The Significant (41 page)

      
“Would you rather I make up reasons for
what happened?” Raphael asked. “I know something is happening, Lynni. I’m not
an idiot. You have been weird ever since you got Theo and the others out of
Uren. And now that they’re arrested again…it’s like you’re desperate for them
to be released. Look, Lynni. I know he’s your brother and you love him, but he
has done nothing but
use
you your
entire life.”

      
“Raffy, that’s not—”

      
“No, let me say this,” Raphael
interrupted. “He used you when it was convenient for him. When he needed you,
he came to you. And he made sure to tell you that he loved you and wanted what
was best for you because he knew that if he was ever in trouble, he needed
someone to count on. And you proved time and time again that he could count on
you.
Now
, you’re working for the
fucking Syndicate! How far are you going to sink before you realize that he’s
not worth it?!”

      
“Don’t talk about my brother like that!”
Kailynn barked, shoving Raphael backward. “You know nothing! This isn’t about
Theo! It started out as a way to get him out, but now…I’m in too deep. I need
to find a way to survive and deal with all this shit. My life has been turned
upside down…and I don’t know that I want to change it.”

      
“…what are you saying?” Raphael
whispered.

      
“I…” The words were trapped in her
throat. She opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to decide what to
say. “Raffy…My life has changed.
I’ve
changed.
I want different things now. I can’t explain how it happened. It just did. I
have a chance to shape my life away from Trid, and I want to take it.”

      
“By working for the Syndicate?”

      
“Yes,” Kailynn said. “By working for the
Syndicate.”

      
Raphael pursed his lips and shook his
head, turning away as if looking at Kailynn would make him sick.

      
“Raffy…”

      
“I don’t know who you are anymore.”

      
“I’m the one that helped get it approved
to have a hospital built in the Walking District for Trids,” Kailynn said
sharply, walking back into Raphael’s field of vision. “I haven’t abandoned
Trid. I’m trying to help it.”

      
“Wait, what? A hospital?”

      
“Yes,” Kailynn said. “I know that it
seems like I’m turning my back on you, but I’m
not
. We can’t change things like this. We have to be smarter. If
we want to change things for the better we have to try different things until
we get the result we want.”

      
“How the hell did you get them to approve
a hospital?” Raphael said sharply.

      
“I had help, of course.”

      
“I’m sure, considering you can’t read or
write. You would have to.”

      
Kailynn, irritated and angry, slapped
Raphael.

      
“You know what, you’re being an asshole!”
she snapped. “For fuck’s sake. I’m still helping Trid. Now, no Trid can know
that I had a part in this, or they’ll destroy the project and then there will
be no helping the Trid district. And, if this is some sort of way to tell me
that I belong here, I will tell you now that I
don’t
belong here, and I don’t belong in Anon. I don’t belong
anywhere, which is why I need to do this. I refuse to be one of those people
who dies in an alley or in my flat to have other people discover me and dump my
body in the landfill. Things have to change, and I’m willing to do it. So if
you want to back me up, then back me up. But I will do this with or without
your help.”

      
Raphael stared at her, stunned into
silence.

      
“Fine,” Kailynn said, walking away. Even
though she was upset by the way Raphael had reacted, she was not about to let
that get in her way. With Isa’s small victory of getting the medical center
approved in Trid, Kailynn was ready to push harder and do something for the
district where she had grown up.

      
Kailynn made a brief stop at Companion,
getting a crazy notion in her head about a way to celebrate with Isa that night.
But when she got to the Elite’s level of Anon Tower, there was no noise.

      
“Hello?” she called.

      
Since Tarah was almost always in the
kitchen, Kailynn poked her head in to see both Tarah and Rayal chatting and
cooking. Rayal looked up when she walked in and smiled.

      
“Hello.”

      
“Hey,” she greeted. “What are you doing?”

      
“Making dinner,” Tarah said with a wide
smile. “The medical center got approved. That’s huge.”

      
“Isa must have sold it just right to
Venus,” Rayal chuckled. “But that’s what she’s good at.”

      
“Is she home yet?”

      
“No, not yet,” Tarah said. “She had to
work on some things, but she should be back within the hour.”

      
“Okay, need any help?”

      
“No, we’re fine,” Tarah said cheerfully.
Kailynn glanced at Rayal and saw him smile at the happy tone of Tarah’s voice.
Kailynn also smiled and excused herself from the kitchen, going to hide the
duffel bag she had brought with her in Isa’s room.

      
“Seems like I taught you well,” Rayal
chuckled, elbowing Tarah lightly when he saw her properly preparing the food.

      
“You think so?” Tarah challenged with a
smile, picking up the sliced carrots and turning to put them in the pan.

      
“I do,” Rayal said.

      
Tarah glanced down at the oven and
stopped.

      
“You forgot to preheat the oven!” she
gasped, laughing.

      
Rayal turned around and glanced at the
oven.

      
“You didn’t tell me to do that,” Rayal
said, turning back to his task, trying to hide his guilty expression.

      
Tarah’s jaw dropped and she let out a
broken chuckle, grabbing a rag from the counter and twisting it, snapping it so
that smacked Rayal’s rear.

