The Vampire Queen and the Mortal Pauper

Chapter Seventeen

The One Particular Vision

"Luciana! Luciana!" A crisp voice called out while banging on the locked wooden door.

Behind it lied an almost unfurnished small room, where a throaty groan sounded from underneath the plain brown duvet. The banging on the door never ceased and now garnered a dreary sigh. Soon the duvet was pushed away to reveal a young woman splayed on the only bed in the room.

She peeled open her rare but puffy violet eyes and yawningly rubbed them with her free right hand. The drowsiness still hanged heavily under those peculiar colored eyes. The same free hand was then used to search under the pillow and pulled out her phone to check the time.

"You gotta be kidding me," she bemoaned at seeing the time read a few minutes after five in the morning. "Why, oh why this torment?"

"Luciana, you, lazy girl better be not ignoring me," the voice of her sleep disrupter that was clearly feminine, warned from behind the door and banged on it relentlessly. When she received no response inside, she clicked her tongue and hollered once more, "Luciana! Luciana!"

"Oh heavens, mother, I'm awake," Luciana, the young woman inside the room, answered back in vexation.

"Get out of that bed and come to the sitting room this instant! Sleeping all the time like we on vacation... tsk..." the mother commanded and could be heard stomping away while grumbling.

"It's effin five in the morning!"

Luciana let out a frustrated sigh and grumpily crawled out of the bed, which slightly creaked under her weight. She didn't even go and draw open the curtains or window, knowing fully well that the first light was yet to break. She tottered to her brown leather suitcase placed at the far end of the room and zipped it open to remove a long violet silk coat, which she draped it over her short cream nightgown. After pulling back her curly long ginger hair into a messy ponytail, she left her room and descended to the sitting room, where her fuming mother was impatiently waiting.

Her mother was actually a beauty that anyone could mistake her being in the mid-30s. Just like her daughter, she had the same rare violet eyes, though hers had a deeper color. She might've looked youthful, but the tinge of grey on her bun-tied ginger hair told otherwise.

"Took your time, did you not?" she chastised once Luciana stepped into the room.

Those pair of rich violet orbs sized the girl up and down, glaringly. Her slender fingers, adorned with peculiar heirloom rings and whose nails were coated with a black cutex, rhythmically drummed the steamy coffee mug. Luciana saw this and knew her mother was seething inside when she does that.

"Oh God, now what has got this woman all steamed up?" She wore a helpless look as she stumbled to the small kitchen and poured herself her own cup of coffee, before tottering back and sitting on the free chair opposite from her mother.

"Good morning mother," Luciana greeted warmly to the ridiculously maddened woman and casually blew over the hot coffee.

"You still know how to smile when we have a treacherous task ahead?" Her mother sneered and Luciana flinched understanding what she meant.

"Wow, you ruined my sleep this early only to remind of that?" Luciana complained in thought and couldn't help grumbling back while sipping the coffee, "I'm fully aware of our reason for being here. It's not like we're going to threaten her or something."

Straightaway, her mother was incensed and admonished, "Foolish girl, you think it's as easy as pancake to have an audience with that cold-hearted Vampire Queen. May I remind you of her bad history with us? And not to mention we are on our own here. This won't be like sliding in on a shrimp sandwich."