A little story I wrote in June, 2000, about a dream Lestat had just after he spied Louis in New Orleans...1791.
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Some little time after I had begun following Louis, I had a dream. I dream during my deathsleep all the time. Some of the dreams are fragmented and odd, others amazingly clear and vivid.

I dreamed that I was in a small, crude boat, floating on the still surface of a crystalline lake. Near to my birthplace, this lake , for I recognized the shoreline...the smell of the air. There were several things strange about this. The first is that Louis is in the boat with me. Louis, who as far as I know, had never been to Auverge. Louis, whom I had not yet *met*, so to speak. Another is that I am the Vampire Lestat, not mortal, and I am sitting in this boat in the midst of a brilliant autumn *day*, the sun low in the sky, but still *in* the sky.

I am watching, delighted, the sun-dazzle on the water, when Louis takes my hand and says 'So, you see, cheri? All is not lost to you. You still have a life. And see...the sun , dancing there on the waves."

I don't understand what he means, this mortal with whom I am so taken. I tear my eyes from the sunlight and, temporarily blinded, I look to where I hear Louis' voice issue. I feel his hand squeezong mine and I headr his voice. The dazzle leaves my eyes and I focus in upon him. Louis. Mon Dieu, I think, is he not beautiful? The face of a carved angel. He takes the oars in his tanned hands and begins pulling the boat toward the further shore, away from the crumbling castle which had been my home.

I smile at him.

"Ah, non, mon cher, " I say, "The chateau is *that* way."

I gesture. Louis continues pulling toward the further shore, which seemed to be much further off than I recollected. The light around us haas changed, the water of the lake is now like shimmering, molten gold.

Louis smiles at me, his green eyes dancing.

"You are mistaken, my lord, " He says, chuckling, "*That* was your old life. We have a new life to build, you and I, and I will take from you all that has brought you pain."

Staring at him, I am strangely unable to speak. He continues rowing and we watch the sun sinking slowly into the west...the direction in which we are headed. When the sky has turned to a deep violet with the first stars showing, I see that we are no longer in France. As is the way of dreams, we are now on Lake Ponchartrain. I should have known this right away, by the arch of the sky and the scent in the air. I was, in the dream, looking at Louis... lost in the green of his eyes.

The scene shifts seamlessly and we are in an elegantly furnished flat. It seems familiar...as though it *will* be familiar. I look about, curiously, loving the beautiful things I see around me. I can smell that Louis is nearby. It is warm in the room, extremely warm. I slip my coat off...it is deep blue velvet. I drop it carelessly on the divan. I can hear rustling and movement in the other room.

"Lestat?"

I hear Louis' voice.

"I've been waiting for you, my darling one. Where have you been?

Following the voice, I enter the bedroom, also gorgeously furnished. In the corner there stands a huge bed, swathed in mosquito netting, and behind it I can see Louis. guazy and indistinct. He is sitting in the bed, naked, his skin glowing and beautiful. His green eyes are luminous as he reaches a hand to me. I toe off my boots, one and then another, my eyes never leaving his. I release the lace cravat at my throat aand undo my shirt. Parting the netting, I kneel at the foot of the bed. I hear a single sigh escape Louis' full, sweet lips and he smiles as he feels my weight shift the bed.

Part 2

In this dream, I can feel with exquisite clarity and slowness, Louis' hands on me, one around my waist drawing me down upon him, the other, tangling with a sort of painful familiarity into my hair. His hand leaves my waist and tugs my loosened shirt over one of my shoulders. I can smell him. I can smell his salty mortal blood. I can smell the male tang of him, the sweat that bathes his beautiful, long body. In this dream I say all the right things. Nothing hateful comes from my mouth, nothing to exact that hurt look from him. Fleeting always, that look, and probably more *fleeting* than I knew back then. How often did he hide that look from me, my darling one? Ahh, but I am still relating my sweet dream, non?

When our lips finally meet, I can feel him shuddering beneath me, I can taste the sweetness of him. I can feel how much he wants me...how much he loves me. In my dream the sweetness of this, the *idea* that he loves me, and that he wishes to stay with me, it's like a dream within this dream. Erotic dream. I feel his erection pressed tight against me. In the dream I am eager to penetrate him, I want to be inside of him. I want to possess him, to make him *mine*. I don't yet understand that he is *mine* already. It takes me nearly two centuries to actually figure that out.

Beautiful dream. Louis is so pliant beneath me, and I am suddenly naked and ready. His body is accepting, eager. He wants me, he begs me not to hold back from him. Eerily this mirrors much of what happened between us afterwards. Although he is begging me with his words, it is I who am enslaved. I have been since I first laid eyes upon him. I am his maker, yes, I have that place for him, but there is no one on earth who has captured my heart and held it the way that Louis has. No one who holds me, mo one whom I trust as I do him. I no longer question this, it just *is*.

But the dream. In the dream I slide into him easily because I belong there, He gasps, yes, his body arches, there is pain. But it's that beautiful pain, that pain you wait for with the one you love. I know this now. Louis has taught me this as he has taught me so many things. Dreaming, I am taking his body, and causing him to breathe in great, ragged gasps. His hands clutch at me, his fingers dig into my hard flesh. In the dream I am worried that I may hurt him with my eagerness, my superior strength. I don't, however. If anyone is hurt, it is me, my soul yearning so urgently toward him, fearing that he will be terrified by me, repulsed by me, somehow unable to tolerate me.

As I hilt myself into him in the dream, he is moaning my name, chanting it nearly. He is so wonderfully tight around me, his flesh so hot that I have no words. I have my hands on his hips and I draw him up to me. He winds himself around me as tightly as he is able to, clinging to me, his mouth sealed to mine. He tastes sweet, this mortal, his tongue twining with mine, pushing deeply into my mouth as I thrust into him. I reach between us, taking his wanting cock in my hand, marveling at the silky feel of his flesh..the *heat* of his body. His legs, wound around my hips, loosen a little to give me room. I break our kiss to look at him. His eyes are slitted, his mouth open slightly as he pants. His body is slick and gleaming with sweat, muscles sculpted in taut lines. He is so achingly beautiful that my breath is taken. I stroke him, strong pressure on his cock in time with my thrusting hips. His breathing steepens and I know his climax is imminent. His deep groaning has stirred my lust further...I fear I am hurting hims with my free hand, clutching him too hard against me. He seems not to notice, his head rolling helplessly now as he comes over my hand, his seed hot and smelling eerily similar to his blood. Tears in his gleaming eyes, and then it's me, my orgasm fierce as I release inside of him, my lover...my Louis.

I start awake in my coffin, the deathsleep having released me as I had my release in the dream. I can smell my own blood, my body is still shuddering. I laugh shakily to myself, for this is a first for me since I was born to darkness. I felt as though he should be here with , so real had it been. I got up and cleaned myself off, still chuckling to myself. I changed my clothes and left to find him.

FIN