Chapter 10- Mistress Leticia

"Mistress Leticia, wake up. Your mother is waiting."

Grace blinked open her eyes. Muffled sunlight pushed into the bedroom—an unfamiliar chamber, she realized with uproar. Goodness, where the hell am I? She gasped as she looked at the grand chamber. Her cabin's tiny room was ordinary, with yellow-faded walls and cream carpet, the only furniture an unadorned old bed.

However, now a lacy red canopy was swaddled overhead. To her right was an intricately carved oak imperial nightstand; a bejeweled crystal goblet sat on top. Beyond that, a plush, glittery red and golden carpet led to arched two-fold doors edging an ample, majestic closet bursting with a golden yellow of velvets, satins, and delicate silks.

Her eyes widened.

This wasn’t right.

She jerked upright. Dizziness hit her—familiar, but not soothing, and she whined. "Are you all right, mistress?"

She compelled herself to concentrate and focus. A girl stood beside her bed. A girl she had never encountered before. Asian-looking, with a freckled nose and frizzy orange hair, wearing a crusty gray with filth dress that appeared uncomfortably old.

Grace scurried backward, whacking the headboard. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" Even as she talked, her eyes broadened. She knew three different languages, but she wasn’t speaking any of them. And yet, she comprehended every word that left her mouth.

No fervor crossed the girl’s features, as if she were used to strange people shouting at her. "I am Rose, once a private maid to your mother, now a personal maid to you. If you agree to keep me," she added, skeptical now. She, too, spoke in that odd, almost too ancient poetic language of streaming syllables.

"The Mother Sorceress has bid me to wake you and escort you to her library."

Maid? mother? Grace’s mother was dead. She had no one. She was practically alone.

Grace roared, "Don't you dare taunt me about my mother," and Rose flinched. "I’m sorry, mistress, but I do not understand. I tease you not about your mother’s summons." 

How scared she sounded now. Tears even beaded in her dull eyes. "And I promise you, I meant no offense. Please do not kill me."

Kill her? Was this some kind of prank?

The word "prank" was as familiar as the dizziness. But, really, prank still didn’t fit. Nervous breakdown, maybe? No, it couldn’t be. Breakdowns were a form of hysteria, and she was not agitated or hysterical Also, there was the dialect thing. Come on, brain. You can explain this.

"Where am I? How did I get here?" Her last memory was of reading the damn book and—the book! Where was the book? Her heart thundered uncontrollably, a barrage of thunder inside her chest, as she probed her surroundings once more. There! Her book rested on the vanity, so close, yet so far away. 

Mine, every cell in her body wailed; the headache was killing her, and the voice was shocking her at an alarming rate. It was equally unexpected, the ultimate suitability of the assertion. But then, she’d almost made love to the thing. And, oh, damn. Her blood heated and her skin throbbed, her body readying for absolute, utter possession.

I need you, Grace. The text. She remembered the text. Come to me. Save me.

Consider this logically. She’d fallen asleep, dreamed of a vampire’s decadent touch, and, like Alice in Wonderland, had woken up in a very weird, new realm. And she was awake. This was not my imagination. So, where was she? How had she gotten here?

What if…?

Impossible. Did that vampire summon her? Demanding her to save him? Damn! She couldn't even cook Korean noodles properly. Let alone save a freaking Henry Cavill look-alike-vampire?

She cut off the thought before it could drift into a path she didn’t like. There had to be a reasonable explanation. "Where am I?" she inquired again.

As Grace hurried from the delicate confines of the feather-lined bed, the "maid" mumbled, "You are in… Nork, mistress." She uttered with a question in her tone, as if she couldn’t quite grasp the truth that Grace didn’t already know the answer. "Kingdom of Nork. The land of the vampire, far beyond humans' reach."

Nork? She’d... heard of it, she realized with a start. Not the name, but the "kingdom of vampires." A few of the beings she’d interviewed had mentioned another land, a magical land in the north, where the sun doesn't rise, with differing territories outside the notice of humans. At the time, she hadn’t understood whether to believe them or not. They’d been criminals, locked away for the good of mankind. They would have confessed anything to gain their independence. They even offer to accompany her to their land, far away, so far away that no humans have ever visited there before.

What if…? Jesus! This is insane. Am I getting crazy? She asked herself. Yet, how could her rational mind explain this room?

What if she’d crossed the boundary from her world and into the other? Or the logical thing was that this was just NASA's experiment at the north pole. Or… maybe Russian? Grace eventually allowed the thought to reach its verdict, and her abdomen swirled with sickness.

Before the car accident changed her life so radically, even when she was working as a secretary at the Hudson Hotel, she’d studied more than the creatures of myth. It was her hobby. She read books. A lot of books about them, fiction and nonfiction. She’d studied the manipulation of magical energy, attempting the "impossible" on a daily basis after her work. That's why she never had a boyfriend or anyone that could understand her fascination with those mythical creatures. Only her best friend, Honey, accepted her oddities. 

What if she’d somehow transported herself to the vampire world?

Crazy.

So unbelievable. Yet extraordinary.

But how would she have done so? Magic?

No. There were too many variables. Namely, her new, imperial identity.

"Rose," Grace said, keeping her narrowed gaze on the girl as she eased her weight on her legs. Her knees knocked together, and her muscles twisted, but thankfully, the dizziness did not return.

"Yes, mistress?"

She gave herself a quick once-over, squinted with another dose of awe, and had to look again. She wore a lovely rose lace red gown she hadn’t bought herself and had never before seen. The fabric bagged around her soft, thin body, dancing at her ankles. Who the hell had clothed her? It doesn’t matter. She concentrated on the here and now. "What do I look like?"

Rose reached out, and Grace pursed her lips as she darted away. "Please, mistress, you have been unwell. Allow me to assist you."

"Stay where you are," Grace warned her. Until she figured out what was going on, she would trust no one. And without trust, there would be no touching.

The girl froze in place. "Whatever you order, mistress. Did you want me to get something for you?"

"No, uh, I just want to grab something from over there." Grace trudged forward. The mat fibers were as soft as they seemed and nuzzled her bare feet, tickling the sensitive regions between her toes. She walked slowly, allowing the uncertainty to drain from her abused limbs. By the time she swiped up the book and turned, she felt normal. Still, the girl had not moved. Her arm extended toward the mattress, shaking now. "At ease," she found herself saying.

With a sigh of comfort, Rose lowered her arm to her side. "You inquired what you look like. Gorgeous, mistress. As always." said automatically, with no substantial feeling. Half of Grace’s awareness remained on her while the other half was directed at the book. She scowled. The dark leather was unmarred. She flipped to the middle. There was no bookmark, and the pages were new and fresh. Blank. 

"This isn’t my book," she mumbled. "Where’s my book? Where? This is-"

"Mistress Leticia," Rose answered back smoothly. "To my knowledge, you did not arrive with a book. Now, would you like—?"

"Wait. What did you call me?"

"Mistress Leticia? That is your title and name. Yes? Did you want me to call you something else? Or, maybe I can summon the healer, and have her—"

"No, that’s okay."

Mistress Leticia returned from the grave. Grace had read those very words. She’d also read, "You, Grace Lim. You are Leticia."

What the heck!