“I’ve… never had an audience… for that,” Will said, really not sure what was going on.

“You’ll love it. We’ll have you up on stage in no time,” Bella winked.

“No, I really doubt that,” Will shook his head. “So what are we doing?”

“Well, I need to tap directly into your aura. We’re going to do a kind of metaphysical blending of our personal energies,” Bella said. She started getting undressed. “Strip.”

Will started unbuttoning his vest. “That doesn’t sound so bad. What’s Tonya for?”

“Well, your weird curse is interwoven with your aura. It’s basically part of you, so when we merge our energies, I’ll be merging with the curse too,” Bella said. Her blouse and the soft corset she wore over it both landed in a spare chair leaning against the back wall.

“I don’t like the sound of that at all.” Will’s fingers stopped their work after only a few buttons down his chest.

“It’s the best way,” Bella said, untying her skirts. “I need to tap into the energy of the curse in order to get a good, strong reading off of it and find out how bad it’s going to affect me.”

“But won’t you, I don’t know… have the curse too after that?” Will asked.

“I don’t think so. Didn’t you go to a Nivalese Shaman to try to get it removed once?” Bella asked.

“Yeah, so?” Will asked, still not undressing further.

Bella’s skirts landed in the chair. She was beautifully nude save for a silver chain around her waist with a number of small charms on it. “The Nival method of curse-breaking involves moving it from one host to another. The Shaman tried to move your curse to an animal, right?”

“A rabbit,” Will nodded, starting to catch on. “It didn’t work. The poor thing died for nothing.”

“I don’t think your curse can be moved. I think it’s specific to you, only. If a Nival Spiritbinder couldn’t move it on purpose, I’m certainly not going to move it on accident. I’ll just be sharing it for a little while.” Bella pulled a small jar off a shelf and opened it, dipping her fingers into the red cream inside.

“Alright, that’s pretty clever.” Will continued with his buttons while Bella began tracing careful lines on her chest with the greasy red goo. “None of that tells me what Tonya needs to be here for.”

“She’s going to make sure we don’t die.” Bella’s face was a picture of innocent sincerity. It made Will instantly suspicious.

“You really aren’t very good at being reassuring, you know that?” He was suddenly a lot less turned on.

A remarkably short woman burst through the curtain with a jar in her hands. She was practically jumping with excitement. “Alright so what- oh. Hi there!” she said to Will as soon as she noticed Bella wasn’t alone. With the three of them, things were suddenly very crowded. “I’m Tonya.”

“Will,” he replied, his face still worried and confused, but he couldn’t hide his amusement and interest in the young lady that had just burst in.

Tonya was cute. Also young. She couldn’t have been more than twenty. She had straight brown hair that hung just past her jaw. A pair of braids began at her temples and merged at the back of her head into a single, short tail. The look made her hair hang free without covering her round, youthful face. A faint scar going through one of her eyebrows was her only blemish. She was slender and diminutive, wearing a black corset with a wine colored skirt and a matching blouse that only barely covered her chest. Her breasts were small and nicely round, about the size of  oranges. Her corset gave them a lot of extra lift and accentuation. Will realized he could see the upper edge of her areolas peeking above the blouse. Then he realized he was probably staring and looked up at her green eyes. She smirked at him and cocked a hand on her hip. “See something you like?”

Will started to open his mouth, but Bella waved  a red stained finger back and forth in Tonya’s direction. “He’s not a client. He’s a friend.”

Tonya looked Bella’s naked form up and down. “Lucky friend.”

“Very,” Will agreed.

“Can I still flirt with him?” Tonya asked. Will wasn’t sure how to respond so he said nothing and did his best to appear nonchalant.

“Sure. You won’t be getting any silver out of him though, so no need to work him too hard,” Bella continued to draw on herself. The pattern was much more elaborate than the one she’d drawn when she’d come to see him a few days ago.

“Do I get to flirt back?” Will asked.

Bella looked up at him sardonically. Tonya laughed. Neither actually gave him an answer.

“Put the salt down on the corner shelf and help him get his clothes off. He’s slow,” Bella said to Tonya.

“With pleasure,” Tonya purred. She slid past Will, getting closer than she probably needed to even in the confines of the small room, dragging a finger down his chest as she went until it reached where his buttons were still fastened. She hooked his shirt and pulled him along with her into the corner.

She set the salt down and turned, her fingers deftly finishing his buttons and pulling his shirt free of his pants. She pulled his shirt open to reveal his muscles and his treasure map tattoo. Her eyes lit up, “Oh, Bella, you bring me the nicest presents.”

Bella laughed, “Maybe you can have him later. Tonight he’s mine.”

Tonya looked up at him. Her green eyes were hypnotic and playfully predatory. There was more than a foot of height difference between them. “Later then.”

Will had always been fairly successful with women. It came with being an explorer. Knowing how to fight and survive, testing yourself against the world, it gave a lot of perspective and confidence. There were many women who were attracted to that sort of man. He’d had a dry spell for a few years. Turns out, cursed cartographers just aren’t as sexy as seafaring adventurers. This week felt like he was making up for lost time. He tore his eyes away from the young seductress in front of him and back to the slightly older seductress a few feet away. “Are all your friends this… friendly?” he asked.

“Some of them. Tonya’s... well, there’s a reason she’s my apprentice.” Bella draped an arm around the smaller woman’s shoulders. Tonya leaned her head into Bella’s shoulder, looking a bit like a contented cat.

“I didn’t know you had an apprentice,” Will said.

“It’s a bit of a new development. She’d been bugging me about learning for a couple years. I caved about six months ago after I managed to crack binding a Familiar.” Bella tilted her head to the side and kissed her apprentice’s forehead. “She can be very persuasive.”

“I see that.” Will looked down at the young woman’s compact body. With her head tilted onto Bella’s shoulder there was an awful lot of creamy decolletage on display.  “Wait, years? How old are you, Tonya.”

“Nineteen, as of last week,” she smiled. Will’s face contorted a little. The idea of a sixteen year old girl working in a brothel just seemed wrong to him. Both the ladies laughed at his expression.

“She started in the kitchens,” Bella explained. “She didn’t start working in the Lounge until a month ago,”

“I wanted to though,” Tonya said, making a face. “Chance wouldn't let me.”

“Do you-” Will paused. “Do you like it?”

“Well, the money’s better than working in the kitchens, and sex is usually fun,” Tonya shrugged. “And I get to wear fancy clothes, and most of the other girls are really nice. I’d rather be groped by people who pay me than by the cooks.”

Will looked up at Bella, saying nothing, his eyes tight. She knew exactly what he was thinking.

