DISCLAIMER: This work of speculative fiction is not meant to infringe upon the rights of the author of the Vampire Chronicles, Knopf Publishing, Random House Books, Fritzel's European Jazz Pub, Oz, Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, Café Lafitte in Exile, Galatoire's Restaurant, The Old Absinthe House Bar, The Jazz Café, The New Orleans Saints, the NOPD or The City of New Orleans. No money will be made from this work. Aftermath and Side Effects
by
DarkAngel
12 juin 2000
Rating: R for Language
Characters: Daniel and Louis
SPOILERS: Major Spoilers for TVA
French/English Glossary
* * * * * * *
Daniel sat backwards in the heavy wrought iron chair, 'cemetery furniture' Louis called it. The rest of the world called it patio furniture and in the rest of the world, it was plastic. They were in the back courtyard of the townhouse in the Rue Royale. The fragrance of flowers was heavy in the air. Daniel could identify the scent of roses, but he couldn't name the exotics melding with it to create the night's perfume. They had been talking, but for the moment Daniel ignored his companion, staring up at the stars as if answers could be found there. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"So, Armand's not dead."
"Armand is most certainly not dead," Louis answered.
"And Lestat is back to his old self?" Daniel turned his gaze back to Louis.
"Well," Louis changed position on his chair, crossed his legs, "Lestat is ambulatory. Beyond that I don't know. I haven't actually spoken with him."
"You haven't?" Daniel was surprised.
"No. He rose and went to Marius's house to hear the girl fledgling play the piano. He must have heard it when he was lying on the floor of the chapel. I suppose it must be what roused him." Louis pushed his hair out of his eyes with a little shrug.
"And Marius made her and another?" Daniel shook his head, disbelieving.
"Yes. A boy child, twelve."
"TWELVE?!" Daniel burst out.
"Twelve," Louis confirmed.
"My God. Is he insane?"
Louis lifted one eyebrow slightly. "Marius or the boy?"
Daniel gave him a little grin. "Marius."
"I think it is a definite possibility."
Daniel stood up and walked over to the Queen's Wreath which was climbing up the wall of the townhouse. He snapped off a bloom. "Anything of anyone else?"
Louis paused for a moment's thought. "Pandora is at Marius's, as well."
"So everyone is at Marius's?"
"Everyone but myself . . .and you at the moment."
Daniel walked back over to his chair and threw the flower on the table. "And in this book, Armand said he hated me?"
"He said that he could not stand you, and that you cannot stand him," Louis clarified.
"That little bastard," Daniel said quietly, as he sat back down.
"Hmm, yes," Louis commented. He noticed that there was more hurt than anger in Daniel's voice, but the anger was definitely there.
Daniel looked at Louis, "And he did this, why?"
"Partially because David asked him to, but Armand says he agreed to it for Benjy and Sybelle."
"The fledglings."
"Yes."
"Marius's fledglings."
"Yes."
Daniel rubbed his forehead, to relieve the headache all of this was giving him. "And the whole book was bizarre?"
"I found it to be so, yes. He remembered his early mortal life. His name was Andrei. He was an icon painter in Kiev. He spent some time in a monastery there, the Monastery of the Caves. The brothers followed a strict rule which taught that they were called by God to bury themselves completely in the earth. The remaining monks, who had not yet been called or made the decision, Armand included, would go about uncovering each monk's face and, if he was still alive, give him a little water, and then cover his face again."
"Well, that is morbidly grotesque." Daniel looked ill.
"Not a garden I would like to tend, certainly. It does explain a bit about Armand, though, don't you think?"
"Yeah, like why he is so warped." Daniel picked up the flower and began methodically shredding the petals into tiny pieces.
"That would be one way of putting it, I suppose." Louis smiled a little.
Daniel got up and dropped the mangled flower under the nearest banana plant. He roamed the small courtyard garden restlessly, smelling a rose here, pulling at a leaf there. Finally he stopped and stood staring out the back gate. "How old was he when they were doing this to him?"
