Chapter Six

Julia tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear. "Come with me… there is a spell in the black page book that can open a portal to hell… or there used to be, assuming no one has torn it out." She grimaces and the memory of Minnie doing just that makes my skin crawl.

She rises through the ceiling, but I have to take the stairs.

I hurry up them, carefully, and find her waiting for me.

She reaches for the book, swiping her hand, and it flies open at her touch.

"Sorry," she says, almost sheepishly. "Old habits die hard."

"It's okay. It's familiar." I feel like I could do with familiarity right now.

She flutters her fingers, flipping through to one of the pages at the very back of the book and floats out of the way. "It has some… odd requirements."

I read the words and scowl at them. "What does that mean, ‘An act far more than centuries old, the joining of two beings hot and cold'?

"The spell requires that the witch who uses it is… intimate with something dead."

I freeze, still staring at the pages, but I don't see them anymore. "Wait, what?"

"It's the only way I know to get a living person into hell."

"I can't…" the idea of it makes me physically ill.

Julia's hand brushes my jaw and she turns me to look at her. "I'm dead."

She's … "Oh."

The relief that floods me makes my knees a little weak and I sit on the rickety settee that's still half covered by a sheet. "Is that something you would be willing to do?"

Julia comes to me and the lower half of her body turns to smoke as she seems to kneel in front of me and takes my hands. "I haven't let anyone linger in my home for centuries… but I can't drive you from it. I don't want to. When you're not here, it feels empty in a way it never has before. The shadows are longer. The air is fouler.

"I have come to… care for you in these last several months. You are my friend. And I would gladly do anything for you." She looks down as if she can see the bodies below. "And I will do my best to never cross the lines he did if you do not want me to. We can find another way to get there."

It's my turn to cup her face in my hands. "They told me I was crazy for wanting to be here, but your presence has always calmed me. I like you… I've always liked you."

Her smile is soft and sweet and so at odds with what I know she is… "Can I kiss you ?"

She laughs a little. "Of course. Whenever you like."

Raising herself to me, she lets me control this kiss.

She's soft and cold and nothing like I expected, yet still, somehow, everything I want.

"Julia?" I say her name as I draw back from her.

"Yes, Genevieve."

"Is there another way to get to hell?"

"Yes. You grandmothers' library of spells should hold half a dozen options. At least."

It would take me five minutes to get to the house, an hour or more to find the spell and then five more minutes back… that's assuming I can find a spell that would work at all.

"How long do I have before they're stuck in hell forever?"

"I don't know." She squeezes my hand. "You don't have to do this with me."

"I want to." I kiss her again. "I've dreamed of so many spells to be with you. Bringing you back, making you physical… time travel."

I laugh at how absurd that idea had been.

"I don't want it to be like this. I don't want to have to rush this with you." I don't want it to be "for" someone else.

Julia kisses my throat. "If we make it through hell and back, we can take that time."

She doesn't remind me this is a mess of my own making. She just kisses me again.

But I can't make another mistake if it could take even more from us.

"What does the actual translation say? What do I have to do?"

Julia goes back to the book and places both hands on the page. When I move to stand behind her, I see the original words… but I can't read them.

"It's not Latin."

"No. Babylonian." She glances at me. "Your grandmothers have neglected your education."

She reads over the words, eyes narrowing before she says, "The spell works by using a living orgasm brought about by a being who's partially in hell."

"Part of you is in hell?"

She nods. "But it means that you could use either of the two downstairs if you'd prefer."

"Ew, no. Not even if they were conscious and could consent to it." I shudder at the idea. "I want you."

It's not simply that I'd prefer her over them. I want her.

This isn't how I imagined having her, but… I slip my fingers in hers and look down at the book once more.

Say the words, kiss her lips, find the pleasure amid her hips.

"It translates for language and intention?"

Julia sighs. "If we manage this and get back in one piece, you and I are going to have to fill some of the gaps in your knowledge. For your own safety."

Taking a deep breath, I take off my coat and toss it onto the settee, letting my phone clunk heavily against the old padding. I'm not going to need that in hell.

I cleaned the mattress in this room months ago and brought my own sheets so that I could sleep here if I ever lingered too late—or was simply too tired to be bothered to trek back across the field.

I'm grateful for that now.

I sit on the mattress and the springs creak.

"I think it will be best if I perform cunnilingus to achieve your orgasm."

The formality of the words reminds me that she's been around a lot longer than I tend to think about.

"If you're sure," I say, unzipping my boots and setting them aside.

She nods. "The spell only requires that you come… I'm not even sure I can anymore."

I pull her to me, kissing her and wishing we had the time to find out. Her fingers caress my stomach, and she slips the zipper at my hip downward.

"I'm still learning what I can and can't interact with." Her fingers slip into my pants and she draws them down my legs, fingers hooking into my underwear as well.

But when she gets them off of my legs, they fall straight through her grip again. "I guess you have to be touching it for me to manipulate it."

"I guess so."

She turns from the pile of red fabric on the floor and looks at me with eyes fully dilated, like a cat ready to pounce.

I scoot back on the bed to give my feet better purchase and she comes with me. But when I reach for my shirt, she grabs my hand. "Not this time."

"Okay."

She kisses me. "I want to see all of you… when you're truly mine. Not when something has forced us to race ahead."

Her hands trail down my thighs, spreading me open for her.

"Say the spell, Genevieve. Let me make you come and lead you into hell."

I lick my lips and have to shove down the tiny selfish part of me that wants to leave the boys to fend for themselves a little longer.

The words were easy to memorize, so I don't need the book.

"Take me to hell as the living dead… by my sacrifice on this bed. I will follow wherever I am led. No sin of the damned will turn my head." I kiss her and she slides down my body, leaving a chill in her wake.

She repeats the spell, softly against my skin and then kisses my lips .

The icy feel of her makes me gasp and my hips move without conscious command.

Julia moves with them.

The candlelight makes her look monstrous, but I can't take my eyes off of her.

I squirm as her tongue invades me, biting my lip and trying not to moan too loudly.

Her fingers work inside of me and I let out a ridiculous laugh as another thought strikes me. I want her to open me up and crawl inside.

She smiles up at me, even though I know she doesn't know why I'm laughing and I draw in a sharp and broken gasp her lips latch onto my clit.

The teasing from before becomes nearly unbearable and I say her name in a whispered pant, not sure if I want to ask for more or less or everything and nothing all at once.

I just want her and I don't want to remember that this isn't solely for us.

The pressure and pleasure builds and I fight it, even though I don't want to, but the orgasm rips through me and I cry out as the sound of cloth tearing fills my ears. Heat washes across one side of me and Julia's fingers hold my legs steady, even as they shake.

The rolling waves crash through me as my release ebbs and Julia crawls up me, her ghostly skirt trailing over my skin like silk.

"We are definitely making it back to the living world." She kisses me and I hold her tight to me. "I want to hear that sound a hundred more times before I'll even begin to feel satisfied."

We'll get up in a moment. We'll save my friends souls… and then we'll get everything we've both wanted.