"Ferral, don't be ridiculous! Why would Aaron marry anyone? He's too much in love with himself!"

This voice of reason came from Katy DeShay as she and the master of Raven Crest entered the vestibule. Despite his anger following the singer's announcement of our engagement, I had convinced Dr. Graves to fetch his close friend, the madam, to act as a credible witness during the seance tonight. Off through the rain he'd ridden, determined to prove himself the victim of Lovejoy's--and my--insidious infidelity, so I was pleased to hear Katy reasoning with him.

As they removed their wet wraps, however, my hopes dwindled.

"Damn bastard's giving me plenty of rope to hang him with," my benefactor growled. "And Caressa's no better! I should have known Ludlow Pratt's chicanery would rub off on her! She's playing us against each other, to--"

"No, you and Aaron are pushing each other's button's like you've always done!" Miss DeShay cut in, "but now push has come to shove. You're acting like schoolboys! When will these asinine accusations stop, Ferral?"

He let out a disgusted grunt, and their footsteps approached the dining room, where I awaited them with a weakly-pounding pulse. "Once we summon Ravenna tonight and hear her side of this, Miss Caine will be on her way. I have no patience for a woman who pretends to care about me and then--good God, would you look at her now! What did I tell you?"

I prayed for Mama to come and carry me away, but not even the millions of spirits from the Other Side could help me in my moment of mortification: Subi, left in charge while Ferral was gone, had trussed me up with bands of crimson Oriental silk so I hung by the wrists from the chandelier, dangling just above the dining room table. Naked, of course. And with a larger bow of the gold-shot silk tied around my mouth as a gag, and another one binding my ankles together. The housekeeper had laughed, saying I'd make her master a wonderful present, but I knew now how Christ must've felt as he drooped on the Cross. Exposed and humiliated. Those animal heads watched me from the second-floor mezzanine railing, eyeing me as though I made curious prey... as though letting the King of their jungle eat his fill before they moved in on me.

Katy DeShay's hand covered a giggle, and she looked me over with sparkling brown eyes. "You can't think poor Caressa did this to herself, Ferral. And you can't tell me you don't find this display extremely...titillating."

At the mention of "tit," my nipples hardened into points like darts. Struggling made it worse, for then my exposed attributes only protruded farther. I tried to protest, but the gag muffled me.

Dr. Graves watched with an expression that evolved from distrust to disdain to...desire. Crossing his arms at his chest, he looked me up and down with a devious grin, as though calculating how I'd gotten myself into such a perilously provocative position.

"Smells like Subi's in the kitchen, cooking our dinner," he remarked in a low voice. "She knows she's already served up a tasty tidbit, so she's gloating at the stove, awaiting my praise like a cat who's brought me a mouse."

"And what a fresh-faced mouse Caressa makes," the madam mused, bringing her black cigarette holder to her painted lips with a speculative smile. "What a plump pair of partridges and a stunning little cunt! I won't be needing anything else to eat, thank you!"

Katy had toed out of her kid slippers and was alighting on the table top as nimbly as any four-legged feline, looking quite catlike in her closely-fitted gown of black damask. She fumbled with her buttons, baring her creamy breasts and then revealing a leather corset that fit her like melted candle wax.

"Let me guess," she murmured, her eyes never leaving my nakedness. "Subi went into the attic and lowered the chandelier--probably insisting you clean all these crystal prisms, for I see no cobwebs or dust at all. Am I right?"

I nodded, relieved that this woman was correctly assessing my situation as she kept Ferral too fascinated to fuss anymore. Down fell her dress, rustling the coarse russet curls that stuck out from beneath her corset, and then sliding faster along the silken length of her dark, gartered stockings. She kicked the garment off the table, her body rippling with spritelike energy.

"Then, that devious Geisha caught you unawares--and caught you by the wrists with those scarlet shackles," she said, blowing cigarette smoke that encircled her face bewitchingly. "Another wrap around the ankles, to keep you from kicking her--and then a width between your lips to silence your screams--and you were hers for the taking."

My eyes entreated her to believe--and to take pity on a body that cried out from dangling on bloodless arms. Instead, she lightly ran a thumbnail from the hollow of my neck through the valley between my distended breasts, continuing her wicked torment until she was teasing at the curls around my mound.

