Page 13 (1/2)

“Often,” said the vampire “I wish so and clear dreahtmares I never had either In my early days, these drea as I could and lay soht was half gone; and dazed by the They were in many ways as elusive as the dreams of mortals I dreamed of my brother, for instance, that he was nearto me for help And often I dreareat wasteland backdrop to ht I’d seen when cursed by Babette as I’ve told you It was as if all figures walked and talked on the desolate home of my damned soul I don’t remember what I dreamed that day, perhaps because I re evening I see you’re anxious for that, too

“Well, as I’ve said, Lestat a I didn’t wake to find him the same way, not at first There omen in the parlor The candles were a few, scattered on the small table and the carved buffet, and Lestat had his ar her She was very drunk and very beautiful, a great drugged doll of a wo slowly down on her bare shoulders and over her partially bared breasts The other wolass of wine I could see that the three of the to dine… you would be surprised how people do not notice that a va to eat), and the woitation I did not knohat Lestat was up to If I went into the room, the woman would turn her attentions to ine, except that Lestat meant for us to kill the about his kisses, his coldness, his lack of desire for her And the woman at the table watched with black almond eyes that seemed to be filled with satisfaction; when Lestat rose and cahtened Bending now to kiss her, he saw h the crack in the door And his eyes just stared atwith the ladies He bent down and blew out the candles on the table ‘It’s too dark in here,’ said the woman on the couch ‘Leave us alone,’ said the other woman Lestat sat down and beckoned her to sit in his lap And she did, putting her left ar back his yellow hair ‘Your skin’s icy,’ she said, recoiling slightly ‘Not always,’ said Lestat; and then he buried his face in the flesh of her neck I atching all this with fascination Lestat was masterfully clever and utterly vicious, but I didn’t kno clever he was until he sank his teeth into her now, his thuht, so that he drank his fill without the other wo ‘Your friend has no head for wine,’ he s

aid slipping out of the chair and seating the unconscious woman there, her arms folded under her face on the table ‘She’s stupid,’ said the other wo out at the lights New Orleans was then a city of s, as you probably know And on such clear nights as this, the lah s of this new Spanish hotel; and the stars of those days hung low over such diht as they do at sea ‘I can warm that cold skin of yours better than she can’ She turned to Lestat, and Isome relief that he would now take care of her as well But he planned nothing so simple ‘Do you think so?’ he said to her He took her hand, and she said, ‘Why, you’re warm’”

“You mean the blood had warmed him,” said the boy

“Oh, yes,” said the va, a vampire is as war at the boy, he s… Lestat now held the woman’s hand in his and said that the other had warmed him His face, of course, was flushed; much altered He drew her close now, and she kissed hihter that he was a veritable furnace of passion

“ ‘Ah, but the price is high,’ he said to her, affecting sadness ‘Your pretty friend…’ He shrugged his shoulders ‘I exhausted her’ And he stood back as if inviting the woman to walk to the table And she did, a look of superiority on her small features She bent down to see her friend, but then lost interest — until, she saw soht the last drops of blood fro to see it in the darkness ‘Take down your hair,’ said Lestat softly And she dropped it, indifferent, and took down the last tresses, so that her hair fell blond and wavy down her back ‘Soft,’ he said, ‘so soft I picture you that way, lying on a bed of satin’

“ ‘Such things you say!’ she scoffed and turned her back on him playfully

“ ‘Do you knohat hed and said his bed, she could iine She looked back at hiently tipped the body of her friend, so that it fell backwards fro eyes upon the floor The woasped She scra a small end table The candle went over and went out ’ “Put out the light… and then put out the light,” ’ Lestat said softly And then he took her into his ar moth and sank his teeth into her”

“But ere you thinking as you watched?” asked the boy “Did you want to stop hi Freniere?”

“No,” said the vampire “I could not have stopped him And you ht Aniave him no satisfaction whatsoever Animals were to be banked on when all else failed, but never to be chosen If I felt any sympathy for the women, it was buried deep in my own turmoil I still felt inchild; I still burned with the questions of ed this show for ain if I ht somehow break loose from him and felt both hatred and my oeakness more than ever

“Meantime, he propped their lovely corpses at the table and went about the roo ‘Coed an escort for you, but I knohat ayour own Pity Made lanterns It makes a party unwieldy, don’t you think? Especially for a hotel?’ He seated the blond-haired girl so that her head lay to one side against the damask back of the chair, and the darker wo just above her breasts; this one had blanched, and her features had a rigid look to theh she was one of those women in whom the fire of personality makes beauty But the other looked only as if she slept; and I was not sure that she was even dead Lestat had ashes, one in her throat and one above her left breast, and both still bled freely He lifted her wrist now, and slitting it with a knife, filled tine glasses and bade me to sit down

“ ‘I’ you,’ I said to him at once ‘I wish to tell you that now’

“ ‘I thought as ht as well that you would make a flowery announcear fiend’

“ ‘I ments upon you I’m not interested in you I am interested in my own nature now, and I’ve come to believe I can’t trust you to tell e for personal power,’ I told hi such an announce to ain the way it had been when he’d said ould talk He was listening to ulf between us as painfully as ever

“ ‘Why did you become a vampire?’ I blurted out ‘And why such a va huirl… why did you kill her when one would have done? And way did you frighten her so before you killed her? And why have you propped her here in soods to strike you down for your blasphemy?’