“Slow the charge there, hero. She’s fine. You know Chance runs a tight ship. That only happened once and the jerk got the boot for it,” Bella said.

“I like him,” Tonya said looking at Will’s expression thoughtfully.

“He has a few good qualities,” Bella smiled. “I wouldn’t be shacking up on a boat with him if he didn’t.”

“Wait, this is him?!” Tonya looked over her shoulder in surprise, then turned back to Will. “You’re the guy who’s stealing Bella away?”

“Guilty,” Will admitted.

“I lied. I don’t like him,” Tonya’s eyes narrowed.

“Sorry?” Will shrugged.

“You are interrupting my education,” Tonya jammed a dark red lacquered nail into Will’s chest. It didn’t hurt, but he winced anyway.

“Be nice,” Bella warned. “Cerise said she’d teach you the basics of Alchemy while I’m away.”

Tonya’s eyes lit up and she spun to face Bella, then she stopped abruptly and her eyes narrowed again. “What is this, musical apprentice? I’m just going to get passed around?”

“That’s usually how it works, yeah. You’d normally apprentice to an entire coven. Around here, there aren’t any covens. It’s just me, that Akula Animist who runs the bait shop, and Cerise, and Cerise isn’t really a witch,” Bella tapped Tonya on her dainty nose, leaving a bright red dot from the cream that was still on her fingers. “Besides, for some of the stuff you want to learn, I’m going to have to pass you around a little more literally. Better get used to it.”

Tonya’s chest flushed and she took a deep breath. “Don’t tease.”

Bella laughed. “So are you going to be a good little apprentice?”

Tonya nodded enthusiastically.

“Get to work then,” Bella said, giving Tonya a gentle shove backwards right into Will’s arms. “You haven’t finished the last job I gave you.”

Tonya went briefly stiff as Will caught her, then she relaxed and leaned into him with a small shimmy. “Sorry, I got distracted. What was I doing?” she asked.

“Getting Will ready for the ritual?” Bella prompted.

“Oh! Right,” Tonya turned around and started undoing Will’s pants.

“I… actually can do that myself,” Will said, trying to work his hands down between Tonya’s and take over. She swatted his hands. He put them up in surrender.

“Yes, but she needs the practice and it’s fun to watch you squirm,” Bella said.

“I do not need the practice,” Tonya said indignantly. “I can take a man’s clothes off just fine.”

“That wasn’t the practice I was talking about,” Bella said.

“What?” Tonya asked over her shoulder.

“Nothing.” Bella made a show of being absorbed in her preparation for the ritual.

“I feel like I’m being made fun of…” Tonya looked up at Will with narrowed eyes, as if he was in on the conspiracy against her. He shook his head in innocence.

Tonya’s delicate fingers hadn’t stopped working open the laces on the front of his pants. Will used the toe of one boot to hook the heel of the other and stepped free. Then he repeated the process with his other boot and kicked them back against the wall behind him. A moment later Tonya slipped her hands inside his breeches at his hips and slid them all the way down in one long push that took his pants all the way down. She knelt as she did, her face ending up right at groin level on Will.

In spite of Bella being naked and being stripped by an attractive girl, Will’s residual discomfort at the situation had kept him from letting himself get carried away with the sexy scene. It wasn’t that he was unwilling. He was still hung up on what Bella had said about Tonya being here to keep them from dying. He trusted Bella, but he didn’t trust himself, or rather, he didn’t trust his curse. It didn’t make everything go wrong every time. No, it was more insidious than that. Most of the time it seemed like things were normal. Good, even. Then every once in a while, usually when things were already tense or dangerous, things would go as bad as they possibly could. It caused Will to live in a near constant state of mild anxiety, wondering if now was going to be the next moment that things suddenly went terribly awry. This ritual sounded like exactly the sort of thing that might be like bait for his bad luck.

The end result was, Will wasn’t hard. He wanted to be, but the lingering doubts and worries in his head were taking him out of them moment. Now, he had the most lusciously curvaceous woman he’d ever met busily painting her nude body only a few feet away and a new, enthusiastic partner looking right at how not hard he was. He was suddenly self conscious on top of everything. It also didn’t help that Tonya still had a red dot on the end of her nose.

“Well this won’t do,” Tonya said looking at his only semi-hard cock. “Bella, can I?”

“Ask him,” Bella said, drawing an arc of red between two lines.

Tonya looked up at him, her big green eyes full of excitement and mischief. “Can I?”

Will had a moment of being flustered, then exhaled, letting go of his tension. Bella wasn’t worried. Whatever she was doing, it was still just sex. It was supposed to be fun. Clearly he was the only one in the room not having fun, and he was tired of not being able to enjoy himself whenever things edged toward the unknown. He was an explorer. He loved the unknown.

He smiled down at Tonya and said, “Whatever you want to do.”

She grinned and brought her head forward, parting her lips and taking his cock in her soft, warm mouth. He started to fully harden instantly.

Bella looked up, her fingers stopping their odd art. Her breathing deepened as bit as she watched. Will caught her eye. She grinned. “I knew you’d like her. She really likes cock.”

“She’s... very friendly,” Will said, looking down at Tonya’s slowly bobbing head. He’d hardened enough that she couldn’t go all the way down anymore, so she was concentrating on the end. She wasn’t the best fellatrix he’d ever come across, but she was certainly the most enthusiastic. She popped off of him, her hand taking over instantly.

“I love cock,” she corrected. Her hand worked slowly up and down his shaft. She looked at it like a painter critiquing their own canvas. “Yours is pretty nice.”

“Thank you?” Will said, not sure how to respond.

“It’s pretty long without being freakish,” Tonya said, continuing her stroking, bringing her other hand up to cup and gently massage his balls. “It’s decently thick without looking like it would be painful, and it isn’t all covered with giant veins or-”

Bella snorted, trying to hold back a laugh at the expression on Will’s face. “I think he gets the idea, dear.”

Tonya rolled her eyes. “Men talk about their cocks all the time, but when I do it, they get all uncomfortable.” She didn’t take her eyes of the task at hand, stroking and licking as she talked.

“I think it has to do with the clinical analysis,” Bella said, putting a few finishing touches on the intricate pattern she’d drawn across most of her torso. “They don’t like any comparison that might not be favorable. Men tend to have a strange mystique about their cocks. About cocks in general, really. Anything that threatens the mystique tends to get a strong reaction, especially from men who aren’t very secure.”

Will was feeling a little like a prop in a lesson, but he felt like he really couldn’t complain.

