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"The word went out a month ago on the Vampire Connection that you were back. And the news was old then. They said you were hunting New Orleans, and then they learned what you meant to do. They had early copies of your autobiography. There was endless talk about the video films. "

"And why didn't I see them in New Orleans?" I asked.

"Because New Orleans has been for half a century Armand's territory. No one dares to hunt New Orleans. They learned through mortal sources of information, out of Los Angeles and New York. "

"I didn't see Armand in New Orleans," I said.

"I know," he answered. He looked troubled, confused for a moment.

I felt a little tightening in the region of the heart.

"No one knows where Armand is," he said a little dully. "But when he was there, he killed the young ones. They left New Orleans to him. They say that many of the old ones do that, kill the young ones. They say it of me, but it isn't so. I haunt San Francisco like a ghost. I do not trouble anyone save my unfortunate mortal victims. "

All this didn't surprise me much.

"There are too many of us," he said, "as there always have been. And there is much warring. And a coven in any given city is only a means by which three or more powerful ones agree not to destroy each other, and to share the territory according to the rules. "

"The rules, always the rules," I said.

"They are different now, and more stringent. Absolutely no evidence of the kill must ever be left about. Not a single corpse must be left for mortals to investigate. "

"Of course. "

"And there must be no exposure whatsoever in the world of close-up photography and zoom lenses, of freeze-frame video examinati

on -- no risk that could lead to capture, incarceration, and scientific verification by the mortal world. "

I nodded. But my pulse was racing. I loved being the outlaw, the one who had already broken every single law. And so they were imitating my book, were they? Oh, it was started already. Wheels set into motion.

"Lestat, you think you understand," he said patiently, "but do you? Let the world have but one tiny fragment of our tissue for their microscopes, and there will be no arguments anymore about legend or superstition. The proof will be there. "

"I don't agree with you, Louis," I said. "It isn't that simple. "

"They have the means to identify and classify us, to galvanize the human race against us. "

"No, Louis. Scientists in this day and age are witch doctors perpetually at war. They quarrel over the most rudimentary questions. You would have to spread that supernatural tissue to every microscope in the world and even then the public might not believe a word of it. "

He reflected for a moment.

"One capture then," he said. "One living specimen in their hands. "

"Even that wouldn't do it," I said. "And how could they ever hold me?"

But it was too lovely to contemplate -- the chase, the intrigue, the possible capture and escape. I loved it.

He was smiling now in a strange way. Full of disapproval and delight.

"You are madder than you ever were," he said under his breath. "Madder than when you used to go about New Orleans deliberately scaring people in the old days. "

I laughed and laughed. But then I got quiet. We didn't have that much time before morning. And I could laugh all the way into San Francisco tomorrow night.

"Louis, I've thought this over from every angle," I said. "It will be harder to start a real war with mortals than you think -- "

"-And you're bound and determined to start it, aren't you? You want everyone, mortal or immortal, to come after you. "

"Why not?" I asked. "Let it begin. And let them try to destroy us the way they have destroyed their other devils. Let them try to wipe us out. "

He was watching me with that old. expression of awe and incredulity that I had seen a thousand times on his face. I was a fool for it, as the expression goes.