The Rise and Fall of a Coven
Book Four: A Jungle Nocturne
© Dark Angel
rueroyale@yahoo.com
Spoilers: VampChron through MtD
11 novembre 1999
Status: Complete
Characters: Daniel & Louis
Disclaimer: This work is an AMATEUR effort and is in no way expected to make any money. If it does, My Dear Lawyers, I assure you, I will die of shock long before you can possibly sue me. This spec is not intended to infringe upon the rights of the autnor of the Vampire Chronicles, Stan Rice, Mojo Rice, Knopf Publishing, Random House, Geffen Pictures, Lord Byron, The Coleman Company, Anancondas and their mothers who love them, William Shakespeare, nor you, dear readers.
Dedication: Dedicated to my Beloved, FoL and also to Vishna, Margaret Foster, Kerklin, Tabi-Chan, Lyn, ~furie~ and Kabuki, for their interest, kindness and support.
Chapter One
Lestat sat beneath the leafy canopy of the Amazon and listened to Haydn. It excited these strangely colored birds of the rain forest just as much as it had Claudia's parakeets. He reached over to the portable CD player and turned up the volume. The birds went wild. Lestat laughed and laughed.Louis walked through the deluge to a ledge beneath the waterfall and sat there. The roar of the water was almost deafening, but at least it drowned out Lestat's incessant Haydn CDs. He said it reminded him of Claudia. Louis had read the manuscript of his latest book when they had first arrived in the jungles. Apparently Lestat had had visions of their daughter. Louis was a bit disappointed. Why did she appear to everyone but him? Of course, both Lestat and Jessica swore that it wasn't real, yet they described each encounter with such detail and clarity. Louis wondered if they were lying for his benefit. He supposed that she might purposefully stay away from him, to punish him. She hadn't wanted to stay in Paris. "Louis, I am in danger!' she'd said. But he didn't listen. Louis laid down on the smooth cool rock and re-lived those last moments, as he had so many times. 'I hope that when you have need of me you can find me,' she'd said. 'That I can get back to you . . .I've hurt you so often. I've caused you so much pain.' her last words, almost as if she knew. But she couldn't have. 'I hope that when you have need of me you can find me . . .' 'I hope that when you have need of me you can find me . . .' 'I hope that when you have need of me you can find me . . .'
David saw the giant anaconda slither through the branches of a tall tree. It was twenty metres if it was an inch! This was the largest beast he'd ever encountered.
The anaconda's head came up and it opened it's jaws. Fangs like daggers it had, but they were benign, that is to say, not filled with poison. The anaconda's habit was strangulation of it's victim within it's endless muscled coils. David climbed the tree after the snake. This would be a true challenge. The old adrenaline rush he used to feel when stalking a big cat flushed through him, enlivening every nerve. The creature felt the vibration on the tree. David saw it's huge head turn towards him. He made the first move, leaping at the reptile and grabbing it's jaws in his hands. The tail instantly whipped around him, five, six, seven, eight times. It held him tightly and began to squeeze. Of course, it's strength was inhuman, but David knew that his own strength was far beyond human as well. He threw the head as hard as he could away from him and grabbed the first coil, pulling it away from his body and over his head. The bottom coils grew tighter. David began to feel the pressure on his ribcage. He pulled the second coil loose. The anaconda thrashed it's tail and brought them both to the ground with a tremendous thump. The coils went slack for a split second and David kicked his way free. The snake gathered itself together and poised to strike. David ran at it with blinding speed and punched it with all of his might right between the eyes. The snakes's head fell to the ground, dazed or dead. David grabbed the inert snake and with some effort tied it in a large intricate knot. He thought idly of sending it express post to Talbot Manor. He could hang it in the study, between the serval and the lion, perhaps. But no, there could be no explanation for it, and the poor servant who opened the package would probably have a heart attack besides.
David checked the anaconda for signs of life. Nothing to be found. Ah, well, it had been an extremely satisfying fight and kill, anyway. He almost walked off, in search of more adventure when a though occurred to him. He checked the snake once more, definitely dead. He shouldered the pretzeled reptile and took to the air. He dropped it in the middle of a nearby village. They could do as they wished with it. Eat it, if it was edible, or at least make legends out of it if it was not.
Lestat shut off the CD player as David came through the trees. "The mighty hunter returns!"
