though all I wanted to do was scream.

Finally, I found an exit and stepped outside into the rain, letting it wash away my tears.