Merrick - Anne Rice [125]
It was exactly as I’d suspected. She had done the awful deed of violating Honey’s poor pathetic remains. How vicious and how dreadful, and for how long had she kept this secret, that she possessed the skull of her own sister, her own blood kin.
I was revolted yet magnetized. The smoke from the candles grew dense before the statues. It seemed their faces were full of movement, their eyes sweeping the scene before them. Even their drapery appeared alive. The incense burnt bright in the circle on the flagstones, fanned by the breeze that steadily increased.
Merrick laid aside the cursed skull and the perforator.
From the table she lifted the gold pitcher of honey, and poured it into the jeweled chalice. This she lifted with her bloody right hand as she went on:
“Ah, yes, all you lonely spirits, and you, Honey, and you, Claudia, smell this sweet offering—Honey, the very substance after which you in your beauty were named.” Into the cauldron she poured the thick sparkling liquid.
Then she lifted the pitcher of milk. Into the chalice it went, and then she lifted the chalice, gathering up the deadly perforator again in her left hand.
“And this, too, I offer you, so delicious to your desperate senses, come here and breathe this sacrifice, drink of this milk and honey, drink it from the smoke that rises from my cauldron. Here, it comes to you through this chalice which once contained The Blood of Our Lord. Here, partake of it. Do not refuse me. I am Merrick, daughter of Cold Sandra. Come, Honey, I command you, and bring Claudia to me. I will not be denied.”
A loud breath came from Louis.
In the circle before the statues, something amorphous and dark had taken shape. I felt my heart skipping as my eyes strained to make it out. It was the form of Honey, it was the very figure which I had seen many years before. It flickered and wavered in the heat as Merrick chanted:
“Come, Honey, come closer, come in answer to me. Where is Claudia, daughter of Agatha? Bring her here to Louis de Pointe du Lac, I command you. I cannot be denied.”
The figure was almost solid! I saw the familiar yellow hair, the candlelight behind it rendering it transparent, the white dress more spectral than the solid outline of the body itself. I was too stunned to utter the prayers that Merrick had forbidden. The words never formed on my lips.
Suddenly Merrick laid down the skull. She turned and caught Louis’s left arm with her bloodstained hand.
I saw his white wrist above the cauldron. With a swift movement, she slashed at his wrist. I heard him gasp again, and I saw the glittering vampiric blood gushing from the veins into the rising smoke. Again she gashed the white flesh and again the blood flowed, thickly, freely, and more abundantly than her own blood before.
In no way did Louis resist her. Mute, he stared at the figure of Honey.
“Honey, my beloved sister,” said Merrick, “bring Claudia. Bring Claudia to Louis de Pointe du Lac. I am Merrick, your sister. I command you. Honey, show your power!” Her voice became low, crooning. “Honey, show your immense strength! Bring Claudia here now.”
Again, she cut the wrist, for the preternatural flesh was healing just as soon as she opened it, and she again made the blood flow.
“Savor this blood which is shed for you, Claudia. I call your name and your name only now, Claudia. I would have you here!” Once more the wound was opened.
But now she gave over the perforator to Louis, and she lifted the doll in both her hands.
I glanced from Merrick to the solid image of Honey, so dark, so distant, so seemingly without human movement.
“Your possessions, my sweet Claudia,” Merrick called out, snatching up a twig from the fire and lighting the clothes of the unfortunate doll, which all but exploded in a draught of flames. The little face turned black in the blaze. Still Merrick held it with both hands.
The figure of Honey suddenly began to dissolve.
Into the cauldron Merrick dropped the burning object, and then lifted the page of the