Chapter ONE
Jordin Tyler knew the streets of Capitol City pretty well, but the Lower East Side was something else. The old "Bohemian" section of town had a lot of winding little cobblestone lanes and odd-shaped buildings. In the daytime it was quaint and picturesque, but on a dark, cloudy night with fog drifting in, it was easy to get lost there.
"Here it is!" Kayley said stopping abruptly. "13 Macawber Lane!"
The two girls were standing in front of a dark Gothic brownstone with ivy climbing up one wall. Only one or two lights were showing in the windows.
"That doesn't look like a museum to me," Jordin said looking at the old mansion warily. "How long have you known this guy?"
"I told you. I met him at Barnes & Noble a couple of nights ago."
Brushing her brunette locks out back from her face, Jordin gave her friend an uncertain expression. Kayley Ashbrook was a pretty blonde the same age as Jordin, she was wearing a clingy black off the shoulder dress.
Jordin having just come from work was still wearing an almost knee-length skirt with nylon hose and a blue pinstriped button-up. She was also wearing the big glasses she affected at work to discourage her male co-workers from hitting on her.
"What were YOU doing at Barnes & Noble?" Jordin asked, raising one eyebrow. "Meeting cute guys," Kayley shrugged. "Anyway he SAID the place wasn't open to the public yet, but he wants to show me around, get my feedback. He even suggested I bring a couple of friends along...so I doubt he's dangerous. I invited my friend Sasha, she's a cop, just in case, but she said she had to work late."
"Wait! Sasha...Cortez? The police detective?" Jordin said in surprise. "How do you know her?"
"Oh, you'd be surprised at my checkered past," Kayley grinned. She slipped her right arm through Jordin's left, pressing close to her side. "I'm glad you came at least. It's kind of creepy, isn't it?"
"Just a little bit," Jordin agreed, beginning to have second thoughts. This supposed museum just looked like somebody's house. There wasn't a sign or anything.
Just then it began to rain, very lightly, but enough to set the two girls running, their high heels clicking in unison on the sidewalk, for the shelter of the tiny porch. Huddling together out of the rain, they looked up apprehensively at the thick oak door looming in front of them. Jordin got a grip on herself, absent mindedly fingering the silver bracelets on her wrists for reassurance. After all, what did they have to be frightened of? At the first sign of trouble, she could transform herself into the invincible superheroine VICTORY!
"What did you say this guy's name is?" she asked.
Kayley had to think. "Um... Damien?"
"Damien," Jordin echoed. "Great...the devil's son."
As if on cue there was a loud THUNK! from the door. Both girls gasped out loud and Kayley threw her arms around her friend for protection. Jordin felt the other girl trembling as she clung to her. The spandex neckline of Kayley's dress had slipped, exposing both smooth shoulders as her warm body pressed closer against Jordin's, feeling the firm, round shapes of her breasts through her thin cotton shirt. Slowly the big door creaked open.
"Kayley! How great! I wasn't sure you'd come!"
The man who had spoken was average height and wiry in build, wearing a musty-smelling black tuxedo with a high-necked white cravat. Jordin was surprised there wasn't a raven perched on his arm. He had dark, lank hair and a goatee, and his eyelids drooped as if he had just finished smoking something illegal.
Kayley sheepishly tugged the bodice of her dress back up. "Hi, Damien," she gushed, latching onto his arm. "You said I could bring a friend, so this is Jordin."
"Of course, the more the merrier," he said, showing his teeth in a smile that was a little bit unnerving as he reached out with a clammy hand to shake hers.
"Hi, uh... Damien," Jordin said, awkwardly adjusting her glasses as she took her hand back, trying not to be obvious about wiping it on her skirt when he wasn't looking.
"I expected more people," Kayley said, nervously looking around the empty entry hall.
"Just the three of us," Damien said, slamming the heavy door shut behind them and making both girls jump. "Let me show you around."
Jordin felt a chill run up her spine as the noisy old lock latched shut. Taking Kayley's arm, Damien led them deeper into the "museum". Jordin shrugged and followed. They were two girls alone with a guy, but she was confident that she could handle him if she had to... from the look of him perhaps even without summoning her super powers.