David chuckled as he leaned down to kiss Lestat. "Where is Louis?"
"Off," Lestat waved a hand at the jungle. "Who knows."
"Did the two of you fight?" David settled beside Lestat, in front of the Coleman stove.
"No, in fact, we didn't even talk. He walked right past me without saying a word."
"I think the Haydn bothers him, Lestat."
"Don't be ridiculous, David, Louis has always liked Haydn."
"I think since you have been talking of Claudia, it has taken on a sad dimension for him."
"Oh David, Louis adds a sad dimension to everything," Lestat sighed dramatically.
"Lestat, why have you been playing the Haydn so much?"
Lestat looked away. "I suppose we should go and find Louis."
"Lestat?"
Lestat rose into the air without answering David.
Louis didn't hear Lestat approach him through the waterfall. He felt a kiss on his forehead and opened his eyes. "Lestat," he smiled.
"Louis, what are you doing off all by yourself this way? We missed you," Lestat scolded.
Louis sat up and put his arms around Lestat, resting his head on Lestat's shoulder.
"Louis what is it? What's wrong, cheri?" Lestat gently pulled him back to gaze into his dark and soulful green eyes.
Louis smiled again and shook his head. "Nothing. It's nothing, 'Stat. Just weary, I suppose."
"Then you should come back home, David is waiting for us."
Louis nodded. Lestat took hold of him and flew through the waterfall, toward home.
Home was in the deepest chambers of a subterranean cave, well hidden from the sun. It was well stocked with all of the supplies David had ordered. There were two pallets and a double hammock for sleeping. Lanterns, candles and a camp stove for heat and light. Piles of books, which seemed to be ubiquitous with these three, cameras, CDs, cell phones and al sorts of other necessities were housed in the cave. In three separate piles were their extra clothes, all made of sturdy canvass and all in various shades of green. The first night, as the three vampires sat around the camp stove, making plans for the next night, David had looked them over and exclaimed in mock horror, "Good God, it looks like a Girl Guides meeting!"
"Interesting alliteration, David," Lestat had laughed.
"What are Girl Guides?" Louis had asked.
"British Girl Scouts, cher," Lestat told him.
"Actually Girl Scouts are American Girl Guides," David commented. Louis hadn't thought it necessary to communicate the fact that , aside from a vague cookie connection, he was unsure of what a Girl Scout was as well.
Tonight, David was busy recording his latest kill in minute and graphic detail. "Ah, hello chaps!"
"Hello David," Louis knelt and kissed David's cheeks. "What daring feat did you accomplish tonight?"
"The Giant Anaconda!" David declared.
"A reptile?" Louis asked with obvious distaste.
"Yes, of course, why not?" David looked puzzled.
"Well, David, reptiles can be . . .unpleasant," Louis knelt down, close to the fire of the stove.
"I don't follow you," David shook his head.
"He means the act of drinking, the experience, the reptilian images flooding one's mind. Didn't you find it disgusting?" Lestat asked, settling down beside David.
"No, actually I found it to be very interesting, quite invigorating in a way, the simplification of the thoughts to only hunt and kill, eat and mate, sleep and wake, clears the mind tremendously," David answered.
Louis and Lestat looked at each other in disbelief.
David laughed, "I take it your experiences weren't as enjoyable."
"That would be an understatement," Lestat answered him.
Louis popped the Haydn CD out of the player and returned it to it's case. "Lestat, tell me again about the visions," He asked softly.
"Non, Louis," Lestat said. "No more. I should never have told you about them the first time. They were only wild imaginings, I've told you. They mean nothing."
"But how can you be certain of that? Supernatural contact is possible! David, you have experienced it, have you not?" Louis implored.
"Louis," David answered. "I have had contact with spirits, yes. The Talamasca has files and files of encounters between living persons and the dead. But that doesn't mean that Lestat's experience is any more valid than the vision you had of Claudia in the Cathedral, when she was still alive, don't you see that?"
Louis had no heart to argue the point with them. They thought of him as some sad creature grasping at straws in his grief. They wouldn't look at the facts. If it was only a dream, why was Lestat suddenly obsessed with Haydn? Why would Jesse, who was no stranger to unusual phenomena, have seen the little girl? She wasn't an hysteric. Whose voice had Jesse heard on the phone at the townhouse? Why would no one discuss it with him? Louis said nothing, but went to his pile of books and opened a copy of Byron's poems.
