Page 162 of Devil Inside

He’s staring straight at me. Do I know him? Whoever he is, he won’t look away, his face cast in fire. He doesn’t flinch when another wicker man bursts open, nothing but embers now, an explosion of sparks rushing up, orange waves, the flames lapping at the sky, licking the stars.

Which one of us is going to flinch first?

I circle the bonfire, entering the fray of dancing bodies, pulled along by the flow, then I stop before my new pal. He doesn’t say anything. Simply stares back. I can see his jaw clenching. His teeth are going to be powder before long, the way he’s grinding them.

“Stop following me,” I say. “I’m not on the market, sorry.”

“Seem pretty empty to me...”

“I’m taken.”

This gets a laugh out of him. “Who?”

“Lilith.”

“Not anymore.” One of his cheeks starts to sag, a lazy dip of drooping skin. His lips have a hard time holding themselves up, that grin struggling against the tide of his melting face, his flesh looking like wax as it dribbles down the corners of his smile.

Nobody notices. Nobody else can see what’s happening. Not Deak, not anyone else standing around the bonfire. Just lucky fucking me. I’m the only one. I see them swimming inside the shallows of people’s skin. Their faces can’t hide what’s lingering inside, not from me. I know who’s possessed... and who isn’t. Talk about a talent. I wonder if I could put it to good use.

And what might that be?

“Hey,” another voice pipes up behind me. A woman’s. I recognize that voice.

It’s her. It’s got to be. I spin around in hopes of finding—

“Jenn?”

Christ.It takes a moment to slow my heartbeat. The spike in my anxiety bottoms out faster than I can grab a breath of air. She reads my expression. “Good to see you, too...”

“Sorry,” I offer. “I didn’t expect to see you.”

“Yeah, well, that makes two of us.” She has no memory of what happened. No recollection of Lilith. Like it never happened. The impunity of it all. No strings attached.

Doesn’t she remember anything? Anything at all?

“I’m sorry,” I say, almost sobbing, unable to control myself. “I’m so sorry.”

“Are... are you alright? What’s wrong?”

“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Jenn’s having a hard time meeting my eyes. The fire finds her. Warms her cheeks. “It’s okay,” she eventually says. “It happened so long ago... I’ve moved on.”

“You don’t understand...” She has no idea what I’m talking about. Even now, I want to atone. She doesn’t have a clue how close I came to hurting her.Her, Jenn, of all people.

We always hurt the ones closest to us, don’t we? I sure do.We hurt the ones we love.So who am I going to hurt next? Who’s left? How many people can I hurt before I burn?

I realize Jenn’s holding two beers. Who’s the second one for? Him. It’s forhim. He takes the beer from her, cracks it open, this hiss of aluminum stinging my ear.

Jenn takes her side just next to him. They’re together. “This is Cam.”

Cam.What a name.

“Pleasure.” He offers his hand. Where did the demon go? It was just there. Now Cam’s acting like, what? I’m competition? That ship sailed. I sank it. Titanicked that shit.

I take his hand. Shake. “Likewise.”

This guy’s got a firm grip. He doesn’t let go. For a second, I think he’s going to pull my arm out from its socket. There’s a curve in the corner of his lips. Just a hint of a grin.