In the Name of Love


  A Vampire Chronicles speculation by Twilight





  Louis de Pointe du Lac opened his eyes in the darkness of his coffin.
Night had fallen again. 

Time for the hunt. 

He both loved and hated killing - it brought him his only peace every
night, but he hated himself for killing mortals - for being what he was. 

  Louis lifted the lid of the coffin and slipped out, noticing the blue
reflection of the full moon shining off the smooth black laquer surface.
He picked up his jacket from the hook on the opposite wall where he had
left it the night before and put it on. It was black velvet, his favorite.
He stroked the soft material covering his arms. He tied his ebony hair
back from his face with a black velvet ribbon that had been sitting on the
dresser. He looked around the room. A fairly nice, though spare, hotel
room. The coffin looked alien, resting in the corner. Oh! He had almost
forgotten! He shoved it under the bed quickly. He opened the door to go,
removing the "DO NOT DISTURB" sign from the knob. 



    He had been walking down Prytania Street rather aimlessly for about a
half- hour, watching mortals and the blooming spring flowers, when he
heard the thought.  He usually couldn't hear mortal's thoughts, but these
were being projected rather strongly. 


  A mortal boy, lying in a bed in a room not far from here. 

Julien had run away from his family, to escape his drunken father, when he
was eleven. That had been four years ago. Now the only money he had was
from pick- pocketing and selling himself to strangers. He felt he had no
reason to live anymore, but was too - what? Apathetic, afraid, cowardly? -
to do it himself. 



    Louis trembled. This boy, so like himself as a mortal. Different
situation, same feeling. "So sad and bitter and burned out." He invited
death, and Death would oblige. 


     He slipped through the alleyways, a shadow in the dark, and found the
broken- down apartment building the boy's thoughts were coming from. He
paused, watching the boy through the cracked glass of the window. So
beautiful and sad, staring up at the ceiling, thinking. Black hair and
blue eyes. 


    Louis silently opened the window and came into the room. The boy
sensed that someone was there. "Hello?" he said. Louis stepped into the
moonlight shining through the window. The boy gasped. "Louis?" He climbed
out of the bed and walked toward him hesitantly. "Louis." he repeated.
"You believe in me?" Louis asked. 

"Yes. I always knew you'd come..." he said dreamily, stepping into Louis'
arms. 

 "Sweet Death." 

"Do you love me?" Louis asked softly, staring down into his eyes. 

"I always loved you, ever since I read your book." the boy said. 


Louis clasped his face in his hands."I love you too, mon cher. 

You don't know how much." He kissed him tenderly. "My beautiful Julien." 

He lifted him and gently set him on the bed. "Beautiful Death." the boy
said, stroking his hair. "Yes." Louis said, tipping his head back and
resting his lips against the boy's throat. He paused a moment before
slowly sinking his fangs in. As he drank, he saw the boy's last thoughts. 


   _He had found a copy of "Interview with the Vampire" when he was
thirteen.  He had read it and known it was real. He knew Louis was real,
and that he loved him, and that he would die for him. And he wanted to die
for him._



      Louis was weeping when he drew back from the boy, setting him back
against the pillow and kissing closed his eyes. 


  "Goodnight, Julien." he whispered,the blood tears dripping down his
cheeks. 

"My beautiful Julien." 



 And with that he opened the window and left without a sound.