Vampire Girl

"Nonsense," she says. "I'm here to help." She opens the armoire and pulls out a sleeveless white satin gown. "This goes well with your complexion. Now off with your clothes."

While I undress self-consciously, she hands me lace panties and shoes that match the dress. Once I've put on my undergarments, she has me step into the dress, then she buttons up the row of satin buttons on my back. There are no zippers, and I wonder how I'll ever get this off. Once she is done, she pulls my hair into a French twist and then directs me to sit in front of the vanity while she does my makeup. I barely recognize myself when she's done.

She hands me a long coat of soft white fur—faux I hope—and nods her head. "That will do well. Be off with you now. The Prince is waiting."

"Where am I to go?" I barely remember the layout of this place.

"Down the stairs. Just keep going down. You'll find a door at the bottom. Knock and he'll let you in."

I reach for my bag but she shakes her head. "You're not to bring anything with you. Just what you're wearing."

"Fine, but I want my necklace." I put the pendant on before she can protest, then pull the coat around my shoulders and leave the room. I find the winding stair case and follow it down. It stops at different levels in the mansion, but I keep walking until I find myself standing in front of an elaborate door carved from a very rich wood. I knock and wait. Asher opens. He's dressed formally, in a tuxedo of sorts, but not a modern one. It looks custom made and like something royalty would wear before clothing was mass produced.

He raises an eyebrow when he sees me. "You clean up quite well."

"I wasn't dirty," I say, stepping into the room with him.

It's nothing grand. A small room—relatively speaking—with stone walls, bookshelves lining them, a lone desk with a chair in the corner, and a mirror.

The mirror is the most remarkable piece. It's tall and smooth, made from a golden wood carved into beautiful images around the glass. Mermaids and dragons and fairies and all manner of fairytale scenes play out in the designs. I run a hand over the rich wood and shiver.

"That is our door to your new home," he says.

"Like a portal?"

"Exactly."

I can see myself in the mirror, my red lips and white dress, pale skin and black hair pulled up. Asher stands next to me, but he is invisible in the mirror. "So it's true? Vampires don't have reflections?"

"We can," he says. "Just not in mirrors. We'll show up in film and water reflections. But mirrors, all mirrors, are doorways to us, and thus do not allow reflections, but rather glimpses into another realm."

"So we could have gotten to your world through any mirror? Even one at my house?"

"We could get there using a pocket mirror if we so choose, though that manner of travel is a bit... pinched."

"Then why all this?" I ask, waving my hand at the extravagant mirror before us.

He shrugs. "What can I say? We have a flare for the dramatic. Are you ready?"

"If I'm not, would that change anything?"

"No. Not a thing. I was just trying to be polite."

"It doesn't suit you," I say.

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Why can't I bring my own stuff?" I ask. I'm mostly missing my phone. My one life-line back to my friends and my mother.

"You will see soon enough. Modern technology does not work in our world. We cannot bring anything with us that was made with machines or advancements our world doesn't have."

I frown at that. "Why?"

"It's part of our curse."

He offers me his arm, and I take it, trying not to let my hand shake too much.

And then he pulls me into the mirror.

I close my eyes, half expecting to crash into glass, but instead I sink into thick liquid. It doesn't feel wet, and I can still breathe.

My head spins, and lights and shadows play against my eye lids. I'm scared to open my eyes, to see what I've committed my soul to.

"You can look now, Princess," Asher says. "You're home. Welcome to hell."

Chapter 5

PRINCE OF WAR

"Beware the princes of hell."

—the Warden

I open my eyes and suck in my breath. I was expecting fire and brimstone. Pain and suffering. Endless torture. What I see is something out of a fairytale. We stand on the bank of a lake, having just stepped through a large, ornate mirror that matches the one in the mansion back home. It's night, and a full moon is out. Another moon, a crescent one, hovers by its side. The stars are bright and big in the dark sky, much larger than the ones in my world. Before us, water stretches out into the distance, shimmering in the moonlight, and beneath the dark surface something glows a pale blue.

"Those are moon fish," Asher says, noticing my stare.

I look around and see more of them. I want to dip my hand in to splash at them, but for all I know they are carnivorous and would eat me as much as play with me. It's a peaceful moment, but I haven't forgotten where I am and why.

"We don't call this place hell," Asher says. "Here, it is known as the Isle of Inferna." He turns back to the mirror we just came from and places a hand on it. When he pulls his hand away, the reflection of the mirror shifts, the glass swirling in colors until a new image appears. At first, I can't tell what I'm looking at.

"This is Inferna," Asher says, pointing to what I can now see is a map. It looks like a floating island with seven concentric rings in the middle. I touch the center, which all the rings seem to protect, and the map zooms in, showing me a three dimensional close up of a grand castle.