They chain'd us each to a column stone,
And we were three - yet each alone,
We could not move a single pace,
We could not see each other's face,
But with that pale and livid light
That made us strangers in our sight.
Louis closed his eyes and slept.
Chapter Two
Lestat awoke to a calm, still, night. He looked over at his sleeping fledglings. David looked like a long distance runner who'd just collapsed at the finish line. He had become a sloppy sleeper during their time in the jungle, throwing himself down in whatever position was comfortable. Lestat wondered how he'd ever be able to fit himself into the coffin back at the town house, which David had insisted upon having. Louis was lying completely flat with his hands folded over his stomach, exactly the way corpses are laid out in these times. This meant he hadn't fallen asleep before the sun came. He'd composed himself and waited for the death sleep to take him. When Louis fell into a mortal sleep, he tended to curl himself into a ball and snuggle close to whomever was nearest. Lestat bestowed kisses on the mouths of his children and left them a note, ripping a page from the journal David had bought for him.
Hunting - then see you at temple ruins
Lestat
Hours later, Louis arrived at the temple ruin. There was no Haydn playing tonight, and that made him very happy. Lestat was inside, digging through a mound that was roughly in the center of the temple. They had found many unusual artifacts there the first week, when they went to the ruin every night; oddly shaped stones, carved wooden figures of naked men and women, knives and even bones. As Lestat walked out into the moonlight, Louis jumped from the temple roof and landed soundlessly behind Lestat.
"Aaah!" Lestat turned, startled. "Louis! Don't DO that!"
"I'm sorry, Lestat, " Louis said, barely suppressing a smile.
"You are not, you little monster!" David laughed and swung himself down from a nearby tree. "He did the same thing to me earlier this evening."
"Oh he did, did he?" Lestat took Louis's arm with a sly grin.
"Lestat-" Louis began.
"He did." David confirmed, appearing beside Louis and taking his other arm.
"Now David-" Louis found himself walking backward between the two of them.
Lestat and David headed toward a small but fairly deep pool, run off of the waterfall. They giggled evilly to each other.
"Gentlemen, really!" Louis tried to dig his feet into the soft forest floor, but David and Lestat dragged him easily along. "Haven't you ever heard of a coincidence?"
"Have you ever heard of retribution?" David asked him.
"Wait! Wait, this is - this is -"
"Hold your breath Louis," Lestat's eyes positively twinkled.
"Stop it!"
David let go of Louis's arm and took hold of his ankles.
"Don't you dare! David!"
Lestat took Louis's wrists and they lifted him.
"Let go of me! DEMONS!"
"ONE," Lestat and David counted together as they swung Louis out over the water.
"DON'T!" Louis protested, trying to get free.
"TWO," They swung him back.
"You will PAY for this, BOTH of you!"
"THREEEEEEEE!" They gave a final swing and released their captive.
Louis landed in the center of the pool with an impressive splash.
Lestat and David cackled wickedly.
Louis swam to the shallow edge of the pool and walked out of the water, wiping his wet hair out of his eyes. "You enjoyed that, both of you," he accused.
"Well, of course we did, dear boy!" David slapped his back as he passed them.
Louis turned unexpectedly and caught David in a bear hug, effectively soaking the front of the Englishman's clothing. "And I enjoyed that," Louis released him with a grin.
"Ugh," David wiped at his damp clothing. "I'll be all clammy in my sleep now."
"Oh, my sympathies, " Louis patted David's hand. David lightly slapped Louis's hand away.
"Don't I get a hug too?" Lestat pouted.
"No, you'd enjoy it too much," Louis told him.
"Stubborn Creole," Lestat muttered.
Louis pulled his wet shirt off and threw it at Lestat.
"Hey!" Lestat caught one of the belt loops on Louis's shorts and pulled him back.
"What?" Louis asked innocently.
Lestat kissed him, "Why don't we slip you out of those wet things and into my dry bed?"
"Lestat!" Louis laughed, embarrassed.
They walked through the narrow opening of their cave and walk the sloping path for a mile or more when the passage suddenly opened. It was a natural formation which had been widened considerably by some ancient tribe who had chipped away at the walls, forming a large circular room. This was where the vampires had made their lair for the last six weeks.
