Descent Into Darkness (18 page)

CHAPTER XXXIV – Seasoned Greetings

Katarina
’s fingers traced along the collar she wore, trying to find the clasp to open it. It wasn’t tight but its heavy presence was constant and the word picked out on the front was humiliating in the extreme.

She wasn’t the whore that the collar proclaimed to the world, in fact, far from it. Half a dozen men and a couple of women, that was all she’d had - and three of them could be said to be within committed relationships.

That was before she came here though, she quickly corrected herself. In this place, she’d acted like the pretty whore her collar proclaimed her to be. Easy to be aroused and eager for climax, she’d taken all that was forced on her without the resistance she should reasonably have given and that acceptance would haunt her.

It was a realisation that she wore like a yoke. She wasn’t a whore as she received no money but what did that make her? A slut? No, this was against her will and that didn’t count. Her mind remained fiercely independent, she had Amber and Mela to thank for that, even though her body was the toy of another.

The arrival of Mistress Raven held all the usual sweeping grandeur. Clad head to foot in gleaming blood red latex, it was a departure from her normal black though certainly no less stunning. Shimmering rays of the evening sun bade their farewell through the nearby window and danced shimmering on the material that clung to her.

She approached and Katarina stood tall. Yet again the difference in appearance between the women was stark, this time though it bore a significant change from the times before. This time, Katarina was the one with the classy dress and the sophisticated look to melt hearts while Raven was everything a reveller at a fetish ball could wish for. The words on the collar locked around Katarina’s neck really told the tale though, revealing the true nature of their dichotomy, labelling the expensively clad woman as the ‘pretty whore’.

Katarina stood there on towering heels unmoving as the latex clad woman reached a hand out to brush her cheek. “Such a pretty whore.” Raven, thirstily drank in the image of her girl, tracing a finger down and along her jaw line, careful not to smudge perfectly applied make up.

Raven’s tender touch sent shivers slowly down Katarina’s spine before her words sped them throughout her body. “Yes,” breathed Katarina softly, leaning slightly into the hand that had brought goose bumps to her skin. It was instinctive, uttered before thought, and it shamed her.

Raven’s finger eased down Katarina’s neck, tracing the elegant letters picked out on her collar in the fine gothic script. “Pretty Whore,” Raven repeated softly, an almost imperceptible nod affirming her approval while Katarina lost the power to breathe.

“Yes Mistress Raven,” whispered Katarina, unable to resist the urge to state her position. “Your Pretty Whore.”

The smile spoke of the satisfaction of victory. The thrill was as much a rush as Raven thought it would be. The young woman was beautiful, some would say stunning. She would capture attention and, in doing so, would draw attention to her owner, then Raven’s ego would gorge of the adulation. Immelmann could go to hell, this one she was keeping.

“Stay close to my side, whore.” Raven applied a gentle pressure to the side of the collar, pressing it into Katarina’s throat. “I wish to display you as mine.” A click and an almost silent electronic beep from the collar was lost in the general hubbub as final preparations fell into place.

And with that, Raven turned, the lengthy train of her dress slapping against Katarina’s bare legs. Raven swept out toward the reception room and the unusual material shimmied and slithered away.

Entranced by the way the gown hugged the inverted heart of her butt, Katarina simply stared as the woman walked away. Even without the intensive conditioning, she just compelled attention. The training ensured that Katarina could offer little resistance and she moaned aloud at the sight.

As the distance grew, Katarina’s neck started to tingle. Strange at first, Katarina tried to rationalise the feeling. Was it just seeing her or something else? The intensity started to grow. A curious tingle moved into to a painful prompting, and Raven’s words chimed in Katarina’s head, “Stay close to my side.” A realisation struck Katarina and she hurried to take her place beside the woman she found herself calling Mistress.

CHAPTER XXXV –
A Jaded Lady

Guests were starting to emerge from expensive cars that had begun to litter the parking area beside the long gravelled driveway. Draped in their finery and jewellery that just screamed wealth, they flowed toward the imposing doorway, keen to take their place in audience with the increasingly reclusive Michael Immelmann.