"That was difficult for me to determine. His age before he was given the blood never seems to be clearly defined, and he seems much older when he was kidnapped that the impression he gave Lestat. Then he said that he didn't know where he lived and that he barely knew the name Mother -"
"'And these were the southern steppes of Russia, but Armand didn't know that it was Russia,'" Daniel interrupted, quoting the words from The Vampire Lestat. "'He knew Mother and Father and Church and God and Satan, but he didn't even understand the name of home, or the name of his language or that the horsemen who carried him away were Tartars and that he would never see anything that he knew or loved again.'"
Louis was quiet for a moment, respecting Daniel's thoughts and whatever memories he might be reliving. "Yes," he said finally, "but in the version he told David he was speaking and painting and riding a horse. He was the best shot in his family and had been hunting with his father since he was four years old."
"Maybe he remembered it wrong," Daniel suggested.
"Perhaps," Louis said mildly.
Daniel turned and walked back to Louis. "Maybe he was putting David on."
"It is always a possibility," Louis acknowledged diplomatically.
"Maybe he's really lost it," Daniel said quietly.
Louis stood and put his hand on Daniel's shoulder. "Come inside, I'll give you the book."
Daniel looked at Louis for a moment, then grasped his arm and nodded. Louis led him up the back stairs to the entrance of the flat, and held the door open for him.
Daniel walked through the pristine kitchen. There was a coffee grinder in the table, its lid open, half full of coffee beans. "Making coffee?"
"I was, yes." Louis closed and locked the door.
"Shouldn't drink that stuff, it'll keep you up all night," Daniel grinned.
Louis almost laughed. "I'll take that into consideration."
They walked into the double parlour and Louis opened his desk drawer to retrieve the book. He turned to Daniel who was sitting on the cream silk sofa, facing the kitchen. "You might want to sit over there instead, it is much more comfortable."
Daniel moved to the red velvet divan across the room. "Hey, this is nice!" He bounced on the cushions a few times, stepped out of his shoes and put his feet up. "Why on earth do you keep that one?" Daniel pointed to the cream silk.
Louis rolled his eyes and sighed, "Lestat liked the look of it." He handed Daniel the book.
"Am I going to find any other delightful surprises in here?" Daniel went to open the book, but found he was holding it upside down. Understandable, since the cover art was an inexplicably inverted image of Botticelli's Mercury from Primavera.
"There are a few. I don't know that I should ruin it all for you."
"Right, Louis." Daniel opened the book, took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then began to read.
Louis walked into the kitchen to finish the coffee. He ground the dark roasted beans and poured the grounds into a cup and added chicory root to the grinder. After grinding that and adding it to the coffee, he put the mixture into a percolator, added water and let it brew. The rich aroma filled the house, which was of course, why Louis had made it. When the coffee stopped perking, he poured two cups and carried them out to the parlour. He set one down on the table beside Daniel, noting that he was more than half way through the book, and that he had a sad expression on his face. Louis opted not to interrupt him, and took a seat on a chair opposite to Daniel, warming his hands on his cup of coffee and reading the Times-Picayune while he waited for Daniel to finish. Daniel, blessed with vampiric speed reading, took only another fifteen minutes to finish the book. He closed it, and put his head in his hands.
Louis put the paper down, alarmed. "Daniel? Are you alright?"
Daniel nodded. "I'm alright," he said, his voice muffled against his hands. "I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I'm alright."
Louis crossed the room and knelt by Daniel, patting his hand, "I understand how you feel."
Daniel sat up and put his feet on the floor, motioning for Louis to sit beside him. "It just doesn't sound like Armand at all."
"I know."
"Is this what he is like now?"
"He is . . . different than before. But then, judging by this memoir," Louis took the book and laid it on the table before them, "I didn't know him very well before."
