If this is all good, then why not bring people into it for our own purposes? Hadn’t Fareed done it, making vampires out of brilliant doctors and scientists? Were we a thing that was good, or weren’t we? And if I believed we were good, and believed the Dark Gift was just that, a gift, then I had to allow Antoine to find himself the musical scribes he wanted. And then what?

Teskhamen might have been reading my mind, but I wasn’t sure of it. There are subtle rules about such things, matters of courtesy, matters of not stabbing into the mind of the other without permission to revert to the telepathic.

“Look, there’s another matter,” I said. “Some of the others are afraid of you. That’s the plain truth. They’re afraid of you. You, a blood drinker, who claims a greater loyalty to the Talamasca than you do to us. And Gremt here, an incarnate spirit. I’ve always seen ghosts, but many a blood drinker has never seen ghosts, not at least that he or she was aware of.”

I had their full attention as I continued. “This shouldn’t have happened, this silence and neglect of you on my part. And please, please don’t call me Prince. I’m Lestat, that’s all. Lestat de Lioncourt on legal documents. And to all and sundry, simply Lestat.”

“Oh, come on, you love being called Prince,” said Amel. “You vain preening peacock of a monster. You love it. You coxcomb. Tell them about the crown jewels lavished on you by the vampires from Russia, all that Romanov booty soaked in blood.”

“Shut up,” I said aloud.

“And the crown expressly made for you by that old vampire from Oxford!”

“If you don’t shut up—.”

“What?” he asked. “What will you do if I don’t shut up? What can you do? Are you looking at them, the way they’re looking at you, the way they’re studying you and listening to my voice inside you? Are you aware of their calculating evil minds!”

“Why did you want to come here?” I asked him without moving my lips.

Silence. It was like dealing with a child.

Then Teskhamen spoke. “He doesn’t make life easy for you, does he?” he asked.

“No,” I responded. “But he makes it very exciting. It’s not so bad most of the time. Not at all.” This was a magnificent understatement. I loved Amel. “And for long periods, he leaves,” I said. “He goes running off to spy on others. But he can make life a perfect Hell if he wants to with all his noise, questions, demands, and denials. But that’s all he can do.”

That’s not true. If I want to, I can make your right hand jump right now.

I made my right hand into a fist.