Chapter Text
Louis
Louis woke up in his coffin, stretching out with a yawn, Lestat already awake beside him, hair messy from sleep, his expression fond as he looked at Louis. Louis was practically on top of Lestat, having gone to sleep on his side and now finding himself half-sprawled over Lestat’s chest.
“It always bears repeating, you are allowed to get up when you wake up,” Louis teased, tucking a wayward strand of blonde hair behind his ear, “you don’t have to wait for me”
“But mon cher? To miss out on this?” Lestat asked
Lestat kissed him, bringing their lips together in a greedy clash, and biting gently into Louis’s lower lip, drawing a little welling of blood. Hmm.. it was a nice way to wake up, Louis acknowledged to himself as he wound his hands into Lestat’s hair, finding purchase at the back of Lestat’s head, as Louis deepened the kiss. Louis ran his tongue along Lestat’s fangs, not hard enough to draw blood, and Lestat made an attempt to bite down on his tongue to rectify that but Louis was quicker, darting it back teasingly and laughing into the kiss. Lestat groaned, pulling their bodies closer together, and Louis got lost in the way Lestat’s hands were gripping his hips before he reluctantly drew back from the kiss.
“Mmm, no, we said we’d be at Grace’s tonight,” Louis said breathlessly, “we need to go soon”
“You’re breaking my heart,” Lestat said plaintively
“You’ll break Frances’s heart if you’re not there to help her with her scales,” Louis pointed out, tapping him gently on the chest and making a target of Lestat’s soft spot with ease
“Okay, Louis, we can’t have that,” Lestat said with a sigh, pushing up the coffin lid
Louis kissed him, just a gentle press of the lips, and Lestat was easily mollified. They climbed out of the coffin, dressing for the night.
“But later tonight?” Lestat asked
“Later tonight, after we hunt,” Louis agreed
Lestat
It was foolish to cling to mortal attachments as a vampire. Louis’s insistence on maintaining his connection with his family had once seemed like a foolish thing to Lestat.
Well, Lestat was the fool now, wasn’t he? He’d been dragged into Louis’s human foolishness.
First, there had been Grace. It had been strategic, initially, for Lestat. Louis had still been human, Louis could still have walked away at any moment, and so bringing Grace deeper into their lives was a way of further entangling them. There was also an advantage present in being able to read Grace’s mind, providing a new avenue of insight into Louis, which meant that she was valuable to keep around. That Lestat found himself liking her was besides the point. Grace was a means to an end and the fact that she appreciated good music, could hold her own in any conversation and had a similar sense of humor to Louis was all besides the point. Lestat wasn’t entirely sure when he started feeling reluctantly fond of her or started accidentally considering her something akin to a friend. You didn’t make friends with mortals. You didn’t become close to mortals. It ended badly for everyone involved. It hadn’t yet. But it was only a matter of time.
Louis’s transformation also hadn’t caused the wedge over the last several years that Lestat had once assumed was a tragic but unavoidable consequence. Louis had forewarned Grace, as best he could with metaphor and dancing around the subject, and when it finally happened-
Louis had hesitantly told Lestat about how seeing Grace had gone. Louis’s initial terrible overwhelming panic. Perhaps if Louis had waited longer before seeing her, had waited several weeks or months instead, he wouldn’t have had such a strong reaction but Louis had needed to see her. And Grace had calmed him down. Lestat had listened to Louis telling him this and realized that Grace was going to stay in their lives.
Lestat had found himself being dragged into the family, a part of his mind flailing desperately in protest, as little moments entangled him in the Du Lac family. It was the beginning of the end when Grace announced to himself and Louis that she was pregnant (although Lestat had already known) and Grace had said ‘uncles’ in plural, including Lestat in her thoughts as part of the family. Terrible again, being invited once the twins were born and having a small tiny baby cheerily placed in his arms like Lestat wasn’t a monster. It was terrible and it was foolish and it made Lestat’s heart ache.
So first there had been Grace and now there were the twins, almost five years old. Frances and Mary, who called him Uncle Stat and Uncle Les respectively, who felt none of the unease that most mortals instinctively felt towards vampires. Little Mary who demanded that he read her Madame d’Aulnoy’s fairytales in the original French and little Frances who practiced and practiced any little piano exercises that he taught her. Who both ran to the door when Louis and himself turned up. The plan had been Louis. Just Louis, just beautiful and captivating Louis, and Lestat was to be his companion heart, his new family, his new home. But Louis, it turned out, came with family. And Grace was pregnant, was due any day now, and the family would get bigger again. It was terrifying. It was fragile. Florence was there, her disapproval like a dark cloud hanging over everything. Levi was there, liking Louis and Lestat while his mind still secretly oscillated between worry, disapproval, and acceptance depending on the day. And Grace, determined to make it all work, to enforce harmony between them all, in the middle of it all. It was a mess. It was foolish. Lestat didn’t know how long it could possibly last.
