- Immediately following the final scene of Interview With A Vampire -

Wrapping his long white fingers over the steering wheel, Lestat couldn't help but give a contended hum deep in his throat. Fresh human blood on his tongue was a sensation he had gone entirely too long without. With a tug he adjusted the mouldered cuff of his sleeve, deciding that an update to his wardrobe ranked fairly highly on the list of priorities. Before that though Lestat had something much more interesting to attend to...

After adjusting the radio of the car off of his old companion Louis's melodramatic whining, he turned his attention to the driver-turned-passenger. The student who called himself Daniel Molloy lay with his head lolling sluggishly on the seat, blood leaking sluggishly from the puncture wound in his neck. Lestat licked his lips, tasting the young human's essence once again with relish. When he tried to reach out to touch his victim though, Daniel recoiled against the passenger door.

"Don't be afraid." Lestat purred, withdrawing his hand and once again focussing on the road. Far from deterred, he tossed his head triumphantly. "I'm going to give you the choice that I never had."

Whether this mollified or frightened Daniel, the vampire couldn't say. His eyelashes fluttering, the twenty-six year old student went back to once again trying to decide if he were going to faint or remain conscious. Considering the interview he'd just conducted, Lestat should think Daniel would be glad of their current circumstances. His vampiric sense of hearing had allowed him to listen in on the entire conversation, even though Louis and Daniel had been on the second floor while Lestat hunkered in the back of Daniel's little red convertible. At the end, when Daniel had practically begged Louis to turn him into a vampire like himself it had been sweet, sweet music to Lestat's ears.

It had almost been no surprise when Louis had refused the human's wish. Shaking his head of mussed blonde hair, Lestat had watched the younger vampire flee out the window far too quickly for any mortal to follow. Poor Louis; after all these years he still clung to his precious guilt like a mother to their child. Thank heavens Louis was so damned beautiful, otherwise Lestat would have tired of long ago...probably even before they found that horrid child Claudia. That didn't matter now though; Lestat had a new playmate in mind.

Pulling over off the road some ways beyond the bridge, Lestat guided the little car onto a dead-end path that terminated beside the river. The lights of the bridge and the city beyond hurt his sensitive blue eyes, but it was something he had to adjust to. After so many years of lurking in that decrepit old house beside the cemetery Lestat was ready to embrace the night life of this modern age.

A moan broke the warm evening air like a siren call to the vampire. With a cat-like smile Lestat once again turned the full force of his attention on the mortal beside him. Daniel had gone nearly as pale as himself, and Lestat decided it was a tone that suited the young man. Leaning over so that his face was very close to Daniel's Lestat blew on those fluttering eyelids to snap them open.

"Wake up my friend, we are here."

With a valiant effort to raise his head which provoked a fresh flow of blood from the bite wounds, Daniel shuddered. "Wh...where...is...h...here?"

"Shhhh...shhhhh." Lestat crooned, laying a hand on the hair that trembled on its owners head. "No need for questions. You need only think about one thing right now."

Although Daniel was too weak to avoid the vampire's touch, he managed to keep his eyes open long enough to get a good look at Lestat in the gloom. The rush of the river nearby drowned out the sound of traffic, and Daniel doubted that anyone would have heard him if he were to shout. Not that that would likely do much good; Daniel had heard enough about the speed and strength of vampires from his interview with Louis that evening.

Swallowing hard did little to clear his hoarse voice, which nearly cracked when Daniel spoke again. "And what's th...that one thing?"

"Oh, I think you know, Daniel." Lestat smiled in a way that was both horrible and charming at the same time. "After all, you were just a few minutes ago begging my old friend Louis to grant you the same thing."

When Daniel had asked that the green-eyed man who called himself a vampire to make him into one as well, he had been caught up in the flush of a story hundreds of years in the making. Now that the reality of it was sitting in the driver's seat of his car only inches away, Daniel couldn't help but feel himself go cold all over. A sweat broke out on his forehead under Lestat's clammy hand and he squirmed.

Lestat leaned in even closer, so that their noses were practically touching. Daniel caught the coppery scent of his own blood on Lestat's breath. "Either way, it's just the truth of it that you will not be leaving this riverbank alive. I can either finish my meal..." Those shocking blue eyes flickered over the oozing bite marks on Daniel's neck with a clear hunger. "...and send your body floating down the river. Or, I can give you the Dark Gift." Those pale fingers ghosted down the side of Daniel's face in a stroking motion, coming to rest under his chin. "But I must hear the answer from your lips."

Unable to look away, Daniel was caught in Lestat's piercing gaze. The window roller pressing into his back, the throbbing pain of the bite, the coolness of the vampire's touch, it all seemed very far away. Maybe it was knowing that Lestat would kill him either way that made the decision easier.

"...I want..." The words seemed to stick in his throat. Daniel had to swallow hard and try again. "I want to be...what you are."

Lestat barely even gave him time enough to finish his sentence. With a lunge that made the small car shake, the vampire pounced on its prey. There wasn't even time enough to register the second bite; one moment Daniel was sealing his fate with his words, the next he was seeing the lights of the bridge across the river in a haze over Lestat's shoulder. The sound of his life's essence being gulped down with ravenous greed was unnaturally loud, or maybe it was his adrenaline-soaked brain that was amplifying it. Lestat had his hands wrapped tightly around the mortal, pinning his arms to his side and his body against the door of the car. All that Daniel could get his increasingly numb mind to think of was how strong the slender looking immortal was.

