“Don’t be so sure. Even the Talamasca might not be ready for this! And besides, humans can be perfect beasts when it comes to money. Call my agent in Paris. I’ll instruct him to give you absolutely anything that you wish. I’ll see to it your fortune is restored to you, to the very last pound, and most definitely the house. You can have anything that is mine to give.”

He looked faintly surprised. And then deeply moved.

I couldn’t help but wonder, Had I had ever seemed so completely at ease in this tall limber body? Surely my movements had been more impulsive and even a little violent. Indeed, the strength had wrung from me a certain carelessness. He seemed on the other hand to have assimilated a knowledge of every sinew and bone.

I saw him in my mind’s eye, old David, striding through the narrow cobblestone streets of Amsterdam, sidestepping the whizzing bicycles. He’d had the same poise even then.

“Lestat, you are not responsible for me now,” he said. “You didn’t cause this to happen.”

How miserable I was suddenly. But there were words, weren’t there, which had to be said.

“David,” I began, trying not to show the soreness. “I couldn’t have beaten him if it hadn’t been for you. I told you in New Orleans I would be your slave for eternity if only you helped me to get my body away from him. And that you did.” My voice was quavering. I hated it. But why not say it all now? Why prolong the pain? “Of course I know I’ve lost you forever, David. I know you’ll never take the Dark Gift from me now.”

“But why say you’ve lost me, Lestat?” he said in a low fervent voice. “Why must I die to love you?” He pressed his lips together, trying to suppress his sudden surge of feeling. “Why that price, especially now when I am alive as never before? Lord God, surely you grasp the magnitude of what’s taken place! I’ve been reborn.”

He placed his hand on my shoulder, fingers trying to close on the hard alien body which barely felt his touch, or rather felt it in such a wholly different way that he would never know. “I love you, my friend,” he said in the same ardent whisper. “Please, don’t leave me now. All this has brought us so close.”

“No, David. It has not. In these last few days, we were close because we were both mortal men. We saw the same sun and the same twilight, we felt the same pull of the earth beneath our feet. We drank together and broke bread together. We might have made love together, if you had only allowed such a thing. But that’s all changed. You have your youth, yes, and all the dizzying wonder that accompanies the miracle. But I still see death when I look at you, David. I see one who walks in the sun with death right at his shoulder. I know now I cannot be your companion, and you cannot be mine. It simply costs me too much pain.”