But as Louis knocked on the door and they heard the squeals of the twins, Lestat welcomed being foolish.
The twins opened the door and were upon them in an instant. Levi was working late tonight so it was just Florence, Grace, and the twins. Florence was working on some embroidery while Grace reclined on the sofa with a book.
“Girls, give them a moment to breathe!” Grace called cheerily, putting down her book, as the girls tugged them inside into the living room
“Louis, Mr Lioncourt,” Florence acknowledged with a nod
Lestat knew that she disliked them being here together so often, only suffering it for Grace and the girls. Her disdain set his teeth on edge but he ignored it. For Louis. For the rest of it.
“Madame Du Lac, Grace,” Lestat nodded back politely, dutifully going through the motions of the niceties
“Hey Mama,” Louis said warmly, coming up from behind him, “and how are you doing, Grace?”
“Well, I am ready for this part to be over,” Grace said, hands on her belly, “any minute now, apparently”
“Uncle Stat, come on,” Frances said, tugging at his hand
Frances tugged Lestat over to the piano, hopping up onto the piano stool and patting the space beside her impatiently. Lestat couldn’t help laughing a little as he obediently sat down and watched as Frances showed off her scales, nodding approvingly at her progress when she glanced up at him. Mary drifted over to them.
“Scales are boring, Frances,” Mary complained after a few minutes, “you can do them anytime. Will you play something for us, Uncle Les?”
“They are not boring, you are just bad at them,” Frances said, making a face at her
“Uncle Les, can you play Swan Lake for us again?” Mary asked imploringly
That stopped Frances in her tracks, her fingers pausing on the keys, and she looked up at him
“I would like to hear Swan Lake too, Uncle Stat,” Frances admitted
“Then Swan Lake it is,” Lestat agreed readily
“Make room for me,” Mary demanded
Frances and Lestat shuffled over on the piano stool so that Mary could hop onto the other end, they all only just fit, it wouldn’t be too long until the girls were too big for this. Lestat brought his fingers up to the keys and started to play Tchaikovsky’s No. 12. Allegro for them. Tchaikovsky had written Swan Lake for his nieces and nephews, Lestat remembered, and the thought pleased him immensely.
Louis
Louis chatted with Grace and watched Lestat with the twins affectionately. Lestat was playing the piano, a twin on either side of him on the piano stool as he played, soaking up the adoration and attention. Lestat always loved an audience, no matter the kind, and Louis doubted he could have found a more adoring one than those two little girls. Lestat occasionally paused in-between songs as he told the twins what happened during the ballet to each piece of music.
“Uncle Les, can you take us to see Swan Lake?” Mary asked
“Of course, when you’re old enough to go and it visits us here in New Orleans,” Lestat promised them easily
Frances and Mary lit up, their little faces beaming with delight, and Louis flinched. Out of the corner of his eye, Louis saw Grace and Florence both stiffen slightly at the promise. The ballet, when it came, performed in the French Opera House, borrowing and sharing the luxurious space for its runs of Giselle, Sleeping Beauty and whatever else was the flavor of the moment. Frances and Mary would not be seeing the ballet there. Louis only ever got in with the rare but embarrassing performance of being Lestat’s valet. It obviously hadn’t even occurred to Lestat as he made the promise and now someone was going to have to be in the position of walking the promise back to two excited almost-five-year-olds. Louis always tried to rein in his mind gift as much as possible around his family, affording them a measure of privacy, but Grace’s sudden feeling of sadness and annoyance cut through the room like a sharp blade, assuming she’d have to be the one to disappoint their hopes of seeing the ballet. Louis saw that wave hit Lestat, his mouth opening slightly and his gaze now flickering over to Grace and Florence, not doubt gleaning his mistake from their thoughts.
Lestat turned back to the girls.
“Or, when you’re old enough,” Lestat said with forced cheer, trying to recover the moment, “we could take a trip to see it somewhere together. With your Grandmama, your Mama and Daddy, and your Uncle Lou”
Louis honestly couldn’t see that happening, them all travelling together to visit another city or state just to go to a less discriminating ballet venue? Not to mention the logistical nightmare of vampirism? It was a terrible and outlandish idea. Florence made a small noise akin to a scoff as she looked resolutely at her needlepoint embroidery. Louis felt guilty for agreeing with her.
“Thank you, Lestat, that’s a kind offer,” Grace said softly
Lestat met Louis’s eyes uncertainly. They couldn’t read each other’s minds but Louis could see that Lestat was floundering a little.
“But in the meantime, I’ll find you a storybook version, would you like that?” Lestat offered to the twins
Frances and Mary eagerly agreed to this, momentarily distracted from the idea of the ballet itself, and Louis could feel Grace relax slightly.
