anywhere outside of Lynchville and she had never quite been able to figure out what they were supposed to be. In some stories, they came across as werewolves. In other stories they came across as vampires or zombies. Nevertheless, it all came back to the dreams. Rumor had it the people of Lynchville always had been and always would be nightmared to death. People died in their sleep here. They died of natural causes. A lot more people than usual, if the rumors were correct. Charlotte had studied the obituaries for a while but she couldn’t see that any more people died in Lynchville than in any other small town. Of course, if you listened to the rumors, then you knew the newspaper only printed about half the death toll. The people who really believed in this thought it was all some kind of big conspiracy.
Charlotte was not one of the believers. She thought the Devils were probably just some lame excuse to take the heat off an inept police department and lack of federal interest in rural, small town America. Disappearances, strange deaths—Oh, must be the Devils. It was ridiculous.
Standing at the gates of the cemetery, Zack pulled them back, greeted with the squeaking of wrought iron, and slid in between them. Charlotte followed.
“Shouldn’t those have been locked?”
“Not a problem.” He tossed the padlock up in the air and caught it again, sticking it in his pants pocket. “Wouldn’t want anyone locking us in here.”
She could only stare at him. He was like a magician. She knew they were both very close to doing what each of them wanted and she felt the usual blood coursing through her body, speeding up her heart, choking up the back of her throat.
They walked up the central asphalt lane of the cemetery, climbing up the slope.
Zack moved behind her and put his hands on her hips, lifting up her sweater so he could feel the warmth of her sides.
“I’m going to tear you apart,” he whispered into her ear.
“Yeah?”
“Absolutely. As soon as we get over this hill. So no one can see what I’m going to do to you.”
“I hope it’s good.” This was why she liked Zack.
“No. It’s bad. It’s very very bad.”
“I...” she began before he cut her off.
“Stop talking now. And I don’t want you to make a sound while I’m fucking you,” he whispered into her ear. “If you make a sound then it’s over. We must not disturb the dead.”
Charlotte’s nipples hardened against the inside of her shirt. She hadn’t bothered putting on a bra and she desperately wanted to feel Zack’s hands on her, on them , squeezing, pulling, twisting ... It had never been said aloud, but she liked it when he hurt her.
Once over the rise, Zack’s hands guided her to the left. Then he forced her down onto a plot with a moderately sized tombstone. She hadn’t really thought they would be fucking on an actual grave but with the little knowledge she had gained from Zack she now realized he probably wouldn’t have had it any other way. The name on the tombstone was “Gordon Turner.” She briefly wondered why that name sounded familiar to her but her thoughts were cut off when Zack whispered harshly in her ear. “Not one mutter until we are out of this graveyard. Understand?”
She nodded her head, her eyes burning into him, eager and nervous for what was about to happen.
He unbuttoned her jeans and yanked them down her legs. He kissed the inside of her thigh, working his mouth up to where her leg joined her groin. There he bit down. She wanted to shout at him to stop—it was so shocking and painful—but she knew he was serious about what he said and she didn’t think she could live with the knowledge that her protestation had cost her everything. She bit down on her lip and his teeth worked their way into her skin. She closed her legs around his ears, dug her fingertips into the back of his head. She could swear she heard the soft pop of her skin as his