The witching hour - By Anne Rice Page 0,543

of a disaster.”

“Disaster,” she whispered. “What a lovely word.”

How frail he looked. She was seeing his age for the first time in the heavy lines of his face, in the soft pockets of flesh around his pale, imploring eyes. He seemed so weak to her suddenly, so without his usual eloquence and grace. Just an old man with white hair, peering at her, full of childlike wonder. No lure at all.

“You know what it could really mean, don’t you?” she asked wearily. “When you strip away the fear?”

“He’s lying to you; he’s taking over your conscience.”

“Don’t say that to me!” she hissed. “That isn’t courage on your part, it’s stupidity.” She settled back trying to calm herself. There had been a time when she loved this man. Even now she didn’t want him harmed. “Can’t you see the inevitable end of it?” she asked, reasonably. “If the mutation is successful, he can propagate. If the cells can be grafted and replicate themselves in other human bodies, the entire future of the human race can be changed. We are talking about an end to death.”

“The age-old lure,” Aaron said bitterly. “The age-old lie.”

She smiled to see his composure stripped away.

“Your sanctimoniousness tires me,” she said. “Science has always been the key. Witches were nothing but scientists, always. Black magic was striving to be science. Mary Shelley saw the future. Poets always see the future. And the kids in the third row of the theater know it when they watch Dr. Frankenstein piece the monster together, and raise the body into the electrical storm.”

“It is a horror story, Rowan. He’s mutated your conscience.”

“Don’t insult me like that again,” she said, leaning once more across the table. “You’re old, you don’t have many years left. I love you for what you’ve given me, and I don’t want to hurt you. But don’t tempt me and don’t tempt him. What I’m telling you is the truth.”

He didn’t answer her. He had dropped into a baffling state of calm. She found his small hazel eyes suddenly quite unreadable, and she marveled at his strength. It made her smile.

“Don’t you believe what I’m telling you? Don’t you want to write it in the file? I saw it in Lemle’s laboratory when I saw that fetus connected to all those little tubes. You never knew why I killed Lemle, did you? You knew I did it, but you didn’t know the cause. Lemle was in control of a project at the Institute. He was harvesting cells from live fetuses and using them in transplants. It’s going on in other places. You can see the possibilities, but imagine experiments involving Lasher’s cells, cells that have endured and transported consciousness for billions of years.”

“I want you to call Michael, to ask Michael to come home.”

“Michael can’t stop him. Only I can stop him. Let Michael be where he’s out of danger. Do you want Michael to die too?”

“Listen to me. You can close your mind to this being. You can veil your thoughts from it by a simple act of will. There are techniques as old as the oldest religions on earth for protecting ourselves from demons. It reads in your mind only what you project towards it. It’s not different from telepathy. Try and you’ll see.”

“And why should I do that?”

“To give yourself time. To give yourself a safe place for a moral decision.”

“No, you don’t understand how powerful he is. You never did. And you don’t know how well he knows me. That’s the key, what he knows of me.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to do what he wants,” she said. “I really don’t. But it’s irresistible, don’t you see?”

“What about Michael? What about your dreams of Mayfair Medical?”

“Ellie was right,” she said. She sat back against the wall and gazed off again, the lights of the bar blurring slightly. “Ellie knew. She had Cortland’s blood in her and she could see the future. Maybe it was only dim shapes and feelings, but she knew. I should never have come back. He used Michael to see to it that I came back. I knew Michael was in New Orleans, and like a randy bitch, I came back for that reason!”

“You’re not talking the truth. I want you to come upstairs and stay with me.”

“You’re such a fool. I could kill you here and now and no one would ever know it. No one but your brotherhood and your friend Michael Curry. And what could