“Uncle ‘Stat, what happens to Odette next?” Frances asked, tugging on his sleeve like she hadn’t heard the story several times before
“Ah, well!” Lestat turned back to the piano and resumed the story
Louis
“Louis, I’m sorry about Swan Lake, it was my mistake,” Lestat said as Louis drove to the Azalea
“It’s fine, it’ll be fine,” Louis said with a sigh
Lestat just didn’t think things through, it was frustrating and typical.
Louis’s hunger was itching in his throat with a dryness and a need, it made Louis a little more edgy and more easily frustrated. Lestat looked apologetic enough that Louis resisted the impulse to make it a fight this time. Louis focused on the rest of the night ahead, they were headed to the Azalea where Louis would get a general update from Bricktop Williams, Bricktop would also give Louis a name of someone who needed to be removed, Louis and Lestat would stay and enjoy some music for a while, and then they’d split ways to go hunt separately. Louis would feel better once he’d had someone to drink. He hoped there might be more than one name this week. The names had slowly become more infrequent in the last six years once Louis had worked his way through the ‘back catalogue’ of sorts.
The mood in the Azalea was as raucous and jubilant as ever. The world was at war, even if America wasn’t yet, but that wouldn’t dampen the heady need and enthusiasm of the populace of Storyville. The Azalea was making a mountain of money, the profits were dizzying, and Louis found his small empire growing day by day. And at the centre of it, Bricktop fucking Williams.
It was perhaps one of the best decisions that Louis had ever made, making her an unofficial business partner first of the Azalea and then slowly over the years the rest of his different ventures had come under the watchful eye of Bricks. There had never been enough hours in the night for it all, family and Lestat and the businesses and hunting all competing with each other. Bricks kept everything running with aplomb and was incredibly well paid for it, of course, and it had enabled Louis to take a slight step back. Bricks was smart, ruthless, trustworthy, and good with people. The mind gift was a double-edged sword sometimes but Louis was thankful for it because it had made him realise that Bricks could help him. Louis didn’t know where he’d be without her.
Lestat peeled off when they walked in the door, heading for the open courtyard, as Louis sought out Bricks. Louis found her on one of the balconies, looking over everything approvingly, flask in hand.
“Hey Bricks,” Louis called as he approached
“Hey Du Lac, you here for the run-down or is something on fire?” Bricks asked, turning to smile at him
“The ol’ run-down,” Louis confirmed, “how are we doing?”
“Well, Jelly Morton and his band continue to be an absolute gem of a draw, much better than the last band, if I dare say so and I do dare say so. But we’re still going through singers like water on a hot day- Diane wants to move on, some family thing, and Wendy is keen to step in for Diane’s nights but who knows how long that will last,” Bricks said with a snort
“Anything else?” Louis asked
“Couple of staff changeovers, nothing to worry you about I think. Uh- one of the grocery shops needs some serious plumbing work done, I’ve organised one of Marcus’s boys to take a look and get back to us on how much that’ll cost. Doris says Carnation Place needs a new lick of paint and if she gets that then we’ll be badgered until everyone gets that, so I’ve added it to the list of potential renovations and miscellaneous for you to review at the end of the month,” Bricks rattled off
Bricks paused, trying to think what else there was, and then snapped her fingers in memory.
“Oh, that’s right. In other news, Constable fucking Davis still thinks he’s onto something about his ‘mysterious murders’ after all these years. He’s chasing his tail around Storyville at the moment,” Bricks said with a shake of her head, “but it’s all dead-ends and circumstances as we know”
And that had been thanks to Bricks and her careful management. Louis hadn’t truly realised the scope of what he’d been asking that first night when he’d approached her about the ephemeral list of ‘bad johns’ and what it would entail to keep their disappearances continuing in a way that didn’t arouse suspicion. But he’d gleaned it from Brick’s mind- the careful gathering of information, the balancing act of where the names came from so no one across Storyville was unduly implicated over anyone else.
“I don’t have a name for you this week by the way,” Bricks added
“That’s fine,” Louis said, trying to hide his disappointment, “thanks for keeping an ear out”
“That’s surely a good thing, isn’t it Louis?” Bricks said encouragingly
“Of course,” Louis said, nodding his head in agreement
The hunger was starting to feel a little raw in his throat, a jagged edge to it, as he thought about not having a name to go after tonight. Louis ignored it, saying his goodbyes to Bricks, and heading over to where the band was playing. Lestat already had a table, listening to the music contentedly, tapping his foot slightly to the beat as Louis approached.
