A Means to an End
© Persephone
degas.ballerina@gmail.com

Spoilers: Up to Tale of the Body Thief
Rating: PG-13
Status: Complete
Characters: Lestat & Louis
Summary: An alternate, AU situation that begins after Lestat burns down Louis' shack in TotBT.

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The voices drew closer, Mojo's growls only encouraging their frenzied search. Before it occurred to me that I should flee, both my arms were gripped and harshly twisted behind my back. The pain was unexpected and I cried out, struggling uselessly as my face was pushed into the damp dirt. The sirens hurt my ears and I wanted to bury my face into the ground and never lift it. I wanted to shout.

Louis! Do you see what they're doing? Are you watching it all? Marius, do you see? I've become a common criminal!

I was laughing now, rough, gritty dirt in my mouth and between my teeth. There were voices all around me. They were reading me my rights. I spit the dirt out, laughed again, and received a reprimanding shake. I couldn't see the fire, but I could feel it, until I was lifted suddenly and dragged towards one of the squad cars. I tried to turn my head to look at the burning shack. I wanted to see it go up in flames. If only I could see the inside again, or that chair that I loved. Oh, that had been a beautiful chair. Damn you, Louis, for making me burn my chair.

The ride to the station was a blur. My head fell against the window and I began coughing, the dirt and phlegm catching in my throat until I was forced to swallow it again. My clothes were sooty, caked with dirt.

Where was Mojo?

They'd taken him, and I was going to jail. The irony of the situation was too much. How could anyone find me there? Everyone who should have helped me turned their back on me, but others had to know. Where was Armand? Why wasn't he ever around when it actually mattered? Damn all of them!

If only I could reach David.

Me, end up in a mortal prison! I laughed again, but then felt nauseous and closed my eyes. The car came to a stop, and I allowed myself to be pulled from it without protest. There was little else to do.

After officially being "booked", an experience I refuse to relive here, I was relieved to be shoved into a solitary cell.

I waited until the guard had gone, then beat the bars with my fist until my hand was sore and bruised, half growling with shameless frustration. Dizziness overwhelmed me, and I sank against the corner of the cell coughing, my entire body shuddering. I reached in my pocket, but it was empty. Those bastards! They took my tissues.

The room was spinning. I let my head drop down against the top of my knee. The pain in my chest suddenly intensified, and I gasped at the twisting sensation that seemed to come directly from my heart. God! I didn't want to get sick again.

I heard a dog barking. It sounded like Mojo, but my weak human ears weren't able to tell.

It seemed that I drifted to sleep. The next thing I heard was a voice.

"Lestat?"

I opened my eyes. I could barely focus, let alone recognize who it was. It was a vampire. I knew that, but I could only identify the preternatural quality.

"Louis? That better not be you." My head was still down.

Silence.

Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to lift my head. Louis stood on the other side of the bars in that god-awful, dusty black coat, looking at me with infuriatingly quiet concern. There was an officer beside him to unlock the cell. He nodded to Louis with an awed expression that Louis failed to notice, then turned and disappeared through a nearby doorway.

"Oh, come to bail me out, have you?" My voice was slurred. I grimaced. "Well, you can forget it. I'm not going anywhere with you."

"You're going to stay here?" His tone was soft, unobtrusive, and not at all accusatory.

"Why not? You'd have that for me, wouldn't you? No, you'd condemn me to death! I might as well spend the rest of my days here. There's a view." I pointed to the window. "And it's quiet. Until you showed up, that is."

"You'd hardly get a life sentence, Lestat."

"I guess this means you're not pressing charges."

Louis sighed. "The door is unlocked. Come on, you don't want to stay here."

I continued to glare at him, unwilling to forgo my pride, even though I knew that there wasn't another option. "I'm not going anywhere until you promise to help me."

To my surprise, Louis only looked at me. His flawless skin glowed against the dark wall behind him, and despite the inhumanly slight movements of his face, I could see that he was miserable. It was in his gaze, the soulful eyes that were both sharp and soft, contradictorily entrancing. How I loved those eyes.

Damn him.

"I'm going to take you to a hotel."

"They have my dog."

"He's there, waiting for you."

"What a wonderful friend you are!" My tone was malicious. I didn't care. "I should hate you for flinging me down the way that you did."

"I couldn't stay."

"I don't want to go to a hotel. I want to go to my apartment." I didn't know how we would manage this. The locks were complex; even Louis would not be able to gain entry.

"Come with me first, and then go where you want to go."

"I'll go where I want right now!"

"The dog is at the hotel." His logic was maddening.

"'The dog has a name. I can find the hotel by myself," I snarled, drawing my arms around my knees, refusing to look at him.