"Join the club. I can't believe he did those things to Claudia!"
Louis reacted like he'd been slapped, wincing and turning his head away quickly.
Daniel realized his blunder immediately. "Oh, God, I'm sorry Louis."
"No," Louis covered his eyes with one hand. "No, don't apologize. I'm just . . ." Louis wiped tears from his eyes. "It was quite a shock for me. It seems that I haven't quite recovered."
"Well, thinking before I speak has never been one of my strong points," Daniel grinned at Louis, hoping to elicit a similar response.
Louis gave Daniel a small smile. "You know, I don't believe that it happened."
Daniel was surprised, but he kept his voice neutral. "I can see where it'd be hard to accept."
"No, I mean it couldn't have happened that way," Louis pressed. "There wasn't time, you see. She was never awake any longer than I. It didn't take more that forty minutes at most for them to lock me in the coffin and wall me up. He still would have had to finish and get her out before dawn or he would have been burnt and I would have noticed that the next night. There simply wasn't enough time from the point at which we were separated until dawn for him to . . . to . . . to do all those things he said."
Daniel wrinkled his brows, "Are you sure Louis? Armand can move pretty fast."
"Yes, but . . . but he couldn't . . . I mean, it would take time to adhere . . . to attach . . . and then to see if . . . if she . . ." Louis's eyes had filled with tears again. He had to stop speaking as his throat closed against the sobs that wanted to come.
"Okay, okay, yeah, I see what you mean." Daniel reached out an put his hand on Louis's back. It made Daniel feel a little better that someone else had been as hurt by Armand as himself. Was that sick or just empathetic? "You're right. I understand."
Louis closed his eyes and pressed his fist against his mouth hard. Daniel patted his back. Then a reddish tear fell from one eye. Daniel pulled Louis close and stroked his hair. "I know, Louis," he murmured, "I know, I know."
Louis relaxed a moment, resting his weight against Daniel. It felt good, so good. He straightened himself and rubbed his eyes. "It is the first time I've spoken of this to anyone. It's overwhelming."
"S'okay Lou. It is," Daniel picked the book up from the table and tossed it into the burning fireplace. They watched in silence as the ugly, bug-eyed boy darkened, then turned to ash.
"So, " Daniel said finally. "Now what?"
"I don't know."
"Are you waiting for Lestat?"
The pages curled and blazed, writhing in the heat.
"Waiting for him to do what?"
Daniel chuckled, "I don't know, come and see you."
"Not anymore." Louis watched the flames lick at the edges of the back cover. "Are you going to see Armand?"
"Hmmm," The binding glue caught and sent acrid black smoke up the chimney. "I intended to, but maybe not."
"You are welcome to stay here as long as you like."
"Thanks, Lou."
"You're welcome, Dan," Louis emphasized the nickname, to show feigned irritation at Daniel for referring to him as 'Lou'. It was a joke between them.
Daniel watched the flames lick what was left of the back cover. "So are we outcasts or something now?"
Louis retrieved his coffee and warmed his hands. "I honestly don't know. I do not think that if you went to Marius's they would turn you away."
"Would they turn you away?"
"No, I wouldn't be turned away either."
"Then why don't you go?"
Louis sighed. He put his cup down and ran a hand back through his silky, black hair. "Because," he said finally, "it was hard enough to sit and stare at Lestat every night, hoping he would acknowledge me, and possibly even talk to me, while he was comatose on the chapel floor. I do not think I could endure waiting for him to notice me while he was involved with someone else. If he wanted me, Daniel, he would have come to me. He knew where I was, and our town house is much closer than Marius's house. He knows where I am now. He obviously doesn't want me. He doesn't need me. Whatever he does need, he is able to get from them. I really don't know Marius or Pandora well. As you read, Armand classified me as 'easily found and easily abandoned', so I doubt that he is holding his breath until he sees me again. There is nothing for me there, and I would feel uncomfortable and in their way."
