A Jungle Nocturne
This work is an AMATEUR effort and is in no way expected to make any money. If it does, My Dear Lawyers, I assure you, I will die of shock long before you can possibly sue me. This spec is not intended to infringe upon the rights of SOME CRAZY BITCH WHO SUES HER FANS, Stan Rice, Mojo Rice, Knopf Publishing, Random House, Geffen Pictures, Lord Byron, The Coleman Company, Anancondas and their mothers who love them, William Shakespeare, nor you, dear readers.
SPOILERS: VampChron through MtD
The Rise and Fall of a Coven
Book Four: A Jungle Nocturne
by DarkAngel
11 novembre 1999
Dedicated to my Beloved, FoL
and also to Vishna, Margaret Foster, Kerklin, Tabi-Chan, Lyn, ~furie~ and Kabuki, for their interest, kindness and support.Chapter One
Lestat sat beneath the leafy canopy of the Amazon and listened to Haydn. It excited these strangely colored birds of the rain forest just as much as it had Claudia's parakeets. He reached over to the portable CD player and turned up the volume. The birds went wild. Lestat laughed and laughed.
Louis walked through the deluge to a ledge beneath the waterfall and sat there. The roar of the water was almost deafening, but at least it drowned out Lestat's incessant Haydn CDs. He said it reminded him of Claudia. Louis had read the manuscript of his latest book when they had first arrived in the jungles. Apparently Lestat had had visions of their daughter. Louis was a bit disappointed. Why did she appear to everyone but him? Of course, both Lestat and Jessica swore that it wasn't real, yet they described each encounter with such detail and clarity. Louis wondered if they were lying for his benefit. He supposed that she might purposefully stay away from him, to punish him. She hadn't wanted to stay in Paris. "Louis, I am in danger!' she'd said. But he didn't listen. Louis laid down on the smooth cool rock and re-lived those last moments, as he had so many times. 'I hope that when you have need of me you can find me,' she'd said. 'That I can get back to you . . .I've hurt you so often. I've caused you so much pain.' her last words, almost as if she knew. But she couldn't have. 'I hope that when you have need of me you can find me . . .' 'I hope that when you have need of me you can find me . . .' 'I hope that when you have need of me you can find me . . .'
David saw the giant anaconda slither through the branches of a tall tree. It was twenty metres if it was an inch! This was the largest beast he'd ever encountered.
The anaconda's head came up and it opened it's jaws. Fangs like daggers it had, but they were benign, that is to say, not filled with poison. The anaconda's habit was strangulation of it's victim within it's endless muscled coils. David climbed the tree after the snake. This would be a true challenge. The old adrenaline rush he used to feel when stalking a big cat flushed through him, enlivening every nerve. The creature felt the vibration on the tree. David saw it's huge head turn towards him. He made the first move, leaping at the reptile and grabbing it's jaws in his hands. The tail instantly whipped around him, five, six, seven, eight times. It held him tightly and began to squeeze. Of course, it's strength was inhuman, but David knew that his own strength was far beyond human as well. He threw the head as hard as he could away from him and grabbed the first coil, pulling it away from his body and over his head. The bottom coils grew tighter. David began to feel the pressure on his ribcage. He pulled the second coil loose. The anaconda thrashed it's tail and brought them both to the ground with a tremendous thump. The coils went slack for a split second and David kicked his way free. The snake gathered itself together and poised to strike. David ran at it with blinding speed and punched it with all of his might right between the eyes. The snakes's head fell to the ground, dazed or dead. David grabbed the inert snake and with some effort tied it in a large intricate knot. He thought idly of sending it express post to Talbot Manor. He could hang it in the study, between the serval and the lion, perhaps. But no, there could be no explanation for it, and the poor servant who opened the package would probably have a heart attack besides.
David checked the anaconda for signs of life. Nothing to be found. Ah, well, it had been an extremely satisfying fight and kill, anyway. He almost walked off, in search of more adventure when a though occurred to him. He checked the snake once more, definitely dead. He shouldered the pretzeled reptile and took to the air. He dropped it in the middle of a nearby village. They could do as they wished with it. Eat it, if it was edible, or at least make legends out of it if it was not.
Lestat shut off the CD player as David came through the trees. "The mighty hunter returns!"
David chuckled as he leaned down to kiss Lestat. "Where is Louis?"
"Off," Lestat waved a hand at the jungle. "Who knows."
"Did the two of you fight?" David settled beside Lestat, in front of the Coleman stove.
