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I Tried to form a plan as we approached the city, but in truth I was not sure at all how to proceed

There was no avoiding these filthy littletowards a battle And it was little different froone out to kill the wolves, counting upon h

We had scarcely entered the scattered farmhouses of Mont Noxious as a vapor, it seemed

Gabrielle and I knee had to drink at once, in order to be prepared for them

We stopped at one of the sh the orchard to the back door, and found inside theat an empty hearth

When it was finished, we caarden where we stood still for a ray sky No sound of others Only the stillness, the clarity of the fresh blood, and the threat of rain as the clouds gathered overhead

I turned and silently bid the gelding to co the reins, I turned to Gabrielle

"I see no other way but to go into Paris," I told her, "to face these little beasts head on And until they show thes that I et"

"This isn’t the time for that mortal nonsense," she said

The dirt of the church sepulcher still clung to the cloth of her coat and to her blond hair, and she looked like an angel dragged in the dust

"I won’t have them come between me and what I mean to do," I said

She took a deep breath

"Do you want to lead these creatures to your beloved Monsieur Roget?" she asked

That was too dreadful to conte and I felt cold in spite of the blood In a ht," I said "Nothing can be done until this is finished!" I said I mounted the horse and reached for her hand

"Injury only spurs you on, doesn’t it?" she asked She was studying then you, whatever they did or tried to do"

"Now this is what I call mortal nonsense!" I said "Come on!"

"Lestat," she said soberly "They put your stable boy in a gentleman’s frock coat after they killed him Did you see the coat? Hadn’t you seen it before?"

That damned red velvet coat

"I have seen it," she said "I had looked at it for hours at my bedside in Paris It was Nicolas de Lenfent’s coat"

I looked at her for a long e building in e until I have proof that it

Vaguely, I knew she had no notion yet how strong our passions could be, how they could paralyze us I think Icame out

"I don’t think they’ve killed hiain I tried to speak I wanted to ask, Why do you say that, but I couldn’t I was staring forward into the orchard

"I think he is alive," she said "And that he is their prisoner Otherwise they would have left his body there and never bothered with that stable boy"