Descent Into Darkness (16 page)

Part 3

The Presentation

CHAPTER XXX – Corridors of Power

It may have been the twelfth day. It could equally have been the fifteenth, Katarina could no longer tell, but it was significant as it was the day that her routine was changed. She’d become used to the procession of the days and somehow settled within their harsh structure. Today though she was turned toward a room located high in the roof of the mansion, rather than the gym.

The silent staff seemed to move with greater urgency today and the vague thought crossed Katarina’s tired mind that this was perhaps the day all had been focussed on. Left, left, down a short flight of stairs, right and then up another flight, negotiating the maze of corridors in the ancient mansion.

A sculpture caught Katarina’s eye, the smooth sheen of marble gently reflecting the dim light. The flowing curves of it spurred the imagination and without realising it, she hesitated. Just for a second. The biting sting on her thigh told her even that was too long.

Katarina shot her eyes up. Amber had rarely caused her pain but now even she seemed caught up in the pressure of the day. The look she received warned Katarina not to dally so she quickened her stride, eyes on the leather-clad woman.

The leather clung avidly to each curve, hinting at what lay beneath. The blonde’s heels added that extra snap to the hypnosis that was her hips as she picked her way purposefully along the corridor. Olive green appeared to be the order today. ‘Preferred the pink,’ Katarina thought to herself, admiring the view.

== ~ ==

Just a warning, that was all Katarina needed now and it had worked as Amber heard the barefooted woman padding behind her. She was keeping pace well despite the hobble on her ankles and the ropes welding her arms together from shoulder to wrist behind her back.

She’d hated to use the crop but it was the demands of the day. It was to chivvy her along, that was all and she hadn’t put that much into it, she couldn’t bring herself to, despite what Red and Raven thought. Red had noticed Amber’s reluctance to hurt the girl and had taunted the blonde, urging her to ‘grow a pair’ - the poison that was Raven slowly penetrating Red deeper.

Amber could feel Katarina’s eyes boring into her and allowed herself a smile, after all ‘as one door closes another one opens’. A little added emphasis now in her hips, Amber hoped it would be noticed by the naked girl she led by the neck.

== ~ ==

Of course Katarina noticed and she dropped back as far as she dare to allow herself a better viewpoint. She found Amber a conundrum. Dominant but in a gently assured way, she didn’t seem to fit within the nightmare, and radiated light in a darkness that had drawn closer around her with the loss of Mela’s daily visits.

Katarina had observed the souring of Amber’s interaction with Red, who wouldn’t have? It had given her something to focus on, something to cling to. Amber was the life raft on which her sanity floated.

Initially she had thought it perhaps one of the normal quirks of their interaction but Amber’s look of shock told Katarina that Red’s slap was a new and unwelcome development. From there the fracturing of a relationship had been clear to all who chose to look. There was more though, something that Katarina couldn’t quite pin down. Red was under Raven’s thrall, that was quite clear but what of Amber? If no longer with Red and clearly no admirer of Raven - why was she still here?

== ~ ==

Today was the day the whole house had been working toward. The grand ball was tradition, the crowning glory of the house, and today was the day of its arrival. No charity ball this, this was purely ego driven, the aggrandisement of the man that bestrode his house.

She’d been involved in the preparation of course but the demise of her relationship with the tall redhead had thrown Amber’s entire view of events. Immelmann was publically arrogant but his private grandstanding seemed to reach new heights with his indulgence in Raven. Amber was glad she had little to do with him.

Life here was turning out to be not as she had originally imagined. She had thought it would be fun, a kinky giggle. After all Red’s prodding and prompting to push the margin and immerse into the full experience, Amber had given in to another of her ‘what the hell’ moments – this one though had for once let her down.

