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Aret it through his head to be afraid He had what he wanted now None of you my brothers and sisters!

Ar " That was during the hunt, the seduction, the kill, the flood of blood through his greedy heart But he had beco unnatural, hadn't he, after the cluuish of the first uilt to ecstasy within seconds Life by the

And thirty abonds in the ruins of a derelict school by the park where the kids lived in boarded-up roos and little cans of Sterno to cook the food they stole froht-Ashbury du and the ever increasing sense of the perfection and the inevitability of it, the preternatural memory of the taste faultless Hurry Yet there had been such an art to it with Arht before when time had been the crucial element

Ar it, waiting for "those anted to die"; that was the way he liked to do it; you called to them silently and they came out And the death had a serenity to it He'd tried to show that trick to Louis long ago, he'd said, but Louis had found it distasteful

And sure enough the denih the side door, as if hypnotized by the music of the Pied Piper "Yes, you ca them as they were led up the stairs and into a parlor e in the sweep of the passing headlights through the cracks in the plywood

Hot dirty little arms around Daniel's neck; reek of hashish in her hair; he could scarcely stand it, the dance, her hips against his into the flesh "You love me, you know you do," she'd said And he'd answered yes with a clear conscience Was it going to be this good forever? He'd clasped her chin with his hand, underneath, pushing her head back, and then, the death like a doubled fist going down his throat, to his gut, the heat spreading, flooding his loins and his brain

He'd let her drop Too h He'd clawed at the wall for ait must be flesh and blood, too, and were it flesh and blood it could be his Then such a shock to knoasn't hungry anyht waited, like soht, and the other one was dead, folded up like a baby in sleep on the gri

It was getting rid of the bodies after that had been hard Last night that had been done out of his sight, as he wept Beginner's luck This tione down together to bury them deep beneath the base the paving stones back in place Lots of work even with such strength So loathsome to touch the corpse like that Only for a second did it flicker in his s in a pit No ht? Was so suddenly He'd heard it, then reached up and touched the tears co out of his eyes

"What do you think this is?" Ar stones "A penny dreadful novel? You don't feed if you can't cover it up "

The building had been crawling with gentle hu as they'd stolen the clothes they noore, unifor, and left by a broken door into an alley Not my brothers and sisters anymore The woods have always been filled with these soft doe-eyed things, with hearts beating for the arrow, the bullet, the lance And now at last I reveal my secret identity: I have always been the huntsman

"Is it all right, the way I aht Street, seven thirty-five Bu on the corner Why didn't they just go on to the concert? Doors open already He couldn't bear the anticipation

But the coven house was near, Ar tumbledown mansion one block fro back in there plotting Lestat's ruin Aroing on

"Looking for someone?" Daniel had asked "Answer me, are you pleased with me or not?"

What had he seen in Armand's face? A sudden flare of hu the dirty stained pavements, past the bars, the cafes, the stores croith stinking old clothes, the fancy clubs with their gilded letters on the greasy plate glass and overhead fans stirring the fuilded wooden blades, while the potted ferns died a slow death in the heat and the semidarkness Past the first little children-"Trick or treat!"-in their taffeta and glitter costumes

Armand had stopped, at once surrounded by tiny upturned faces covered in store-bought ht had filled his brown eyes; with both hands he'd dropped shiny silver dollars in their little candy sacks, then taken Daniel by the arm and led him on