Page 105 of Devil Inside

“What do you think?”

A bike. Lilith brought a bike.

“For you,” she says.

She wanted to leave the theater before Kim Novak fell to her death. Lilith had something for me.A surprise,she said.

“Where did you get this?”

“Does it matter?” I hear the edge of suspicion—of doubt—in her voice.

“It looks just like my—”

dead

“—old bike.” It’s true. Down to the tires, it’s the exact same model. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Lilith nabbed my bent frame from my apartment and had it fixed.

But that’s just not possible. There’s no fixing that frame. No mending it.

“You don’t like it?” Now I can hear the hurt in her voice, the wound in her words. Has Lilith ever done something for someone—anyone—before? Offered a gift to another?

Am I the first?

She doesn’t know how to take rejection. Even the tiniest slights offer their own injury. The thinnest paper cuts, straight to her host’s heart.

“I do,” I offer. “I’m just... surprised. It’s beautiful.”

It truly is. Brand-new. Not a racer, but a sturdy, custom-built cruiser. Solid enough to sift through the city. How did she know what to ask for? Did someone help her?

Did she read my mind?

A chilled thought drifts through—Has she been inside me?Could she slip into my head and sift through my thoughts without me even knowing it?

“A token,” she says, “of our appreciation.”

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were getting soft on me...”

“Never.”

I can’t help but lapse back into my mind, thoughts racing a mile a minute, all the self-doubt and second-guessing quickly eclipsing Lilith’s eyes. What if she’s peeked inside?

What did she see within me? What does she know about me?

What darkness did she find?

“Are you ready?” she asks.

“For... what?”

“Take a ride.”

The mere thought of riding locks my ribs up, squeezing my lungs. I can’t do it. The last time I was out here I couldn’t do it, seizing up on these streets. “I think a cab’s in order.”

“...Why?”

I have to play it off. I can’t show her that I’m starting to panic.The anxiety is seeping into my system, and I have to keep it at bay. Tamp it down. “I only see one bike, for starters.”

“We can share, can’t we? Show me.” The smile on her lips is gone. She’s serious.