"But knowing Subi, she left you hanging," Ferral went on, catching his friend's excitement. "She wanted you good and ready for me--for Katy and herself, as well. Knowing what a spectacular sight I could indulge in as the three of you--vixens all, with hair of black and red and spun gold--took turns at each other, while giving you no choice in the matter."

"I need to talk to that woman," Katy whispered, undulating before me so her breasts lolled plumply above the tight corset and her thighs clenched the fingers she slipped between them. "My clients crave diversity and imagination, and Subi has shown plenty of that!"

I shifted, desperate to be let down--fearing everyone else would pleasure themselves at my expense, oblivious to my pained condition. Why, I might hang here all night, if they found that entertaining! A fresh wave of pin prickles ran up my overstretched arms and a groan escaped me.

"Yes, Caressa, we know what you want," Ferral crooned. Watching Miss DeShay at play had apparently made him forget all about the seance: he was peeling his shirt from his muscled arms with the expression of a man set upon outrageous sex. "And what a vision you make in this shadowy room, bathed in the radiance of these crystal prisms...your flawless skin alight with an ethereal beauty, as though you've descended from the heavens. As though your mission is to enlighten and enthrall us mere mortals."

I'd never heard higher praise cross his lips, yet Ferral's poetic pronouncement set me on edge. I couldn't tell him Subi had raised and lowered the chandelier cable a few times to torment me--would have played at it more, had she been able to see my struggle from the dining room rather than from a narrow opening in the attic floor, where the cable's mechanism was housed. I could only hang there like a limp doll, for the gratification of anyone who cared to stare at me.

Katy sidled behind me, and when I felt her warm hands on my backside my breath hissed through the gag. She followed the rounded halves of my ass with her palms, lightly palpating as she caressed me with utmost tenderness. Ferral was stepping out of his pants, sleek and dark, with no sign of the wolf raging to be free--except for that cock, which was telescoping upward like a wild animal in its own right. When I felt his cohort's hand slip between my thighs, they parted, and Dr. Graves grinned at the way Miss DeShay's fingers fanned out over my mound.

"Yes, take every advantage of her," he whispered, watching her middle finger find its way up my slit. "She loves it as much as we do! What a novelty for her, to be at the total mercy of her admirers tonight. I hope her mama's watching."

The thought of Mama witnessing such blatant acts made my mental image of her cringe, yet the dew oozing out of my puss attested to the way Katy was exciting me from behind. I wiggled, moving with the spasms that were beginning deep within me, momentarily distracted from the pains shooting up my arms. Then Graves hopped up on the massive table top in front of me, mischief glimmering in his pale blue eyes.

"Kiss me, Katy," he coaxed, reaching a hand between my knees. "Maybe Caressa is tired of being a spectacle...and would like to watch me fuck you."

The redhead chuckled demurely, and when she stepped between my legs my arms were relieved of their tedious burden: I sagged with my backside over her shoulders, sucking my breath when Ferral took my feet between his large hands. He rubbed them with his thumbs, all along the soles, and then lit into Katy with a kiss that sent a jolt of awareness through all three of us. I had watched him pleasure Subi, but this! This was another game entirely.

The madam grabbed at him, tugging him down to take him captive as she answered his ravenous lips, both with potent kisses and moans that made me want him, too. Her hair teased at my inner calves, and as she deepened the kiss Ferral reached around to grasp my ass. He was devouring her as only an old lover could, his body rocking in rhythm with hers until the chandelier's prisms whispered illicitly around us. I closed my eyes, grateful for these moments of relief from hanging like a side of beef, reveling in the firm feel of hands that kneaded my flesh...hands that needed me to fill them as badly as my gaping puss wished to be filled.

And then Ferral was turning Katy in place, taking leave of her mouth with a grunt that promised something more erotic yet. Since my knees remained bent over the woman's shoulders, this left me wide open at her eye level--and her eager expression said she was loving this escapade as much as I was.

"Tongue her, Katy," Graves commanded in a rasp, "and spread for me...yes, just stick that ass up at a sassy angle and--take me!"

