The Vampire Lestat

Gabrielle spends more and more time alone, which frustrates Lestat. They argue about Lestat’s concern over their family and other humans. She wants to leave all of humanity behind and roam in nature. They visit haunted houses and have a few sightings of spirits, but gain no real answers about the spirits. They argue about destroying humanity. Gabrielle wants nature to retake the earth, and Lestat thinks destruction for destruction’s sake is petty. He would rebel against a vampire leader who wanted to wipe out all of humanity and is consumed by ideas about goodness. While sleeping in the earth, Gabrielle discovers that she will kill humans who try to disturb her rest, without knowing that she is doing it. Lestat prefers the romance of sleeping in coffins inside a house. He is lonely and stalks humans, thinking of them as his lovers in his mind, and imagining confessing his vampiric nature to them. He continues to write messages to Marius as they travel into Asia.

Lestat starts hearing about the beginnings of the French Revolution in letters from Roget and Eleni. Nicki is not taking the turn of events well, and the others have to tie him up to make him write music.

After replying to these letters, Lestat heads into Egypt with Gabrielle. When their boat arrives, there is a package from Eleni that turns out to be Nicki’s violin. Eleni writes that Armand cut off Nicki’s arms in response to his increasingly erratic behavior. When they grow back, Nicki writes more plays for the theater, then jumps into the fire. Gabrielle asks how she can comfort Lestat, and remains with him for a longer period of time than before. Lestat recalls how Nicki’s father had threatened to break his hands the day he gave Lestat the red cloak.

They travel around Egypt together, climbing the Sphinx and pyramids, visiting brothels, and examining mummies. Gabrielle is silent but moves in with Lestat when he leases a house in Cairo and helps him build the garden. Lestat is concerned about the lack of communication from France. Gabrielle convinces Lestat to visit the temple of Ramses and the ruins of Luxor. Near the Colossi of Memnon, Gabrielle invites Lestat to come with her to the jungles of Africa and travel as she does. He refuses and realizes she is going to leave him and go off on her own.

When they get back to the house in Cairo, Lestat is upset that there isn’t a letter from Roget. Gabrielle reveals that she hid Roget’s letter. It explains that only Lestat’s father got out of France after the Revolution; his brothers and their families died. Lestat’s father went to New Orleans and is very ill. Gabrielle asks Lestat not to go to his father, but Lestat yells at her to get out of the house.

Lestat dreams that he goes back to the family castle, which is ruined, and makes everyone into vampires. Vampirism cures his father’s blindness. Gabrielle is there as well. Lestat’s brother says he’s glad Lestat turned them in time, because otherwise they’d be dead.

As Lestat prepares to leave Cairo, Gabrielle comes and tries to convince Lestat not to go to his father. She worries about the trip to America, but Lestat is confident that he could defeat any sea monster. They embrace, kiss, and cry. Eventually, Gabrielle pulls away and makes Lestat promise to try to live her way before considering death by suicide. Lestat says he would never consider death by suicide, but admits that he is lonely and wants to share the truth about vampires with humans. She tells him she loves him and then leaves.

Lestat cries himself to sleep on the floor, but wakes shortly before sunrise. A human shows up at the house, and Lestat frightens him and throws him over the roof before running off to sleep in the earth under nearby ruins.

For a while, Lestat lies underground, fighting his thirst for blood. Eventually, he becomes weak and his body becomes dried up and horrific. Humans visit the ruins above him, and Lestat refuses to drink the blood of cats. He has visions of Nicki.

One night, Lestat hears a drum and he claws his way out of the earth. He is assisted by Marius, who wears “red velvet clothes” (362). Once risen, Lestat drinks from Marius.

Lestat wakes up on a ship, comes out of his coffin, and looks at the mountainous islands from the deck. He gazes at Marius and thinks about his beauty. They hold hands as Lestat senses humans living on the islands telepathically excited that their lord is sailing by them.

They disembark on an island and climb a narrow, steep staircase up the mountain. They arrive at a house that Marius has to telekinetically unlock. Marius shows Lestat his room, then disappears. Lestat looks over his belongings, including Nicki’s violin and a sarcophagus from Marius. Inside the latter is a mask, gloves, and a blanket made of gold that will protect him from the sun. Lestat changes and starts to explore the house.

Lestat admires Marius’s collections of books, art, and taxidermized animals, as well as the pieces that Marius painted. He walks through Marius’s garden and feels Marius’s heartbeat, which draws Lestat to him.

