“Welcome to you both,” said Sevraine. She spoke in a sweet lyrical voice with a girl’s enthusiasm. “I’m so happy you’ve come, Lestat. You don’t know how many nights I’ve heard you out there roaming this land, wandering about the ruins of Göbekli Tepe, and I always dreamed you would find your way here, that you would hear something emanating from these mountains that would prove irresistible to you. But you seemed alone, dedicated to being alone, not eager at all to have your thoughts interrupted. And so I’ve waited, and waited. And your mother and I have long known each other and she at last has brought you here.”

I didn’t believe a word she was saying. She coveted her secrecy. She was merely trying to be polite, and I was bound to be polite as well.

“Maybe this is the perfect time, Sevraine,” I said. “I’m happy to be here.”

The mysterious woman had risen at Sevraine’s right and so had this male spirit on her left.

“Ah, young one,” said the woman and immediately I knew this voice from the charnel house under Paris. “You have ridden the Devil’s Road with greater zeal than any I’ve ever known. You don’t know how many nights from my grave I followed you, catching one image of you after another from the minds that doted on you. I dreamed of waking merely to talk to you. You burnt like a flame in the blackness in which I suffered, beckoning me to rise.”

A chill came over me. I took both her hands.

“The old one,” I said in a whisper, “from Les Innocents! The one who was with Armand and the Children of Satan!” I was astonished. “You’re the one I called the old Queen.”

“Yes, beloved one. I’m Allesandra,” she said. “That’s my name. Allesandra, daughter of Dagobert, last king of the Merovingians and brought into the Blood by Rhoshamandes. Oh, what a splendid pleasure it is to behold you here in this safe and warm place!”

These names powerfully excited me. The history of the Merovingians I knew, but who was this blood drinker Rhoshamandes? Something told me I’d soon find out, not here perhaps but somewhere and in short order as the old ones, like Sevraine, continued to let down their guard.

I wanted to embrace this woman. The table stood between us. I had half a mind to crawl over it. Instead I squeezed her hands ever more tightly. My heart was pounding. This moment was too precious.