Page 29 of Fatally Yours

The night was dark and the sky was full of blinking stars.

The hum of insects filled the air as we traveled down the road again.

A low song was droning on the radio, but August’s voice overshadowed it.

A crisp gust of air brushed my hair from my face, and I wished more now than ever that I could take a breath.

The only way that this situation differed from all the other times he and I did this together was that now there was a dismembered corpse in the trunk, this was not our car, and we were both sapped of a soul.

In a way, this was nothing like our previous adventures.

It had all the hints of the past but was muddled by darkness .

“ Exorcise your demons with me. Even if you crawl across the floor on your knees, I’ll still be there to make you bleed, ” August sang.

I felt guilty about Officer Wilson’s wife coming home and finding his body, so he spent the rest of the evening cutting him to pieces in the garage while I listened to the haunting buzz of a circular saw from the other side of the house.

He was much bulkier than Devin, and since August refused my help, we had to resort to desecrating the dead.

Before that, Wes said he wanted to go back to pretending everything was normal, so he left without another word after we allowed him to leave. Allowed was the keyword. Unless he was interested in going to prison or a psych ward, I didn’t think he was going to say anything about what he witnessed.

August instructed Mandy to return to the place where they buried me in four hours. Her face paled, but she nodded, gave me a hug, and left. When she turned away, she had tears in her eyes, but I didn’t think they were because of fear. I hoped they weren’t because of fear.

It wasn’t like I wanted any of this to happen—August dying, our friends covering up my death, all of these murders, and more.

There was only one person at the root, and I knew we would see him soon.

I wasn’t sure what August had planned for when we arrived, but I trusted him enough to let him take the wheel.

We took a few familiar turns and finally arrived at our dumping grounds.

This place was becoming more of a nightmare as time passed, and I couldn’t wait until I never saw it again.

I wasn’t sure what was worse—the idea that I had to dig myself out of the ground here or the increasing number of bodies.

The tires crunched against the debris once again as we parked the car, and the engine died down.

He gave me a look and a reassuring smile before exiting.

When I stepped out, I swore I caught a distinct whiff of decay, but I knew it was just my brain psyching me out.

The doors slammed, and he made his way to the back, pulling out a shovel and beginning to dig right beside the place I once was in—the one that was now Devin’s final resting place.

Kelsey’s uneven footprints were still pressed into the dirt, and my head fell between my shoulders, not wanting to think about that evening.

The way she touched him made me want to scorch the earth, and I feared that as my condition progressed, I would regret not taking things further.

How far, I wasn’t sure. But the feeling was growing as time went on.

The bite of death was continually pumping its venom into me, and I was too weak to resist. Or maybe I was embracing it.

I was so deep in thought that I didn’t even notice August going back and forth between the car and the grave, piling dripping trash bags into the empty hole.

A starving mouth crying out for more devastation.

Drops of crimson trailed from the trunk to the grave as he grunted, and the hunger of the ground was soon to be satiated.

“Do you need help?” I asked. He hoisted another bag over his shoulder and grinned, chuckling at my inquiry.

“Not in this lifetime,” he snickered. “Just kick back for a bit, baby. I’ll be done in a minute.

” My hands clasped around my stomach as he finished up our morbid act.

There were distinct shapes of arms and legs poking from the plastic skin in his hand, and I had a feeling he didn’t want my help because he was protecting me from the reality of it.

Killing someone was one thing. Rendering what was once a human being into a pile of body parts was a new level of monstrous.

He was right—I wasn’t ready to face it, not yet.

Once finished, he picked up the shovel again, sank the spade into the pile beside the grave, and began filling the hole.

I turned away. The sounds of metal hitting stone and scraping through the soil brought back too many painful memories.

After some time, the grating noise stopped, and I took a breath, facing him again.

He was piling forest debris atop the space to disguise our sins.

In a pitiful attempt to help, I leaned over and plucked some leaves and branches from the ground.

Cradling them in my arms, I walked over to the grave and placed them with the others.

When our eyes connected, he shook his head and pointed to the side, demanding I not participate.

