Page 127 of Devil Inside

“See for myself,” I say. “What happens. How it works.”

“That’s an invasion of privacy, wouldn’t you say?”

“Don’t you think what you’re doing is aninvasion of privacy?”

“Not if the host is willing.”

“Is she? Willing? Because I can’t tell.”

“I am not hiding anything from you.”

“Aren’tyou?” I ask. “Hiding from me?”

“No,” she eventually says, unblinking. I can’t get a sense of her within, almost as if she’s burrowing deeper into her host’s body.Hiding.“Are you sure this is what you want?”

“I am.”

“Have it your way.” She sighs. “I’ll loosen my grip. For you. I’ll stay inside, but I won’t... impede.”

“Thank you.”

“I don’t want your gratitude.”

What do you want?Before I can ask, a stillness sweeps over, as if someone pressed pause on her host’s body. Is she still breathing? If it weren’t for the slightest thrum of skin along her throat, her pulse pressing against her neck, I wouldn’t know if she was still alive.

Then I see it. Something recedes in her eyes. Her irises contract.

Then...

Lilith gasps, as if she’s just burst through the surface of a body of water.

Not Lilith. Her host.

Not a body of water, either, but her actual body. She snaps out of some somnambulistic state. Whatever trance she was captured in is gone.

She’sback. Back inside herself. In control of her body. In her own living room.

In her skin. It’s not Lilith anymore. It’s just...her.

Cara.

“It’s okay,” I offer, hands held up in a I-mean-no-harm gesture. “You’re okay.”

“What the fuck...” She takes in the space, her own living room, shaken.

The music, the candles. Me. She has no idea where any of this came from. Suddenly, it’s all simply here. The mood, the spread, this complete fucking stranger in her apartment.

That has to be a wee bit terrifying.Fuck.Didn’t think that one through.Shit, shit...

Cara looks at me, eyes widening, her breath picking up into a frantic pant. She’s trying to remember me. Who I am. “What’re you doing here? What’s going on?”

“You’re safe...”

“What are you doing in my apartment?” She pushes herself back in her chair, away from me.She has no recollection of anything that’s happened between me and Lilith. This is all new to her. I’m fucking it all up, going about all this the wrong way. “What is all this?”

“It’s okay, I swear. I know how this looks—”

“Oh my God—”