Page 24 of The Sirin Sisterhood (The Sons of Echidna #2)

Al

Al paced between the rows of seats in the sterile hush of the hospital waiting room. He hated hospitals. He hated the smell, he hated the random beeping, he hated the harsh fluorescent lighting; everything about the place made him uneasy, dredging up traumatic memories he’d buried a long time ago.

His eyes darted between the clock and the indifferent receptionist, hoping for a distraction from his anxiety. The bare walls offered nothing but unhelpful tips.

Wash your hands!

Cover your mouth to slow the spread of COVID!

Suicidal? There’s help!

The phone number on the bottom of the last poster had been torn away. He couldn’t help but give a cynical smile. That was about right, in his experience.

Lucy sat next to Klein, her head resting on the man’s shoulder, neither saying a word.

Al hated that, too. He wanted someone to blame, Lucy for starting the whole mess, Klein for not stopping it before it got out of hand.

But seeing their helplessness made it too hard to finger-point, and the blame slowly turned inward instead.

If he had been there, Lai wouldn’t have gone alone.

Instead, Al had been home in his own apartment, begging over the phone for his security job back.

“Al…”Lucy looked up at him. He knew she was feeling it, too. The intense guilt. The twisting insides, the nausea. His pacing probably wasn’t helping.

“I know.”He sighed, sinking into the seat beside her, Lucy’s hand finding his. He didn’t pull away, letting their fingers lace together.

Her magic prickled his palm, and he drew it away from her, giving her a little relief from the constant thrum. She managed a smile.

He was a little surprised when he tasted a second magic mingled with hers, then spotted her holding Klein’s hand as well.

His subtle, ancient power passed through her to Al like an electrical charge.

The three of them were connected, sharing their pain and worry.

Knowing that he wasn’t alone helped Al feel a little less hopeless.

Time was merciful for once, and wait flew by. The next time Al looked up from the floor tiles, the surgeon had emerged from the operating room, removing her hair covering as she approached the anxiously waiting family.

“Good news, everyone, he’s stable. He lost a lot of blood, and we’ve had to pin his ankle, but we sealed the injury, and we have him in recovery now.

In a few weeks, we can look at his face again and what we can do there, but…

”she paused, a strange expression of doubt on her face.

“He may not want to go back under the knife. We couldn’t sedate him.

The anesthesiologist supervising the procedure used as much as he possibly could, but nothing put him under.

It was something like ten times the dose a man his size requires, he may end up in medical journals after this.

We’ve never seen anything like it. I thought maybe he had taken something; we sometimes see resistance with amphetamines, but the drug screen came back clean.

”She shook her head and straightened back up from her tangent.

“We also used a local anesthetic, but I don’t believe it helped much. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, no. Don’t apologize.”Klein stood up. “He’s like that. Can we see him?”

“He’ll be in the recovery ward now.”She nodded, looking confused by the answer. “Please keep your visit brief? He needs to rest.”

“Got it,”Al answered, already heading for the elevator.

He didn’t hear the rest of the conversation behind him. It sounded like polite gratitudes exchanged in hushed voices. He didn’t care about any of that. He just needed to see Lai.

The room was dimly lit, the overhead light mercifully switched off. On the bed, surrounded by monitors and bags on hooks, was a man shrouded in bandages.

He wasn’t asleep. Al knew that for sure, gently taking the man’s hands into his.

Lai’s fingers were cold, but they always were.

Al couldn’t keep the memories surfacing of Lai warming his hands and feet on him, despite how much he hated the sudden ice pressing into the small of his back in the dead of night.

Right now, he wanted nothing more than to share his body heat. To hold Lai and never let go.

Lai made a hoarse noise as he tried to speak, his throat still raw from the tubes shoved in and out during surgery.

“Don’t,” Al whispered.

“Hey, Lai. At least your roots aren’t showing.”

Lucy stood in the doorway after catching up to Al. He could tell that she was trying to deal with the situation like Lai would, but the joke fell flat with the tears in her voice. Lai seemed to appreciate it, his chest shaking in a silent laugh.

“We can’t stay long,”Klein added as he joined them, placing both hands on Lucy’s shoulders. “Al will stay and look after you, but we can’t miss our flight. Lucy and I will deal with the witches. You got us more than enough to bargain with.”

Al nodded. The jar Lai had risked his life for was back at the penthouse, still wrapped in his blood-soaked jacket.

Lai finally opened his uncovered eye, his icy glare speaking for him. He refused to be left behind.

“Tough shit.”Al glared back. “You can’t go, not in your condition. I know you heal fast, but there’s no way you’re making the flight. It leaves in three hours, that’s not enough time. You’ll only slow them down.”

Al felt Lai’s nails digging into his palm, but it was weak, and the attempt to get his point across was unconvincing. Lai admitted defeat, his grip loosening.

“Lucy will be fine, and Klein will watch her back. Your little brothers will need you here. They’ve already lost so much. Don’t add to that list.”

