Page 25 of The Sirin Sisterhood (The Sons of Echidna #2)

Klein

“That is not a private jet.”Klein gasped as he, Xim, and Lucy approached the airfield, the wind whipping up their hair. It was merciless, lashing at them like a beast stirred up by the roar of the engines.

His observation was spot on. Waiting for them on the tarmac was no little Dassault jet.

Their plane was a large military carrier, the open hold revealing two dozen men in black uniforms. Neither the plane nor the personnel had any identifying insignia on them—no numbers, no ID badges.

It was dark, anonymous, and deeply unsettling.

“Yeah, Xim’s family is well-connected. I forget how well connected,”Lucy said, looking rather stunned herself. “Taylor Swift, eat your heart out.”

Klein was still trying to take it all in when a woman climbed down from the plane, wearing the same dark uniform as the others but for a single red stripe over each shoulder.

Klein didn’t need to see the men parting for her to know she was in charge.

She wore authority like a crown atop her neatly combed gray hair.

The silver framing her face didn’t make her look old; it made her look cold and lethal, like an unsheathed knife. Unconsciously, Klein took a step back.

“Grace!”Lucy called, excitement in her voice. That helped relax him. He glanced over to Lucy, waiting for an introduction.

“General,”the woman corrected as she seized Lucy in a firm hug, which she gladly accepted.

“Grace is an old family friend. She works for Xim’s fathers as their head of security. She’s looked after me a lot, especially after my parents passed.”

Grace’s face hardened, fighting off the unpleasant memory.

“ General , and it was my duty as well as my pleasure. Is it just you two? I thought there were four coming.”She glanced at Xim. Xim shrugged.

“Right then, are we ready? We depart in ten. You’ll be briefed once on board. Say your goodbyes.”

Klein held the parcel Lai risked everything for to his chest, waiting for Lucy to bid Xim farewell.

“Be careful there, okay?”Xim kept her distance, showing little emotion around so many witnesses.

It was a stark contrast to how she’d behaved in the privacy of her own home.

Xim didn’t look like she was sending a close friend on a dangerous mission; she looked like she was conversing with a coworker. Cordial, but nothing more than that.

“You too.”Lucy mirrored the act, but Klein saw her arms move for just a second, instinctively going for a hug before catching herself.

“I’m only on babysitting duty. I’ll be fine.”Xim must have seen the movement too because she offered Lucy a small smile, something that would be interpreted as mere politeness by anyone watching but meant the world coming from the careful, stone-faced woman.

“I know you will be.”Lucy smiled and looked over her shoulder. “Wish us luck?”

Xim put two fingers to her forehead, offering her and Klein a relaxed salute.

“Good luck.”

◆◆◆

Lucy jumped when the cargo door closed, blocking out some of the engine noise. Klein raised an eyebrow at her and took a seat, tense and nervous. He liked flying, but this was something else.

The briefing didn’t ease his mind much, either.

Grace paced between the seats with a digital tablet in her hand, reading their schedule to her men.

A fairly uneventful flight with one stopover at a base in Alaska.

From there, a handful of the men would follow Klein and Lucy to their destination on a different craft.

The plane lumbered forward and rolled onto the runway, the engines roaring as it picked up speed. Klein knew that there was no going back once those wheels left the tarmac. He swallowed, not used to being so far from his family.

“Holding up okay?”He moved to a seat next to Lucy and wrapped one arm around her shoulders. She looked like she needed a distraction as much as he did. She flinched but leaned into him, letting out a deep breath.

“It’s gonna be alright,”he promised, needing to hear it as well. “I’m with y–”

The plane dropped suddenly as something slammed into it. It righted itself, still gaining altitude as the armed personnel scrambled to look outside.

“Something on the wing!”One of them shouted, pointing out the small rounded window. Klein squeezed Lucy tight, mind racing–but he relaxed when he heard one word repeated over and over among the soldier’s shouts.

Dragon!

“I swear, if it’s your brother, I will gut him!”Lucy pushed past the men, Klein following after her. It was difficult to see what had landed on the plane, but Klein recognized the reddish tail.

How was it even possible, though? Lai had used up his transformation. He shouldn’t have been able to turn again so soon.

“Open the door!”He turned to Grace, noticing her tense. No one barked orders at her like that.

He would apologize later. There was no time for formalities.

She tapped her headset and passed on the instructions. The cargo door slowly opened, letting in a violent gust of wind, forcing everyone to hold on tight as the creature crawled inside.

“No! Stop! He’s with us!”Lucy ran between Lai and the soldiers as they raised their rifles and aimed at him, kneeling beside him as the door sealed once again.

He wasn’t fully transformed. Still mostly human, Lai’s body was a mangled mess of spikes, scales, and mismatched limbs. His fingers were curled into vicious claws, and when Lai pulled himself up, leathery wings dragged behind his weakened body.

Klein had never seen anything like it. A half shift? There was no such thing, not in any of the family books or journals. There was no in-between. You were a man or a beast. Nothing else. Not once in a millennia of records.

He was so stunned that he didn’t even know how to approach him. In his beastly form, Lai had very little humanity; he understood basic commands but was mostly a slave to the instincts of his reptilian brain. Though, to be fair, so was human Lai.

Lucy raised her hand to slap him, wavered, and pulled the man into her lap instead, holding him close as he slowly shed the last of his scales in her arms, shifting back to fully human.

“What were you thinking?”Klein knelt beside them, checking his brother over for injuries.

“Thinking?”Lai laughed, coughing up a little blood as Lucy quickly cleaned him up with her sleeve.

Klein sighed and turned to the silent military men, most of them struggling to remember their training in the face of the unknown. Grace looked utterly unbothered.

“Get the med kit.”She waved them away. “And find him some clothes.”

She didn’t ask questions, and Klein was both grateful and concerned. Either Grace had nerves of steel, or she wasn’t surprised by the transformation. Perhaps Xim had briefed her about the family’s quirks.

“Lai, you know you’re a liability now, right?”Lucy asked with a deep frown. “I know you’re trying to help, but you’re in no fit state to do so.”

He laughed again, his voice still rough. “Couldn’t let you be a liability all on your own,”He teased, eyes closed.

Lucy raised an eyebrow. “You voted this liability as your leader, then ignored my orders. That isn’t gonna work, Lai. You can’t just do whatever you want. Either you accept me, or...”

“I do accept you,”Lai answered quickly. “I accept you as family, and that means I’ll protect you, no matter what.”

Lucy opened her mouth to speak and seemed to settle for a huff, moving away as Grace handed Lai a plain black T-shirt and matching uniform pants.

“I’ve lost almost everything; let me defend what I have left.”He traced the ugly, gaping scar on his face.

Lucy closed her eyes and ran her hand through her hair.

“You still have plenty to lose. You’re still breathing.

”It sounded like a threat. Lucy looked away as Lai dressed, but Klein didn’t.

He knew how much Lai’s appearance meant to him.

It was his wall, protecting the real him with a pretty facade.

Losing his looks was a devastating blow, and he could hide it from Lucy, but Klein saw right through him.

He watched Lai as he carefully held the neck of the shirt away from his face, familiar with the pain.

He suddenly chuckled, and Lai, arms still halfway through their sleeves, paused to see what the hell it was that Klein found so funny.

“At least you’ve still got your eye.”He tapped his eye-patch. “You’re still cleared for fun and games, right?”

Lai looked up at him, eyes glistening as he smiled.