The Renegade

Chapter 9

Luk continues to yell, throwing his full weight against the glass door. He grabs the handle and jostles it with all his strength, defining the muscles in his arms, but it's locked and no one moves to let him in. His crazed eyes scan the room and alight on me.

"Renna!" he yells, and my heart breaks for him. He thinks Hayl and Greer are experimenting on his child again. He thinks I'm just letting them destroy her. Again.

"Luk," I murmur, using the crutches to push myself upright. I limp to the door and press my hand to the glass. "It's okay!" I tell him as Ila starts to panic from the table and Greer yells for Elz to hold her down. Luk's pale eyes leap to her body and he's only one moment away from complete loss of control. "It's okay, Luk, they're saving her!"

My words call him out of his terror and he presses his hand against the glass parallel to mine. Sweat drips down Luk's temple and his chest heaves. I just want to hold him and tell him that there's hope, that everything might be okay, that we might save her, but I can't. With his gaze on mine, his breaths slow and his body stills.

"She's okay?" he mouths through the glass and I nod.

"She's okay."

Mother Greer and Hayl whisper together, and I look over. The syringe is no longer attached to Ila's IV; they've finished administering the first round of immunotherapy. Hayl suspects it will take several rounds to balance her brain's chemicals, so this is only the first step of many. Still, there's hope, and Hayl and Greer stare at Ila as if they can somehow measure the chemicals in her brain with the naked eye.

"We need to let this get into her system for fifteen minutes," Mother Greer says, squaring her narrow shoulders. "Then we'll give her the second dose." She turns to one of the attendants. "Take a blood sample and have it tested for the chemical balance." The attendant nods and starts to work with Ila's IV.

With the lapse in activity, I turn to Luk who stares at Mother Greer with a hatred on his face that I've never seen before. He pulls on the handle again and the door quakes in its frame.

"Tell Luk Adrian to go away," Greer says, her back turned to me. "We don't need any disturbances."

"He thought you were torturing her."

"Well, he thought wrong." Greer turns toward me, one eyebrow arched. "We don't torture people in Domus; only the Civilization does that."

"Just let him in," I plead. "I swear he won't do anything disruptive. If he does, I'll give you all the ingredients and leave with him."

"And if I don't?"
I cross my arms over my chest. "You're a Doman, right? Aren't you supposed to value family over everything? Would you deprive a grieving father of the right to be with his daughter?"

My words have their intended effect and Greer's mouth curls in to a sneer. She can't turn him away without revealing the cruelty that hides under her beautiful veneer. "Fine. But he doesn't say or do anything. No interference or distractions."

"He won't," I assure her, and one of the white-coated Medicals opens the door for Luk.

He rushes in and brushes past me. His eyes are on Ila, who lies back on the bed with Elz holding her hand, but I grab his arm to stop him from going to her. "Luk, you have to stay back."

He spins to me, muscles taut. "What's going on? What are you doing to her?"

You. He still sees me as guilty. "I'll explain everything, but please, you have to stay calm. If you don't, Greer will kick us both out and I get the feeling she doesn't like either one of us too much."