He didn't answer me. I felt his presence, the weight of it, and the air was heavy with tension. I knew that he was looking at me, and I wanted nothing more than to meet those beautiful eyes, to beg him once more. To Hell with my pride! It had been so difficult for him to leave! Surely he could be persuaded, or even swayed. I was desperate.

"Louis..."

He sighed. "Please, come with me."

I felt too weary to protest anymore. My mortal limbs shifted, and I tried to hide a wince.

The door to the cell opened and Louis stepped forward. I felt his hand on my arm. It was cold and strong, barely needing to exert any strength to lift me up. I waited until I felt steady enough and then yanked it away. "I don't need your help."

Louis nodded.

The ride to the hotel wasn't anything more than angry arguing. This was on my part, of course, since Louis remained perfectly composed.

"Did you see Marius?"

"No."

"You're lying. You saw him, you talked to him!"

"I left, Lestat."

"Then how do you know what happened to me?? How did you know to come find me? You never know anything! Fine, but you hardly ever know anything! You're-"

The hotel lobby was empty, and I could tell that this relieved Louis, who took me immediately to a room on the first floor.

"Does this hotel even allow dogs? Did you ever think of that? This is the modern day, Louis, you can't just bring dogs to any hotel!"

"They do, I checked first." He opened the door for me, but I pushed past him and inside the room, nearly tripping over Mojo.

I knelt, put my arms around Mojo, and then buried my face against the side of his neck. He turned his head and licked one of my hands, his tongue hot and wet. I managed a laugh, but the sound was embittered, forced. "At least you didn't render him unconscious this time."

Louis' back was to me; his hand was on the back of the chair. "We may have to, if I'm going to do this."

"What? You-" I stopped. It took me a moment to understand what it was that Louis was insinuating, but the shock of it was too great. If it were not for the frantic hope I still clung to, I wouldn't have realized it at all. "Louis!"

The tone of his voice was calm, but barely audible. "You must realize what this will do to me."

"I will make it up to you!" I was on my feet again, swaying slightly, but then caught Louis' arm and clung to it. My pride was forgotten. He was going to give in, and I didn't bother to maintain the harsh distance. The consequences of what I asked refused to take root in my mind, but only because I pushed the possibility away. Yes, Louis was upset now, but once everything was right again, I would find a way to fix it. "It isn't as if you're damning me, if you still hold on to such foolishness! I was like this before you ever existed!"

"Do you realize?"

"Do not say that it will destroy you! You've made others! You made Madeleine!"

"I did not love Madeleine."

I bit the insides of my cheeks and narrowed my eyes, but I could not be angry with him, as I was before. It was frustration that made me grip his coat and twist the material so tightly that I felt begin it tear. I released it, but did not let go of him completely.

Stepping up to Louis' side, I reached around the front of his chest so that I could clutch his opposite arm. He felt cold, and just to be torturous and even a bit spiteful, I pressed against him. "This is love. Do this for me because you love me, or will you betray me...yet again? Don't turn your back on me! Do you know how tired I am of seeing your back, Louis? Aren't you tired of mine? You sure as Hell drive the knife into it often enough! Those are your own words!"

Louis shook his head. He was not wilting at my accusations. If anything, he stood even more strongly, but there was a resignation to him that I had never seen before. "You will never realize." He paused, but then spoke again before I could raise my voice in protest. "I will do this. That is what matters to you, isn't it? I will help you."

Dumbfounded, I did not dare argue. I kissed his cold cheek, whispered in his ear, but he remained a statue. It wasn't until I thought that he may have changed his mind, when he finally turned towards me. My arm dropped from around him. My eyes were on Louis' face, but I couldn't look away even if I wanted to.

His gaze was brimming with intensity, but the sadness to it was indisputable.

I didn't want to see it. I tried to be angry with it.

I began to speak, but stopped when I felt his hand brush my cheek and then move lower against the side of my neck. My lips parted slightly, the shocking cold of Louis' fingers more obvious once they slipped underneath my collar. I realized that he was pulling the material down. My arm lifted to be around the back of Louis' shoulders and I tried to draw him closer, but he barely moved at all. I wanted it, wanted that closeness. It wasn't just a means to an end.

Louis took a breath, and it seemed as if his entire body shuddered against mine. I tilted my head and kissed him again. "Always so damned formal." I moved my hand to the back of his head, slipped my fingers through his sleek hair, and attempted to press him down. He resisted at first, but then gave in with a soft sigh.

I couldn't help a shiver when I felt his cold, hard mouth against my neck, despite how unwelcoming it should have been.

It became important that I speak to him, that I tell him what this meant. It was important to me. "Louis, what I said to you... I meant it. I meant all of it."

Remaining still, Louis didn't even attempt an answer. I felt a tremor run through me at the thought that he would do this without hearing me speak, without understanding, and then wondered if it even mattered to him. "Louis!"

I felt his teeth pierce my throat for the first time, and my words were lost.

The End