“And how are your human businesses, my Dark Prince of Iberville?” Lestat asked teasingly
“Everything looks good, Bricks has it covered, I think I owe that woman my life,” Louis said, smiling a little as he sat down
“Don’t make me jealous, Louis, you owe me your life, I have first stake,” Lestat said, his eyes glinting
“How do you figure that?” Louis scoffed
“I gave you this eternal life, did I not, Louis? Your life is mine,” Lestat said with a grin
“No, I think it’s still mine,” Louis corrected with a laugh, “I’m just sharing it with you”
“If you say so, Louis,” Lestat said airily
Louis laughed, shaking his head at Lestat, and watched the band play. It was crowded tonight and Diane and Jelly Morton were doing a great job of entertaining the waiting Johns. Lestat slid his hand down Louis’s thigh under the table.
“We’re in public, Lestat,” Louis protested lightly, trying not to visibly react to the touch
“Do you want to take this somewhere private then?” Lestat asked in a low voice
Louis remained very still, watching the band play, like Lestat’s hand wasn’t stroking his thigh.
“Would you like to take me up to one of these rooms of yours and let me do unspeakable things to you that would make even the women here blush?” Lestat whispered
Louis’s intake of breath was all the ammunition that Lestat needed, Lestat leaning in just a little too close to be entirely proper.
“I’m not sure that they’re that easily scandalized, Lestat,” Louis teased back, trying to keep his voice light and unaffected
“Then we’ll have to get creative,” Lestat said softly, “won’t we, Louis?”
Louis shifted in his seat. His hunger was still bothering him but Lestat almost made him want to forget about hunting completely, drag him up to one of the rooms, one of the beds. It was too risky though, they’d be too easily seen coming in or out. The fact that he even considered it for a moment was evidence that the hunger was making him a little irrational and impulsive.
“You’ll have to wait until we get home,” Louis said instead, Lestat’s finger stroking the inside of his thigh making the words come out breathless
“I can work with that,” Lestat said, his eyes glinting with purpose as his hand moved closer, brushing Louis’s cock through his trousers, “Do you want to skip hunting tonight? Come home with me now, Louis?”
It was incredibly tempting but Louis was hungry. Lestat looked at him intently, Louis very obviously hard against Lestat’s hand, as he waited for Louis’s answer.
“I need to hunt,” Louis admitted
“I could just grab us someone on the way,” Lestat said winningly
The offer was made mostly in jest, Lestat accepting that Louis stubbornly stuck to the malcontents that he picked up on with the mind-gift or those whose names appeared on one of Bricks’ lists, but Lestat still occasionally made the offer. Just in case, Louis supposed, or perhaps to keep the option front of mind.
“Hmm I don’t think so, but I’ll see you later,” Louis said
“Okay, Louis,” Lestat said with an easy smile, “happy hunting”
Lestat rose to his feet, smoothing his suit with his hands, and gave Louis a heated look.
“I’ll see you later tonight,” Lestat promised
And with that, Lestat flounced off in search of prey. Louis waited several minutes, pretending to be listening to the band, as he waited so that he didn’t embarrass himself by standing up and revealing how hard he was.
Louis distracted himself, thinking of the route through Storyville he might take to find someone worth eating with his mind-gift. The thought made him feel tired, the allure of human blood weighed against the effort and time it often took. On a rare occasion, it took mere minutes. More often than not, it took long hours of waiting for someone to reveal their nature in their thoughts. And sometimes, Louis didn’t find anyone at all. Maybe Louis should just go for some cats again tonight like he did on those long nights when he hadn’t found anybody. The stray feline population was currently sustaining itself well even with how much Louis was drinking from it. Louis just had to make sure that his fangs were clean of animal blood before he got home.
Louis hadn’t actually ever told Lestat that he was eating animals.
Louis had eaten his first animal, a rat plucked off the street, the first night he visited Grace post-transformation. It was unpleasant enough and unimportant enough that it didn’t feel like a detail to include in his recounting of the night to Lestat. Over the next year or so, Louis occasionally started to include an animal or two in his diet, making observations in his notebook, and he hadn’t told Lestat about that either. Initially, Louis had just wanted to slightly postpone the inevitable argument. It was still early days and he was still finding the right balance of feeding. It hadn’t seemed worth it to bring it up when it was only a couple of rats and cats. And so Louis just… didn’t mention it.
Time just went by so quickly and, after a year, how was Louis supposed casually bring up that he had been supplementing with animal blood for a whole year? And then suddenly it had been two years. And then suddenly it was 1917 and Louis had ‘forgotten’ to mention that he’d been occasionally drinking animal blood throughout the majority of his vampiric existence. Lestat hadn’t even noticed. It became impossible to bring up.