Louis picked up his backpack and retreated to the darkest corner of the cave. He took a towel from the pack and rubbed his hair dry. Then he turned his back to the room and pulled off his wet boots, peeling off the soaked socks along with them. Finally he scooted out of his shorts, and toweled off the rest of his skin. He donned another outfit, identical but dry, and searched for a comb with which to untangle his hair.
Lestat and David were sitting in the hammock, reading . . .and sometimes kissing.
Louis could feel the dawn approaching. He laid his wet clothing on a high grill over the stove to dry, and slid into his sleeping bag. He felt a hard object inside and brought it out. It was the book of Byron he'd been reading the night before, he opened to the same poem.
And thus together, yet apart, Louis replaced his bookmark and put down the book.
Fetter'd in hand but join'd in heart,
'Twas still some solace in the dearth
Of the pure elements of earth,
"Sleep well, Louis," David called.
"Good day David, Lestat," Louis replied thickly.
"Is it that early already?" Lestat asked.
"Mmmhmm," David nodded.
"Oh," Lestat said, disappointedly. He peeked over the side at Louis who had already closed his eyes. "If I'd realized that we had so little time, I wouldn't have started reading."
"I won't tell you what you missed." David said, turning a page.
"What?"
David grinned, his eyes still on his book.
"David!" Lestat looked back at Louis, he noticed Louis's clothes drying on the grill. "Oh my God, he stripped, didn't he!"
David remained silent, pretending to read.
"Damn! He stripped and I missed it!" Lestat threw his book to the ground.
David chuckled, "His back was to us, anyway."
Lestat sighed, "I don't know why he retains such prudishness with two men he's made love with."
"Probably because it annoys you," David commented.
"Probably so!" Lestat agreed. "Doesn't it annoy you?"
"I am not quite the letch you are Lestat, I find it endearing."
"Oh you would!" Lestat said disgustedly.
"You'll never change him, you know." David closed his book and looked at Lestat.
"Well that is the challenge, isn't it?" Lestat grinned.
"You'd hate it if you succeeded, you know."
Lestat simply looked at him. After a long pause he said softly, "Sometimes, I think maybe I have."
Chapter Three
David moved deeper into the ancient structure. It was a new discovery, and he fully intended to disclose it's location to Lestat and Louis at the first opportunity, but his curiosity was too great. He wanted to explore it now, without waiting for them. Who knew what they were doing tonight, anyroad. Lestat had already left by the time he'd risen and Louis was still asleep.
A depression in the wall to his right caught his attention. He pushed at it and felt the wall move. He heard the sound of rushing water somewhere near. The wall slowly began to slide back, revealing an ingenious system of weights and pulleys controlled by the filling and emptying of containers, which acted as the weights, by cleverly drawing water from the river. David walked through the space to a raised platform, upon which were jewels, bones, and petrified objects, probably food offerings. He moved closer to investigate. He still heard running water and various splashing and emptying sounds behind him. He took a petrified object from the platform to identify what it had been. Before he could do so, an eight foot wall of solid stone, weighing more than nine hundred pounds, was released from above and knocked him unconscious, pinning him flat to the stone floor of the temple.
Louis discovered him almost forty minutes later. He had been wandering through the jungle, watching the stars and enjoying the night when he'd heard the unusual sound of stone hitting stone. He had known it was far too loud to be a natural jungle noise, so he had decided to investigate.
"David! Mon Dieu!!" Louis rushed to his fallen brother and tried to lift the stone off of him. It was too heavy for him, and the bottom was slick with David's blood. Louis threw his entire weight and strength behind one fine blow to the middle of the stone. It opened the skin over his knuckles, but it also cracked the stone down the middle and created several other fissures. With this, Louis could lift the stone, piece by piece off of David and pull him free.
Louis carried David out of the ruined structure at his top speed, certain that there must be more than one ancient booby trap still operational in there. He stopped when he was well away from the stone temple and laid David on the ground. Louis automatically reached for his cell phone and flipped it on.
"LESTAT!!"
"Louis, don't shout, I'm -"
"LISTEN! David's hurt! He's unconscious and bleeding! We're . . .uh," Louis looked around, but saw no familiar landmarks. "Oh God, I don't KNOW where, but you must come immediately!"