“I guess that’s why so many insults are about cock size, or other sex stuff. It attacks the mystique directly,” Tonya said. She put her mouth back on Will’s cockhead and slipped her arms free of the sleeves of her off-the-shoulder blouse. Then she tugged a bit. Her blouse folded down over her corset, revealing her pert breasts. Still held up by the corset, they were high and round and firm. Her nipples were surprisingly large for her frame, about the size the end of a man’s finger. They were pink, much lighter in shade than Bella’s more reddish hue. She gave her breasts a squeeze and  looked up at Will to make sure he was watching her. He didn’t disappoint. Her eyes twinkled and went back to work, energetically bobbing her small mouth on the end of his shaft.

Will put his hands up, bracing them against the ceiling to help maintain his balance. Tonya was really working him over. One of her hands slid around to grab his butt, the other working in tandem with her mouth. He was almost painfully hard now. He let out an involuntary groan. Tonya moaned a bit in response, but then gagged a bit as Will’s hips twitched forward. She came off him again and coughed, her eyes watering.

“Sorry,” Will said. “I try not to do that, but it just feels so good sometimes.”

“That’s ok,” Tonya said, laughing a bit. “I love blowjobs, but I haven’t been giving them for very long. I still haven’t learned out how to go deep without choking yet.”

“That’s the practice I was talking about,” Bella said from the other side of the table. She hadn’t looked up from the intricate pattern she was drawing on herself.

“Hey!” Tonya said, “I don’t get any complaints!”

“You can’t trust a man to tell you the truth about blowjobs. They’re all just happy to be getting one,” Bella chuckled. She still hadn’t looked up from her pattern, but there was an amused smirk on her face. “It’s an art, and it takes practice.”

Tonya huffed in sarcastic outrage and turned back to Will’s cock with a vengeance. Bella looked up and gave Will a mischievous wink.

Bella’s subtle manipulation of her apprentice worked. Tonya was incensed and went after his shaft like she was angry at it. All passion, but little skill. Still, passion was impressive on its own. Her hand stroked and her mouth bobbed. She felt herself getting worked up and squeezed her thighs together as the warmth began to bloom within her. Tonya really did like cock.

Bella finished what she was doing and stepped closer, standing right behind Tonya. She brought her red-stained hand up to Will’s chest. “Perfect. Stay just like that.” Will braced against the ceiling and tried not to move at all. It wasn’t easy with Tonya voraciously sucking on him.

While Tonya continued her energetic blowjob, Bella drew. The sigil started as a dot in the center of Will’s bottom lip. Then her fingers ran sensually down his chin and neck to spiral around the center of his chest before snaking further downward. Will did his best not to move. When Bella’s hand finally neared Tonya’s quickly pistoning head, Bella knelt down and watched for a bit, her hand not moving, staying still on Will’s stomach. She enjoyed the show from close up for a few moments then said “Let me in, dear. This part of the line has to be drawn in one unbroken stroke.”

Tonya pulled free. For the first time in a while, no one was stimulating him. The sudden coldness of not having a warm mouth on him sent a small shiver down his back. The vision of Tonya and Bella both kneeling in front of him was still powerfully erotic. Tonya watched as Bella’s red trail traced around Will’s belly button and then down into the tangle of his pubic hair. “See, this is why I keep everything bare,” she said to her apprentice. “It’s easier to clean up and you get a clearer pattern without all the hair in the way.”

“That makes sense,” Tonya nodded. “Will it make a difference for this ritual?”

“I don’t think so. Will isn’t hairy enough to actually break the pattern,” Bella shook her head. “Sex magic can afford to be a bit imprecise. Sex rituals almost never engage with forces that will do seriously unexpected things if the specifics of the ritual are a little off. At worst it just makes the power draw more inefficient. Sex magic fails a lot more because of poor control or improper release timing than because of a ritual itself being off.”

“Well that’s good. Between sweat and everything else, I can see how the sigils might get smudged,” Tonya said.

“Exactly. This stuff is pretty durable when it dries, but sex is messy,” Bella explained. “Sex magic tends to get less precise the longer it goes on. The nature of the energy is that the longer the ritual, the higher the chance to get things messed up. Sex rituals themselves tend to be more about building up energy, and then doing one big thing in a powerful release.”

“Well yeah, that makes sense,” Tonya said. “The properties of the energy match the methods used to gather it. I remember that.”

Bella’s fingers traced downward to the very base of Will’s cock. Then she slid her plump lips over his cockhead and sucked him in, going all the way down his length in one steady push. She looked up at him. Their eyes locked as she slowly swallowed him like a snake. Will shuddered as he felt his cock slide into her throat.

“You are really going to have to teach me how to do that,” Tonya said. She was entranced.

“Mmmhmm,” Bella said. Her red stained fingers at the base of Will’s cock was met by her lips. She stayed right there and traced the red smear around the base of his cock, and on her lips at the same time, like she was putting on lipstick while leaving a ring behind on him. Then she slid her mouth back off of him until she came free with a light popping sound. “All done,” she said. “Just a few things left to do.”

“So I guess I shouldn’t keep going?” Tonya asked.

“It’s fine as long as you don’t break the red ring at the base,” Bella said.

“I don’t think I could if I tried,” Tonya shook her head, still impressed with what Bella had done.

“Careful of your fingers,” Bella cautioned. Tonya nodded and brought her mouth back to Will’s manhood, going slower and more carefully this time, just in case.

Bella stood back up, “How you doing, handsome?” she asked Will.

“Feeling like a very appreciative instructional dummy,” Will shrugged, still bracing himself against the ceiling.

Tonya choked a bit as she laughed. Her mouth popped off for a moment. “No jokes while I have my mouth full!” Then she was back to work, stroking him with her tongue and her mouth, resting her hands on his thighs to make sure she was nowhere near the drying pattern. She was going slower than before, making sure to be careful.

“Sorry,” Will chuckled. Her mouth felt good, but without the earlier enthusiasm the differences in skill between Bella and her apprentice were very obvious. Tonya concentrated almost entirely on his cockhead, which after being taken all the way into Bella’s throat, seemed poor by comparison. It was still nice, but it was impossible not to notice the stark contrast. On the upside, it meant Will could think more clearly.

“So, what's with the salt?” Will asked.

“You’re getting head from a beautiful girl, and you’re thinking about a jar of salt?” Bella asked with one hand on her hip and one eyebrow raised. “You’re going to make Tonya think you don’t appreciate her.

“Yeh!” Tonya managed to say without taking her mouth off Will’s cock. She pushed down as far as she could go and bobbed there. She sounded a bit like she was gagging, but it didn’t seem to bother her this time. Will guessed that must be how a person practiced that throat thing Bella did. It definitely felt good, but he was still worried about choking her.

