Page 16 of Devil Inside

Who am I to argue?

Once I’m refilled, the two of us toast. It’s a tender gesture amid so much aggression. The Inquisition is not known for its love ballads, but the music is taking a backseat to this moment. To her. She kills off her drink in one crick of her neck, tilting her head back and taking the liquid down. There and gone. When she brings her eyes back to me, lips glistening with alcohol, there’s a fire in her now. She gasps and I can’t help but feel like I’m dragged along with the inhale, my body tugged toward hers.

“Another?” she asks.

“Sure.” I haven’t even finished my first. “Why not?”

“That’s the spirit.”

“This one’s on me,” I shout, though I feel like I don’t have to. Not with her. She hears me, somehow, through the cacophony. She doesn’t have to fight against the music to be heard. To listen. She’s taking me all in, eating me with these eyes that I can’t help but squirm under.

Who is this woman?

Who am I, for that matter? What’s left of me to even offer a woman like her?

What is there within me to give?

By the time our second round arrives, it strikes me that I don’t know her name.

“Lilith.”

She says it before I can even ask the question. How did she know I was going to?

She’s in your head,I think.

“Jordan,” I offer.

“I’m going down to the River of Jordan,”she sings, her a cappella solo cutting through the downright din surrounding us, so sharp,“and let the cool waters cleanse my soul...”

I can’t help but give her a look. Never heard that one before. New to me.

“You look so uncertain of yourself, Jordan.”

“That so?”

“Are you afraid? Of lil ol’ me?”

“Cautious,”I offer. “How about that?”

“Why socautious, Jordan?”

I think about how to answer this, opting for the truth. A version of it, at least. “Been a while since I’ve gone out. First time in a long, long time... Feeling a little rusty.”

Rusted gears. Oxidized spokes. Collapsing valves. The lot. Decaying metal.

A look of pity passes over Lilith’s face. A mask of sadness. “That so?”

“Afraid to say it, but... yeah.”

“That makes two of us.”

I’ll admit, I’m surprised by this. “You? Rusty? Sorry, I don’t buy it one bit.”

“It’s been a while since we’ve been here.”

We?

“Since when?”