And it wasn’t like Louis had meant to keep it a secret. Louis and Lestat almost never hunted together, Louis finding Lestat’s hunting distasteful and Lestat finding Louis’s drawn-out hunting boring, so Lestat just wasn’t around to see Louis eat the occasional animal a lot of the time. Lestat simply assumed that Louis was eating well enough off a combination of mind-gift hunting and the names from Bricktop’s lists. And Louis had been eating well enough off that combination for a long time, it was really only in the last year that he’d been relying more and more on animal blood. Bricks’ names had become less frequent, Louis thought about the days when there would be three or more names a week with nostalgia, and Louis must have cleared the city of most of its current murderers and rapists by now- at least those who thought about their crimes. Hunts without any viable targets became more common, dragging long and slow and miserable into the night until Louis trudged back hungry and avoiding the dawn. So he’d been drinking more animal blood, trying to make up the difference, but animal blood just didn’t quench the hunger the same way, he felt weaker and more tired when he relied on it too much.
He hadn’t told Lestat that he was starting to struggle because he knew what Lestat’s answer would be. Something poetic about the 'Savage Garden' and ‘Following Instincts' that really just boiled down to eat innocent people because your life is worth more than theirs. So he hadn’t told Lestat anything. It was a mess.
All ardor had gone out of him, Louis just felt tired and guilty and hungry now. Louis stood, said his farewell to Bricks, and headed out into the night.
Louis would try hunting human first. Maybe he’d get lucky tonight.
Grace
“It’s just not proper, darling,” Mama said, not even looking up from her embroidery
“They’re a pair of respectable bachelors,” Grace said automatically by rote
“Respectable? Only coming around at night like they do? Missed the girls’ christenings? They’ll miss your baby’s christening too. You going to forgive them for that too?” Mama asked softly
That hurt. Mama knew that would hurt. Grace rested a hand on her belly as she lay on the sofa, thinking of the little one in there, and thinking of how it had felt standing in the church at the twins’ christening with just Mama from her family. No Daddy, No Paul, No Louis. All of Levi’s family swarming around them instead and feeling those empty spaces around her like a wound.
“There’s nothing to forgive, I know they can’t make it,” Grace said, the words twisting her gut
“The mysterious condition, yes. How unfortunate it means they can’t step foot in a church,” Mama said sardonically, shaking her head
“Sensitive to light, not the church, Mama. Louis came along to Midnight Mass last year, didn’t he?” Grace pointed out
“Mr Lioncourt didn’t,” Mama said flatly
“But you know Lestat has… differing views on religion, he’s made that very clear,” Grace said
Lestat’s disdain for religion had been clear as crystal from that very first dinner. Grace knew that stuck in Mama’s maw more than she would admit. Mama’s acceptance of the Baptists was a stretch for her, mostly extended for Levi’s benefit. Atheism was anathema. As were the Pentecostals. Although it didn’t really matter, did it? It wasn’t the matter of Lestat’s religion, or lack thereof, that Mama was really objecting to.
“It’s just not appropriate that they call Mr Lioncourt uncle,” Mama reiterated, circling back around to it, and finally looking up at her properly
“I recall we had a least half a dozen uncles and aunts growing up over the years that weren’t actually our aunts and uncles,” Grace gently retorted
“That was different my dear, and you know it,” Mama said
Of course, Grace knew it was different. Their ‘uncles and aunts’ had all been ‘respectably married’ family friends of Mama and Daddy’s, flowing in and out of Grace, Paul, and Louis’s lives as they visited, moved closer, and moved further away as they grew up. But Louis was never going to have a wife, was he? Lestat, for all his faults, was what they had to work with. Lestat was a member of this family now, Grace had stubbornly reeled him in and maybe that had started off as rather strategic, keeping Lestat around meant keeping Louis close. But Grace had found herself thinking of him as an odd extension of the family and she’d been rewarded for that measure of faith. Lestat was wonderful with the girls, that man was lonely for family- he just hadn’t realised it until Grace had dragged him into it.
“They’re my daughters and I’m going to let them call Lestat uncle, it’s my decision as their mother,” Grace said firmly
It was Grace’s prerogative, her right, this was her family. Mama looked unimpressed, shaking her head at Grace like she was still a child. Sometimes that’s how Mama made her feel, like she was a child being irrationally stubborn.
“Your decision as a mother,” Mama lightly scoffed, “I can see my opinion as your mother doesn’t matter to you, does it? You’ve been indulged all your life, darling, and maybe that’s my fault. Mine and your father’s. You believe you can have everything you want just because you want it”
The words stung.
“I want us to be a family, Mama, is that so terrible? Is that so much to ask?” Grace said
Grace knew she’d been fortunate. Indulged with music and language lessons that they didn’t give to her brothers, that she was well-tutored, and not expected to find work as the only daughter of the family. Grace knew she was lucky, felt a guilt about it sometimes, maybe Mama was right about that. Grace tended to get everything she wanted but was that so bad? When what she wanted was to keep her family together.
Mama hadn’t finished, of course she hadn’t.