Will brought his hand down and gently stroked Tonya’s hair. “Oh, this is very nice. It’s just that the looming spectre of possible death is a powerful distraction.”

There was a popping sound. “Well, as far as ways to die go…” then Tonya was sucking again.

Bella grinned. “See why I like her?” She cleared the crystal ball from the table, putting it on a shelf.

Will put his hand back on the ceiling. “She needs to meet Captain Vex,” he muttered, reminded of the Captain’s similar musings on exciting ways to die.

“Salt disrupts spirit magic. It will displace and ground the energies. If things go wrong, Tonya’s going to dump the jar on us,” Bella finally explained. She pulled the purple cloth from the table and started folding it up.

There was another pop. “So I have to watch. For safety!” Tonya went back to sucking again. Will rocked his hips forward a bit with the pleasure of it.

“I thought we were doing sex magic?” Will asked.

“We’re using sex to power the ritual,” Bella explained. “Most witches get known by their prefered energy source, not their ritual specialties. If you want to be technical about it, we are using a sex ritual to gather primal quintessence and use it to create a spiritual binding enchantment. Then, we’re going to perform a divination ritual.”

“Sounds… complicated,” Will said.

“Now you see why we tend to use short hand descriptions,” Bella shrugged, fanning her paint to get it to dry quicker.

“I thought primal quintessence wasn’t very good for spirit magic?” Tonya said, taking her mouth off Will’s cock just long enough to ask her question.

“It’s not an ideal match in terms of the energy source and the end result, but I’m good enough at gathering energy through sex that I think I can make it work. That’s one of the big strengths of sex based energy gathering. It you do it right, you can gather a lot of energy. It’s just slow, and can be hard to hold onto as it builds up,” Bella explained to Tonya. “The reason it’s usually good to use energy that compliments the ritual you’re trying to perform is that if you don’t, you end up losing a lot of your gathered energies in the conversion. In theory, if you have enough energy to spare, and are good at maintaining control, you could perform any kind of ritual with any kind of energy.”

“I’ve never had someone dump salt on me during sex before,” Will said. His eyes had glazed over a bit at the magical theory talk.

”Hopefully you won’t this time either. If you do, it will still beat spontaneous combustion,” Bella laughed and set the cloth next to the crystal ball. The bare table was highly sanded to a smooth finish, quite sturdy looking, and bolted to the floor with brackets. It also looked like it had handles built into the underside of the edge.

“Alright you little minx, enough of that. Time to do your real job.” Bella sat down on the edge of the table. She picked up her cards and started shuffling them.

Tonya popped Will one last time and stood up looking up with a devilish grin on her face. “I want to pick up where I left off some time soon,” she said. Her eyes gleamed with predatory mischief.

“Well, I’m happy to support your education however I can,” Will said. He was about to give her a hug, but he looked down at himself, not sure if the paint was dry or not. They both stopped, careful not to touch each other.

Instead, Tonya said “Why thank you, kind sir,” and gave Will a small curtsy. Something about the red dot on her nose and her bare breasts made the overly polite gesture strange and comical. Will grinned. She practically skipped away and went to stand behind Bella.

Bella set her cards down and leaned back on her elbows, arching her back and spreading her knees a bit. “Think you’re ready to participate in this ritual to find out my fate, Will?”

Something tightened in Will’s chest. She was beautiful. He’d spent more time around her while she was naked than when she was clothed lately, but it felt like the first time every time. If someone had asked Will to describe sexuality made flesh, he’d describe Bella. Her body reminded him of a N’madi fiddle, symmetrical curves created for making joy and beauty and art.

He stepped forward and nodded. “How’s this work?” He looked at the markings on her body, and then down at his own. The red cream had quickly dried to a soft paint-like consistency, somewhat akin to tar after it had cured. Rubbery with no stickiness. It was starting to tingle slightly against his skin.

Bella tapped her red-stained lips. “Kiss me.”

Will stepped between her knees and slid his hands around the back of her head, cupping it gently. He lifted slightly while he leaned over to kiss her. It felt like electric warmth, small tingles coming from their joined lips and prickling down their necks like tiny shivers. Bella loved being kissed by him. There was something about it. He was confident and strong, and poured his affection and appreciation into his lips in a way that few other men did. It was as though he was trying to tease her and thank her and consume her all at once, just with his lips. Most men kissed because kisses were enjoyable. Will kissed because kisses were meaningful.

Tonya leaned to the side to get a better look, her eyes wide. She’d kissed a lot of men. She’d seen a lot of men kiss other women. Kisses were usually just kisses to her, but this one stood apart from the rest. The two of them were breathtaking. She didn’t know anything about art, but she felt like this kiss qualified.

“You two are really beautiful,” she said quietly. As soon as she said it she wished she hadn’t. It made her realize what she’d really been missing. She loved sex. She loved cocks. She loved men. Women too sometimes, but if she was being honest with herself she liked men more. She really did enjoy her job. She’d always felt like she was trying to find something though. She’d never been able to put her finger on exactly what, but that excited feel of searching was part of what drove her obsession and enthusiasm for sex. It was also what made her want to learn Bella’s art. Now she felt like she knew what she was looking for, or at the very least, she’d seen it. Whatever that kiss was, that’s what she wanted.

Bella laughed, breaking the kiss. “You’re the second person to say that lately.” The red on her lips, and the dot on Will’s glowed faintly with red light that quickly faded. Bella didn’t seem to notice or care, but Will was impressed. Magic was always a little unnerving to him. Bella tilted her head, enjoying the feel of Will’s hands and looking up at him. She and Will were both oblivious to the tiny pang of thought and heartache that had just bloomed in Tonya. They were completely lost in each other for the moment. The ritual had begun, and it was drawing them together. “Apparently we really should be up on stage,” Bella grinned.

Will’s face scrunched up for a moment. “I think this is about all the audience I can handle.”

“You’d make serious coin,” Tonya said, shoving her invading thoughts down. “I know I’d throw money at you.”

“You don’t have to, dear,” Bella smiled. “You’re getting the show for free.”

“So what next?” Will asked.

“Kiss me… here.” Bella said, tapping her finger against her bare mons.

