Disclaimer: This is a work of amateur fiction. The characters portrayed herein are the sole property of She Who Holds the Copyrights. I'm just playing with them for a giggle, not to get rich from.

~ Armand ~

Armand sat in the parlor of Marius' New Orleans home, his Master on the sofa next to him. The sun had been down less than an hour, and already she was launching into her fifth rendition of the Appassionatta. He rested his head on the back of the sofa, staring blankly into space as a silent prayer went up from him. Lord in Heaven, Fiend in Hell, I do not think I can take another moment of this...

At first he had found it charming, that she would only play the one song over and over again. Gradually, he had tried to turn her away from this habit, subtly leaving new pieces of sheet music on the piano before she awoke. These she merely ignored. At one point he had actually installed a lock on the horizontal door that covered the keys on the rare occasions when she wasn't playing. She broke it with ease and played on.

Rolling his head to the side, he glared at Marius. "Why, Master?" He asked plaintively. "I would have tired of them so quickly. As it is now, I fear I am on the verge of loosing my poor vampiric mind! Do you really hate me that much?" Marius merely sighed.

"Soon, caro mio, very soon it will be all over."

Armand briefly turned his eyes to the whirling dervish that was Benji. The boy was chattering away about something or another, as usual. Better to just block it out.

~ Marius ~

Yea Gods, will Louis and that octoroon witch of his hurry up and get here! Armand was miserable, and he, Marius, was to blame for it. But soon, all would be set right again. It was, without question, the worst error in judgement he had made in his more than two thousand years. This, he thought, made not killing Santino in Rome when he had the chance all those years ago, seem like nothing.

Gently, Marius took Armand's hand in his, kissing it softly. "Forgive me, caro. I acted in haste, but did so out of love. It seemed you truly loved them. How was I to know it was but a passing fancy?"

"Master, you know my heart is filled by you, Daniel and Louis, and by Lestat, to some extent. I have no room left there for these wretched creatures."

The girl played on, oblivious to anything but the music. He was sorely tempted to break each of her fingers one by one, if only for a moment's silence. To do so would have given him supreme pleasure. But she no doubt would try to play with her toes if he did. Then came the knock at the door. Thanking whatever gods may have been listening, he went to answer it.

~ Louis ~

Mon Dieu! Will you please shut up! Merrick was cooing away at him, as always, trying to say things that would make him forget about Lestat. How arrogant she was to think it would work. But, ah, look, Marius had rushed to answer the door. Good, the sooner this is done with, the better.

"Good evening, Louis," Marius' eyes shot to her as he mispronounced her name deliberately. "Merr-ick."

"It's Merrique, darling, Merr-eek." She said in her saccharine voice.

"Whatever."

~ Marius ~

Well, he could say one good thing about the witch - her arrival made Sybelle stop playing. For this miracle alone, he may have rethought his present course of action. But, no, the look of pure anguish on Louis' face told him this was the right thing to do. The witch stood there, loving being the center of the children's world for the moment. Typical. He glanced back at Armand and Louis, huddled together like a pair of refugees from some horrid emotional war they had too long been victims of. He gave them a slight nod, as if to say, everything would be ok. He then cleared his throat, and looked squarely at trio in front of him, lavishing their attentions on each other.

"I suppose you are wondering why we have all gotten together here tonight..." Dull looks on their faces. Hmm, not even curious. "Well, it's because..." He paused. Come on, Marius, you can think up some plausible reason. "Because I have some special gifts I would like to give to each of you. To, errm, welcome you to our immortal family." Yea Gods, that was the best I could come up with? But, much to Marius' amazement, they seemed to buy it - the children were all a-titter, even the witch seemed vaguely excited that he was finally going to accept her as one of their own. The downside, of course, was now Benji was chattering all the more, non-stop, to the point that it became unintelligible. No matter. "Come, I will show you where they are."

The two brats and the witch followed him out into the back yard, with Armand and Louis bringing up the rear. He led them to a large brick outbuilding that had at one time been a very spacious gardener's shed. Benji, the greedy little whelp that he was, pushed ahead of everyone, and turned round and round, his dark eyes scanning the room. He stood at the far corner of the room. "Hey, pops, I don't see nothin' in here but a buncha' nothin'."

"An astute observation." A wave of power emanated from Marius, and soon Benji's small frame was engulfed in flames.

"What the fu...!" Before the foul little creature could finish spitting out this curse, he was but a smoldering grease smudge upon the floor of the room. Sybelle shrieked in horror, and tried to run into Armand's arms, but he easily repelled her. Out went another shock wave from Marius, and soon she too was immolated. It was the witch who grew bold and tried to confront Marius.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?!? Louis, why are you allowing this?!?" Louis took a few steps forward, so that he stood next to Marius and in front of Merrick.

"For the love of Christ, woman!" Here, Louis crossed himself without realizing he had done it. "Could you really be that dense?" She stared at him wide-eyed and dumbfounded. Louis held out his hands, palm up, as if they were scales on a balance. "Let's see..." He looked at his right hand. "Here we have a lying, conniving BITCH whom I have known a few scant months, and who seduced me into making her into a vampire." He then looked at his left hand. "Here we have Lestat, a creature whom I have loved since the first night I laid eyes on him, one of only two for whom I would gladly lay down my immortal life to aid. To whom my heart, mind, body and soul have belonged for more than two centuries." With that, Louis lowered his right hand and made a fist of the left. "I joined him on the Devil's Road all those years ago. And I will continue on this left-hand path." Armand snickered at this.

"Heh. Left hand path! Good one, Louis!"

Merrick grew indignant at Louis' rebuffing. She was howling something about calling down the spirits to fight Marius, to protect her. A brief wind stirred through the room and quickly died down. Marius smirked.

"That was the best you could do, witch? Gads, I was hoping you might prove something of a challenge!" Once again, he sent his power out and burned her to a smoking cinder. He then turned his attentions to the dark duo, smiling as if nothing had ever happened. "I think a big bonfire would be nice tonight. I suggest we use that damnable piano for kindling!"

~Fin~