It was sweet that he was trying to protect me from the things that haunted my memory, but I felt helpless just standing there watching while the love of my life camouflaged a pile of body parts and offal .

Finally, as the moon was in full glow, August was done hiding our crime. He looked up at me, propping himself up on the stone. As I observed the ground, it did appear to look just like everything else, not like two previously living people were being reduced to maggot food.

“Our friends really picked a suitable spot to hide bodies,” he said. “No one will find them here.” My lip curled as I felt my chest hollow out.

“Yeah.” I curled my fists with the memory. “ Three bodies.” August’s mismatched eyes met mine with a candidness I couldn’t place. His brow arched as his lips pinched, and finally, he spoke.

“Do you really still hate me for that?” he asked.

I had to think about that for a moment. In a way, I still loathed aspects of the situation, but I wasn’t sure I hated him.

I couldn’t hate him, not after everything we had been through.

Not when we had dedicated ourselves to each other. Not when we had killed together.

“I don’t hate you,” I said. “I hate that you did it to me.” His eyes flickered with mischief as his inquiring expression turned devilish, and his lip slid between his teeth.

A shudder went down my spine as I thought that if I were alive right now, my cheeks would be flushed with pink. I knew that look.

“You won’t if I fuck you over this grave.”

I genuinely thought I felt my face heat as I gave him a pointed expression. “That’s so fucked up,” I said. He gave me a sly grin as another jolt shot straight to my hips. That was a terrible, wicked, obscene proposition, but somehow, I couldn’t find the words to reject him.

“Not any more than what we’ve already done.” He let the shovel hit the dirt with a thump and headed toward me, and I stood firm as I nibbled my lip. “You need to take your power back from this place so it doesn’t haunt you.”

It was the ultimate sin, wasn’t it? Worse than anything anyone did to us or the heinous crimes we participated in.

Yes, it was horrible and twisted my stomach, but when August tucked my hair behind my ear, I began to feel a strange hunger, like death was swaying me to violate my morals and offend against the tranquility of the dead.

Still, I didn’t want to admit that the idea excited me .

“D-do we have time? Mandy is coming back, and we still have to drive—” He pulled me into a forceful embrace, pressing his lips to my ear and snuffing my words from existence.

“She can wait,” he said in a low voice. “Come on, wake the dead with me.” The protests I would’ve normally spouted withered and died in my throat as he slammed his mouth against mine, making my chest rumble with a primal need.

I threaded my hands in his hair as his tongue slipped between my lips, hungry to taste the bitter flavor of death.

My body began to flutter as he shoved me against the stone, his hands gliding down my hips as he slipped his fingers between my waistband. His ravenous, automatic breaths were cold against my skin compared to the warmth of the night as he parted from me, sucking in another unnecessary breath.

“Forgive me for what I did to you,” he murmured, wrapping his arms around me and lowering my body to the ground below.

My legs fell out from beneath me as he caged me to the ragged forest floor, yanking off my pants and making me tremble.

Stones and bits of debris dug into my back, but that was menial compared to the passion flaring between us.

“My sins against you haunt me, baby. Please forgive me.” Something about his words sparked a flame in me, and I gave him a pointed expression.

Yes, I could forgive him—if he earned it.

Before I could stop myself, the sinister urge crept up on me and I seized him by his wavy locks, pulling his face to mine.

“Earn it,” I demanded. His mismatched eyes bored into mine and sparked with curiosity from my newfound bravado. He was right, just as he always was, and possibly just as he always will be.

Death changed you.

“Yes, my queen,” he said, dipping his head between my legs.

Excitement turned into an inferno as his tongue sought out my apex, making me let out a cry.

A chill shot straight down my spine as his mouth connected with my body, making my hips automatically press into him.

His hands gripped my thighs, prying me open as a wave of pleasure ebbed through my center.

With his mouth hungrily lapping at me, I placed my hands on the back of his head, forcing him deeper, making his movements increase as he flicked his tongue along me, all while I could feel myself growing into a climax.