“Yes,” David said coldly. “I think you’re right.”

“Why else would he stay in that body?” I said. “He’s clearly very uncomfortable in it. He wants to switch. He’s saying that he can switch! That’s why he’s taken this risk. He must know it would be easy for me to kill him, squash him like a little bug. I don’t even like him—the manner, I mean. The body is excellent. No, that’s it. He can do it, David, he knows how.”

“Snap out of it! You can’t put it to the test.”

“What? Why not? You’re telling me it can’t be done? In all those archives you have no records … ? David, I know he’s done it. He just can’t force me into it. But he’s switched with another mortal, that I know.”

“Lestat, when it happens we call it possession. It’s a psychic accident! The soul of a dead person takes over a living body; a spirit possessing a human being; it has to be persuaded to let go. Living people don’t go around doing it deliberately and in concerted agreement. No, I don’t think it is possible. I don’t think we do have any such cases! I … ” He broke off, clearly in doubt.

“You know you have such cases,” I said. “You must.”

“Lestat, this is very dangerous, too dangerous for any sort of trial.”

“Look, if it can happen by accident, it can happen this way too. If a dead soul can do it, why not a living soul? I know what it means to travel outside my body. You know. You learned it in Brazil. You described it in fine detail. Many, many human beings know. Why, it was part of the ancient religions. It’s not inconceivable that one could return to another body and hold on to it while the other soul struggles in vain to recapture it.”

“What an awful thought.”

I explained again about the sensations and how powerful they had been. “David, it’s possible he stole that body!”

“Oh, that’s just lovely.”

Again, I was remembering the feeling of constriction, the terrific and strangely pleasurable feeling that I was being squeezed out of myself through the top of my head. How strong it had been! Why, if he could make me feel that, surely he could make a mortal man rise out of himself, especially if that mortal man did not have the slightest idea of what was being done.

“Calm yourself, Lestat,” David said a little disgustedly. He laid his heavy fork upon the half-empty plate. “Now think this through. Perhaps such a switch could be achieved for a few minutes. But anchoring in the new body, remaining inside it, and functioning day in and day out? No. This would mean functioning when you are asleep as well as awake. You’re talking about something entirely different and obviously dangerous. You can’t experiment with this. What if it worked?”

“That’s the whole point. If it works, then I can get into that body.” I paused. I could scarcely speak it and then I did. I said it. “David, I can be a mortal man.”