Katy's grunt rumbled up through my cunt as Ferral rammed himself inside her. It made a cheerful squishing sound--much like the licking she was giving me--and as I succumbed to her wicked, probing tongue and the teeth teasing at my clit, I had a spectacular view of Ferral fucking her like a dog...like a powerful wolf in the wild, yet with no sign of the change overtaking him. In and out he rocked, granting me glimpses of that hard, reddish shaft, which glistened wetly in the light from the chandelier. His eyes fastened on mine as his hands found my ass again, and Katy became the willing filling of a most provocative sandwich. She matched the prodding of her tongue to the rhythm of his strokes, and soon my cries escaped the crimson silk to rise with the enthusiastic rutting sounds of my double lovers.

It was odd, feeling this helpless, and the tremors inside me felt magnified by the sensations of being taken this way. My backside quivered against Katy's firm skin, while my clit caught fire beneath her tongue. She grimaced, caught up in her own climax, her cries vibrating against the cushion of my mound.

Then a choking sound rose from Ferral's throat, filling the room as he glutted himself and released. Squeezing his eyes shut, he cried, "Ravenna! Ravenna, yes! Come with me, honey!"

Both Katy and I froze, stunned by the intensity of his cry...wondering if he believed himself buried inside his wife again, or if Ravenna had revealed herself in his moment of sexual ecstasy. The madam had no doubt heard many different names called out as her clients succumbed to her, but it was only a deep compassion for this man that kept me from kicking at him with my bound ankles. Once again my jealous streak was reminding me that I was far too entangled with this tortured man. If I were to escape Raven Crest with my own soul intact, it had better be soon.

As though Subi wanted to expedite this--or perhaps because she had a sense of dramatic timing and playing upon her master when he'd been overcome--the Geisha rushed in from the kitchen. Her purple kimono flared around her body like wings of an angel on a mission of mercy, yet I sensed it wasn't my comfort she cared about.

My eyes widened. She was plucking those gold daggers from her hair with a frightening vengeance, much like when I'd first seen her in the doorway, with Fu leaping from her shoulder to attack Aaron Lovejoy. Even though I'd shared many heightened moments with this mysterious housekeeper since then, I would never be able to second-guess her. My stomach clutched when she flung first one dagger and then the other--right towards my head!

A moment later the silk gave way around around my wrists and I tumbled onto Katy's shoulders. Ferral was quick enough to grab at us, but he could only delay our falling into a confused heap on the table top, arms and legs and expletives flying in all directions. As the two of them sorted us out, ascertaining that we were all more surprised than injured, Subi stood imperiously beside the table. Her blue-black hair cascaded past her shoulders as she stroked Fu, who'd hopped into her arms.

"We summon Missy Ravenna, now , before Lovejoy finish performance at Opera House," she instructed. "She come to us tonight. We must listen. Must obey!"

As Katy untied my crimson bindings, I pondered this turnabout of Subi's attitude since our first seance. Did she truly wish to cooperate--to foster the positive, receptive atmosphere for enticing Ravenna's spirit to speak to us? Or was this her way of getting me away from Raven Crest? Her lip had curled when she heard how Lovejoy had announced our engagement. Despite her fascination with me as her "slave," I had no doubt she considered me as troublesome as the arrogant actor. Still a threat to her security with Dr. Graves--and to his sanity, as well.

Her commanding demeanor won out. Without argument, Ferral began dressing while Katy and I wiped ourselves on the crimson silk. Thunder rumbled, ominously close to the house, and then rain pelted the windows. A chill crept into the room, convincing me to wrap a section of the gold-shot fabric around myself as much for warmth as to foster the proper ambiance for summoning Mama, and then Ravenna Graves.

"I--I hope my call will go out," I murmured. "The atmospheric forces are powerful tonight, and I've never found Mama's likeness, or her handkerchief."

I was looking directly at Subi when I said this, but the Geisha's unblinking gaze told me she'd be no assistance. If she had my mementoes hidden away, I'd be the last one to know.

"We'll do without them." Ferral arranged four of the table's straight-backed chairs in a tight circle. "Ravenna's presence is so strong she might be standing here in this room already. We mustn't keep her waiting."