“And then you wanted Levi. You married for love to a man below you and I indulged you because it’s what your father would have wanted. I always indulge you,” Mama said with long-suffering sigh
“Mama,” Grace protested at the slight to Levi
“But now you want me to accommodate this? To indulge this too? Louis and Mr Lioncourt acting like they do? With what is said about them? Grace, my darling, it’s unseemly,” Mama said imploringly
Grace bit her lip to keep herself from saying something she’d regret.
“And even Levi agrees with me, ask him when he gets home from the draughtsman’s offices,” Mama added
Mama slighting him in one breath and using him as ammunition in the next. Well, Grace would certainly have words with him tonight. She felt that betrayal under her ribs.
“You don’t have to be around them, you can always go out, you can always go to bed,” Grace said a little testily
“What do you think I’ve been doing these last several years? But I won’t be chased out of my own house,” Mama said, looking back down at her embroidery, the needle stabbing into the fabric a little viciously
“But for Louis’s sake, surely? For Louis? Could you make more of an effort? He’s your son,” Grace pleaded gently
“I have my doubts about that,” Mama said quietly, her eyes on her work and not meeting Grace’s gaze
-x-
Grace confronted Levi as soon he got home, pulling him into the privacy of their bedroom, before he’d even had the chance to take off his hat or coat.
“I don’t want you ganging up on me! With my Mama? You’re meant to be on my side,” Grace said
“I am on your side, Grace. Our family’s side. But we’ve got another little one on the way. We have to think about this,” Levi said plaintively
“But you like Louis and Lestat,” Grace protested, grabbing the damn hat off his head and poking him lightly in the chest with it to make her point, “I know you do, you’re not a good actor”
“I do, I like them,” Levi admitted
“So what’s the issue then?” Grace said, putting the hat away on his dresser and sighing
“Enjoying poker nights and their company, liking the two of them, doesn’t make it right. Maybe we should reassess now?” Levi asked her
Grace wanted to throw up her hands in frustration.
“You’re letting Mama get into your head,” Grace accused
“You don’t think she has a point? Only coming at night? The cold skin she told me about? Which you haven’t mentioned, I might add. And Grace, you can’t pretend that we can’t see that Louis’s eyes changed color,” Levi said seriously
Grace could pretend anything she wanted. She was Shopkeeper. She was the best at keeping a straight face. Grace was going to pretend so well that reality bended around her.
“They’ve been nothing but good to this family, good to the girls, five years Levi, doesn’t that count for something?” Grace implored, trying to make him see
“Yes, it does, of course it does,” Levi admitted, “but maybe it’s not enough?”
“It’s enough, Levi,” Grace insisted
Levi sighed, taking off his coat, and sitting down on the edge of the bed. He looked up at her.
“Even discounting their…unusual situation. There’s also the fact that they’re… like they are,” Levi finished lamely
Grace narrowed her eyes at him.
“They’re a pair of respectable bachelors,” Grace said through gritted teeth
The words were a mantra, reasserted over and over again to Mama, to Grace’s friends, to the nosy acquaintances at church. She didn’t want to have to say them to Levi.
“Grace, it’s just you and me here,” Levi said softly
“Levi,” Grace said pleadingly
“Darling, sit with me, talk with me,” Levi said, taking her hand in his, “I promise I’m listening”
Grace reluctantly sat down beside him, looking at her husband, he squeezed her hand encouragingly.
“Levi, if you love me then I need you to work past this,” Grace said firmly, “I need you to accept that they’re both part of this family”
“I love you, I love you so much,” Levi said earnestly, “but even disregarding that, you have to know there’s something unnatural happening here. You pretend you don’t notice but I know you do”
Maybe Levi had a slightly better read on her than she realised.
“But you’ve seen how good Louis is to our kids, how much he loves them, and you’ve seen how gentle Lestat is with them when he comes over,” Grace said, trying to make him see, “They’ve been nothing but good uncles to them”
“I know, I know, the girls love them,” Levi said with a sigh, “that’s not the issue, is it?”
Grace didn’t want this family to fall apart, she needed Levi to work with her here. Mama was right, Grace wanted it all. She wanted to have Levi and the girls, her little family, all happy and surrounding her. And she wanted Louis, her brother to be there in whatever capacity he could. And heaven help her, she even wanted to keep Lestat in this family. And she wanted this new child that she’d meet so soon, so desperately soon, to have a full family around them.
“Levi, I want you to listen to me,” Grace said firmly
“I’m listening,” Levi promised
“When we get to the pearly gates we will finally find out what we were right about and what we were wrong about. And where we have erred. But until then, Levi, I want to err on the side of a little bit more love? Err on the side of what keeps our family together?” Grace explained, her voice breaking a little
Levi stroked her cheek, Grace finding the familiar contact comforting, and Grace sighed, closing her eyes for a second before opening them again.
“I’d rather have to be forgiven for mistakes and sins I made out of love,” Grace said softly, “than judge and find out I was wrong to do so”
Grace took Levi’s hands in her own, holding them between them.
