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have no trust."
She held the page in both hands and studied it, perhaps reading the words herself, for her lips moved.
Then she looked at me again, and then at Louis.
"One hour. Come back to me. I'll be ready by that time. We'll meet in the rear of the house. The old altar's been restored
for our purpose. The candles are already lighted. The coals will soon be ready. It's there that we will execute this plan."
I started to rise.
"But you must go now," she said, "and bring a sacrifice, because we cannot proceed without that."
"A sacrifice?" I asked. "Good Lord, what manner of sacrifice?" I was on my feet.
"A human sacrifice," she answered, her eyes sharpening as she glanced up at me, and then back to Louis, who remained
in his chair. "This spirit won't come for anything less than human blood."
"You don't mean it, Merrick," I said furiously, my voice rising. "Good Lord, woman, would you make yourself a party
to murder?"
"Am I not that already?" she answered, her eyes full of honesty and fierce will. "David, how many human beings have
you killed since Lestat brought you over? And you, Louis, they're beyond count. I sit with you and plot with you to
attempt this thing. I'm a party to your crimes, am I not? And for this spell, I tell you I need blood. I need to brew a far
greater magic than anything I've ever attempted before. I need a burnt offering; I need the smoke to rise from heated
blood."
"I won't do it," I said. "I won't bring some mortal here to be slaughtered. You're being foolish and naive if you think you
could tolerate such a spectacle. You'll be changed forever. What, do you think because we're pretty to look at that this
murder will be fancy and clean?"
"David, do as I say," she replied, "or I won't do this thing."
"I will not," I responded. "You've overreached yourself. A murder there will not be."
"Let me be the sacrifice," said Louis suddenly. He rose to his feet and looked down upon her. "I don't mean that I shall
die to do it," he said compassionately. "I mean, let the blood that flows be mine." He took her hand again, locking his
fingers around her wrist. He bent and kissed her hand, then stood erect, his eyes lovingly fastened to her own.
"Years ago," he said, "you used your own blood, did you not, in this very house, to call your sister, Honey in the
Sunshine. Let us use my blood to call Claudia tonight. I have blood enough for a burnt offering; I have blood enough for a
cauldron or a fire."
Her face was quite tranquil again as she looked at him.
"A cauldron it shall be," she said. "One hour. The rear yard is filled with its old saints, as I've told you. The stones on
which my ancestors danced are swept clean for our purpose. The old pot sits on the coals. The trees have witnessed many
such a spectacle. There's only a little more that I need do to prepare now. Go and return to me, as I've said."
18
I WAS BESIDE MYSELF with anxiety. As soon as we reached the pavement, I grabbed Louis by the shoulders and
spun him round to face me.
"We're not going on with this," I said. "I'm going back there to tell her it will not happen."
"No, David, it will happen," he said without raising his voice. "You will not stop it!"
I realized that for the first time since I'd ever set eyes on him, he was passionate and angry, though the anger was not
purely for me.
"It will happen," he repeated, clenching his teeth, his face hardening in his quiet fury. "And we will leave her unharmed
as we promised! But this will go on."
"Louis, don't you understand what she's feeling?" I asked. "She's falling in love with you! She'll never be the same after
this. I can't let this deepen. I can't let it become any worse than it already is."
"She's not in love with me, that's wrong," he declared in an emphatic whisper. "She thinks what mortals always think.
We're beautiful to them. We're exotic. We have such exquisite sensitivity! I've seen it before. All I need do is to take a
victim in her presence to cure her romantic dreams. And it won't come to that, I promise you. Now, David, listen, this
hour of waiting will be the longest of the night. I'm thirsting. I mean to hunt. Let go of me, David. Get out of my way."
Of course I didn't leave him.
"And what about your emotions, Louis?" I walked beside him, determined he wouldn't leave me behind. "Can you tell
me you're not completely taken by her?"
"And what if I am, David?" he responded, never slacking in his pace. "David, you didn't describe her truly. You told me
how strong she was, how wily, and how clever. But you didn't do justice to her." He gave me a shy passing glance. "You
never talked about her simplicity or her sweetness. You didn't tell me she was so inherently kind."
"That's how you see her?"
"That's how she is, my friend." Now he wouldn't look at me. "Some school, the Talamasca, that it produced both of you.
She has a patient soul and a knowing heart."
"I want this broken off now," I insisted. "I don't trust either of you. Louis, listen to me."
"David, do you really believe I would hurt her?" he asked sharply. He continued walking. "Do I seek out for my victims
those whom I believe to be gentle by nature, humans I believe to be both good and uncommonly strong? She'll be safe
with me forever, David, don't you understand that? Only once in my wretched life did I make a fledging and that was over
a century ago. Merrick couldn't be safer from any of us than she is from me. Bind me to protect her till the day she dies
and I'll probably do it! I'll slip away from her after this is done, I promise you." On he walked. He continued to speak: "I'll
find a way to thank her, to satisfy her, to leave her at peace. We'll do that together, David, you and I. Don't harry me now
in this matter. I can't be stopped. It's gone too far."
I believed him. I believed him completely. "What am I to do?" I asked dejectedly. "I don't even know my own heart in
the matter. I'm afraid for hers."
"You're to do nothing," he said, his voice a little more calm than before. "Let it happen as planned."
We walked on through the ruined neighborhood together.
At last the bent red neon sign of a barroom appeared, blinkering under the rangy branches of an ancient and dying tree.
There were hand-painted words of advertisement all over the boarded-up facade, and the light inside was so feeble that
scarcely anything could be seen through the dirty glass of the door.
Louis went inside and I followed him, quite amazed at the large crowd of Anglo-Saxon males that chattered and drank
at the long mahogany bar, and the myriad dirty little tables. Here and there were denim-clad women, young and old, as
were their gentlemen companions. A garish red light shone from covered bulbs near the ceiling.
Everywhere I saw naked arms and dirty sleeveless shirts, secretive faces, and cynicism beneath a veil of smiles and
flashing teeth.
Louis made his way to the corner of the room, and took the wooden chair beside a large unshaven and bushy-haired man
who sat at a table alone and morosely over his stagnant bottle of beer.
I followed, my nostrils assailed by the stench of sweat and the thick cigarette smoke. The volume of the voices was
harsh, and the beat of music beneath it ugly, ugly in words and rhythm, ugly in its hostile chant.
I sat down opposite the same poor degenerate mortal who cast his pale failing eyes on Louis and then on me, as though
he were about to have some sport.
"So what do you want, gentlemen," he said in a deep voice. His huge chest heaved under the worn shirt that covered it.
He lifted his brown bottle and let the golden beer slide down his throat.
"Come on, gentlemen, tell me," he said thickly, drunkenly. "When men dressed like you come downtown, you want
something. Now what is it? Am I saying that you came to the wrong place? Hell no, gentlemen. Somebody else might say [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]