Merrick - Anne Rice [32]
I had been amazed at Maharet’s obvious displeasure. Nothing about Maharet is simple precisely because everything is. By that I mean that she is so ancient as to be divorced utterly from the common expression of tender emotions, except perhaps by deliberate merciful design.
She had lost all interest in Louis when he’d refused her, and to the best of my knowledge she never looked at him, or mentioned him, ever again. Of course she didn’t harm him, and she had plenty of opportunity. But he was no longer a living being for her, no longer one of us, for her. Or so I had divined.
But then who was I to judge such a creature as Maharet? That I had seen her, that I’d heard her voice, that I’d visited with her for a time in her own sanctuary—all that was reason for thanks.
I myself had felt a great respect for Louis’s disinclination to drink the absolute elixir of the dark gods. Louis had been made a vampire by Lestat when Lestat had been very young, indeed. And Louis was considerably stronger than humans, well able to spell-bind them, and could outmaneuver the most clever mortal opponent with ease. Though he was still bound by the laws of gravity to a far greater extent than I was, he could move about the world very rapidly, attaining a brand of invisibility which he very much enjoyed. He was no mind reader, and no spy.
However, Louis would very likely die if exposed to sunlight, though he was well past the point where sunlight would reduce him to pure ash, as it had done Claudia only seventy years or so after her birth. Louis still had to have blood every night. Louis could very probably seek oblivion in the flames of a pyre.
I shuddered now, as I reminded myself of this creature’s deliberate limitations, and of the wisdom he seemed to possess.
My own blood was quite remarkably strong because it came from Lestat who had drunk not only from the elder Marius, but from the Queen of the Damned, the progenital vampire herself. I didn’t know precisely what I might have to do to terminate my existence, but I knew it would not be an easy thing. As for Lestat, when I thought of his adventures and his powers, it seemed impossible by any means for him to exit this world.
These thoughts so disturbed me that I reached out and clasped Louis’s hand.
“This woman is very powerful,” I said, as I made to begin. “She’s been playing a few tricks on me this evening, and I’m not sure why or how.”
“It has you exhausted,” he said considerately. “Are you sure you don’t want to rest?”
“No, I need to talk to you,” I said. And so I began by describing our meeting in the café, and all that had passed between us, including my memories of the child Merrick from years ago.
5
INDEED I TOLD HIM everything which I have told you so far.
I described even my scant memories of my first meeting with the girl Merrick, and my repressed fear when I was quite certain that the ancestors in the daguerreotypes had been passing approval on Aaron and me.
He was very startled when I laid down this part of the story, but wouldn’t have me pause just yet but encouraged me to go on.
I told him briefly of how the meeting had triggered other, more erotic memories of Merrick, but that Merrick had not refused his request.
Merrick had seen him, I explained to him, and she knew who he was and what he was long before any intelligence on the vampires had been given to her by the Talamasca. In fact, to the best of my knowledge no information on the vampires had ever been given to Merrick.
“I remember more than one encounter with her,” he said. “I should have told you, but by now you must know my manner.”
“How do you mean?”
“I tell only what’s necessary,” he said with a little sigh. “I want to believe in what I say, but it’s hard. Well, in truth I did have an encounter with Merrick. That’s true. And yes, she did fling a curse at me. It