Vampire Chronicles - Assuage

Assuage

Another gathering, another fine house. Two such eligible young men never lacked for an invitation. We were making the Pearl River rounds this season.

"Hello there, little bunny." Lestat crooned under his breath, eyes trained on a fair young man, handsomely dressed, his fine calves encased in snowy stockings. "What think you, Louis, eh?" He plucked at the lace that brushed his knuckles. When I made no answer, he turned to look at me, his avid expression completely gone, replaced by a familiar, exasperated sneer. "What is it now?"

I ignored his impatient tone. "Why do you call them that?"

"What?"

The young man was looking at Lestat with undisguised interest. Lestat smiled at him, careful not to flash his fangs,

"Bunny. Why do you call them that?"

"What possible difference does it make what I call them?" he hissed, pushing me before him so that we were out of said young man's hearing. I waited. "Merde alors! Prey! They're prey Louis. Would you rather I gave them honorifics before I massacre them?"

"Why are you so angry?" I said. "It was a simple question."

"And what else would I expect from my simple Louis?"

His caustic tone did not blister; I ignored it, honestly perplexed by his sudden antagonism. "I ask again. Why are you angry? It's a question only, Lestat. No judgment. No accusations flung." I watched him, fascinated. His beautiful face twisted with his baffling rage.

"You deliberately provoke me." he snarled.

I threw my hands up, suddenly weary of the entire thing. I could beat myself against the brick wall of his anger and in the end it would change nothing. I brushed past him and stepped out past a knot of revelers to the shadowy gardens beyond.

He joined me there some time later, cheeks flushed and eyes soft with the swoon; he was brimming with blood and the scent of it on his lips ignited the thirst I had been repressing all evening.

He sat down on the stone bench beside me, leaning to speak into my ear. "You need to drink, Louis. Find your own bunny or let me find one for you. There are plenty of them hopping about!" He laughed and slung an arm about my shoulders. "I had three of them, my starving love. All of them squealing with lust until I struck them down." I stared at him and he laughed again. "Not to worry, precious one. They are not on display anywhere inconvenient!"

"We should leave." I said flatly.

"You wound me. I saved a little bunny for my Louis. Don't you want to see? Aren't you hungry?"

He was monstrous; I should have left him there to fend for himself come dawn...and yet I was drawn by his words, by his his predatory coldness. The thirst was a heated twisting wire in my veins and he knew it.

"She's in the little salon, Louis, succulent and eager for a tryst with my handsome friend. Shall I introduce you?"

"You are a beast."

"I am, of course. And so, too, are you. A hungry beast if I am reading you right. See your hands shake!"

He was off the bench and in front of me before I could blink. I was overcome with my thirst and my need for him, the one thing that drove me further than mortal blood ever could. Lestat did not resist; his arms came around me and he sighed when I sank my teeth into his throat.


FIN