The Significant (57 page)

      
“You love him,” she stated. Isa turned to
look at her. “You love him very deeply.”

      
Isa swallowed hard and closed her eyes,
nodding slowly.

      
“I do,” she said. “Very much.” She
wrapped a hand around the back of Kailynn’s neck as she pressed her forehead to
the younger woman’s. “But it’s not the same,” she continued. “I never felt with
Remus what I feel with you.”

      
Kailynn closed her eyes and pecked a kiss
on the Elite’s lips.

      
“We both love you,” Kailynn murmured.
“We’ll both stay with you, no matter what.”

      
Isa opened her eyes and backed away from
Kailynn, looking over her face, gently tucking some hair behind her ear.

      
“Always?”

      
“Always.”

      
Isa dropped her head, her eyes tired.

      
“Even through war?”

      
Kailynn took Isa’s face in both hands.

      
“Look at me,” she said. Isa’s eyes met
Kailynn’s. “
Always
.”

Chapter
Thirty

      
War moved much slower than Kailynn anticipated.

      
After the attack on the Syndicate
Building, she was sure they would be bombed every day and have people flooding
the city, trying to attack the Syndicate. She was jumpy and nervous, constantly
checking every out-of-place noise. It took her a week before she finally
started to settle again.

      
In that week, Isa went from working hard,
to being near the point of collapse.

      
Kailynn returned to Anon Tower a week
after the attack on the Syndicate Building with Rayal and they were both
surprised to see Dr. Busen punching the code into the front door.

      
“Dr. Busen,” Rayal greeted. “Is
everything alright?”

      
“I appear to have an AWOL patient,” Dr.
Busen chuckled. “I’m trying to track her down.”

      
“She said she had an appointment to see
you yesterday,” Kailynn said, walking into the home with the doctor.

      
“She
did
,”
Dr. Busen affirmed, sighing, “however, she stood me up.”

      
“Things have been crazy lately,” Rayal
said.

      
“I know,” Dr. Busen said. “But, if she’s
going to be traveling off-planet, I need to give her a clean bill of health,
and I certainly can’t do that if I never see her.”

      
As the doctor set his briefcase on the
table and opened it, Kailynn’s jaw dropped.

      
“She’s going off-planet?”

      
Dr. Busen turned around, surprised.

      
“Did you not know?”

      
“No.”

      
“It was only confirmed today,” Rayal
interjected. Kailynn rounded on him, glaring at him for not telling her that
Isa would be going to another planet. “The Alliance is having a meeting to
discuss the attack on the Syndicate and what to do with the Ninth Circle.”

      
“Dr. Busen,” Tarah greeted, walking into
the living room.

      
“Hello, Tarah,” Dr. Busen said with a
smile. “Is she here?”

      
“She’s in the office. I’ll show you to
her.”

      
“Actually, I would prefer if you would
forcefully yank her away from work,” Dr. Busen said, sighing and shaking his
head. “I swear, these Elites…”

      
“How is Remus?” Kailynn asked.

      
“He’s doing much better,” Dr. Busen
assured. “He’s healing very nicely. In about two weeks, I’ll release him. He’s
going to have to do some physical therapy and regain his strength, but he’ll
make a full recovery.”

      
“That’s a relief,” Kailynn said with a
nod.

      
Dr. Busen smiled. “I’m relieved to hear
you say that.”

      
“Why?”

      
“I was worried that you would be
predisposed to
dislike
Remus,” Dr.
Busen explained. “Considering the situation.”

      
“…oh.” Kailynn chose not to tell the
doctor about the number of time she was extremely jealous of the bond that Isa
and Remus clearly shared.

      
“Remus is a very good man,” Dr. Busen
said seriously. Rayal lowered his eyes to the ground. “He has been through
much, and he has done a lot of things that are very difficult to forgive, but
no one can deny how important he is to Isa and his loyalty to her.”

      
Rayal turned to Tarah.

      
“Tarah, I’ll get her.”

      
He left the living room and Dr. Busen
made a face.

      
“I keep forgetting how much he dislikes
Remus.”

      
“He does?”

      
“Yes,” Dr. Busen said. “Anyway, how have
you been, Kailynn?”

      
“Honestly? Not great. I keep expecting
the building to explode, or something.”

      
“There is a lot of anticipation in the
air,” Dr. Busen agreed. “But there is no need to worry. Security around the
planet has been tripled and everyone is on alert.”

      
Dr. Busen stood with Tarah and Kailynn in
the living room, talking about how he would likely be over every day to be sure
that Isa was healthy enough for the meeting with the Alliance. He was
discussing how to keep an eye on her when Isa walked into the room, looking
pale and tired, though that did nothing to distract from her beauty.

      
“Dr. Busen,” she said with a weak smile.

      
“This is why you cannot skip
appointments,” Dr. Busen said. He shook his head, walking over to Isa and
grabbing her wrist, pinching it as he glanced at his watch. “Isa, I have
hundreds of hours invested in your health, but you seem to like to challenge me
at every turn.”

      
“Admit it,” Isa said with a small smile,
“if I wasn’t such a difficult patient, you would not be so innovative in your
treatments.”

      
“You get no credit for that,” Dr. Busen
chuckled. “Your appearance is worrisome.”

      
“You know, there are several who find me
quite attractive,” Isa said with mock-hurt.

      
Dr. Busen chuckled and motioned to the
couches in the living room.

      
“Sit. I’m going to give you a full exam.”

