did just that: with a little snarl, as if to say,'You fool,' he began playing the music. I heard the doors of the back parlor open and Claudia's steps move down the hall. Don't come, Claudia, I was thinking, feeling; go away from it before we're all destroyed. But she came on steadily until she reached the hall mirror. I could hear her opening the small table drawer, and then the zinging of her hairbrush. She was wearing a floral perfume. I turned slowly to face her as she appeared in the door, still all in white, and moved across the carpet silently toward the piano. She stood at the end of the keyboard, her hands folded on the wood, her chin resting on her hands, her eyes fixed on Lestat.
"I could see his profile and her small face beyond, looking up at him. 'What is it now!' he said, turning the page and letting his hand drop to his thigh.'You irritate me. Your very presence irritates me!' His eyes moved over the page.
"'Does it?' she said in her sweetest voice.
"'Yes, it does. And I'll tell you something else. I've met someone who would make a better vampire than you do.'
"This stunned me. But I didn't have to urge him to go on.'Do you get my meaning?' he said to her.
"'Is it supposed to frighten me?' she asked.
"'You're spoiled because you're an only child,' he said.'You need a brother. Or rather, I need a brother. I get weary of you both. Greedy, brooding vampires that haunt our own lives. I dislike it.'
" 'I suppose we could people the world with vampires, the three of us,' she said.
"'You think so!' he said, smiling, his voice with a note of triumph. Do you think you could do it? I suppose Louis has told you how it was done or how he thinks it was done. You don't have the power. Either of you,' he said.
"This seemed to disturb her. Something she had not accounted for. She was studying him. I could see she did not entirely believe him.
"'And what gave you the power?' she asked softly, but with a touch of sarcasm.
"'That, my dear, is one of those things which you may never know. For even the Erebus in which we live must have its aristocracy.'
"'You're a liar,' she said with a short laugh. And just as he touched his fingers to the keys again, she said,'But you upset my plans.'
"'Your plans?' he asked.
"'I came to make peace with you, even if you are the father of lies. You're my father,' she said.'I want to make peace with you. I want things to be as they were.'
"Now he was the one who did not believe. He threw a glance at me, then looked at her.'That can be. Just stop asking me questions. Stop following me. Stop searching in every alleyway for other vampires. There are no other vampires! And this is where you live and this is where you stay!' He looked confused for the moment, as if raising his own voice had confused him.'I take care of you. You don't need anything.'
Chapter 13
"'And you don't know anything, and that is why you detest my questions. All that's clear. So now let's have peace, because there's nothing else to be had. I have a present for you.'
"'And I hope it's a beautiful woman with endowments you'll never possess;' he said, looking her up and down. Her face changed when he did this. It was as if she almost lost some control I'd never seen her lose. But then she just shook her head and reached out one small, rounded arm and tugged at his sleeve.
"'I meant what I said. I'm weary of arguing with you. Hell is hatred, people living together in eternal hatred. We're not in hell. You can take the present or not, I don't care. It doesn't matter. Only let's have an end to all this. Before Louis, in disgust, leaves us both.' She was urging him now to leave the piano, bringing down the wooden cover again over the keys, turning him on the piano stool until his eyes followed her to the door.
"'You're serious. Present, what do you mean, present?'
"'You haven't fed enough, I can tell by your color, by your eyes. You've never fed enough at this hour. Let's say that I can give you a precious moment. Suffer the little children to come unto me;' she whispered, and was gone. He looked at me.