"Louis, just keep talking, I'll find you."
Lestat's end of the connection clicked off. Louis sat and pulled David into his lap. "Davide, cher, can you hear me?" David gave no response. Louis bit his wrist and held it to David's mouth. "Drink, cheri."
As the blood flowed down his throat David's eyelids fluttered and he moaned. He felt a tremendous pain from his stomach and back. He sucked at the bloodsource as hard as he could and it eased the pain. From somewhere far away he heard Louis's voice.
"Bien, Davide, keep drinking. Lestat will be here soon. You'll be fine, darling. David, David, what have you done?"
David felt soft kisses on his forehead and cheeks, Louis's kisses. Then the blood was gone. His mouth was empty for a few seconds, only to be flooded by an electric liquid, overwhelming and powerful.
"What the hell happened?!" Lestat demanded.
"I'm not exactly sure, but a giant stone, like a wall, fell on him. He was in a strange temple, one I'd never seen before."
"Good God."
"I think he's coming around now."
David blinked and groaned.
"Hush, David, we're here, my love." Lestat stroked David's forehead. "You'll be fine, just relax. Wait for the blood to heal you."
Louis lifted David's blood soaked shirt and watched as the mangled and bruised skin came together and regained it's shape. "It's working," He sighed with relief. He only then realized that his own heart was beating faster than it ever had, and he was breathing heavily. He looked to Lestat and was surprised to see his golden maker profusely sweating blood.
David looked around and tried to get his bearings. "What happened?"
"You tripped some sort of anti-theft device, Dr. Jones," Lestat told him. "Louis said a rock slab fell on you."
"Good Lord." David breathed and closed his eyes again.
"David?" Louis asked.
"Yes," David answered.
"We should really get you back to the cave, do you feel up to being moved?"
"I think so . . . it's extraordinary, I can actually feel my bones knitting!"
"Bien," Lestat said. His manner was short, his voice was serious, he turned to Louis, "Tu as alimenté?" (Have you fed?)
"Oui."
"Allez!" (Come!)
Lestat lifted David in his arms and began moving, at Louis's fastest pace, so as not to jar David, towards the cave. Within minutes they arrived and got David settled comfortably on the floor. They gathered the sleeping bags, pillows and extra clothing into a soft nest and laid David in it.
"Are you warm, enough?" Louis asked, tucking a blanket around his brother.
"Yes, quite warm, thank you. Incredibly, I really feel fine now, a bit stupid, but absolutely sound."
"You must rest." Lestat said, wiping the sweat from his face with a towel. Then suddenly he threw a heavy book at Louis, who caught it with characteristic grace.
"Louis and I will entertain you!" The worried impatience was gone from his voice and his manner, the brat was back. Lestat did a pirouette and gave a deep bow.
David laughed, though it did hurt to do so.
Louis shook his head with a small smile and opened the book. "Oh, I don't need this, I know this one," there was a private joke in his tone, David wondered what it was. He soon found out.
"Very well then," Lestat hunched his back, and screeched "When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightening or in rain?"
"When the hurly-burly's done, when the battle's lost and won." Louis answered in a surprisingly similar voice.
"That will be ere the set of sun." Lestat took Louis hand and pulled him over to kneel beside him, in front of David, as if they were on a stage. "Where the place?"
"Upon the heath."
"There to meet with MacBeth."
They performed the entire play as David drifted in and out of sleep. Hearing only bits and pieces.
~~~~~~~
Louis's voice: "The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements."
~~~~~~~
Lestat's voice: "Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand?"
~~~~~~~
Louis and Lestat: "Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble!"
~~~~~~~
Louis's voice: "The Queen, my lord, is dead."
Lestat's voice: "She should have died hereafter; here would have been a time for such a word. To-morrow, and to-morrow and to-morrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow. A poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing."
~~~~~~~
Louis's voice: "Turn, Hell-hound, turn!"
Lestat's voice: "Of all men else I have avoided thee. But get thee back, my soul is too much charg'd with blood of thine already.
~~~~~~~
Finishing the first, they went on to Henry V.
Louis's voice: "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition; and gentlemen in England now a-bed, shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here; and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon St. Crispin's day!"
~~~~~~~
Louis's voice: "Êcoutez: comment êtes-vous appelé?"
Lestat's voice: "Monsier le Fer."