“So I want to keep this family together. And I don’t care about any objections regarding sin or unnaturalness. Maybe that’s my own sin, I can live with it,” Grace said
“But I’m your family, Grace. You, me, and the children,” Levi said to her gently
“Louis is my family too. And you knew that when you married me, how important both my brothers are to me,” Grace pressed and then realised what she’d said, “were to me”
Levi squeezed her hand, stroking his thumb over it as he held it. Grace took a deep breath.
“I lost Paul, Levi. I don’t want to lose Louis as well,” Grace whispered
Levi was a gentle man at heart, one of the reasons she fell in love with him. She saw him soften, saw him consider everything that she was saying, saw him start to be convinced.
“Just trust me, let me keep this family together,” Grace pleaded, “ignore everything else. Ignore Mama, ignore your doubts, ignore any oddness. For me”
“Okay, Grace, if you’re sure about all this,” Levi said gravely
“I’m sure,” Grace promised, gripping his hand tightly, “I promise, just trust me in this”
Just a little bit of trust, a little bit of faith, and this could work. Levi looked at her affectionately, his expression tender, and he nodded.
“Then okay, I’m with you on this. Through a glass darkly and all that,” Levi said with a small smile that turned a little teasing, “you little heretic”
Grace leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the lips, reaching up to cup his face in her hands as she drew back, Levi looked back at her lovingly.
“Thank you. I have you twisted around my little finger, don’t I?” she teased
“Without a doubt,” Levi affirmed
Louis
Several hours later and Louis was still hunting. Louis smoked his cigarette as he watched the minds of the humans going by. Louis tried to relax, tried to make it something meditative, but the hunger gnawed in his throat causing an agitation that he had trouble shaking. Once, he’d found it a balm, letting the hunger burn this bright, because it made taking a victim easier. But now that victims were rarer it had become a disquieting presence. The hunger was becoming a constant companion some nights, as familiar as his own shadow.
Louis watched the humans. It would be so easy, wouldn’t it? To just select one of these passersby at random, not having to worry about their thoughts or weigh their guilt, Louis wouldn’t have to think anything at all. Louis could just drink. No one would know. Lestat wouldn’t even know. No one but Louis. Louis stared longingly as people passed him, his preternaturally sharp eyes tracing the carotid artery in their necks, and he waited and waited. The thoughts were mundane and occasionally salacious. Nothing implicating anyone in actions that might warrant an end in a dark alley with Louis’s fangs in their throat.
But any of these people could have done something terrible. But if they didn’t think about it then Louis wouldn’t know. All of them potentially could be someone that Louis could drink with his conscience clear and so maybe if he just picked someone random then that was as good a chance as any…
No, what was he thinking? Louis couldn’t do that. The hunger had him thinking in desperate circles.
If Louis could just make someone think of their misdeeds. Only, the mind gift didn’t allow him to rummage or rifle through thoughts. Louis could only ever skim the surface of the minds in front of him. He’d found that he could do it from increasingly greater distances, as his gift had gotten stronger with practice, but he could only read those shallow thoughts.
A large man walked past, brushing against him accidentally as he drunkenly stumbled, and his blood called out to Louis’s hunger. Louis grabbed the man, dragging him into the alley before Louis had even registered that he’d moved.
“What is the worst thing you’ve ever done?” Louis demanded
The man stared at him in fright, breathing heavily, trembling as Louis held him slightly aloft
“What is the worst thing you’ve ever done?” Louis asked desperately, baring his fangs at the man, hoping that the man would think of something
He’d stolen his sister’s doll and thrown it into the river as a child because he thought it had been hideous . He’d kissed Suzy Weller back even though she had a beau over in Lafayette. He cheated when he played cards with his brother-in-law because he couldn’t stand that fucker. He lied to his mother about how much he made each year. He’d lost his grandfather’s pocket watch while gambling.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Louis panicked, what was he doing, what was he doing? Louis put the man down back on his feet, shoving him against the brick wall of the alley. How did Lestat do this? He’d seen it at least once, the first night they’d hunted together. The man opened his mouth to yell and Louis slapped his hand over the man’s mouth, accidentally doing it hard enough to bruise.
“You will forget this, you will not remember this interaction,” Louis said, watching the man’s mind carefully
I’m going to die, I’m going to die and I don’t even have a gal to mourn me!
“You will forget this, you will not remember this interaction,” Louis tried again, trying to press the words into the man’s mind
I should have married Suzy Weller, I should have told her I loved her
You will forget this, you will not remember this interaction. Louis thought, shoving the thoughts against the man’s mind desperately
The man’s gaze went blank, his mind suddenly calm, and Louis breathed a sigh of relief. Louis looked over the mind, it was like looking over calm waters.
You won’t remember me. You won’t remember this. Louis thought and he watched that thought drop into the waters of the man’s mind like a pebble.