The house turned out to be full of framed movie posters and display cases with classic movie memorabilia, everything from models and props to old costumes. The first couple of rooms were devoted to fantasy and science fiction... "The Time Machine", "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", and so on. Jordin thought it was a cool idea, but (no offense to Damien) the displays looked as if they had been put together by an amateur.
"This is an interesting collection, Damien," she said. "Who does it belong to?"
"Lord, erm... MR. uh...Rayne," he said nervously.
Jordin narrowed her green eyes. "And will we meet this Mr. Rayne?"
"Oh, I'm quite certain you will," now his voice took on a decidedly devious edge. "Sooner or later."
Upstairs they found the Horror section. Kayley clung to Damien's arm as they looked at mock ups of icky rubber "aliens", werewolf masks, a mummy, all pretty standard stuff. She was making flirty small talk, barely even feigning interest in the displays by then. Jordin began to wonder why she had come at all.
The walls in one room had been done up to look like a torture chamber, complete with a torture rack, plastic skeletons, plywood iron maidens and one authentic looking coffin (the sign said it was from "Blood of Dracula"). Hanging from a little pulley arrangement on the ceiling was a pair of black iron chains. A little sign claimed that they were used in the film "House of Wax" starring Vincent Price.
A flash of lightning briefly lit the windows as the rainstorm outside grew more intense. Ignoring it, Jordin stepped in between the chains, touching them with her hands. The other displays might be cardboard props, but these were real iron! She touched them, feeling their weight, the cold hardness of the metal. A little shiver of excitement ran through her body as she adjusted her glasses, her heart beating a little faster...
Jordin had a certain amount of experience with bondage. In her alter ego as Victory, she had been tied up or chained more times than she liked to admit. The manacles, dangling at about chest height, were obviously designed for a woman's wrists. Once closed, they would lock tight and rigid in place around the victim's wrists and she would be helpless, powerless to escape. With both arms imprisoned and spread apart, she would be at her captor's mercy. He would be able to do, well, pretty much anything he wanted to her...
Jordin stopped her train of thought. Why would something like this excite her? Did some dark part of her WANT to be captured or bound? Jordin pushed those thoughts from her mind, of course not, no part of her could want those things.
Preoccupied, Jordin didn't notice that Kayley and Damien had moved on to the next room. She didn't hear the thin creak of the coffin lid as it opened. She didn't notice the whisper in the air as a tall, dark shape crept up behind her, moving as silent as a cat. And so the young woman nearly jumped right out of her skin when she heard a voice directly behind her!
"What have we here?" murmured a deep male voice with an odd foreign accent. "A pretty young woman?"
Jordin shrieked and whirled around. The man standing there was six foot three or four, with a handsome, aristocratic face, dressed in a white open collared shirt with wide sleeves over tight black leather pants and boots.
"I did not mean to startle you," the man smiled apologetically.
"I'm sorry," Jordin gasped. "I didn't see or hear you until you were right on top of me." Jordin took a couple steps away, trying to regain her composure.
"But of course," the man said matching her steps to stay close. "I might have announced myself but I was...struck speechless by your beauty."
"Oh I'm sure..." Despite the cheesiness of the line, Jordin felt a slight blush rise in her cheeks.
"But I speak only truth," he continued, moving closer still even as she continued to back away. "As soon as I saw you I could tell you are woman of poise and grace."
Jordin crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a coy look. "I'm sure it was my poise and...grace...that caught your eye."
The man's knowing smile was tight lipped. "Well...I suppose I'd be lying to claim I hadn't noticed your charming...figure as well."
Jordin continued to back away, a bit unnerved that he followed so closely. Even when she had back so far as to bump into the wall he was right on top of her. She didn't feel threatened exactly but he was uncomfortably close. She suddenly wanted Kayley and Damien to come back.
"I am Mr. Rayne," the man said with a slight bow. "Welcome to my humble home."
Mr. Rayne, of course, Jordin thought. He would have to be foreign to have an emissary as awkward as Damien.
"M-my name's Jordin," she replied, unsure where the tremble in her voice came from. "I came with my friend Kayley...to meet Dam..."
"Tell me Jordin," he interrupted, reaching for her face. "Why do you hide such a breath taking face behind such inelegant glasses...?"
