“Then you know why I came looking for you,” I said. But I realized he couldn’t really see the spirit that Goblin was. He’d seen the blood, yes, because the blood was visible, but the spirit who had always appeared to me was invisible to him.

“It can’t really hurt you,” he said, his voice tender and kind. “It can’t take any real volume of blood from you. It took just a tiny taste of what you took from the woman.”

“But he’ll come again whenever he wants, and I can’t fight him, and each time, I could swear, it’s a little more.”

I steadied myself, and he released me, stroking my hair with his right hand. That casual gesture of affection coupled with his dazzling appearance—the vibrant eyes, the exquisitely proportioned features—entranced me even as the trance induced by Goblin slowly wore away.

“He found me here,” I said, “and I don’t even know where I am. He found me here, and he can find me anywhere, and each time, as I told you, he takes a little more blood.”

“Surely you can fight him,” Lestat said, encouragingly.

His expression was concerned and protective, and I felt such an overwhelming need of him and love for him that I was about to cry. I held it back.

“Maybe I can learn to fight him,” I said, “but is that enough?”

“Come, let’s leave this graveyard,” he answered. “You have to tell me about him. You have to tell me how this came about.”

“I don’t know that I have all the answers,” I said. “But I have a story to tell.”

I followed him out onto the terrace into the fresh air.

“Let’s go to Blackwood Manor,” I said. “I don’t know of another place where we can talk in such peace. Only my aunt is there tonight and her lovable entourage, and maybe my mother, and they’ll all leave us completely alone. They’re utterly used to me.”

“And Goblin?” he asked. “Will he be stronger there if he does come back?”

“He was as strong as ever only moments ago,” I responded. “I think that I’ll be stronger.”

“Then Blackwood Manor it is,” he said.

Again there came his firm arm around me and we were traveling upwards. The sky spread out, full of clouds, and then we broke through to the very stars.

5

WITHIN MOMENTS we found ourselves in front of the big house, and I experienced a flashing sense of embarrassment as I looked at its huge two-story columned portico.

Of course the garden lights were on, brilliantly illuminating the fluted columns to their full height, and all of the many rooms were aglow. In fact, I had a rule on this and had had since boyhood, that at four o’clock all chandeliers in the main house had to be lighted, and though I was no longer that boy in the grip of twilight depression, the chandeliers were illuminated by the same clock.

A quick chuckle from Lestat caught me off guard.