The urgency in his voice made the rest of us take the nearest seat and intuitively clasp hands. Ferral sat on my right and Katy on my left, looking somewhat in awe of the direction things were taking. This left Subi directly across from me, her dark eyes challenging mine as she clasped her master's hand. Fu hopped to the floor between our feet, as though he considered himself the rightful center of attention and intended to conduct the seance himself.

"Let's compose ourselves," I suggested softly. "We must concentrate our mental and spiritual energy, so those on the Other Side will know we take this matter seriously. Communing with the departed is a sacred venture, you know. Never the parlor game nonbelievers accuse me of playing."

The dining room grew quiet then; so silent that Fu's purring sounded like a finely-tuned engine...the engine that might drive us beyond the ordinary into the realms of the celestial. Indeed, the huge feline sat so tall he came to my knees, and as I peered at him through slitted eyelids, he raised his unblinking green eyes to the ceiling. He stiffened, so keenly watchful I was tempted to look up, as well, but I didn't want to break my concentration. Was it my imagination, or had an exotic scent, like incense, masked the aroma of roasting meat?

Still we sat, our clasped hands trembling in anticipation. The air around us thrummed with life and sounds no mortal could discern, and mysteries swirled above us, just beyond our vision. When I could stand the tension no longer, I whispered, "Ravenna...Ravenna, please come among us. Enlighten our minds...open our souls. Free us from the guilt and pain that imprison us, so we may comprehend---"

The chandelier began to shake, a slow vibration traveling down its cable at first, until the thousands of crystal prisms shimmered in the fixture's mellow light. The cat sat as though nailed in place, and while the rest of us opened our eyes to behold this phenomenon, we dared not speak. Indeed, the dark walls were now alive with flashes of scarlet and black and violet and white...colors reflected from our clothing--perhaps. Yet practical explanations paled in the face of this object come to life. The prisms were now dancing so frantically they hit one another, clittering like bits of hail spit against a window by an Almighty mouth.

Even Subi sat wide-eyed, barely daring to raise her gaze above the table beside us. Katy's face glazed over with fear, but she sat resolutely, clasping my hand harder. And Ferral...Ferral Graves seemed to inhale the cosmic forces with each deep breath, to convert them into his own form of power. When he closed his eyes, his features assumed a tranquility associated with deep sleep...or death. The large hand gripping mine relaxed and grew cooler. The muscles of his lean face went slack and I could no longer feel him breathing.

"Yes, Ravenna," he whispered a he stared, unseeing, at a high spot on the wall. "Yes, my darling, I understand...tell me who...what would you have me do now?"

We women sat spellbound, awaiting that answer. Never before had a summoning invoked such a powerful presence! The chandelier was quieter, but it swayed on its cable now, sending light in a slow circle around the room, illuminating us with its eerie glow. Graves remained upright in his chair but his entire body relaxed--and then I felt ethereal fingertips slipping through my unbound hair...the light yet certain weight of unseen hands coming to rest upon my shoulders.

"Ravenna," I breathed. In a fleeting moment, I wondered where Mama was, yet my thoughts remained with the one who stood at my back. She was as warm and real as a person who'd surprised me from behind, yet her presence bespoke only serenity and a mystical wisdom that silenced the questions I'd intended to ask. I couldn't even breathe. I could only sit there and absorb her.

How much time passed? I hadn't a clue. It was a soft meow and then a warm weight landing in my lap that brought me out of my trance. Fu sat with his yellow-green gaze fixed on my face, and I quickly released the hands I held to keep him from slipping off my silk-wrapped thighs. He purred loudly. Was this aloof animal actually pronouncing his approval of me? His acceptance of me in this household?

I blinked and gasped for air. Ravenna's hypnotic hold evaporated like heavy mist hit by full sunshine, and I realized that Katy, the Geisha, and Ferral were all looking expectantly at me. The black cat nuzzled my chin with the top of his furry head and then hopped down, his mission finished. He padded off toward the kitchen, prowling for some dinner, no doubt.

