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With ed stone, I slid sideways toward the crypt’s new, ragged opening Mosquitoes sank intocontact with h a final fall ofin my throat The mausoleuht feet long and five feet wide, h, the crypt itself was a helluva lot bigger belowground--even here in the low country They had kicked in the old rusted iron gate at the entrance and had lowered theht flickering and their shadowsaround their lightersThey’d catch the poor old dusty corpse on fire and the with it Duoing down in there This was da hell stone, and I wasn’t taking any chances I’d just scare the hell out of them and watch their bony rumps scra them all home Juvenile, I know But it was the best I could do If only I had so Moon Travelers

With a deep pull of air, I steadied myself and deepened my voice as much as I could Not too hard, since it was naturally raspy and a little deep anyway "Savannah PD! Get your asses out of there now!"

Waiting for the scra to their cursing, calling of vile na up stone with one hand overat the s happened all at once

Another crash sounded, alust of wind seeh-pitched, almost like a howl I turned ross, like decay Then one of the boys swore, and they all yelled with squeaky voices and piled out of the grave, flinging theet up The wind abruptly stopped The deafening chirping cicadas had grown completely silent Bonaventure was as still as the death that lay buried beneath it

Seth stu hilazed; they turned angry when he recognized o and lifted a brow

"God, Riley!" he hollered "What are you doing?" He frowned "Letand turned They all fell to the ground, laughing One whistled Riggs, whom I’d known since he was seven, said, "Poe’s sister is freakin’ hot!"

"Damn, Poe--where you been hidin’ her?"

"She s said "Her ass is saze left s!"

I smiled A small piece of me felt proud that my little brother--idiot that he was at the ainst his pervy friends Maybe I hadn’t done too bad a job in raising hirabbed Seth’s shirt and yanked him backward--not easy since the kid was already as tall as ing him toward the back of the cemetery There was a place near the very back left fence where the ground sloped upward--enough for us to clilanced at Seth’s friends and inclined et out of here before the cops show up for real I’et a knock on their doors tonight It’s a federal offense to desecrate a grave, you know" That was all we’d need, especially since the cops already knew exactly who I was

"Dude, what’s desecrate?" one of the boys said

"You want us to go with you?" Riggs said, a smirk on his adolescent face "So you can rat us out to our parents? No, thanks, babe!" He turned to the others "Co several steps and thinking that I’d let Riggs find out on his own that his uys! I’ll drive you hoht No way "Swear to God, I won’t rat you out"

"No, thanks, sexy!" Riggs hollered, laughing, and he and the others took off into the shadows He called back, "You’re fine as hell, but I ain’t letting you hand hter; then their voices grew faint as they slipped off into the night

Soile as I was, even in spike-heel boots, I knew I couldn’t catch Riggs and his friends, corral theh and shook et out of here"