Lestat felt lighter as he flew. No longer adrift. He knew what he had to do, and despite the acrid scent of dawn in the air, he would not rest until he had found Louis.
He didn’t really know where he was going until he touched down in front of their apartment. This was where everything had happened, the night before. This was where Louis had left him.
He stood in the doorway, and lifted his head. Carefully, he took stock of all the things his senses were telling him. So many to inventory...stale blood and piss, rich cologne, musty velvet, warm bodies, earth...
He found it, though. The particular sensory trace in the air that was Louis. He’d done this only rarely; tracked another vampire this way. Their scent, their emotion was so fleeting when left in the air. Not like humans, who spread themselves about liberally, practically leaving a neon trail after themselves.
Louis was so subtle, so subtle. He stepped cautiously onto the walk, trying to drown out the cacophony of sounds and trying to “hear” what the air was telling him. There was so much information traveling on the molecules of dust and air; he had to work very hard to find the things that he needed.
In the end, it was mostly instinct that led him in the right direction. After a few wrong turns and backtracking here and there, he finally found himself in an old district. Near the swamps, where the frogs called out and croaked in rhythm. He was here, certainly.
He noticed then the old tree. Beneath its gnarled branches was a freshly disturbed mound of earth. Something had been buried here.
In a frenzy, he began to shove the dirt out of the way. It caked thickly on his hands and under his glossy nails, but he didn’t care. Not one whit.
He scraped away the dirt until a pale, dirt encrusted face was exposed. A familiar face. But Louis’s eyes did not open, nor did he give any hint of knowing of Lestat’s arrival.
Lestat paused for only a moment, and then returned to his digging. He unearthed Louis’s entire body, but still the other vampire did not move. Did not even bat an eyelash.
Lestat was beginning to be annoyed, but he realized that there was no time for it anymore. If he wanted Louis to survive the coming day, he would have to get him someplace safe, and now.
The old house in the Garden District was nearby. David and Dana were both still there. But that didn’t bother him anymore.
He lifted Louis up onto his shoulder, filth falling down all around him. He didn’t even remember how he got back to the house, but somehow he did it, even just as a golden sliver of sun was appearing over the horizon.
He got them both into his old coffin, which was plenty spacious for two. Despite the conditions, he couldn’t help but relish the feeling of Louis, pressed close to him as he dropped from the land of the living.
***
When he awoke, it was to the still-delicious weight of Louis pressing against him. He opened one eye, then two as he noticed the pair of emerald-green ones staring at him. Like cat’s eyes. But also like cat’s eyes, they showed no hint of love or recognition, even.
“Get off of me,” Louis growled. The voice was more inhuman than Lestat had ever heard before, like two stones grating together heavily.
Refusing to be frightened by his weaker companion, Lestat nevertheless opened the coffin lid, though slowly, leisurely.
Louis made a point of getting off of him slowly. Angrily. His face was stony and accusing.
Lestat attempted to ignore it, leaping lightly from the coffin
and then turning to face Louis. “I’m a bit peckish. How
about you? Would you join me in the hunt for breakfast?” he
asked Louis, grinning just enough to show some fang.
Louis was having none of it. He snarled, communicating everything he had to in that wordless expression.
Lestat refused to be intimidated. But he did turn suddenly serious. “Quit fucking bitching, Louis. You should be thanking me. I dug you out of your own grave.”
“Why?!” Louis growled, anger and hurt shining through.
“Because, you hopeless wretch, I wanted you here with me! Not useless and lonely down in the earth!”
“I don’t even want me here.”
“Well, obviously.” Lestat cocked his head and gave Louis another grin, another opportunity to let the whole thing pass them by, and return to their semblance of normal.
Louis was tempted. He could forget the whole thing, toss out his meaningful revelations and epiphanies, and just pretend like none of it had ever happened. He pulled the sable hair out of his eyes, noting with disdain the clumps of dirt still stuck there. And he remembered. He remembered the filth.
He shook his head sadly. “You were wrong, Lestat. You should have left me.”
Lestat saw that the situation was not going to just go away. No, that would be too easy. It would be an anomaly in the rest of his life. Because he never learned anything the easy way. Hell, he had to die to figure out that he was an atheist.
“No, Louis, I couldn’t. Wouldn’t. Haven’t you figured it out by now? I always take what I want, and what I want is you. I don’t honestly care how you feel about it. Because Louis, I own you.”
Fire burned in Louis’s eyes as he stared up at Lestat through his lashes. “Own me?” he said in a deadly quiet little voice. Despite himself, Lestat felt threatened. Louis was like a Chihuahua with the bark of a Rottweiler.
He got up, and actually had the nerve to wrap his hand around Lestat’s throat. Lestat let him. He was half-way between being curious and being amused. Somewhere in the back of his head he realized that Louis was serious, that Louis hurt, and that he really should care more, but he. Just. Couldn’t.
He saw the anger, but he couldn’t feel it. It was like a plastic toy to him. Years of empathy and telepathy had made him cold and unreceptive to the structures of human emotion.
So he did something he shouldn’t have. He laughed. He laughed at Louis, and let himself be pinned against the wall, all the while making it utterly clear that he could break free with barely a thought.
Louis snarled and backed away. “Stay the fuck away from me, Lestat.” The profanity, falling from Louis’s normally polite lips was like a drop of cold water on Lestat’s face.
Louis turned and tried to jump from the balcony. It wouldn’t have harmed him, weak as he was, but Lestat grabbed him anyway. He wrapped his arms about Louis’s waist and pulled him back as if he were a misbehaving child. Louis was allowed no dignity, and he knew it. He didn’t even attempt to struggle, knowing its futility.
Lestat threw Louis on the bed, hard. The other vampire didn’t move from where he’d fallen, staring up at Lestat accusingly. This only served to piss Lestat off. “Quit playing the fucking victim, Louis. You and I both know that I’m not the only one at fault here.”
Louis’s eyes showed little change, but his body posture relaxed somewhat. “Don’t, Lestat. Please, don’t.”
“Don’t what, Louis? Tell the truth? Blame you for your mistakes? What?”
“Don’t make this into a logical thing. You know the way things are between us. You know that they will never change. All we have done and will ever do is fight and hurt each other.”
Lestat sneered at him. “So what? You thought you’d run? Hide away where I’d never find you, where no one would ever find you, and avoid dealing with any problems ever again? I thought you were smarter than that. I thought you knew better. I will always find you, Louis. I made you; you are my flesh and blood, my family. If you think you can escape me, you are sadly mistaken.”
Louis stayed silent, torn between love, anger, and fear. “I want to hurt you, Lestat. I’m going to hurt you, any way that I can,” he said, finally. It wasn’t in a vehement way, only cold and even. Clinical. He was merely stating the facts as they stood, irrelevant to himself.
“Yes,” Lestat agreed. Then they both fell silent. There didn’t seem to be much to say after that. Once more, Louis’s massive guilt-martyr complex reared its head and ripped them both apart. Lestat stared into Louis’s eyes and wished that he knew what the other vampire was thinking.
Wished. And then remembered. Dana and David had gone out earlier; they had gone hunting, and then David was later going to show Dana the town from a vampire’s perspective. But Dana had the key. The answer.
It had been incomplete the last time they’d spoken, and Lestat had asked him to work on it, see if he could find another way. But if this was all he had now, he’d do it. He needed it. And looking into Louis’s eyes, he didn’t think it could wait.
He reached out and silently called to Armand.
Part 8 coming soon!