“Aye aye, Cap’n,” Will grinned, taking a knee. Bella spread her legs wider and rested them on Will’s shoulders. He brought his lips right to Bella’s clit and gently kissed. She shivered. She’d already been turned on. She was practically flooded now from watching Tonya and Will’s foreplay, but she had hardly been touched at all. Will’s lips starting right on her clit could have been overwhelming, but he was gentle enough that it felt wonderful. He opened his mouth a little bit and brought his tongue forth. The sudden warmth and wetness felt like it was blooming and spreading inside her. He swirled and licked, keeping his mouth pressed against her skin like he was tongue kissing her nether lips. Little sparks shot up her spine and the tension began to gather. It was happening so fast, and she wanted to let it, but she had to focus. She shook her head. “Alright, alright, gotta stop. That’s good.” She was breathless already.

Bella lay back completely and adjusted herself into the right position. The table supported her from hips to shoulders. Her cards sat in a pile next to her, hugging the inner curve of her waist. The red swirls across her body created three spirals connected by a gentle trail, like eddies in a current. She beckoned him closer. “Alright, come up here and get ready, but don’t actually do anything.”

Will stopped licking her and stood up. He stepped in closer. His bottom lip was glowing again, as were the red lines she had traced along her outer labia, but the glow faded quickly. Bella reached out and guided his cock to rest against her entrance. She picked up her cards and handed them to Will. He took them carefully, somehow knowing that this was a special and somehow reverent moment. He’d always been told that he’d regret it if he’d ever touched a fortune teller’s cards. “Fan them,” Bella said.

Will had played enough cards that he wasn’t going to fumble them. These were quite a bit bigger than the ones he was used to, but he managed not to play fifty two pickup in the middle of a magic sex ritual. He held the fan of cards toward Bella.

“Alright,” Bella said, reaching down to reposition him a bit further in between her nether lips. She moved his cockhead up and down through her wetness, then dipped her fingers lightly into herself and then spread her juices along his length, getting him slicker. She rested her other hand on top of the fan of cards and nodded to him. He pushed.

He slid into her in one long stoke. She hooked the back of his neck and drew him into a lustful kiss while simultaneously pulling him in with her heels hooked against his butt. It was wonderful for Bella, a strange combination of intense pleasurable discomfort as she was suddenly stretched to accommodate him. Within moments the discomfort passed and gave way to a satisfying, throbbing fullness. He was pushed to the hilt within her. The red symbols she’d traced around her lower lips and the base of his cock met. The red paint on her lips met the dot on his lower lip. There was a brief pulse of light where their lips met, and where their sex joined. It lanced throughout the entire pattern in an eyeblink, the red glow quickly fading as it traveled. They were connected fully. The spell was sealed.

Energy surged through them. The sigils created a loop of mystic power that felt like a mild buzzing. As he got used to it, Will noticed that the vibrating pulse had a strange echo. He could feel the pulse emanating outward from his chest and washing through him, but also another, slightly different one that rippled through him going the other direction.

“Is that you?” he asked, his mouth still against hers.

“Mmmhmm,” she moaned. She drew a card and laid it face down on her sternum inside one of the spirals. Light pulsed around the spiral and faded. She spoke breathlessly, quietly, right against his mouth,“It’s our hearts. They’re driving the spell energy. It’s going to feel strange, but good. Just let it happen.”

“Do we have to keep kissing the whole time?” Will asked, still not breaking the kiss.

“No, we sealed the spell. We could stop if we wanted to,” Bella said, not stopping.

“Alright,” Will said. He didn’t stop either. He started thrusting, slowly pulling himself out and then pushing back in. Her slick tightness felt amazing. Bella pulled with her heels, her whole body stiffening as he bottomed out inside her. She could feel the delicious heat just starting to build.

Tonya squeezed her thighs together tightly as she watched from against the wall. She was so aroused it was almost uncomfortable. Part of her training with Bella involved being able to control her passions and keep her concentration when her whole body was screaming at her for release. She knew this was a test. It was definitely the hardest one so far. She couldn’t think of a time she’d ever wanted to cum so badly.

Bella and Will kissed deeply, moaning into each other’s mouths as their bodies rocked back and forth, meeting with strong, rhythmic slaps that matched the beat of the buzzing that was building inside them. Bella held onto Will’s neck like a liferaft. His hands grabbed her round, soft hips, pulling. The muscles in his chest and arms strained and rippled. The buzzing echo began to tingle Bella’s clit and nipples, feeling like faint tickling static with every wave. That lovely feeling of sparks inside her began to spread and build. She was used to two dueling sensations building up within her. The pressurized heat that slowly spread from his cock driving in and out, and the little sparks that gathered and shot up her spine from her clitoris. It was always a race between the two. Usually her clit won. Every woman was different. For Bella, her clit was the strongest element of her sexuality. The pleasure was big, the ramp-up was short, and the recovery time she needed between each orgasm was small. With the right stimulation, she could cum and cum and cum in rapid fire bursts. Right now, the energy of the spell, the dual waves of vibrations from her heartbeat and his, were enough to start the tingling build up from her clit even without any kind of direct stimulation.

Then one of Will’s thrusts bumped right against her clit unexpectedly and shot a lance of sensation up her entire body. She gasped and threw her head back, finally breaking their kiss. She let go of his neck and lay back, grabbing the curved edge of the table to brace against his relentless pounding. Her head hung off the table, her hair cascading off the edge and nearly touching the floor. “Fuck, Will, that’s perfect,” she said breathily.

Will was matching his thrusts to the buzzing pulse of his heartbeat. It was an easy rhythm to follow. Every time he timed it right so that the vibration wave passed through the head of his cock at the same time he drove home inside her, it felt amazing.

Her wet, warmth squeezed him with every shudder of pleasure that rolled through her. He could feel her strong internal muscles needily pulling at him. He drove in hard and then just held himself there, enjoying the feel of her, watching the hypnotic rolling of her breasts. He wanted to grab them, to suck them, but he was worried about the painted pattern and forced himself just to watch their beautiful bounce with every thrust.

“You can put the cards down now. We’ll need them in a bit, but you don’t have to keep holding them,” Bella said, her voice thick with pleasure. Will closed the fan of cards back into a stack and set it on the table next to the curve of Bella’s waist. The upside down card on Bella’s chest hadn’t moved.

Tonya reached up and squeezed her own small breasts, rolling her hips in frustration and pinching her own nipples. Will looked up at her. She squeezed a little harder and bit her lip, quietly showing him how much she wished she could join them. He smiled. Bella saw him looking and rolled her head to watch Tonya’s sexy, frustrated display.

“Oh, you poor thing. You’re doing great, but you don’t need to practice restraint right now. This isn’t that kind of lesson, you’re here to help and watch,” Bella teased. Will pulled out slowly and pushed back in. Bella’s eyes fluttered. The sensation threatened to distract her, but Bella was very good at her work. “Get the chair there, bring it over here behind me, and get the tablecloth too.”