Amber had had those before and mostly they had served her well. ‘What the hell’ had first introduced her to kinky with the boyfriend the mention of whose name in the gossip columns still brought a smile to her face. He’d tied her hands to the bed and played a concerto on her body with all the skill of the famed musician he actually was. It was her first taste of bondage. Now she loved it more than ever but events had taken a turn and she’d been taken several steps too far.

She’d freely admit to allowing herself to drift, waking up washed up miles from where she started. Just like her former lover, she’d been carried along by the current that was Mistress Raven. She was like a creeping cancer, a malignancy that tainted all she met with her warped sense of reality wrapped in such intoxicating beauty.

Like so many others, Amber had also been caught in Raven’s seemingly hypnotic presence, borne by the tide of adrenalin that rushed along in her wake. Normal inhibitions were swept aside with the storm surge that was Raven’s arrival in any room. That alluring spell of sexual danger had, however, been broken by the arrival of the abducted woman.

They’d gone too far. Those pleading, pained eyes had plucked Amber out of Raven’s orbit and then jolted her back to reality as compassion took hold, even as Red spiralled deeper. It wasn’t that she’d wasted those fifteen months with Red, far from it. Red had shared her life in a way none of the men in Amber’s past could ever achieve.

Ying and yang, somehow they clicked to become greater than the sum of their parts and, God, how they’d enjoyed each other. Amber had been curious for some time, never truly finding fulfilment with the men she’d been with but Red was a whole new thrill ride. And ridden Amber had, hurtling through discovery they’d both found something bright and new, yet with a dangerous edge they both needed.

But ying and yang ultimately hadn’t worked, Red being drawn away by the black hole that was Raven, no doubt to her ultimate destruction. Frustration at failure welled up in Amber. It was a feeling that needed wings, needed an outlet.

Turning the corner, at the foot of the final flight of steps Amber stopped. She knew there was a blind spot in the coverage of cameras here. Spinning, she stood before the woman who had restored her sanity. Katarina. Hobbled ankles had her shuffling uncomfortably and naked except for ropes that enmeshed her arms, her chest was forced forward and so enticingly presented.

== ~ ==

Frozen, Katarina’s eyes were wide as adrenalin surged within her. Why had the blonde stopped? Sure, she’d dropped back a little but she was still following obediently. Her heart pounded in her chest and Katarina held her breath closing her eyes in anticipation of the crop that she knew would come.

Her first hint was the waft of perfume, the second the hands that were rested on her hips. By the time soft lips were pressed against hers, Katarina was almost on fire and the crop never came.

CHAPTER X
XXI – Reflections

The image staring back from the mirror was older than he remembered. It was strange as Michael Immelmann felt more alive than he ever had and yet the signs were still there. She was pushing him hard, right to his very limits with her voracious appetite and while his eyes sparkled, Raven was clearly taking her toll.

His father would have been appalled but the nineteen months with Raven in his house had been the most intoxicating of his life. A wealthy, self-made industrialist, he’d pushed his son, Michael, from childhood. He always had to excel, be the first to walk, the first to talk, the straight ‘A’ student right through school. Yet, even when he achieved his father’s lofty targets, it had never been enough and he would manage to find fault in the smallest recesses of success - then move the bar still higher.

When he’d graduated, his father had refused to attend the ceremony. A business meeting, fabricated, when reality was that he wouldn’t attend something for a ‘nothing subject’, irrespective of his son’s top grades.

That ‘nothing subject’ was the passport to a rapid climb through the publishing world. And rise Michael Immelmann did, pushing himself harder and harder in the hope of winning acclaim. First from peers, and he hoped as a result, from his father, when in all reality, of that there was no chance.

“You don’t
make
anything,” Immelmann’s father had said, waving away his son even as newspapers featured stories of the new rising star and the launch of his first magazine title. As the years passed, they had reason to report much more as inexorably the younger Immelmann’s empire grew to become a publishing powerhouse.

The value of his enterprise soon eclipsed that of his father’s which declined in the face of cheaper imports from Asia. Michael Immelmann had already been hooked on the narcotic of power and achievement.