Many questions whirled in my mind, but I dared not share them. Not yet. I looked more closely at Ferral and got the impression he'd been so altered by this encounter he might was well have someone else's blood pumping through his veins now. His silver-splayed hair dipped rakishly over one eye, yet the arrogance was gone. The look of being both supreme predator and demonic prey had left him.

"What did she tell you?" I ventured. He might actually give us a straight answer this time, instead of hiding behind his need to dominate.

He sighed, as curious about his transformation as we. "She said she wrote that letter Lovejoy was demanding; that it's somewhere in this house," he breathed. "She said...Ravenna said she loved me, and that she&'s at peace now, and that I was not responsible for her fall down the studio steps. But when I asked her who, she...she...."

"She came to stand behind me." I tried in vain to recall specific words and phrases of our silent exchange, but they eluded me now, like fragments of a dream right before waking. Then I frowned. "She told me nothing about her death, however. But Ravenna wished me well. Said she had guided me here to care for you, Ferral--"

"Hah!" Subi spat, suddenly coming to life across from me. "Missy Ravenna would never--"

"--and then she warned me that the intruder who ransacked the house would return. Very soon. Looking for that letter."

The Geisha's violet eyes accused me of lying yet again, but my words silenced her. When her glance at Graves got no rebuttal of my assertions, the maid stood up. "Dinner in oven," she muttered. "Better fetch, before it burns."

As we watched her stalk toward the staircase, food was the furthest thing from our minds. Katy pulled the slender black holder from her skirt pocket and lit a fresh cigarette, inhaling until its end glowed devilish red. "I don't know what to think," she said in a low voice. "If it's not too much trouble, Ferral, I'd like you to take me home."

The man across from us reached forward to grasp our hands, as though he wanted to speak to each of us, but the loud clatter of the front knocker stopped him. We held our breath, staring towards the door. The grandfather clock in the front hall chimed its lugubrious tune for each of the quarters, and then bonged out the hour with funereal finality: midnight.

Again the brass knocker summoned, more frantically this time. "Please, Dr. Graves!" a male voice entreated. "Your patient--my Aunt Lillian--is failing fast!"

Ferral rose immediately, gesturing for us to stay put. "It's about Mrs. Cullen. I'll only be a moment."

Katy and I reached for each other's hands, watching him disappear into the vestibule. "I don't like this one bit," the madam whispered. "I know it's important for Ferral to find peace and settle Ravenna's death, but this whole thing gives me the willies. Something just doesn't sit right, you know?"

The long ash on her cigarette fell unheeded to the floor, and for a moment I wondered if this maverick madam had more to do with our situation than I cared to think about. After all, if she played her cards--the tricks of her trade--right, she might convince Dr. Graves she deserved to be his next wife. She'd been his close friend through thick and thin; she had to foresee a time when her womanly charms would fade and she'd be left destitute, unless a compassionate man rescued her from her fate. She herself had told me Ferral was known for taking in strays.

I dismissed my suspicions--or, more accurately, they were whisked aside when Dr. Graves reentered the dining room looking very concerned. "Let me pack a valise and get my bag, and we'll be leaving, Katy," he said. "Lillian Cullen's a longtime patient--a pillar of the cultural community in the Springs--and she's taken a bad turn."

He looked at me then, as utterly serious as I'd ever seen him. "Given the information we received tonight, Caressa, I want you to keep the doors locked and take every precaution while I'm gone," he insisted. "Don't let Subi's foolishness dissuade you! It's her fear, masquerading as pride. She doesn't dislike you, so much as she dreads losing the man who once pulled her from the clutches of death and disease."

I nodded, not pleased about another few days alone with a jealous, dagger-clad Geisha--not to mention the prospect of that intruder returning in Ferral's absence. I could leave, of course. I'd fulfilled my mission here, on this stormy night of inexplicable mysteries. I didn't even care about collecting the rest of my fee, now that Ravenna had revealed herself and confirmed my connections with the Other Side. I'd proven my powers once and for all, and it was time to move on with my photography...while I still had the chance.

But as the doctor wrapped his black cloak around his shoulders and opened the door for Katy to precede him, his ice-blue eyes said what I couldn't. I was that bird in his gilded cage--yet another victim of Ferral's unfettered need and animal magnetism. Caught in the clutches of his lust.

I was going nowhere.