Hyden shot me a look. I knew he wasn’t crazy about this, but I thought it was important not to make any of the Metals feel excluded.
We went to the room where his body was. There he was, the real Hyden, sleeping on the bed. His breathing was shallow. He looked pale.
“How long has the body been like this?” Savannah asked.
“Not long,” Hyden said.
“Because if it goes too long, he needs fluids,” Savannah said.
“I know,” he said. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Good,” she said. “It’s a very nice body, by the way.”
“Thanks,” Hyden said.
His surprised expression almost made me laugh.
“Come on.” I motioned to Savannah. “Let’s go find you a room.”
Savannah wasn’t picky. In fact, she was so exhausted, she fell asleep on top of her small bed while I gathered towels and toiletries for her.
I went back out to the main room and found Hyden standing there.
He was in his own body.
His back was to me, but I easily recognized his muscular shoulders, his tousled hair that was neither curly nor straight. My legs weakened. Everything was upside down. He was there, but he was gone. It was the way it should be; he was back where he belonged. In his own body.
But it meant no more touching.
“Hyden?” I whispered.
He turned. I looked at his real body, with that face that I was getting to know, that handsome face with the pain in the eyes.
“What?”
“You didn’t wait for me? You just did it?”
He cocked his head. “You wanted me to,” he said. “Didn’t you?”
I did, of course. But this seemed so sudden. I realized I was secretly expecting something—some last kiss or touch goodbye. Some small moment before it was back to “don’t-touch-me” Hyden.
But that was selfish.
“I thought maybe—” I said.
“I know,” he said. “Me too.”
An invisible wall seemed to stand between us. Finally, the words came out of my throat.
“I hoped … you’d wait for me.”
“Couldn’t. It was getting to be too long. Savannah was right—my body would need fluids.”
He was acting like he didn’t care, but his eyes met mine and they betrayed him. He looked away. Jeremy’s body was lying on the couch next to the bed where Hyden’s body had been. Near Jeremy lay a small airscreen unit.
“That’s linked to the one in the car?” I asked.
“Shhh …” Hyden put a finger to his lips.
Jeremy’s eyelids fluttered, and his lips twitched.
He was coming to.
“Aren’t you going to do something to control him? He might just come out swinging,” I said quietly.
“I’ll call Ernie,” he said. He pulled out his phone and sent a Zing.
But before Ernie could arrive, Jeremy opened his eyes. His face registered panic. He scrambled to a sitting position, his back pressed against the couch. His head jerked around as he fought to make sense of his location.
“It’s all right, Jeremy,” I said.
Hyden motioned for me to be silent, but it was too late. Jeremy had heard me.
“You? Who are you?” he asked, turning to look at me.
I could have said that was no way to talk to a girl he’d kissed, but that wouldn’t have gone over well. He held his head, as if he had the world’s worst headache.
“My name is Callie.”
“I don’t know any Callie,” he said.
His voice was sharp. It made me feel like he was issuing orders every time he spoke.
“That’s right, you don’t know me,” I said. “Can I get you anything? Do you want some water?”
He started to nod and then stopped, from the pain, no doubt. “Yeah.”
Hyden motioned he would get the water. As he left the room, Jeremy noticed him for the first time.
“Who’s that?” Jeremy pointed.
The guy who used to be you, I wanted to say. But I stopped myself.
“That’s Hyden. He’s a friend.”
“I think I know that guy. …”
I didn’t want him to think about the confrontation, when Hyden first captured him. “No, you’re just a little disoriented. We’re Metals, like you.”
“Metals. Like me … ,” Jeremy said to himself.
Hyden returned with the water. Jeremy took it and downed the glass.
“So, you two have the chip too?” he asked. “From Prime?”
We both nodded.
“That body bank,” he said. “If I ever see that Old Man, I swear I’ll break his wrinkled neck.”
I looked at Hyden, but he never took his eyes off Jeremy.
“You look really fit,” Hyden said. “What skills did you list at Prime?”