When Lestat finally raised his mouth from Daniel's neck, the student was so far gone that his head flopped back like a rag-doll's against the doorframe. There was a faint buzzing in his ears, and he couldn't focus on anything. The whole world felt cold, as cold as Lestat's wiry arms holding him pinned.

Suddenly, something warm hit his lips. It came in drops, one at a time. Without even registering what was happening, Daniel's mouth hung open and that warm liquid fell in to slither down his throat.

Lestat held his bleeding wrist over the limp human's face, allowing the ruby drops to rain down. For a brief moment, he worried that he had perhaps gone too far. Such had been his hunger that he simply hadn't been able to resist drinking nearly his fill from Daniel. The man's heart still beat though; Lestat could feel it struggling to pump the blood that by now was of insufficient quantity to keep Daniel alive. Wait until the heart encountered this, Lestat thought to himself, continuing to feed his newest creation from his wrist. That will be the final straw, and the end of its pitiful struggle to sustain mortal life.

Sure enough, Lestat's silent concerns were laid to rest when Daniel stirred in his grip. Slowly, stiffly, he leaned up with the guiding help of Lestat's arm to reach for the source of that crimson essence. Lestat let Daniel grip his wrist and pull it to his searching mouth. He wanted to watch and see in what manner his new companion would feed for the very first time. Louis had been tentative at first, then insistent until his damnable conscience had finally kicked in. Claudia on the other hand (damn her) had been voracious, clinging to Lestat's arm and gluttonously gulping down blood even as the vampire had had to fight her off.

The touch of Daniel's smooth lips on Lestat's wrist made him sigh, and he embraced the sensation of blood being drawn out of the slit he had made. The man's eyes were open now, and Lestat watched with interest as Daniel drank. If he didn't know better, Lestat would say Daniel tasted the vampiric blood in the same way one would appreciate a smooth drink of quality. Unlike Louis and like Claudia, Daniel's gaze never left Lestat's, which sent a somewhat nervous chill down the Brat Prince's spine. Lestat found himself fascinated with watching Daniel drink. He wanted to observe the sensual act forever even though he knew very soon he would have to tear himself free or risk his own survival.

Unlike Claudia and like Louis though, Daniel in the end tore himself free of the bloody fountain. Gasping, he fell back against the car door, his eyes so wide that the whites showed clearly. Something felt very, very wrong within his chest. Undoing more buttons at the top of his shirt, Daniel struggled to breathe. The taste of Lestat's blood was all over the inside of his mouth, on his lips, down his throat. It burned like fire in his belly now though, when only moments ago it had been like the elixir of life.

Watching Daniel's death throes with interest, Lestat held his arm as the skin knit quickly together. "Don't fight it, my friend. Embrace it...you're being reborn to something far greater." Leaning right over so that he whispered the words into Daniel's ear, Lestat smiled. "Into something dark and wonderful."

It was over in seconds rather than minutes. Eyes glazing over, the student's body had gone limp and completely without movement. Lestat could even hear from where he was sitting behind the steering wheel as the final struggling beats of Daniel's heart passed. Then, the beautiful change began to make itself known.

Skin that had been pale from blood-loss now smoothed and became like alabaster stone. The mussed chestnut hair took on an unnatural but not quite vibrant sheen and blue veins etched themselves out clearly around the edges of Daniel's face. It was the eyes that Lestat liked best though; they reminded him of Armand's. Lost somewhere between blood-red with yellow edges and gold with amber edges, those newborn vampire eyes were both beautiful and predatory.

Sitting up slowly, smoothly, Daniel looked first at Lestat and then at the night around him. Lestat watched as his new creation took in the beauty of darkness with a self-satisfied grin. He realized now that creating Louis had perhaps not been the best of ideas. The plantation master from Louisiana had been depressed, melancholy, accepting the Dark Gift only for the sake of the release from living that it gave him. Seeing Daniel Molloy silently take to vampirism like a fish to water, Lestat could tell that this one had wanted the Dark Gift for its own sake.

When Daniel finally stopped ogling at the use of his newly enhanced senses and returned his attention to Lestat, the older vampire could see a familiar gleam in those entrancing eyes. Even when he straightened his shirt and vest, Daniel's eyes never left Lestat's. It was as though Daniel was reading his maker like a newspaper, and it both unsettled and thrilled Lestat.

"...I need more." He said slowly, the hunger burning behind every word. Newborn vampires could be positively voracious.

Turning the key in the ignition, Lestat patted his new protégée's shoulder. "Not to worry, dear one. We'll find you something sweet..." He stopped short when Daniel's pale hand shot out and grabbed the clutch before Lestat could shift it into gear.

"This is my car." Was all Daniel said, but the pointed look he gave Lestat spoke volumes.

With a playful smirk, the Brat Prince traded places with his companion. Daniel must have been ravenous, but clearly that did not mean he intended to let Lestat take both the literal and proverbial driver's seat. Humming a Chopin aria, Lestat grinned to himself as the convertible turned back onto the main road and headed back over the bridge into the heart of the city.

This would be a night to remember.