“I’ll bring back help. I promise.”Lucy nodded. “I’ll figure it out.”

“We’ve got plenty of extra heads.”Klein winked at Lai. Or it might have been a blink. Al could never tell.

Lai inhaled deeply and let out a sigh. Acceptance.

◆◆◆

“All this drama over fresh ink,”Al chuckled, slouched in the seat next to the hospital bed. “I would have given you Tylenol, yanno. You didn’t need to put yourself in the hospital.”

A couple of hours had passed, and Lai was insisting on sitting up, refusing the nurses’ further attempts to give him painkillers.

“I wished they worked,”he said as another nurse was turned away. “I’d have way healthier coping mechanisms if they did.”

“You never were fun to drink with.”Al got up, helping him adjust the pillows. “Hey, don’t pull on those. What are you doing?”

Lai ignored his protests, searching for the tape securing the gauze covering his face, slowly unraveling the bandages.

“Lai.”

“Find me a mirror.”

Al froze. He didn’t want to see. He didn’t want Lai to see. If that dressing came off, both of them would have to start coping with whatever was underneath. Lai was vain and shallow, and Al? Well, he wasn’t any better. He wasn’t ready.

“I’m not getting you a mirror. Don’t ask again.”

Lai didn’t need it. He pulled off the last of the bandages, looking up at Al, using his reaction instead of a reflection.

“Oh, fuck,”Al breathed, finally getting to see the full extent of the damage.

A thick scar, red and swollen, stretched from the corner of Lai’s lip and up to his eye, made uglier by jarring back stitches that pinched the edges of the wound together.

The eye looked undamaged but shut and swollen, blood pooling beneath the skin all around it.

Drain tubes protruding from below the eyelid.

“You kinda suit short hair,”Al quickly added, but Lai had seen all he needed to know.

“That bad, huh?”He forced a bitter laugh, looking down at his hands.

Al didn’t know what to say. He could lie, but he knew it wouldn’t help. Lai saw right through him, always had. All he could offer was comfort and reassurance.

“Why the Hell didn’t you go straight to the hospital, huh? Dumbass.”

“Thought Xim might have a private one. Figured they’d do a better job fixing up...” Lai trailed off quietly.

“It’ll heal. You’ll barely see it.”He sat on the edge of the bed, reaching to cup Lai’s undamaged cheek.

Lai flinched away from the touch at first, but after a second, he leaned in.

Al felt sudden warmth. Strange, Lai was always cool to the touch.

He looked down at the man, puzzled, and froze.

It wasn’t Lai’s flesh warming his palm; it was his tears.

Burning droplets were running down his face, collecting around Al’s fingers, catching him off guard like a gust of wind on a still day that left him breathless. He hadn’t seen Lai cry before.

It felt so wrong. Lai never cried. They had been through so much together, and no matter how desperate things were, Lai had always been the strong one, always joking through hopeless situations, always fearless.

Al traced the wet trail with his thumb, numb in the realization that even the mightiest walls could crumble.

“Don’t,” Al whispered.

Don’t? Is that all you can say?

Hold him, kiss him. Tell him everything will be alright.

Panic gripped him. Al’s hand shook as they pulled away.

“Can you get me a drink? Not water,”Lai asked softly, wiping away his tears.

Al got up quickly. Maybe too quickly. He only meant to hurry to grab Lai a drink, but he could see the hurt on his face, silently cursing himself for his own stupidity. “Yeah, there are vending machines downstairs. I won’t be long.”

He left the room without waiting for a reply.

What was wrong with him? They were alone! It shouldn’t have been hard to comfort Lai, not in private!

Al had never questioned the cost of his silence before, the toll it took on the relationship he desperately craved.

Haunted by the shadows of his own hesitation, he replayed the moment he’d pulled away in his mind, wishing he could go back.

In his fantasy, he wouldn’t freeze; he would say the perfect thing to comfort Lai. He would do it right.

He still could! With a drink in hand, he could go back up to the room and tell him. He would tell Lai that he loved him no matter what.

Stunned by his own decisiveness, Al approached the brightly lit vending machine, fishing a handful of change out of his pocket.

He knew Lai’s favorite soda; he knew everything about him.

He’d watched him mix Diet Coke and Raspberry Fizz into a glass of milk countless times.

He knew Lai didn’t like ice, and he knew that he hated paper straws.

So why was it that hard to tell him the truth?

That he didn’t care what he looked like?

Perhaps if he rehearsed it? Have the words ready for when he needed them?

“I still…”

Al pushed the coins one by one into a narrow slot, watching the total go up on the little screen.

“…you.”

The daydream was shattered by screams.

Outside the lobby’s main doors, broken glass rained down onto the pavement. A woman’s terrified voice yelled out.

“What the hell is that thing?!”

Al knew the answer without having to look. He pressed his forehead against the cool glass of the vending machine, watching the can drop with a thud. He could feel his heart do the same.