Marius and Lestat sit together in a salon as Marius tells Lestat that most vampires go into the earth for the first time when they are much older than him. However, Lestat’s descent is understandable, given his losses. Marius explains that he can hear vampires all over the world and read Lestat’s messages written in stone. However, Marius prefers to move and speak like humans rather than with supernatural style and telepathy. He is ready to share his secrets with Lestat, but Marius warns him that he has no ultimate answers and the secrets might just lead to more questions. Marius has chosen Lestat because Lestat has genuine curiosity, unlike Armand.

They talk about love, as well as good and evil in the “Savage Garden” (383). Marius says he lived in ancient Rome before he was turned, and Lestat’s 18th- century attitude is very different from how the Romans thought and behaved. Marius’s mother was “Keltic” (384), which made his coloring similar to Lestat’s, and that coloring was why he was chosen to be made into a vampire. Lestat asks to see Those Who Must Be Kept and Marius leads him downstairs.

The stairway leads deep underground to large bolted doors. Marius moves the one on the outside of the doors with his body and the bolt on the inside with his mind. Marius painted scenes of Egypt on the walls around two ancient Egyptian vampires: Akasha and her male consort, Enkil. At first, Lestat thinks they are statues, but touches Akasha’s cheek and is shocked to learn they are alive. Lestat starts having a breakdown, thinking about the minds trapped in the statue-like bodies, and Marius says they can leave. Before they go back upstairs, Marius straightens up the room and telepathically talks to Those Who Must Be Kept. He burns incense from Egypt for them.

Lestat feels that his breakdown might have been rude and remains in the room. Marius explains that the ancient ones haven’t drank blood for 300 years. They move things, and themselves, around the room sometimes, but Marius hasn’t witnessed them moving for a very long time. This horrifies Lestat. Marius asks Lestat to talk to Those Who Must Be Kept before they leave. Lestat tells Akasha that he thinks she is beautiful, kisses her, and starts to cry. When Lestat and Marius leave, Marius locks the doors, but Akasha unlocks them. After they go upstairs, Marius begins his tale.

Marius recounts the story of his past. He is 40 when he is turned in Massilia. He visited the city after traveling as a “scholar and […] chronicler” (397). While writing in a tavern, a large Keltoi man approaches Marius and asks him questions about his education and travels. The man asserts that there are real gods who speak to him. Marius thinks the man is a Druid and wants to interview him. The man says his gods sent him to find Marius, and will make him a god. Then, Marius is hit on the back of the head. When he regains consciousness, he is bound in a wagon that is traveling into the forest. Marius worries he will be a human sacrifice and thinks about his escape.

Marius meets Mael, who explains that Marius will drink the “Divine Blood” (404) and become a god on Samhain. In the meantime, Marius grows his hair long and learns songs and poems from Mael. The god does not have a name, but serves the Great Mother. Marius compares this belief system with other followers of the Great Mothers, such as Cybele and Isis. He is supposed to become the “God of the Tree” (408), but tries to bribe Mael to release him.

Eventually Marius gets drunk and stops trying to escape, instead connecting with his conception of the divine in nature. A few days prior to Samhain, Marius is cleaned up and given ceremonial white robes. He is taken to another part of the forest in a cart and hears the cries of evil humans who are to be sacrificed.

When they arrive in a clearing, there are many other carts and people assembling two giant wicker figures and filling them with the bound sacrifices. Mael takes Marius away from the crowd, to a secret grove filled with skulls and drawings of faces in bark. They approach a giant oak tree and Marius hears telepathic questions about him meeting the requirements to become the next god. Mael answers and the god tells Mael to bring Marius into the tree.

Druids move stones at the base of the tree to reveal an opening. After unlocking the door, Mael gives Marius a torch and tells him to go inside. The god also telepathically invites Marius in.

Inside the tree, Marius walks down a staircase that goes deep into the earth, like the one he led Lestat down. Marius is excited until he sees that the god is burnt and grotesque. The god asks Marius to discover why he, and other vampires, have been burnt. Marius must not allow the Druids to enclose him in the tree. The god shares his visions of Egypt and Those Who Must Be Kept with Marius, warning Marius that he can be destroyed by fire or the sun, and to sleep in the earth.

The god exchanges blood with Marius multiple times. Telepathically, he tells Marius to only kill people who are evil and teaches him how to use the telepathic gift. At the end of the blood exchanges, he leaves Marius drained and tells him to drink from the human sacrifices, then escape.