"I understand," Daniel nodded. "It is just like Lestat said, 'vampires don't really like others of their kind'."
"No, I don't think that is true. I do not dislike them at all, truly."
"But nothing lasts with us, not even friendship. One minute Armand was the love of my life, and the next he had sold the island and disappeared. I haven't heard from him since; not a word, not a regret, nothing. As if we'd never been together at all."
"Ah, yes, I see what you mean, undependable, unstable."
"Exactly."
"Easily distracted, I suppose. But I did try to warn you. I tried to explain what it was like."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I should have gotten the hint when you tried to kill me."
Louis didn't answer. Instead he picked up his coffee cup and Daniel's and took them into the kitchen. Daniel followed.
"Did you really not know if I would live or die, Louis?"
Louis emptied the coffee cups into the sink. "I really did not know."
"Didn't you care?"
Louis poured two more cups of coffee and handed Daniel one. "Do you care if the mortals you drink from live or die?"
"Don't answer my question with a question."
"I didn't care about much at that particular moment, non."
Daniel pulled a kitchen chair out and straddled it. "Why did you do it?"
"Drink from you?"
"You're stalling."
Louis leaned back against the sink and regarded Daniel steadily, thinking about his reply. "In order to show you what it means to be a killer. To show you that there is no romance in murder. You had become enchanted by me, spellbound, in fact. And you had fallen in love with the idea of vampiric immortality. That was wrong. That was not what I had intended at all. The dawn was coming fast for me. That was the best way I knew of, in the time that I had, to demonstrate to you what I really was. I wanted you to understand that though I had opened myself to you and told you my story, I could still betray you. I wanted to show you that I was cold and unfeeling, that you were nothing more than food to me, and that this is the ugliness that is the core of all vampires. You wanted to become a vampire, I wanted to make you understand what kind of a monster you aspired to be."
"Didn't work," Daniel said, holding the coffee cup to his face and letting the steam warm him.
"You are a slow learner, " Louis answered him.
"I think you were just trying to cover your ass," Daniel said, angrily.
"Oh?" Louis answered, unperturbed.
"Yes, I think you realized that I actually believed you, and it began to dawn on you what you had done, that you had told the world all about you, and Lestat and Armand, and I think you panicked!" Daniel stood up and approached Louis, "I think you wanted me to die!" Daniel poked Louis in the chest hard with one finger. "You wanted me to die, but you FAILED!"
Louis didn't move, but to look pointedly at Daniel's finger against his chest, "Daniel, to quote your hero, Lestat, I am not strong enough for the little drink. How could I have failed? I wouldn't be able to pull away until you we're as nearly dead as possible."
"Lestat lies!"
"Oui, c'est vrai. But still, you must realize that I stopped myself before you had experienced a significant loss of blood. Your heart had barely even slowed. I admit, you could have died, but if I had wanted to kill you, it would have been far easier to continue drinking until just before your heart stopped, when you would have no chance of survival. Far easier and far more pleasurable."
Daniel's hand dropped to his side. "So what are you saying, that you didn't want to kill me?"
"I've answered that already."
Daniel was quiet for a moment, digesting this information.
Louis watched him, finally breaking the silence with a question. "Have you fed this evening?"
"Huh?" Daniel roused himself from thought.
"I said, have you fed this evening?"
"Um, no. No, not really."
"You should."
"Oh, right, like you're one to talk. You do realize that you are the only vampire anorexic, don't you?"
Louis smiled at the jibe. "Come, go with me."
Daniel stood up and pushed the chair back under the table. "Let's do Bourbon Street."
"Are you looking to get drunk?"
"Always."
"I see." Louis led the way out the door and towards Daniel's destination.
As they crossed Orleans Street, Daniel asked, "So, do you see them around, the others?"
"No, but I suppose that they would see me first."
"You think they're avoiding you?"