Tonya’s brow furrowed in confusion, but she did as she was told. She nudged the chair in behind Bella’s head and held the table cloth. Will continued to slowly fuck Bella, watching what was unfolding. He and Tonya’s eyes met again, their confusion mirrored in each other’s faces.

“My neck... is going to get tired,” Bella said, her words shuddered by Will’s thrusts. He decided to ramp things up a bit. “Turn the chair around... so I can- Dammit, Will! Stop trying to… Nnnng-” Bella glared at Will, gasped out a moan as he gave her a particularly powerful thrust. “You bastard,” she giggled, unable to form the right words for a moment while he pounded into her. He started laughing and it messed up his leverage and rhythm just enough to give her a reprieve. ”The chair- turn it around. Put my head on the back of it... with the tablecloth for padding.”

Understanding dawned on Tonya’s face. She spun the chair around. Bella lifted her head. Her apprentice tucked the chair beneath Bella’s neck, pulled her cascade of dark curls over the chair back, and tucked the folded table cloth beneath Bella’s neck. Bella lay her head down and relaxed onto the makeshift pillow. She narrowed her eyes at Will. “I bet you think you’re funny.”

Will nodded and gave her another strong thrust. Her breath caught in her chest and her massive breasts rolled in opposite circles. “Laugh it up…” she muttered. “I’ll have you know that… hnnng… if not for the energy-” she gasped and curled her toes at another bolt of bliss running up her spine from her clit. “I’d be able to give a full lecture-” her knees tried to squeeze together involuntarily. Her thighs shook from the effort. “With you doing. That.”

Will was laughing hard but still giving her strong, steady strokes. She rolled her head against her makeshift pillow. “I guess I should take advantage of the extra help while I can,” he smirked.

“Harumph,” Bella huffed, trying to keep her composure. She looked up at Tonya.“Now it’s your turn…” she said. “Get Rocky.”

Will slowed his thrusts, looking at the curtain across the doorway. Having an attractive woman join them was one thing, but the idea of another man coming in, particularly one he didn’t know, was not something he liked the sound of. Bella saw his face and laughed. “Suddenly not so sure of yourself?” she chuckled. Will paused. She rolled her eyes. “Trust me,” she said.

Will nodded and then did a double take back to the doorway. There was a face peeking through a crack in the curtain. He started to get embarrassed, but decided that if there was any place that being spied on while having sex was acceptable, it was in the Lounge at Merry Mary’s. He winked at their voyeur and pulled on Bella’s thighs driving himself in again. He did trust Bella, and this felt too good to let his momentary concern, or their newly discovered audience, stop him.

Tonya was grinning from ear to ear. She turned around and went to a shelf, finding a small box and opening it. She grabbed something and turned around.

She was holding a smooth, shiny black phallus. It was stone. Marble or basalt. Will couldn’t tell. Tonya held it up like a trophy and wiggled it back and forth. He chuckled. “Rocky?”

“He’s the best!” Tonya said excitedly.

Bella giggled at Tonya’s excitement. Her laughter sent squeezing pulses through her. Will let out a small noise of pleasure. Bella reached over and touched the phallus. “Low,” she said.

The faint lines of marbling in the stone lit up with a soft golden glow. Will could hear a humming sound, like a bumblebee. Tonya brushed the phallus across her nipples and shivered with delight.

“You can sit on the chair behind me. Just keep the salt close,” Bella said. Tonya quickly relocated the jar nearer to the chair, then she lifted her skirts. She reached beneath them for a moment, but then looked up at Will. That mischievous gleam came back into her eyes. She stood off to one side of the chair and lifted one leg, setting her foot down on the seat. She looked like the famous painting of the pirate captain with one foot up on a treasure chest.

She ran the humming phallus back and forth across her pert breasts, her nipples visibly hardening even more. She raised her skirts slowly up her legs, gathering them and pulling them off to the side with one hand, exposing a nest of short black hair split by pink. Without breaking eye contact with Will she put the phallus between her legs and rubbed it along her wet slit. A shudder ran through her whole body and her hips trembled. She bit her lip and looked at Will with raw lust in her eyes.

Will’s cock throbbed inside Bella and he pushed forward hard. Bella squeaked and grabbed the handles on the under edge of the table. She rolled her head to the side to watch Tonya’s show. Her head was nearly touching Tonya’s hip so she had a front row seat. She watched as Tonya teased herself, running the buzzing stone toy back and forth and then pushing the end of it firmly onto her clit. She let out a breathy moan and rocked her hips.

Will began driving faster, the lewd display invigorating him. Bella held the table and pulled with her heels, encouraging and helping, meeting each thrust with one of her own. “Mmmm, do you like that, Will? You like watching my naughty apprentice play with herself while you fuck me?”

“Oh yes,” Will groaned, pounding into her wet warmth. He’d never experienced anything so erotic in his life. Seeing Bella and Janie in bed together had set the previous record for him, but this shattered it again.

Tonya laughed, her scratchy, sultry voice full of lust and amusement. She rolled her hips forward to give Will the best view possible, and slowly slid the phallus into herself. She pulled it back out slowly. Bella’s lips parted sensually as she watched. It was no secret that Bella was a voyeur herself. Will caught Bella’s expression and started matching his thrusts to the speed and power of Tonya’s own, pulling out of Bella when the phallus slid out of Tonya, and pushing in when the black shaft disappeared inside her. He imagined fucking them both, simultaneously. It was an impossible dream, but a fun one.

Tonya’s hand sped up. Will matched her. Bella’s back arched. The feel of the buzzing echoes inside them was getting stronger. The spaces between the initial pulse and the echo from Will’s heart was getting shorter. The heat inside Bella swelled and the sparks from Will’s pelvic bone bumping her clit with every thrust were ramping up in strength. “Will, the cards,” she managed to get out.

Tonya’s sudden orgasm was violent. She’d been so turned on and pent up that her whole body thrashed with her release. She let out a long, throaty cry. Her legs shook and gave out leaving her sitting down on the edge of the chair behind Bella’s head. She shook, bending over, her knees spread wide, her hand still desperately working the buzzing stone cock inside her. Another wave surged through her and she sat bolt upright, her back arched and her small breasts thrust outward.

Will was entranced. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the curtain move. Their audience had grown. In the center he could see a sliver of a smiling, flushed face with blue eyeshadow. Off to the left he saw another, much darker in tone, with a silver ring in her nose, bright white teeth in her wide grin. Apparently Will wasn’t the only one enjoying the show.

