Hybrid Read Free Page B

pushes her to lie down.
    It’s comforting not to be left alone with the man who hated her at first sight when she came over to the Exiled. She glances at Iria and the faint crease in her brow. At Aishke and the stubborn set of her jaw. Her friends have been worried, taking on who knows what sort of responsibilities while Sai was out. The guilt threatens to crush her chest, and Sai turns her attention back to Jeffries. He makes a few noises in the back of his throat as he examines the fusion joints. She has to fight the urge to scream at him, at the world.
    Soon though, he’s done and straightens. “You’re tougher than you look. Has Mathur or Dom showed you how to adapt your own healing to the fusion spots?”
    Sai shakes her head.
    “I’ll get Mathur to come visit you then.” He jots some notes down on the reader at the side of her bed. “You have a long way to go, but your body is adapting better than I’d hoped.”
    “Hoped?” Sai can’t stop herself from asking. Did he actually want her to survive?
    Jeffries eyes her for a long moment before speaking. “I misjudged you, and you proved me wrong. Of course I hoped you’d adapt well, but I haven’t completed a procedure as complex as this before. I had no way of knowing for certain.”
    Sai blinks at him, his words an echo of similar ones from Bastian that seem so long ago now. “Thank you.”
    “Don’t thank me yet. You’ve got a long road. When you’re back to your tenacious self, you can thank me. But right now, I’d say we’re even.” He nods briefly and walks out the door before Sai can say another word.
    “That’s a pleasant surprise,” Iria says, her dark hair swinging as she walks over to the bed. Her bounce is gone, and Sai frowns at her.
    “Something you need to tell me?” she asks, irritated by the quiver in her voice that shows up on the last word.
    Iria’s dark eyes rake over Sai without meeting her gaze. She tugs at a loose strand of hair and opens her mouth for a moment before shaking her head. “Not right now. Now, we should walk some more.”
    The look of insistence Iria levels at her is so strong it lends a bronze overtone to her dark skin. Taken a little aback, Sai forces her own laugh. “Of course we should. The more I practice, the sooner it’ll click, right?

    The next morning, a knock at her door rips Sai out of her sleep. She sits upright, blinking as the lights activate when Dom walks into the room. There’s a cold rush of air that follows on his heels and reaches her before he does. Sai pulls the blanket tight around her and notices even her legs have a chill to them.
    She scowls, pushing the monitor wires on her head out of the way. “Why are you here at this hour?”
    He watches her, his face expressionless. “Jeffries told me to go over the healing with you.”
    “I’m sure he told you to do it in the middle of the night,” she snaps, her breath coming quicker, her head spinning slightly.
    “It’s early morning, and I leave shortly. You can’t leave the hospital wing until you know how. Now or after I get back?”
    That catches her attention, and Sai shrugs, her sudden anger washing away. There’s this cold feeling in the pit of her stomach every time she sees him now. “Now would probably be better.”
    Dom almost smiles, but the expression freezes a fraction of the way there and Sai feels that same pang of emptiness at the lack of his emotions. “This won’t take long.”
    Sai catches herself feeling disappointed and scowls again. “Just tell me what to do.”
    He shakes his head. “It’s easier to show you...if you’ll let me.” The last few words are spoken so softly she strains to hear them, and for a moment she wants to scream that they—especially they—should not have this awkwardness. But they do. So, she just nods, and he takes her hands in his cool, smooth ones.
    Though she’s tried to delve in to see just what makes adrium the compound that it is, not knowing where to start usually