"That isn't what I said. I would not know if they were avoiding me or not. I only know that I do not see them around, and that does not mean that they do not see me."
"You're awfully defensive tonight."
"So are you Daniel, as well as a bit paranoid, if I may be allowed to make such an observation."
"Don't get formal with me, Lou. I'm really in no mood for it."
"Look, Dan," Louis took him by the arm and turned to face him. "We are both in an unpleasant humor, and I have been as patient as I can be with you. I understand how you must feel after reading Armand's book, but I have been living with this situation for nearly a year, and it isn't easy and it's not likely to get easier. So either stop attacking me, or find someone else to vent your anger upon. Comprends?"
Daniel noticed the dangerous sparks in Louis's dark green eyes. "Whoa," he said, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. "Okay, I've been a little out of line. I'm sorry. You're right, I don't understand what's going on with Armand, and I'm pissed off, and I've been taking it out on you. I apologize, okay?" Daniel dropped his hands and held one out to Louis. "Truce?"
Louis looked at the hand for a moment. He took a deep breath and then nodded. "Détente," he said, shaking Daniel's hand.
They continued walking until they reached Bourbon, which was teeming with people, as usual. Daniel followed Louis into a small, beige and green bar. The decor was unusual for New Orleans, tacky German. Tacky Gothic, tacky French, tacky Tacky - those you expect, but tacky German? And what's with the fireplace when it's ninety degrees in the shade?
"What the hell is this?" Daniel asked.
Before Louis could answer, two leggy blondes pushed their way between the two vampires. One fingered Louis's hair, while the other molded herself to Daniel. She said something, but Daniel only caught "hübsch" and "hinterbacken".
"Did she just say I had a nice ass?" he whispered to Louis.
Louis ignored him and addressed the girl who had attached herself to Daniel. He smiled, without showing his fangs and replied in German. Daniel understood "fraulein" and "preis".
Daniel was shocked. "You're buying her?!"
Louis took the other girl's hand from his hair and kissed it gallantly. "Ich bin kostspielig, fraulein," he said, shaking his head no.
The girl gave him a pretty frown and walked over to Daniel, she cupped his rear in her hand and asked Louis something about "Deutschmarks?"
"Drei Hundert," Louis said.
"Fünfzig," countered the girl.
"Zwei Hundert," said Louis.
"Hundert und fünfzig," said the girl attached to Daniel.
"Jesus, Louis, you gonna tell me what's going on or what?!" Daniel demanded.
The girls backed off and looked displeased at the outburst.
"Fünfzig," Louis said, sighing.
The girl who'd had her hand on Daniel's ass shook her head. "Nein, Zwanzig."
"Dreißig," Louis answered her.
"Nein! Zwanzig!"
"Zwanzig und fünf."
"NEIN! ZWANZIG!"
Louis folded his arms and shook his head. "Zwanzig und fünf."
The girl imitated his gesture, "Zwanzig."
Louis held his stance a bit longer, then dropped his arms. "Ja, ja, Zwanzig," he accepted.
The girls smiled triumphantly at each other and pawed at Daniel. One pulled the money out of her purse and handed it to Louis.
"Danke," Louis said to the girl. He turned to Daniel and handed him the money. "This is what you are worth on the going market, mon ami."
"How much is this in American dollars?" Daniel asked, counting through the bills.
"This week? About ten."
"You sold my body for TEN BUCKS?! You bastard!" Daniel threw the money at him.
Louis laughed and retrieved it, handing it back to the girls. They looked confused.
"Well, Daniel, I am going to sit down and listen to some music. Are you staying, or going with them?" Louis asked.
"Well . . .," Daniel considered, looking at the girls. "They do WANT me . . ."
A band took the tiny stage and the bar was filled with the deafening sound of Dixieland Jazz.
"See ya later, Lou," Daniel said, taking each girl by the hand.
"Wiedersehen, Daniel."
Part Two
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