"No, in fact, we didn't even talk. He walked right past me without saying a word."
"I think the Haydn bothers him, Lestat."
"Don't be ridiculous, David, Louis has always liked Haydn."
"I think since you have been talking of Claudia, it has taken on a sad dimension for him."
"Oh David, Louis adds a sad dimension to everything," Lestat sighed dramatically.
"Lestat, why have you been playing the Haydn so much?"
Lestat looked away. "I suppose we should go and find Louis."
"Lestat?"
Lestat rose into the air without answering David.
Louis didn't hear Lestat approach him through the waterfall. He felt a kiss on his forehead and opened his eyes. "Lestat," he smiled.
"Louis, what are you doing off all by yourself this way? We missed you," Lestat scolded.
Louis sat up and put his arms around Lestat, resting his head on Lestat's shoulder.
"Louis what is it? What's wrong, cheri?" Lestat gently pulled him back to gaze into his dark and soulful green eyes.
Louis smiled again and shook his head. "Nothing. It's nothing, 'Stat. Just weary, I suppose."
"Then you should come back home, David is waiting for us."
Louis nodded. Lestat took hold of him and flew through the waterfall, toward home.
Home was in the deepest chambers of a subterranean cave, well hidden from the sun. It was well stocked with all of the supplies David had ordered. There were two pallets and a double hammock for sleeping. Lanterns, candles and a camp stove for heat and light. Piles of books, which seemed to be ubiquitous with these three, cameras, CDs, cell phones and al sorts of other necessities were housed in the cave. In three separate piles were their extra clothes, all made of sturdy canvass and all in various shades of green. The first night, as the three vampires sat around the camp stove, making plans for the next night, David had looked them over and exclaimed in mock horror, "Good God, it looks like a Girl Guides meeting!"
"Interesting alliteration, David," Lestat had laughed.
"What are Girl Guides?" Louis had asked.
"British Girl Scouts, cher," Lestat told him.
"Actually Girl Scouts are American Girl Guides," David commented. Louis hadn't thought it necessary to communicate the fact that , aside from a vague cookie connection, he was unsure of what a Girl Scout was as well.
Tonight, David was busy recording his latest kill in minute and graphic detail. "Ah, hello chaps!"
"Hello David," Louis knelt and kissed David's cheeks. "What daring feat did you accomplish tonight?"
"The Giant Anaconda!" David declared.
"A reptile?" Louis asked with obvious distaste.
"Yes, of course, why not?" David looked puzzled.
"Well, David, reptiles can be . . .unpleasant," Louis knelt down, close to the fire of the stove.
"I don't follow you," David shook his head.
"He means the act of drinking, the experience, the reptilian images flooding one's mind. Didn't you find it disgusting?" Lestat asked, settling down beside David.
"No, actually I found it to be very interesting, quite invigorating in a way, the simplification of the thoughts to only hunt and kill, eat and mate, sleep and wake, clears the mind tremendously," David answered.
Louis and Lestat looked at each other in disbelief.
David laughed, "I take it your experiences weren't as enjoyable."
"That would be an understatement," Lestat answered him.
Louis popped the Haydn CD out of the player and returned it to it's case. "Lestat, tell me again about the visions," He asked softly.
"Non, Louis," Lestat said. "No more. I should never have told you about them the first time. They were only wild imaginings, I've told you. They mean nothing."
"But how can you be certain of that? Supernatural contact is possible! David, you have experienced it, have you not?" Louis implored.
"Louis," David answered. "I have had contact with spirits, yes. The Talamasca has files and files of encounters between living persons and the dead. But that doesn't mean that Lestat's experience is any more valid than the vision you had of Claudia in the Cathedral, when she was still alive, don't you see that?"
Louis had no heart to argue the point with them. They thought of him as some sad creature grasping at straws in his grief. They wouldn't look at the facts. If it was only a dream, why was Lestat suddenly obsessed with Haydn? Why would Jesse, who was no stranger to unusual phenomena, have seen the little girl? She wasn't an hysteric. Whose voice had Jesse heard on the phone at the townhouse? Why would no one discuss it with him? Louis said nothing, but went to his pile of books and opened a copy of Byron's poems.
They chain'd us each to a column stone,
And we were three - yet each alone,
We could not move a single pace,
We could not see each other's face,
But with that pale and livid light
That made us strangers in our sight.
Louis closed his eyes and slept.
A Jungle Nocturne - Chapter Two
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