The original trepidation of being watched had become excitement. Will slammed home, hard and strong, making Bella’s whole plush body ripple. Her breasts swung in bouncing circles threatening to dislodge the card sitting on her sternum. Somehow it stayed put. Her butt and thighs shook with the impact. She gasped and strained, the wet, hot pressure continuing to build, his heavy thrusts pounding into her clit like tiny lightning bolts.

The thrumming echoes tightened. “Will, the cards! Now!”

Will scrambled, picking up the deck and managing not to drop them. He fanned them out and held them low for Bella. She didn’t do anything. “So. Close,” she groaned.

The thrumming echos passing back and forth between them synchronized, becoming one vibrating wave. The mild twin buzz became a single audible low hum. It wasn’t like the bumblebee buzz of Tonya’s toy. It was larger. Stronger. Like the wings of a bumblebee the size of a horse. He’d never felt anything like it. Every hair on his body tingled and stood up every time the wave passed through him. The surge of power made it hard for him to concentrate. The red swirls all over their bodies began to glow faintly. It was beautiful.

Bella drew a card from the fan. “Good. You can... put it away... again,” she said breathlessly. Will put the cards back down, amazed at the glowing sigil that linked them. He could see the vibrational wave passing back and forth between them. It brightened the glow as it passed.

Tonya finally recovered from her orgasm and took a deep breath. “I really needed that.”

Bella laughed. “Think you can concentrate on your job now?” She put the card she’d drawn face down on the glowing swirl just below her rolling breasts.

“I’ll try,” Tonya smiled. She straddled the chair, setting herself down right behind Bella’s head, keeping Rocky inside her. The phallus was pushed firmly in by the chair itself so she let go of it and used her fingers to play with her aching clit instead. The padding on the chair gave her something to grind and bounce against. “How will I know if I need to dump the salt?” she managed to ask.

“If I tell you, or if we suddenly have to break apart and stop. Or if you start to feel like you’re sitting too close to a fire.” Bella’s eyes were closed. “Oh, and it’s alright to touch us, just don’t touch the pattern.”

Tonya squirmed, getting more comfortable with the buzzing phallus inside her. “Alright.”

Will glanced to the curtain. Their audience was still there. He made eye contact with one of their voyeurs and thrust again, making Bella moan and her breasts roll. He heard a faint giggle, but Tonya and Bella were both too distracted to notice. The thrumming wave was so powerful that it was distracting. It felt good as it passed though him, but it was getting to the point where it threatened to drown out everything else. He slowly found his rhythm and then matched it to the thrusts, pushing in as it traveled through him, like he was driving it into to Bella through his cock, and pulling out when it came back from her.

The vibrations felt amazing as they traveled through Bella’s grasping vagina. She clenched every time, sending pleasure all along Will’s shaft. The sensation was different for her. She was used to juggling multiple sources of pleasure, so instead of being distracting and threatening to overwhelm other sensations, the oscillating, humming wave just got added to the chorus building inside her.

To Bella, it felt like Rocky, but not from an outside source. It was in her. It was her. It passed along and through her skin, buzzing over her clit and her nipples and her toes and her neck and her scalp, and then reversed course, rushing back through her leaving goosebumps in its wake before it vanished into Will for a few moments. Then it came back. Because his hands on her hips and her legs curled around him and his cock inside her were where they were joined, that’s where the wave passed from one of them to the other. She loved the feel of it. She’d only done this ritual a couple times before. It was one of the most powerful she knew. Their heartbeats had synchronized, and now their life energies were intertwining. She’d never tried to work a divination into the merging ritual before. The wave was getting stronger and broader. Soon, it was going to get very hard to focus and channel the energy properly.

The warm pressure had been building inside her for some time. On top of the mounting energy of the ritual, she was close to orgasm. She wanted to hold it off though. It would be strongest if she managed to time all the building energies to release at once. She deepened her breathing and closed her eyes, allowing the pleasure to build without trying to hold onto it or drive it. She concentrated on trying to make her reservoir bigger, rather than trying to hold back the tide. His pubic bone bumping against her clit with every thrust sent little bolts up her spine along with the buzzing wave. The sensations battled within her and threatened to merge into an explosion. She took it all in with deep breaths, but it was mounting too quickly. The ritual was amplifying everything past her limits of control. She looked up into Tonya’s flushed face and hungry eyes. “Distract me,” she said. “Give me... Nnng... Give me something else to think about for a bit.”

“Like what?” Tonya asked.

“A different sensation. An-nnn-nother thing to focus on. I need to hold out,” Bella said, her breathing slow and shuddering and deep.

Tonya grinned. “I just can’t touch the sigils, right?” Bella nodded.

Tonya’s fingers slipped into Bella’s thick hair and gripped firmly at the back of her head, hard. Bella moaned. “Oh fuck. Yesss. That.”

“Don’t you dare cum, you sexy witch,” Tonya said, whispering into Bella’s ear. Her breath tickled like a tiny echo of the waves washing through her.

Bella shook her head against Tonya’s grip. “I won’t. I won’t.”

Will felt the wave… thicken. It was traveling a bit faster, but it felt like it was taking longer to pass over any particular part of his body. Sure enough, the bright spots of light moving through the sigil were widening, taking up more of the pattern as they passed over it. He was almost relieved each time it passed into Bella and gave him a short reprieve. When the light was on his side of the sigil it was the strangest, most wonderful thing he’d ever experienced, but it was so strong that he felt like he was going to be swept away. It was as though for those moments when the light traveled up and down his chest, he had a warm pressurized heat within him, and every time he drove his cock forward into Bella’s willing body, for a moment he could feel a wonderful sparking tingle running from the base of his shaft up his spine.

Will watched Bella’s whole body tense. Her back arched and her toes curled with the effort of holding back her orgasm. “Tell her,” Tonya said to Will. “Tell her no.”

“Not yet, Bella,” he said, low and commanding.

She shuddered again. Her insides clenched all around him. She nodded her head weakly, her eyes tightly shut as she fought the rising pressure and the sparks of intensity, and the vibrating energy that intensified the sensations everywhere it went. She was losing it. The ritual was going to unravel if she couldn’t hold it together.

“I have to… I have to… I can’t...” Bella strained. “I have to get rid of some of it…”

“You can,” Will said, starting to slow down.

Bella’s head jerked up. Her heels pulled him in. “Don’t you dare,” she snapped. “Harder.” Her eyes flared with lust and concentration.

Will grinned like a savage and brought her legs up to his shoulders. Then he pulled her hips further toward him and leaned over her to grab the edge of the table. “You asked for it,” he growled.