Louis slowly backed away, the man not registering him at all, and made his way back onto the street. Louis crossed the street and leant against the wall of a shop, trying to look casual, and watched the alley from a distance.
God, I think I must have had one too many drinks. The man thought, shaking his head at finding himself standing in the alley, and touching his sore jaw from where Louis had gripped it. Did I walk into something?
The man left the alley and walked down the street. Louis breathed a sigh of relief as he watched him go. No thoughts of vampires in his mind. No thoughts of fangs. No thoughts of Louis.
The hunger thrashed in Louis’s throat in protest. Louis fought back the temptation to hunt the man down again and drain him completely. This wasn’t working, he needed to drink something right now before he did something he’d regret.
Louis walked the long way home, finding as many rats as he could along the way, and drank the unsatisfying blood. It took some of the edge off but the hunger didn’t go away completely. Louis found a stray cat on one street, draining that, and a stray dog on another street and drained that too. He left the animal bodies where he dropped them.
This was getting harder, it was all getting harder, and Louis wasn’t sure what to do. He needed to hunt more animals, that was it. Preemptively hunt animals rather than wait for his hunger to get this bad. He’d start placing orders with the rat catcher, Louis decided, he could schedule them for nights when he knew Lestat would be out. And Louis could go fishing, it had been a while since he’d done that. And he could eat more cats, the stray population could probably sustain more cats going missing than what he was currently drinking. Louis had this under control.
-x-
Louis came home feeling exhausted. Walking upstairs, he was so looking forward to his coffin, just wanted to fall into it and sleep. Louis came into the bedroom-
Lestat was sprawled out naked on their bed, propped up on the cushions with his back to the headboard. All fine lean muscle and broad shoulders and bare skin, his blue-grey eyes smouldering as he looked at Louis.
“Your hunting takes so long, mon cher, I thought I’d better be ready for you when you arrived,” Lestat said invitingly, stretching out languidly
Louis had completely forgotten about all the teasing talk at the Azalea.
“I’m sorry, Lestat. I’m tired,” Louis said apologetically and watched Lestat’s face fall, “I think I just want to go to coffin?”
“Did the hunting not go well, Louis?” Lestat asked in concern
“It was fine, I found a nice murderer over on Claiborne street,” Louis lied
Fuck, Louis realised, this was the first time he’d lied outright about feeding to Lestat. It felt different than omission. Louis wished he could have found a murderer. That would have been preferable to tonight’s close call to disaster and the taste of animal blood. Louis would have loved to have found a murderer.
“Then- you- okay, yes- of course,” Lestat said, looking at him with mild confusion, disappointment, and slight affront, “we can just…go to coffin”
Lestat got up, putting on a robe, and Louis changed into his sleep clothes. Lestat eyed him from the wardrobe.
“And everything’s fine?” Lestat asked
“Everything’s fine.” Louis said firmly, “I’m just tired”
He wanted Lestat to believe him. Louis wanted to believe it himself. Louis walked over to Lestat and kissed him softly. Lestat melted into the kiss, hands coming up to cradle Louis’s neck, as Louis tried to put reassurance into the kiss.
“I love you, now let’s go to coffin,” Louis said
They got into Louis’s coffin together, laying on their sides facing each other, and Lestat’s eyes traced over him thoughtfully, taking in Louis’s fatigue.
“Louis, if you’re feeling tired, would you like to drink from me? It might help?” Lestat suggested softly
Hunger panged in Louis.
“Are you sure?” Louis asked
“Always, Louis. You can always drink from me,” Lestat said, running his thumb over Louis’s check
They shifted, Louis rolling over to be on top of Lestat, who settled himself onto his back in the coffin, and Louis pressed a small kiss to the side of Lestat’s throat. Louis bit in slowly, sinking his fangs into the artery, and started to drink. The familiar honeyed taste, filled with Lestat’s warm affection, filled Louis’s mouth and Louis took long slow draughts. Lestat made a little pleased sound, the swoon rising in him, and Lestat’s hands firmly held onto Louis’s torso as he drank, the deep pressure steadying Louis. Louis felt more solid, more real. Louis felt better, the hunger in his throat starting to be sated in a way that it hadn’t been by the animal blood. Louis felt a swell of relief as he continued to drink, the hunger now gone and all that was left was the taste of Lestat in his mouth, the thump of Lestat’s heart beating in time with his own, and the feel of their bodies pressed against each other. Louis drew away and captured Lestat’s mouth for a long slow kiss of thanks.
“Thank you,” Louis said, drawing back and stroking the side of Lestat’s face
Lestat wrapped his arms around him, tucking him close, and Louis allowed himself to relax into the embrace. He wasn’t hungry anymore. But he still couldn’t help but be worried, the hunger never took too long to return. It was a dog snapping at his heels.