The Vampire Armand - Anne Rice [81]
I let out a cry as the blood inflamed me.
“Draw it from me, Amadeo. Draw it hard!”
My mouth filled with blood. My lips closed against his silky white flesh so that not a drop would be lost. Deeply I swallowed. In a dim flash I saw my Father riding through the grasslands, a powerful leather-clad figure, his sword tied firmly to his belt, his leg crooked, his cracked and worn brown boot firmly in the stirrup. He turned to the left, rising and falling gracefully and perfectly with the huge strides of his white horse.
“All right, leave me, you coward, you impudent and miserable boy! Leave me!” He looked before him. “I prayed for it, Andrei, I prayed they wouldn’t get you for their filthy catacombs, their dark earthen cells. Well, so my prayer is answered! Go with God, Andrei. Go with God. Go with God!”
My Master’s face was rapt and beautiful, a white flame against the wavering golden light of countless candles. He stood over me.
I lay on the floor. My body sang with the blood. I climbed to my feet, my head swimming. “Master.”
At the far end of the room he stood, his bare feet composed on the glowing rose-colored floor, his arms outstretched. “Come to me, Amadeo, walk towards me, come to me, to take the rest.”
I struggled to obey him. The room raged with colors around me. I saw the Procession of the searching Magi. “Oh, that it’s so vivid, so utterly alive!”
“Come to me, Amadeo.”
“I’m too weak, Master, I’m fainting, I’m dying in this glorious light.”
I took one step after another, though it seemed impossible. I placed one foot before the other, drawing ever closer to him. I stumbled.
“On your hands and knees, then, come. Come to me.”
I clung to his robe. I had to climb this great height if I wanted it. I reached up and took hold of the crook of his right arm. I lifted myself, feeling the gold cloth against me. I straightened my legs until I stood. Once again, I embraced him; once again I found the fount. I drank, and drank, and drank.
In a gilded gush the blood went down into my bowels. It went through my legs and my arms. I was a Titan. I crushed him under me. “Give it to me,” I whispered. “Give it to me.” The blood hovered on my lips and then flooded down my throat.
It was as if his cold marble hands had seized my heart. I could hear it struggling, beating, the valves opening and closing, the wet sound of his blood invading it, the swoosh and flap of the valves as they welcomed it, utilizing it, my heart growing ever larger and more powerful, my veins becoming like so many invincible metallic conduits of this most potent fluid.
I lay on the floor. He stood above me, and his hands were open to me. “Get up, Amadeo. Come, come up, into my arms. Take it.”
I cried. I sobbed. My tears were red, and my hand was stained with red. “Help me, Master.”
“I do help you. Come, seek it out for yourself.”
I was on my feet with this new strength, as if all human limitations had been loosened, as if they were bonds of rope or chain and had fallen away. I sprang at him, pulling back his robe, the better to find the wound.
“Make a new wound, Amadeo.”
I bit into the flesh, puncturing it, and the blood squirted over my lips. I clapped my mouth against it. “Flow into me.”
My eyes closed. I saw the wild lands, the grass blowing, the sky blue. My Father rode on and on with the small band behind him. Was I one of them?
“I prayed you’d escape!” he called out to me, laughing, “and so you have. Damn you, Andrei. Damn you and your sharp tongue and your magical painter’s hands. Damn you, you foul-mouthed whelp, damn you.” He laughed and laughed, and rode on, the grass bending and falling for him.
“Father, look!” I struggled to shout. I wanted him to see the stony ruins of the castle. But my mouth was full of blood. They had been right. Prince Feodor’s fortress was destroyed, and he himself long gone. My Father’s horse reared up suddenly as it came to the first heap of vine-covered stones.
With a shock, I felt the marble floor beneath me, so wondrously warm. I lay with both hands against it. I lifted myself. The swarming rosy