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"Sheer nonsense," he said "You and your ht or day because you were plainly afraid of the ancient ones aht like a ue va, the ones ouldn't respect the naive you a wide berth As for the daylight hours, you had no clue what you'd find -- what high-paid thugs ht have terminated you and buried you under the concrete basement floor It was a purely practical matter "

Stirling narrowed his eyes "Yes, we did have to be careful," he conceded "Nevertheless, there were times -- "

"Foolishness," said Lestat "In point of pure fact, my infamous sleep ended before your declaration of war on us was'very boldly' in the Caf¨¦ du Monde! How dare you use the word 'boldly'? You iht!"

"You feed on your fellow huotten that?"

I was frantic Only the s wasn't headed for certain death

"No, I never forget what I do," said Lestat equably "But surely you don't mean to take on the whole question of what I do now for-- far fro adventure and every passing year I've been to Heaven and to Hell; let me ask you to remember that "

Lestat paused as though he hi tried to answer but plainly could not Lestat pressed on in a measured voice:

"I've been in a human body and recovered this body you see before you I've been the consort of a creature whooddess And yes, I feed off s because it's my nature, and you know it, and you knohat care I take with every mortal morsel, that it be tainted and vicious and unfit for hu to ainst us was ill conceived "

"I agree with you; it was a foolish Declaration of Enmity It should never have been put forth "

"Declaration of Enmity, is that what you called it?" Lestat asked

"I think those are the official words," said Stirling "We've always been an authoritarian order In fact, we don't know much about de of a symbolic voice rather than a literal one Declaration of Enuided and naive thing "

"Ah, uided and naive," Lestat repeated "I like that And it ood, all of you in the Talamasca, to remember that you're a pretentious bunch of meddlers, and your Elders are no better than the rest of you "

Stirling see, mildly fascinated, but I couldn't relax I was too afraid of what ht happen at any moment

"I have a theory about the Declaration of En said

"Which is?" asked Lestat