Marius telepathically commands the Druids to unlock the gate to the passageway under the tree and take him to the sacrifices. At the altar, Marius drinks and, at the same time, other humans are sacrificed by drowning and burning. Marius issues judgments for humans before being led back to the tree. Druids pull the old god out of the tree and throw him into the fire. Marius cries, but hears the god’s voice telling him he must escape, and breaks loose from the humans’ hands. He runs with vampire speed away from the giant oak tree, traveling along the treetops.

When the sun starts to rise, he crawls into the earth and sleeps. The next night, he continues to travel away from the druids, drinking the blood of thieves he encounters in the woods. A couple nights later, he travels back to his house in Massilia, frees his enslaved persons, sends off his histories to a publisher, and travels to Alexandria.

In Alexandria, Marius calls out telepathically, seeking the eldest vampires. Another horribly burnt vampire answers his call. When they meet, the vampire asks Marius how he is not burned, and Marius explains that he was only made into a vampire recently. This burnt vampire shows Marius burnt remains of other vampires and takes him into a library. There, Marius meets the “Elder” (430) who is also burnt, but less desiccated than the others Marius has met.

When Marius and the Elder are alone, Marius asks him about the origins of vampires. The Elder says the “Mother and the Father” (433) were created by accident 4000 years ago and chose the names Isis and Osiris in mythic versions of the tale. Reluctantly, the Elder tells Marius that the Mother and Father were left in the sun by their keeper, which caused their descendants to burn. The bodies of the vampires are linked to the bodies of the Mother and Father. The Elder wonders if he should bury the Mother and Father in the sea or the earth. Marius presses him to explain how the first vampires were created, and he finally agrees.

The Elder tells Marius what he learned from the scrolls about the Mother and Father. In the scrolls, they are leaders who teach agriculture and convince their followers to stop participating in cannibalism. An intangible demon telekinetically starts moving objects in a steward’s house, and King Enkil goes into the house to talk to the demons. He studies them and notes how the demons want to be in bodies, but can’t keep them. Some enemies of the king break into the haunted house and repeatedly stab Enkil and Akasha. This gives the demons a way to enter their bodies, and they become vampires. They discover that they can’t procreate or eat normal food, but must take blood as sustenance. They also discover that the sun and fire can harm them, but nothing else.

Their followers want the blood of immortality, but they don’t understand the Dark Gift yet. Minimal exchanges of blood, rather than draining someone completely, turned humans into half-vampires, who died in horrible ways. However, some fuller exchanges resulted in more vampires. They used the myth of Osiris to create a lunar cult.

The Elder reminds Marius that this was an old story he read in the scrolls and many details are lost. However, the worshippers of the sun god Amon Ra burned some of the blood-drinking cult and others scattered across the world. Most vampires who burned when Akasha and Enkil were left out in the sun never knew about them. Marius says he doesn’t believe this history and storms off.

Marius thinks about the story in his house and starts to believe it. He decides he needs to see Akasha and Enkil. Five nights after his meeting with the Elder, Marius is visited by Akasha. She tells Marius to take her and Enkil out of Egypt. He follows her out into the desert and finds the trapdoor to their hiding place. Enkil lights a torch telekinetically, and Marius sees the sand on Akasha’s clothes.

Another burned vampire appears and tries to put Those Who Must Be Kept back in their places. Akasha intervenes when Enkil won’t move, leading him back to his place. The burned vampire grovels before them and Marius cries. Marius encourages the burned one to drink from Enkil, but Enkil throws the vampire aside easily. Marius feels guilty and allows the burned vampire to drink from him.

Marius tells the vampire to guard Akasha and Enkil while he gets mummy cases and wrappings. The royal couple allow Marius to wrap them and transport them to his house. He buries them in the yard and books passage to Antioch.

Before they leave Alexandria, the Elder visits Marius. Marius has learned from the blood of the burned vampire that the Elder was the one who put Akasha and Enkil in the sun, and tells him so. The Elder admits to this act and tries to justify it, but Marius has no sympathy. Marius and the Elder fight, and the Elder is winning until Akasha rises from the earth and intervenes. When the Elder lays prostrate in front of her, she walks over him, telekinetically preventing him from moving, and destroys his body.

After setting the Elder’s remains on fire, Akasha becomes frozen again. She telepathically tells Marius to drink from her to heal his wounds from the fight. Marius hesitates, hovering over her neck, but she encourages him by putting her hand on the back of his head.