      
“I have an appointment for a full exam
next week,” Isa reminded him, though she moved to obey.

      
“Yes, and I’m sure that, when the time
comes, you will ditch once more.”

      
Isa sat down heavily on the couch,
letting out a long sigh. Kailynn sat next to her.

      
“Are you really going to another planet?”

      
“In about a month,” Isa said with a nod.
“I’m going to Fortunea. The Alliance is meeting to discuss the current state of
affairs.”

      
“Why do you have to be there in person if
you can just use the Opium mode on the chair?” Kailynn asked, confused.

      
“With so many members of the Alliance, it
becomes extremely difficult to coordinate. Also, having so many planetary
leaders in Opium, it’s very easy to plan assassinations. It’s safer, in
situations like this, to meet in person.”

      
“I’m going to ask you to stay out of
Opium for a while,” Dr. Busen said, walking to Isa and sitting in front of her
on the coffee table, opening his briefcase once more. Kailynn glanced at Tarah
and Rayal, who were standing by the bar. Tarah was looking up at Rayal, smiling
broadly as he grinned gently back at her. She grabbed the front of his shirt
and pulled him down for a kiss, giggling quietly when they parted. She grabbed
his hand and pulled him into the kitchen.

      
Dr. Busen continued with his basic
examinations, checking Isa’s pulse, blood pressure, and her wound from the
ambush of the Syndicate Building. The longer he continued the exam, the more
drawn his face became. Kailynn tried not to feel nervous, but she could tell
that there was something bothering the doctor.

      
Dr. Busen sat back, looking over Isa.

      
“Everything alright?” Isa asked.

      
“No,” he said simply. “Something’s not
right.”

      
“I feel alright. Tired, but that’s it.”

      
“Headaches?”

      
“I’m bound to get those if I only get an
hour of sleep a night,” Isa said with a tired laugh.

      
“Stand up.”

      
The Elite complied and Dr. Busen pushed
the coffee table away, turning back to her and holding out his hand.

      
“Right hand,” he said. She lifted it and
he gently took her wrist, holding her hand at the level of her belly. “Push
up.” She did so, fighting against the pressure he put on her arm, familiar with
the exercise. He shifted, putting his hand under her wrist. “Push down.” He
moved her hand and put his fist against her palm. “Push out.”

      
She completed the exercise and he
motioned for her other arm.

      
She was significantly weaker on her left
side.

      
He looked at her, his eyes showing his
concern.

      
“Sit down.” When she was seated, he
pulled the coffee table back and sat on it, leaning forward and placing a hand
on each of her shoulders, feeling around the muscle and collarbone. When he
pushed on the left side of her neck near her collarbone, she hissed and backed
away. He sighed and continued the examination, finding the painful points on
the left side of her neck.

      
When he reached her jaw, she immediately
backed away.

      
“What?” he asked.

      
“Nothing.”

      
Dr. Busen looked at her suspicious.

      
“Recite your vowels,” he said seriously.

      
She sighed heavily, making a face.

      
“Michael—”

      
“Isa,” he interrupted quickly, “recite
your vowels.”

      
She opened her mouth to enunciate the letter
A, and when she shifted her mouth to enunciate E, she flinched and sighed,
defeated.

      
“Okay, remember what I told you?” Dr.
Busen said, exasperated.

      
“Yes.”

      
“Yet, you decide to ignore me?”

      
He leaned forward and pressed his fingers
into her jaw, moving them slowly. “Open your mouth.” She slowly did so.
“Close.”

      
“What’s wrong?” Kailynn asked.

      
“She’s suffering reconstructive
deterioration,” Dr. Busen murmured, asking her to open her mouth again as he
peered inside, feeling along her cheek.

      
“What’s that?”

      
“When she fell five years ago, she
received substantial injuries, particularly to the shoulder, neck and face. I
had to reconstruct the entire left side of her face, including the eye, tongue,
and nose. But Elites do not react well to reconstruction. For some reason due
to their immune system and the way their genes are manipulated, the new tissue
breaks down. For some it take several years, for others it takes only a few
months.”

      
He sighed and lifted his finger.

      
“Follow my finger without moving your
head.”

      
She did so, but as she turned her eye to
the left, her eyes began closing and she cringed away, dropping her head.

      
“That’s what I was worried about,” Dr.
Busen said. He reached forward and pressed his fingers carefully around the
eye. Isa backed away quickly when he pushed under her eye above her cheekbone.

      
“Sorry,” he said, pressing a little more
gently. “No wonder you have a headache. There is a deposit of fluid here.”

      
“Is she going to be alright?”

      
“Yes, thankfully, since we caught it now,”
Dr. Busen said. He reached back to his bag and pulled out a syringe. “Isa, lie
down. I’m going to drain that.”

      
Kailynn quickly stood and turned away,
refusing to watch the process.

      
When he was finished, he pulled out a
bottle of pills and extracted two. As he reached for another bottle, he glanced
at Kailynn.

      
“Could you get her a glass of water?”

      
“I’m giving you a couple things,” he
said, grabbing yet another bottle as Kailynn went to the bar. “This is for the
headaches. This is to slow the deterioration. In the next few months, I’m going
to have to reconstruct everything again.”

      
“…can’t you leave it?” Isa asked
hopefully.

      
“Not if you don’t want your face to
collapse and your skull to deteriorate around your brain,” the doctor quipped.
“I didn’t have you on the table for twenty-seven hours for nothing.”

      
“Twenty-seven hours?” Kailynn gaped.