Success would have been acceptance from his father but that never came. And so he looked for an escape where power could bring other rewards, finding that in BDSM. Driven as always, he soon established the same primacy he enjoyed in the commercial sphere, a known name in a parallel world.

In a world layered with hierarchy, Immelmann had put himself at the pinnacle. With money and influence, it had been easy. He was a natural and he soon took his first girl, Jade. Named after the green eyes that echoed her grandmother, it was their striking colour and devilish sparkle that had first caught his attention, ignoring her PowerPoint presentation to look beyond her business suit. He’d soon exhausted both her limits and creativity though and found himself looking for more substantial challenges.

That challenge had come to him in Raven. Word of her had reached him and, with her reputation of chilling beauty and detached sadism, he was compelled to seek her out.

From the moment he’d seen the footage of her giving a demonstration that had her audience spellbound, he had to have her. She was the challenge he needed. Success with her would be hard won but controlling one so authoritative and yet so beautiful would be worth it and wheels had been set in motion.

A man of influence, it wasn’t long before she’d been located and her history had been researched. Gaps, so many gaps, but with those gaps his interest in her had intensified. Few could hide from his investigations but she had managed it and that intrigued him. He didn’t know that these were times when Raven had been fighting for her very survival, to him they were just blanks which engendered more scrutiny, and so much more appeal.

She was darkly mysterious, capturing attention as easily as he captured his next client. The challenge lay in possessing her. A man of substantial means, he’d found a way to pique her interest - money.

A package of rewards and incentives bought attention and initial loyalty. Immelmann had her at his call for three months in the hope that the anchor they provided would eventually flower into something rather more. After all, time with him had invariably done so with many women.

Raven soon strode rampant around both his house and his libido. Telling Jade she had to leave was Raven’s idea - discarded, cast out just two days after Raven first blew into the manor, bags in hand. He had no use for her, no need, Raven was more than enough. The green eyes that had first attracted him were tear-rimmed, but by the time Jade had been shown to the door they had hardened.

Those three months flew past and as the financial lock-in dates came and went, Raven had indeed stayed. Immelmann had won and his need for control had already manifested in a more physical way.

It was a Sunday, he remembered, when he had first struck Raven, and it was no more than a month into her stay. He’d hit her with a ferocity that initially scared even him. She’d baited and taunted him about both his failures with his father and his sexual capabilities and that had seen Immelmann lash out. She’d simply climbed back up though, licking the blood from her lips, bearing that satisfied smile of hers. She had what she needed and spat at him in return.

From that point they’d tumbled on a wild ride together. Now sure of her devotion, Immelmann rewarded her, even though not compelled to. She’d stayed with him and she had blown more than his mind with the rollercoaster she’d set him on. He’d quickly signed the document before he changed his mind and handed it over to the impassive woman who offered not the merest hint of a thank you, before turning and walking out of the room, lawyer in tow.

He knew inside she must be overjoyed. Joint ownership of the manor was worth a small fortune but it was not Raven’s way, he assured himself. They were now bonded together. She would pay him in sex and Immelmann congratulated himself on the final taming of such a resolutely feral woman.

Busying himself with the preparations, Immelmann connected a first cuff link and tugged down the sleeve of his shirt. If only his father could see him now. He allowed himself a soft laugh at the irony of the thought. He was a proud man still but now destitute. He’d seen his business slowly strangled by more agile and less conservative competition. No doubt he would blanch in disgust but probably still find it necessary to lecture his son on the need to do better.

The grand ball was only an hour away and it would represent the height of Immelmann’s achievement. Many would come to pay tribute - Raven by his side, his new girl, Kat, behind them, already compliant and his.

They would envy him and he would duly milk their adulation. This was
his
stage,
his
pedestal. Surrounded by the beautiful trophies of success, he would enjoy every second. He had no need for the acceptance of his father.