      
“Hey!” he gasped, jumping away, laughing.
“Don’t touch the merchandise!”

      
“Why not? When that merchandise,” Tarah
snapped the rag again, hitting the side of Rayal’s thigh as he tried to
awkwardly hop away, his hands raised, covered with flour, “doesn’t do what he’s
supposed to!”

      
Rayal darted forward and gently patted
Tarah’s cheek, causing flour to puff up into her eyes and nose. She stopped,
coughing and laughing as she tried to wipe the flour from her face.

      
“Sorry! Did it go up your nose?” Rayal
laughed, stepping forward again. He turned sideways. “Here. Use my sleeve.”

      
Tarah shook her head, laughing as she
sneezed. She bent down and picked up the rag, using it to wipe her face.

      
She glanced up at the smiling Rayal and
her cheeks flushed again. She averted her eyes quickly and turned away,
returning to what she had been doing.

      
When Isa came home, she seemed tired, but
relieved. She kissed Kailynn and over dinner discussed the fundraising and where
they were going to build the medical center. She explained the details, though
most of it went over Kailynn’s head. Still, she watched Isa speak, enthralled
by how easily the words flowed from her lips and the brightness in her eyes.
She found herself smiling without meaning to.

      
When everyone went to bed, Kailynn took
both Isa’s hands and pulled her into the bedroom.

      
The Elite chuckled and swooped in for a
quick kiss.

      
“I brought us something to celebrate
with,” Kailynn said.

      
“Oh?” Isa asked, stepping into the room
and hearing the door close behind her as she shrugged off her uniform jacket.
Kailynn leaned down and extracted the duffel bag from under the bed, setting it
on the frame with a mischievous smile.

      
“Come sit down.”

      
Isa smiled, suspicious. Slowly, she
walked forward and sat on the bed, watching Kailynn open the bag. When she got
a glance inside, she stopped, blinking a few times.

      
“What the hell did you bring those for?”
Isa laughed.

      
In the bag was an assortment of dildos.

      
Kailynn laughed, pulling one out and
wiggling it.

      
“Honestly, I brought them on a whim.”

      
“I fear what your other whims make you
do,” Isa teased.

      
“Nothing to worry about. They’re all
brand new.”

      
“That’s hardly the issue…”

      
Kailynn got a mischievous look on her
face.

      
“I’m curious about something,” she
started, setting the first dildo down on the bed and picking up another,
holding it upright. “How big is Remus?”

      
Isa’s eyes shot wide at the question,
startled. Kailynn barked a triumphant laugh and pointed at the Golden Elite
with the dildo.

      
“
Ha
!
I broke your poker face!
Finally
!”

      
“That’s because you asked about the penis
size of my closest friend!” Isa gasped, picking up the dildo on the bed and
playfully smacking Kailynn’s arm with it.

      
“He’s also your ex-lover,” Kailynn
stated, rifling through the bag again. “So you would know the information.” She
grabbed a smaller dildo. “Is he about this size?”

      
Isa gave her an exasperated look, but did
not answer.

      
“Or…considering how tall he is…maybe…”
Kailynn rifled through the bag and pulled out the largest dildo she had. “He’s
closer to this.”

      
Isa’s eyes widened further.

      
“That thing is
horrifying
,” she chuckled brokenly.

      
“So, he’s not this big…”

      
Isa rolled her eyes and watched Kailynn
pull out the various toys she had brought. The Elite did not know what some of
them were for, and she glanced over them with startled and confused eyes. As
more dildos joined the three on the bed, Isa looked among the various colors
and shapes, amused. She finally grabbed one, taking Kailynn’s hand and placing
the dildo in her palm to stop her from pulling out more sex toys.

      
“There.”

      
Kailynn’s eyes looked at the size of the
toy before her eyebrows rose.

      
“Oh…” she said slowly. “That’s…can’t really
compete with that…”

      
“Believe me,” Isa said, taking the toy
from the Significant, “this is no great benefit to males. In fact, it’s a
hindrance, even to Elites like Remus.”

      
Kailynn laughed and grabbed another toy,
raising it.

      
“But isn’t this the reason for
everything?” she teased. “I thought, at one time, men ruled everything.”

      
“These things certainly have caused
problems in the past,” Isa agreed.

      
“Like war?” Kailynn asked with a laugh,
smacking her toy against the one Isa was holding. “It’s really just a
cock-measuring contest, isn’t it?”

      
“It is,” Isa said, also attacking with
the dildo she held in her hand, smiling. “It’s such a shame that a large army
indicates a small dick.”

      
“Oh?” Kailynn asked, playing along with
the sword fight as they stood, laughing. “Then shouldn’t your army be among the
largest?”

      
“As it would happen, I actually have the
largest dick in the system,” Isa said, poking Kailynn in the side with the
dildo. The Significant yelped in surprise and tried to move away, giggling. “The
difference is, I can control mine.”

      
The two leapt about the room in fits of
laughter as they smacked the toys against one another in mock-battle. Finally,
Kailynn succeeded in toppling them both to the bed. Isa chuckled, reaching
under her and pulling the largest toy from under her back.

      
“We don’t really need these, do we?”
Kailynn asked with a smile.