As Katarina watched, she could have listed a who’s who of exclusive designer labels and ticked each one off twice over. She’d only seen such an obvious display of money before in society magazines, all confidently carrying an air of comfort in their own skins. It was clear they were people of substance, without exception.

She looked around the welcoming party. Immelmann to the fore, Raven to his right, Katarina herself stood a respectful half pace behind. She had tried to hide at first, embarrassed by the collar that screamed her description. It wasn’t long though before a quiet command from Raven urged her to move into clear sight, picked out under the porch light.

Without the educational films Katarina had been made to watch, she would never have picked up on the subtle signs that pervaded each welcome. To the casual observer, it was nothing more than a greeting of friends but to the initiated eye, the hints were profound.

From the deft single kisses that were placed on the back of Immelmann’s right hand by both men and women, to the polite bows to the lady in the red latex gown beside him, all bore the hallmarks of respect afforded to a man atop his world. Even the wealthy formed a line.

It was a guest toward the end though that caught Katarina’s interest and even as she approached, a strange tension was hanging in the air.

Tall and slim, she was more willowy than Raven but, in her own way, held a classic look. As with most, there was a whisper of something laying just below the surface and Katarina’s eyes darted as the atmosphere mounted.

Two people away in the queue now and the feeling was palpable. Finding a manifestation, Immelmann subconsciously shuffled his feet. Raven’s breathing had quickened, spurred by adrenalin at the approach of the woman in the green silken gown, until eyes met and locked in a steely glare.

One more to go and Katarina could clearly see the woman now. Her look was not dissimilar to Raven but with an exotic ethnicity and not quite as tall. Her dress slithered silkily over each curve as she took a further step forward. Katarina looked to Raven. “Jade,” spat Raven as the woman bent to take the hand of Immelmann with all appropriate reverence.

“You look good, Jade.” Immelmann’s eyes rested comfortably on a body he knew so well.

“Thank You, Master,” the willowy woman whispered in reply, harking to a past status with the merest hint of forced respect in her voice. “And it’s Mistress Jade,” the woman in green corrected, piercing eyes cutting toward the ice cold woman who had displaced her.

== ~ ==

It was a moment that Jade had dreaded and yet anticipated, her first return to the manor since she was told she was no longer required and forced to leave. Raven had destroyed the formal invitation before it could be sent but Jade knew she had to attend and wouldn’t be turned away.

The arrival of the Raven woman had been a surprise and yet Jade had known of Immelmann’s deep seated need to always push, never stay still. She’d tried to meet his needs but somehow her inbuilt sense of decency had stopped her short and overruled her desire to please him as his excesses grew.

And yet here seeing him again, with his authoritative air and deeply expressive eyes, Jade knew she still loved him. After all, two years and more at his side and in his service had allowed the roots of their relationship to run deep and spread far.

“At least for herself,” Jade silently corrected herself. He cast her aside after all with barely a hint of remorse. After arriving, Raven had taken his focus, no doubt taking his dick up her ass too – one of his desires Jade had always refused. Raven had quickly taken her place by his side, taken full heed of his needs and Jade hated her for that.

Those screams that Jade had heard, both male and female, were new to the house. It had left her cold though she’d remained, waiting for his call so she could show him her devotion, and the delights of a deeper, more emotionally connected style.

That call never came though. It was one of those faceless servants that delivered the hand written note. She’d thought Immelmann was better than that and meant more to him. But all she was worth was a roughly scribbled note that told her of his preference for another and gave her a day to move out with an attached cheque for 100,000 bucks to buy her silence.

It was more money than she had seen in her life and as the tears flowed she’d stuffed her close possessions into a bag, knowing that the rest would be sent on once she’d found somewhere to stay. It hurt so much but she had quickly left. At least he had seen her off at the door. It was not her way to go with a whimper but the soaring height of her pain was too much to think of that then.

That was over a year ago now. She had held her head high when she walked past the staff of the house. They stood open-mouthed at the departure of the woman they had taken to their hearts.

