The Vampire Chronicles Collection - Anne Rice [547]
“Talamasca.” The word struck Daniel suddenly as beautiful. Talamasca. He broke it down from the Latin, understood its parts. Somewhere out of his memory bank it came: animal mask. Old word for witch or shaman.
“But what does it really mean?” he asked.
“It means Lestat is a fool,” Armand said. Flicker of deep pain in his eyes. “But it makes no difference now.”
Khayman
HAYMAN watched from the archway as the Vampire Lestat’s car entered the gates of the parking lot. Almost invisible Khayman was, even in the stylish denim coat and pants he’d stolen earlier from a shop manikin. He didn’t need the silver glasses that covered his eyes. His glowing skin didn’t matter. Not when everywhere he looked he saw masks and paint, glitter and gauze and sequined costumes.
He moved closer to Lestat, as if swimming through the wriggling bodies of the youngsters who mobbed the car. At last he glimpsed the creature’s blond hair, and then his violet blue eyes as he smiled and blew kisses to his adorers. Such charm the devil had. He drove the car himself, gunning the motor and forcing the bumper against these tender little humans even as he flirted, winked, seduced, as if he and his foot on the gas pedal weren’t connected to each other.
Exhilaration. Triumph. That’s what Lestat felt and knew at this moment. And even his reticent companion, Louis, the dark-haired one in the car beside him, staring timidly at the screaming children as if they were birds of paradise, didn’t understand what was truly happening.
Neither knew that the Queen had waked. Neither knew the dreams of the twins. Their ignorance was astonishing. And their young minds were so easy to scan. Apparently the Vampire Lestat, who had hidden himself quite well until this night, was now prepared to do battle with everyone. He wore his thoughts and intentions like a badge of honor.
“Hunt us down!” That’s what he said aloud to his fans, though they didn’t hear. “Kill us. We’re evil. We’re bad. It’s perfectly fine to cheer and sing with us now. But when you catch on, well, then the serious business will begin. And you’ll remember that I never lied to you.”
For one instant his eyes and Khayman’s eyes met. I want to be good! I would die for that! But there was no recognition of who or what received this message.
Louis, the watcher, the patient one, was there on account of love pure and simple. The two had found each other only last night, and theirs had been an extraordinary reunion. Louis would go where Lestat led him. Louis would perish if Lestat perished. But their fears and hopes for this night were heartbreakingly human.
They did not even guess that the Queen’s wrath was close at hand, that she’d burnt the San Francisco coven house within the hour. Or that the infamous vampire tavern on Castro Street was burning now, as the Queen hunted down those fleeing from it.
But then the many blood drinkers scattered throughout this crowd did not know these simple facts either. They were too young to hear the warnings of the old, to hear the screams of the doomed as they perished. The dreams of the twins had only confused them. From various points, they glared at Lestat, overcome with hatred or religious fervor. They would destroy him or make of him a god. They did not guess at the danger that awaited them.
But what of the twins themselves? What was the meaning of the dreams?
Khayman watched the car move on, forcing its way towards the back of the auditorium. He looked up at the stars overhead, the tiny pinpricks of light behind the mist that hung over the city. He thought he could feel the closeness of his old sovereign.
He turned back towards the auditorium and made his way carefully through the press. To forget his strength in such a crowd as this would have been disaster. He would bruise flesh and break bones without even feeling it.
He took one last look at the sky, and then he went inside, easily befuddling the ticket taker as he went through the little turnstile and towards the nearest stairway.
The auditorium was almost filled. He looked