At last, when I was just at the point where I could endure it no longer, he rose, a wind full of blood rising, thrashing wildly once more before the ceiling and then gusting through the broken window, more tiny bits of glass flying into the lace curtains, which he left stained with bits of blood and gore, as he left her bare arms and hands and face and legs covered with it.

Lestat helped her to her feet. He kissed her on the mouth and stroked her long brown hair. He helped her into the chair.

“I wanted to burn him!” he said. “God, I was seething to do it.”

“So was I,” I said. I straightened her white skirt. I took out my handkerchief and began to blot the bloody scratches he had left all over her.

“No, it was too soon for the Fire,” she said, “and our meeting had to come. I had to be sure of everything.”

“And he is the ghost of my twin? It’s true?” I asked.

“Yes, it’s true,” she said quietly. She motioned for me to stop with my handkerchief, taking my hand gently and kissing it. “He’s the ghost of the baby buried in Metairie Cemetery, and that’s why he’s always been strongest here,” she explained. “It’s why you couldn’t take him with you to Europe, as Lestat told me. It’s why he was transparent and weak when you went as far as New York. It’s why he was even stronger when you went into New Orleans. It’s why he appeared so very strongly by the mausoleum tonight. His remains are inside of it.”

“But he doesn’t really understand, does he?” I asked. “He doesn’t know where he comes from or what his real name is?”

“No, he doesn’t know,” said Merrick.

I could see the little wounds vanishing, leaving her again the alluring woman she had been before. Her long wavy brown hair was gorgeously mussed, and her green eyes were bloodshot still, and she appeared over-all to still be shaken.

“But he can be made to know,” she continued, “and this is our most powerful weapon. Because a ghost, unlike a pure spirit, is connected to his remains, and this ghost is most connected. He is connected to you by blood, and that is why, don’t you see, he feels he has always had a right to what you have.”

“Of course,” I said, “oh, of course!” Only now was it hitting me. “He thinks it’s his right. We were in the womb together.” I felt a deep rivet of pain in my heart.