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“ ‘What can be iined can be done,’ she answered quickly, but her eyes reflected a certain contained hostility ‘Of course, we strive to rival men in kills of all kinds, do we not!’ She leaned forward and touched Claudia’s knee But Claudia h nervously and continue Santiago drew near, to bring up the subject of our roohtfully unsafe, he said, with an exaggerated stage gesture of the hands And he showed a knowledge of those roo He knew the chest in which we slept; it struck hiar ‘Come here!’ he said to me, with that near childlike simplicity he had evinced on the steps ‘Live with us and such disguise is unnecessary We have our guards And tellto his knees, his hand on the arain’

“I was vaguely horrified at the thought of having an accent to -willed and blatantly possessive, throwing back atin me more fully every moment And meanwhile, the va that black was the color for a vampire’s clothes, that Claudia’s lovely pastel dress was beautiful but tasteless ‘We blend with the night,’ she said ‘We have a funereal glea her cheek next to Claudia’s cheek, she laughed to soften her criticished, and the whole roohter, preternatural voices echoing against the painted walls, rippling the feeble candle flames ‘Ah, but to cover up such curls,’ said Celeste, now playing with Claudia’s golden hair And I realized what must have been obvious: that all of them had dyed their hair black, but for Ar with the black clothes, that added to the disturbing impression that ere statues from the same chisel and paint brush I cannot emphasize too much how disturbed I was by that i in rasp

“I foundaway fro theleamed like a jewel in their midst; so would thatto me that I found them dull in some aay: dull, dull everywhere that I looked, their sparkling vampire eyes repetitious, their wit like a dull, brass bell

“Only the knowledge I needed distracted hts ‘The vampires of eastern Europe…’

Claudia was saying ‘Monstrous creatures, what have they to do with us?’

“ ‘Revenants,’ Armand answered softly over the distance that separated the on faultless preternatural

ears to hear as more muted than a whisper The room fell silent ‘Their blood is different, vile They increase as we do but without skill or care In the old days-’ Abruptly he stopped I could see his face in the id

“ ‘Oh, but tell us about the old days,’ said Celeste, her voice shrill, at hu vicious in her tone

“And now Santiago took up the sa manner ‘Yes, tell us of the covens, and the herbs that would render us invisible’ He ss at the stake!’

“Armand fixed his eyes on Claudia ‘Beware those monsters,’ he said, and calculatedly his eyes passed over Santiago and then Celeste ‘Those revenants They will attack you as if you were human’

“Celeste shuddered, uttering soar cousins who bear the sa Claudia because it seeain as before She looked away from Armand suddenly

“The voices of the others rose again, affected party voices, as they conferred with one another on the night’s kills, describing this or that encounter without a s fro: a tall, thin va accosted in one corner for a needless ro of mortal life, a lack of spirit, a refusal to do theat the , sloords, and would fall for long periods into a stupefied silence, as if, near-choked with blood, he would as soon have gone to his coffin as remained here And yet he reroup who had made of immortality a conformist’s club Hoould Lestat have found it? Had he been here? What had caused him to leave? No one had dictated to Lestat he was master of his small circle; but how they would have praised his inventiveness, his catlike toying with his victims And waste… that word, that value which had been all-i vampire; was spoken of often You ‘wasted’ the opportunity to kill this child You ‘wasted’ the opportunity to frighten this poor woman or drive that itation would have accomplished

“My head was spinning A coet away froure of Ars He seeh and uttered a feords here and there so that he see from the lion’s paw of his chair And my heart expanded when I saw hiht his glance as I caught his glance, and no one held it from time to time as I held it Yet he re to arded it I longed to get away fro information at last that was useless and infinitely dull

“ ‘But is there no crist you, no cardinal crime?’ Claudia asked Her violet eyes seemed fixed on me, even in the mirror, as I stood with my back to her

“ ‘Crier at Arhed softly with her from his distant position at the end of the roos, so that Aresture of fear and falling