Akasha’s blood reveals more secrets not in the scrolls. Marius learns about the factions of blood drinkers in her time, how Akasha and Enkil were imprisoned, and how vampires forgot their lineage. He also learns about their escape, relocation to a shrine, and the Elder burning them. With his body fully restored, Marius kisses Akasha’s hand, and she looks at him before returning to stillness. Then, he rewraps her and sets off to Antioch.

In the present timeline, Marius explains to Lestat that he was too far away from Akasha for her to help when the Children of Darkness attacked his Venetian home. Marius mentions his love affair with Pandora and his discussions with Mael. However, he limits himself to talking about the most important things, such as how Christianity changed immortal beings from gods into devils. The Children of Darkness tried to take up this role in practice, but there is no place for evil. Marius wonders what the new secular age will bring. He notes how humans long for immortality, but new vampires are rarely happy.

Lestat is torn between wanting to destroy and rouse Akasha and Enkil. He asks Marius if he is ever tempted to destroy them. Marius asserts that he never has wanted to destroy them or himself. He attributes his lack of mental health issues to being made a vampire when he was older than Lestat. Marius encourages Lestat to live out one full lifetime, not in the Paris coven, but in New Orleans with a small, new vampiric family. After that, he can move in and out of lives among humans.

Marius assures Lestat that they can be together later in their immortal lives. Before they part, Marius shares that the creation of fledglings should be spaced out at least 50 years, preferably 100 years. Fledglings created quickly in succession will not be as strong as those spaced out, and fledglings should be created out of love.

They discuss how Akasha is the one who wanders and Enkil is the one who keeps her contained. Marius also explains how drinking Akasha’s blood could make Lestat stronger, and how Akasha seems to want Lestat to drink from her. Marius doesn’t know any more about ghosts than Lestat learned in his investigations of haunted houses. Ramses, Marius argues, is not a vampire like Armand asserted, but is another kind of supernatural being.

Marius warns Lestat against telling humans about vampires, and encourages him to go to his father in two days to be with him before he dies. Marius is planning to relocate Those Who Must Be Kept after Lestat leaves the island. He also makes Lestat promise to not tell anyone about Akasha and Enkil, nor the history of the vampires.

Lestat asks what will happen if he breaks the rules. Marius asserts that he could crush Lestat like Akasha crushed the Elder underfoot, but doesn’t want to threaten him. He is amused at Lestat’s defiance. They discuss good and evil in relation to their secrecy around humans. Marius becomes telepathically aware that humans on the island need him, and he tells Lestat he will be back the following night to continue their conversation. Marius also warns Lestat against visiting Akasha and Enkil without him. Lestat goes to sleep in the sarcophagus that Marius provided for him.

The following night, Lestat takes Nicki’s violin down to Those Who Must Be Kept. He discovers that the doors to their chapel have been opened telekinetically by Akasha. Lestat explains what the violin is and uses his vampiric skill to imitate Nicki and play for Akasha and Enkil. Akasha stands and sings a “strange high note” (485) that hurts Lestat’s ears. He drops the violin and she steps on it. Lestat calls out to Marius. Akasha comes to Lestat, holds him in her arms, and puts her hand on the back of his head, encouraging him to drink from her neck. While Lestat is in blood ecstasy, Enkil rises and starts to crush Lestat’s head between his hands, then drops him to the floor and starts to step on him. Akasha screams. Marius bangs on the chapel doors and threatens to take Akasha away if Enkil harms Lestat. When Marius gets inside, he pulls Enkil off Lestat and tells Lestat to run.

Lestat flees to a distant terrace on the island. Marius comes to him, and Lestat apologizes. They walk along the beach together, Marius gently guiding Lestat to a boat. Marius tells Lestat that Enkil can overhear them; Lestat thinks about how he wants to kill Enkil, and Marius tells him to stop. Lestat wants to free Akasha and imprison Enkil; Marius thinks this is impossible. He tells Lestat about a nearby seamen’s tavern where he can hunt, and Lestat rows there. After taking a victim, he feels more like himself. When he sleeps, he has visions of Akasha.

The next night, Marius says Lestat must leave because Enkil is destroying things in the chapel. Telekinetic powers of vampires only have a small range, so Lestat will be safer if he is further away. Marius assures Lestat that he will hear him if he calls out telepathically. They embrace, and Lestat walks down the stairs alone.

Lestat travels to New Orleans and enjoys being the only vampire there. He falls in love with the city, calling it the “most forsaken outpost of the Savage Garden” (494), and decides to remain there.