Louis's voice: "He says his name is Master Fer."
Lestat's voice, but deeper and scratchier: "Master Fer! I'll fer him and firk him, and ferret him. Discuss the same in French unto him."
Louis's voice: "I do not know the French for fer and ferret and firk."
~~~~~~~
The last David remembered before he slept was a bit of poetry, read by Louis.
To hearken to each other's speech,
And each turn comforter to each
With some new hope or legend old,
Or song heroically bold;
But even these at length grew cold.
Chapter Four
The next night, David awoke, fit and well, with no lasting effects from his injuries.
"Lestat, look at this!" David said, lifting his shirt. "It is as if nothing ever happened!"
"But of course, David," Lestat smiled, kissing his fledgling. "You have MY blood. What did you expect?"
"I'm not certain. I knew of your ability to heal, of course, but it is just fantastic to experience it myself. I mean, when Louis was burned, he was in pain for several nights."
"Ah, yes, well, when I made Louis, I had only had one drink of . . ." Akasha's blood, He was thinking, but he couldn't bring himself to say her name. It was still difficult. It wasn't the same grief as he felt for Claudia. It was something different. Perhaps it was because he'd seen her die. Perhaps it was because his feeling had been deepened and sharpened with her ancient blood, so that when he saw her die, the grief was unlike anything he had ever before felt. Perhaps it was because they had been lovers.
"Lestat?" Louis had returned from hunting and entered the cave to see Lestat sitting across from David with the saddest expression on his face. "Lestat, what is the matter?"
Lestat looked up. "Oh, Louis, it's you. Nothing," he smiled, "nothing at all, mon ami. David and I were just discussing his miraculous recovery."
"I see. It can be disorienting." Louis said to David.
"Yes. I must thank you both for my life." David hugged Louis, "Louis , my rescuer." Then he hugged Lestat, "and Lestat, my healer."
"No thanks necessary David," Louis answered, returning the hug. "You know, really you only have us to thank for your comfort, it is very doubtful that you would have died."
"Surely if you hadn't located me and the sun rose, I should have died, don't you think?" David asked.
"I didn't," Lestat answered.
"Precisely," Louis continued, "and it seems that you have very near the strength of Lestat, you may have the same invulnerability."
"It isn't necessarily invulnerability," David said. "It is possible that, had he remained long enough, the sun would have destroyed him. We are simply uncertain how many days it might take."
"Well this is a morbid conversation!" Lestat announced.
Louis put his arm around Lestat. "Je désolé, mon couer."
"That's better." Lestat snuggled close to Louis, pulling David into his lap as he did so.
"I am anxious to explore the boundaries of my powers, though." David said, tilting his head back to see his maker.
"That can be a dangerous and painful pursuit, my darling one." Lestat said, noncommittally.
"Yes, David, the only way to find out how far one can go is to go one step too far. You don't want to risk your life so soon, do you?" Louis worried.
"It isn't that I want to risk my life, Louis, definitely not. But I do wish to use these new powers to their full extent." David explained. "What can I learn by being cautious?"
"Yes, Louis, what can one learn by being cautious, hmm?" Lestat reached back and tickled Louis's side.
"Quite a lot," Louis answered, capturing Lestat's hand. "I feel that I have learned very much by being cautious."
"That is a vague answer," Lestat reached up and ran his fingers through Louis's hair. "Tell us one thing, Louis, one specific thing that you have learned."
Louis was quiet for a moment. Finally very quietly he said, "I have learned that to be peaceful is to be underestimated and misunderstood, but to be passionate is to be in pain."
"Not true," Lestat said. "I am passionate, but not in pain."
"Aren't you?" Louis asked. "Then what drives you to do the things you do; lie in the sun, take a human body, take David?"
"Thirst for adventure," Lestat said with a laugh.
"Before Lestat did have his experience with Raglan James, he thought that what he wanted was to be human, in taking the chance offered to him, he found that he did not want to be human," David stated.
"He could have found out the same by taking the time to truly observe mortals, rather than romanticizing them," Louis said.
"Or by listening to someone who had, eh Louis?" David pointed to the manuscript of Lestat's latest book, THE TALE OF THE BODY THIEF, which both he and Louis had read.
"I will say that would have been a simpler, faster and less unpleasant way of learning that lesson, yes." Louis kissed the top of Lestat's golden head.