Her hips were curved up a bit now, more of her weight on her shoulders. His first thrust in the new position slammed down, driving the buzzing wave of pleasure into her and making her clit pulse in the strongest shock of intensity yet. “Ohfuuuuck…” she mewled. The wave bounced back and washed through her the other direction a half a heartbeat later. It vanished as Will’s rampant cock retreated. Then Will slammed home again, driving the breath and the sense from her. She shuddered against it. She hadn’t realized how hard this would be. Something had to give. She looked up at Tonya, her breath chuddering in her chest, she looked almost angry. Incensed. Fiercer than Tonya had ever seen her. The younger girl’s eyes went wide with fear. “Bella…” she said, worry falling from her lips.

“Don’t cum,” Will commanded.

“I won’t-,” Bella gasped.

She reached back and down, stretching her arm between Tonya’s legs. Another heavy thrust and buzzing wave drove into her. She shook and grabbed Tonya’s thigh for support. She was going to have to time this right. It was hard to think.

She reached down further, sliding her fingertips through the soft hair covering Tonya’s mons, then touched the base of the stone phallus. Tonya let go of Bella’s hair and put both hands on her teacher’s shoulders, shivering at the unexpected touch and the movement of the stone buzzing away inside her. “Bella, what are you-”

“-She will,” the black haired witch hissed.

The wave passed out of Bella and into Will, and in that moment Bella focused the energies gathering inside her and said “Highest.” A surge of power left her and rushed into Rocky. She immediately felt the building hot pressure decrease and the jolts of pleasure from her clit reduce to a more endurable intensity as she dumped a large amount of the gathered sexual energy inside her into the stone phallus. She didn’t actually have the sense to let go in time as the energy wave came back into her. Bella’s desperate ploy was nearly the end of their ritual. If the power being bounced back and forth between them had connected to the magical phallus inside Tonya, all their efforts would have been spoiled. It was sheer luck that saved Tonya from unexpectedly being pulled into the ritual’s feedback loop. Just before the wave traveled up Bella’s arm and might have been able to pass into Rocky, Tonya jerked like she’d been electrocuted and pulled away from Bella’s hand. She very nearly fell off her chair.

Bella and Will missed Tonya’s sudden torment at first. The energy wave slammed back through Bella, and then out to Will again. Bella groaned in relief and beautiful agony. She could feel the wave widening even more as she and Will’s metaphysical auras merged further and further. The band of bright red light moving through the pattern wasn’t fully leaving one of them anymore. It was wide enough that even when it completely lit up the pattern on one of them, it was also lighting up part of the pattern on the other.

At any given point, more than half the total pattern was lit up, and the light was just passing along them in a solid broad band from her mouth, down her body, onto his, up his chest, and then bouncing back when it reached the little red dot on his lip. Everywhere the light touched, skin tingled. On their arms it felt like goosebumps. On their nipples it felt like a sustained, enjoyable shock. On their sex it was nearly sensory overload. Will could tell he was getting close. Bella would have already cum like a cannon if she hadn’t just passed a large amount of her sexual build up to Tonya.

Poor Tonya didn’t know what hit her. A large portion of Bella’s tightly controlled, mystically empowered sexual energy had rushed into the stone phallus and crashed through her tiny body like a tidal wave. She’d never felt anything like it. She didn’t have anything close to Bella’s experience in controlling her sexual responses. Even if she had known how, she still couldn’t have stopped it. This was just too much to handle. The riptide grabbed her and hauled her under before she had time to think.

She couldn’t do anything but hold on. She pushed her head into the crook of Bella’s neck. Both hands were in between her legs holding onto the phallus that had just erupted to a vibration that bordered on violent. Will could actually hear the angry buzzing, like a jar of wasps, over the low thrumming hum of Bella’s ritual. Tonya was crying out in one long, uninterrupted scream of pleasure. Her orgasms racked her, one after another, stronger and longer than anything she’d ever felt before. She forgot where she was. She forgot who she was. All she knew was the mind shattering torrent of intensity welling up from between her legs. Eventually she ran out of breath. Her sounds came in short high pitched grunts as she continued riding the phallus, grinding her hips back and forth into the chair and letting out breathy, pulses of sound into Bella’s neck.

Will and Bella hadn’t been idle while Tonya forgot the world. Will watched Tonya’s rolling series of orgasms with lusty amusement and a bit of concern. His eyes flicked to the curtain. Now there were five faces peeking through.

Will continued his driving thrusts, rocking Bella’s body with hard, steady rhythm that matched their magically synchronized heartbeats. His breath began to get ragged and sweat began to gather on his forehead and on his neck. It felt amazing. Bella’s warm wetness pulled and squeezed and the hum of the energy they were passing back and forth kept growing. Bella was leaning her own head into Tonya’s and holding onto the table like she was trying not to fall. “Fuck- fuck- fuck-” was all she could get out as the pressure inside her built. She’d bled off some of it. A lot of it, but there was so much and it was building back up again quickly. She didn’t know how long she could fight it. She didn’t want to fight it anymore. She didn’t know if Rocky could handle another energy surge like that. The last thing she wanted was for the stone to explode inside her apprentice, so that option was out. It was all coming to a head. The ritual was almost completely charged up. She and Will just had to hold out for the right moment. The wide band of light traveling across them brightened and grew with each thrust until it was nearly covering the whole sigil. The whole room was awash in the red glow.

Tonya managed to pull Rocky from inside her. The buzzing phallus thunked to the floor, forgotten. It’s connection broken, the glowing lines dimmed and it went inert. Tonya sat up, breathing heavy, watching in amazement at the lights and the low throbbing hum. She could feel the heat and the pulses of tingling energy coming off of them. She slowly smiled in gleeful awe. Aftershocks occasionally wracked her. She forgot all about the jar of salt and the danger. Her mind felt gooey.

“The- cards!” Bella gasped. Will reached for them, managing not to lose his footing or his rhythm. His ruthless pounding subsided a bit as he fanned them out again. One hand held them toward Bella. The other pulled against her thigh. The building vibration was just a solid thing, an oscillating hum that waxed and waned with each heartbeat. The light filled the sigil completely. The pressure inside Bella suddenly ramped up. There was no denying it. She fumbled for the cards, grabbing at them, hoping she managed to pull one free before she-

“A’right, what th’ fuck is all that?” a slightly slurred woman’s voice came from outside the curtain. “What are all ye ladies doin’ o’re there?”

The curtain ripped open to reveal Belita Vex and six closely huddled prostitutes crammed into the doorway.