As the mental scars had healed over, Jade had reconstructed her life, building a protective wall around herself by adopting a more dominant approach, leaving Immelmann’s shabby money untouched as she prepared for a night that now came.

She was Mistress Jade now and she would have the respect she deserved. Twelve months ago she may have blushed a little and allowed Raven to demean her but not now, she’d rehearsed this for too long.

So Jade stood up to her, meeting Raven with mirrored disdain. It was rooted in the bitterness Jade still felt and pumping adrenaline covered both bases, surging ready for fight or for flight.

== ~ ==

“Of course,
Mistress
Jade,” shot back Raven, sarcasm dripping as a smile curled across her precisely painted lips.

“My compliments on the décor, Raven,” Jade observed, assuming the moral high ground. She wasn’t going to lower herself to the verbal street fight the latex clad woman was clearly spoiling for and comfortable with.

“I salvaged some of your less tasteless items for the time being but the rest, I burned, along with those dresses – they were much too large for me.” Raven was firing out jabs one after the other. “Oh, surely you didn’t want those sent on,
dear
?”

“I see your own dress sense hasn’t improved.” Jade side-stepped Raven’s question. “Still street mutton dressed as even cheaper mutton then?” Jade’s heart was pounding but she was meeting Raven blow for blow.

== ~ ==

Immelmann looked on. He was amused and more than a little turned on by the hostility crackling between the two women, knowing jealousy to be the root cause. In his mind, he pictured the two women fighting over him, elegant gowns tearing as nails gouged and hair was rent from scalp. He could feel arousal take hold.

Maybe he had been too hasty. Perhaps it would have been interesting to keep Jade in the house after all. He knew Jade loved him and that could have been used for his amusement to fuel the jealousy between her and Raven. He could have fed off the bitching and fucked them both. This more assertive side of her held the excitement of unfamiliarity in a woman he had felt he knew so well. The lure of the fresh, of the new, piqued more than his interest.

Yes, he could have kept her, used her to drive Raven harder and the thought of that settled on his lips in a smile of purest vanity. Maybe it was something to explore later but right now this was his night, his triumph. Raven had to keep her cool so he met her step toward Jade with one of his own.

== ~ ==

Raven’s look was one of pure hatred. The smile slipped away from her lips as her rival’s words hit hard. Despite her victory in throwing out her predecessor, Raven couldn’t help herself as the demons within her bubbled and boiled. She had won the man but still the woman had appeared, a nagging thorn in her jealous side that wouldn’t go away.

Such audacity. Such an affront to her presence. Jade had turned up uninvited and Raven knew Immelmann would not turn her away. Seething inside, what little self-control Raven possessed shattered and she lurched at Jade.

Only a strong arm thrust across her chest held Raven back as Jade instinctively flinched in anticipation of the attack. The look toward Immelmann barely concealed Raven’s wrath and even his conciliatory words did little to ease the hostility Raven felt toward the woman she had displaced.

== ~ ==

Off to the right, Red paused mid-step as her Mistress shot her a look telling her to stay still. There was a need for patience.

And so Red paused, the look going otherwise unnoticed. Those close by were anyway distracted by the gasp from the elegant woman stood just to the rear. The voltage from her collar discharged a shock and Katarina stumbled forward to again close the distance to her Mistress and so still the pain.

== ~ ==

Jade knew Immelmann and suspected what Raven was capable of and yet the woman behind, a beautiful woman in expensive attire, was the one that caught Jade’s attention. It wasn’t her outfit, even though under different circumstances she would have stood out in any room. It wasn’t the collar that gleamed around her neck and declared her a
‘
PRETTY WHORE
’
. It was the way she looked at Raven as she clutched at her collar with desperate fingers.

An expressive cocktail of pain, devotion and sadness, such a poignant look and yet it was edged with a hint of anger, an anachronism thrown into the mix. She then must be the woman of the rumours, the one who the unsigned note had told of. She must be the woman who had been tortured, who the evening’s centrepiece would revolve around, the woman Jade had come to help.