Lestat pouted. "David, I thought you were on my side."
"I didn't know we were taking sides, Lestat," David said. He turned in Lestat's lap and kissed his mouth. "We are having a discussion."
"Then let us discuss your behavior instead of mine." Lestat said.
"The Vampire Lestat wishes to discuss a subject other than himself, will wonders never cease?" Louis teased.
Lestat tugged Louis's hair. "Enough of that, you."
"So Louis, do think that one cannot be both peaceful and passionate?" David asked.
"I don't know. That is a question I am still pursuing. What do you think?"
"You are both, Beautiful One," Lestat said.
"Agreed," David added.
Louis blushed silently.
"Tomorrow night I am going back to Rio to hunt," Lestat said, changing the subject.
"Oh? I was thinking of finding Maharet and Mekare, to see the records of the Great Family." David stood up and stretched. Sitting back down in front of Lestat.
"How will you find them?" Louis asked. "Maharet has Mekare hidden somewhere, no one knows where they are."
"Well, I suppose I shall send out a call and see if I am answered," David said.
"And if you are not?" Louis lifted his eyebrows.
"Then I will go to Rangoon and see if I can find them or some clue to where they are."
"I think I shall go home," Louis said. "I want to be there when the book comes out, in case Anne needs anything. It is coming out soon, isn't it Lestat?"
"Yes, I sent in the manuscript as soon as I finished it. I imagine that Knopf and Anne have already hammered out the cover art and such by now. I don't know if they'll ask her to tour with this one or not."
"Hard to say, they sometimes make curious decisions about promotion. I should call Daniel and see if the financial end is working smoothly." Louis said, as much to himself as anyone.
"Well, chaps," David said, "it looks as if we are saying goodbye."
"It does, doesn't it." Louis said. He was surprised that he was even considering leaving Lestat, but then, he was needed in New Orleans, and going back to Rio wasn't particularly appealing.
"It is merely au revoir, David. We cannot live in each other's pockets forever." Lestat stated, his mind already on Rio.
"I suppose I thought it would end with more of a bang, than a whimper," David said.
"It isn't a whimper, David, " Louis smiled at his brother fondly. "We have come to an amicable separating point. Our interests are diverging. It is time to let go. It is best for now."
"We'll be together again." Lestat said, kissing Louis as the sleepy vampire looked toward his pallet.
David smiled back, "Yes. Yes, we will, all of us."
And they all settled in for their last day together.
The next night Lestat waited just long enough for Louis and David to wake before leaving.
They stood together in the jungle, giving final hugs and kisses.
"Bonsoir then, my luscious children!" Lestat gave them each a squeeze and then rose up and out of sight.
Louis and David looked after him a long time, staring into the stars, and wondering what sort of trouble he would get into next. Finally, they returned to the cave.
As they were gathering their belongings David turned to Louis. "How will you get back, dear boy?"
"I'll find a way, David. I have traveled before."
"Would you like me to give you a lift?"
"I would appreciate that, yes. Just to the airport, I can make my own way from there."
"Very well then." David began to pack up the Coleman stove and lanterns.
"Where are you taking those?" Louis asked.
David stopped what he was doing and looked at the bulky objects. "I suppose I thought to take them with us."
"Why?"
David thought about that a moment. "We don't need them, do we?"
"No, don't bother with them. It isn't as if they are evidence of the kills."
"Vampire refuse," David said with a little laugh.
"Yes, you want to leave something for your old order, don't you?" Louis laughed as well.
"So, just taking the journals?"
"Perhaps a few of the CDs . . . I should keep one of the cell phones." Louis went about the cave, picking up items and deciding, putting those he wanted to keep into his backpack.
David did the same and soon they were ready to leave.
A book fell out of Louis's backpack, opened to the page he'd last been reading.
Our voices took a weary tone,
An echo of the dungeon stone,
A grating sound - not full and free
As they of yore were wont to be:
It might be fancy, but to me
They never sounded like our own.
Louis looked at the book, deciding whether or not to take it. Finally he turned to the inside front cover, and under the words "The Prisoner of Chillon part III by George Gordon, Lord Byron" he wrote, Detritus of a Coven, and then tossed the book to the ground and left the cave to join David and begin his journey home.
Fin The End