The Truth Couldn't Be Told

[Miss Gates]

Avril Lavigne could hear the faint clicks of the horse's hoof beats on the ground and the sounds of the wheels that emitted from the horse drawn carriage. Sleep was about to grasp her and win her over with heavy eye lids, but she forced herself to stay awake. The country was beautiful and she wanted to see the scenery. There was hardly anyrthing to look at during the night though. A huge yawn escaped her throat and threatened to make her go to sleep. Avril couldn't afford to go to sleep because of the people that were after her.

After she had quit the music business Avril had met a vampire named Lestat. She had fallen in love with him and a had small fling. However, the paparazzi's ruined everything. Well those miscrients had threatened to ruin everything. Avril had never told Lestat why she truely left. Actually, she never told him anything. She just left without even a warning. The paparrazi's found out about Lestat's secret and threatened Avril that if she was going to stay with Lestat then his vampire secret would be told to the world.

Avril left shortly after that. She just disappeared. She changed her name to something she hadn't memorized yet and gotten used to hearing and moved to Romania. If the paparazzi found out she had moved to Romania then Avril would take drastic measures. She would not only change her name again, but her entire look. The horse carriage stopped finally and let Avril out.

Her surroundings were beautiful and old. Avril had stopped in one-street town full of pubs, bars, dance clubs, banks, and some restauraunts. Black and crisp leaves scraped the ground before they ascended into the air in a loop and blew away. The cold air nipped at Avril's skin so she zipped up her black hoodie and looked around. She turned to the driver and thanked him and walke to the nearest pub.

Inside the pub looked like a place where cowboys belonged. Avril didn't feel like a cowboy though. She felt out of place with her black corset, black skirt, and black hoodie. The people stopped what they were doing for a moment and stared at her. Then, they returned to their drinks and food. Avril's lips were chapped from lack of water. She walked up to the bar tender and sat down.

"Please sir I need a place to stay." Avril said. She hoped he knew English.

The man looked at her; he was round like Santa Clause and had a bushy beard. His eyes were a pretty blue that held kindness in them. He sighed and nodded.

"You can stay here as long as you work here." He said. "I'll get you something to eat and drink."

"Thank you." Avril said.

She was grateful she had a place to stay for awhile. Within a few moments, the man set a plate in front of her with a variety of food that Avril did not recognize. She didn't mind. Her stomach was too hungry to be picky. She took a couple of bites and he handed her a glass of water. Avril sat at the bar alone with her meal.

Briefly she let her mind wonder about Lestat. She hoped that he would forgive her for leaving on such short notice. Avril needed to escape and she could not let her people tell the world about his secret.

[Asphyxia.]

Of all the things in this world a very old vampire could think of, this particular vampire with a gushing historical event in the past found himself thinking about her. His perpetual life had passed by like nothing through his hands, a series of events as duty of a father and others as duties to his personality, who he really was.

Once a very famous rock star, once he quit to nurture and take care of his beloved children, Lestat had met a girl quite like himself sans the vampire trait - she was human which was odd to him. This girl was particular about the way she went, her thoughts and overall her life. In that past, Lestat's mentality had been different, it harbored things that in the present would never be shown again in the moonlight. That Avril girl had known a tactless, first time human contact side of him and the reminder came back in flashes of black and white films in his vision. The scenery he passed by was dull and lifeless although this was his chosen path. It had aristocratic events like his time line once upon a time and frivolous things he could distract his mind with. Thinking about that girl and the stinging aftermath of why she left winded his feet to an invisible pace into a local pub, the first one his feet could drag him to. Usually crowded, the pull towards the stool bars was unnaturally longing like a missing effect surfacing in him and in the blink of an eye, his form already partook the soft leather dressing the seat. A scent in particular saturated his high smell sense, but then again, this was filled with overly excited hormones and pumping, fluid warm blood, causing him to shrug the nudging thought in his head. She was the topic of the night annoyingly prodding his thoughts.

As the jolly bar attendant walked toward him with heavy pacing, his gray eyes tunneled in his direction, focusing on his words. His look had been that of an usual casually striding in, not having to speak what he wanted as the bar tender knew watching the glance of those particularly dull eyes. His plump cheeks became rounder with a smile that managed to twitch some life around Lestat's lips, wrapping his fingers around the circumference of his shielded drink. "Thanks." Lestat whispered, busying himself with tucking the blurred glass between his puckered lips.

[Miss Gates]

Avril closed her eyes as she heard his voice. That voice-his voice haunted her. She sniffled and took another bite. She wondered if he was truly here or if her mind was playing tricks on her. There was no possible way that Lestat found her. But then again, he was a vampire and he could probably find her in an instant. Avril was short though and she was grateful for that all of a sudden. If Lestat was sitting next to her he probably thought she was just some teenager and not a girl in her early twenties.

Avril quit the music business to protect Lestat. The one paparazzi threatened her that Lestat's secret would be spilled out if she didn't quit the music business. So Avril did and she fled the country. She didn't want to go back to Germany, but for some odd reason she wanted to go to Romania. Avril decided that she wouldn't show her face and hoped that Lestat didn't recognize her. She finished her food and the bar tender walked up to her.

"Hey sweet heart if you're done my wife can show you to a room upstairs." He said.

"Thank you." Avril slipped and clenched her jaw. She had spoken and she was sure that Lestat heard her. Vampires did have good hearing. She hoped he didn't though.

Her heart twisted a little. Avril hoped that he wasn't in pain because of her.

[Asphyxia.]

After taking a sip of his drink, Lestat's expressions soured. Nothing even tasted the same anymore, but her deliciously smelling blood had a particular tinge in the warm air and yet this disgusting glass of heated rubies, even though he could pass the few minute taste of it and it was something, just had no taste compared to the smell welling up in his mouth. How did he end up here again? Ugh. His seat twisted the opposite direction Avril was sitting, letting his shoulders take a resting place over the counter before his eyes scanned around through the crowd of twisting, mingling bodies. People usually held a wonderful diversity for his attention, but nothing appealing to his mind was found in this distinct crowd either, causing a frown to slip again for his mouth too big for his face but thin lips. How could he let something so insignificant take over his emotions? Women now held the brilliance and attraction men used to withhold, but yet, not even the great, infamous vampire Lestat could take away the feeling that women scarred on him. It was nothing, however. Just reminiscing thoughts. She was someplace well forgotten in the abysmal depth of his mind, just another clockwork memory like his own history imprinted in delicate parchment. The only thing that kept mentally nudging him was his secret. Distraught women always babbled things they shouldn't and one thing he certainly hoped was his secret to be reveal. It was different if people guessed -- this time in history had changed drastically. Vampires could roam freely to will and whim as they pleased but he certainly couldn't go around like that. There was something still infringed in his past that negated the thought of freely opening to anyone. The closest ones who knew about his history or guessed had the benefit of the doubt for they wouldn't divulge; it wasn't in their place. But this girl was famous once upon a time... and her scent, distorting his reality currently, could be tracked anywhere.

Before, Lestat would have not thought of even harming this woman he had grown fond of... he wasn't a cold heartless killer nor wouldn't he turn into one, but for the protection of his well-guarded secret, he would have to resort to something irrational if people recognized him as the reality narrated in books.

Turning around with agility on the stool once again the opposite direction of the girl, the handsome vampire tend back to his blurred glass and began idly stroking a finger over the edge of the glass, caressing the length, giving it a circular motion to his hand without having to flourish around his wrist. His ears picked up the bar tender offering a girl he'd completely ignore next to him a room. His eyes came to the middle in a furrow of curiosity, his lips parting from one another in a small smile. "Getting new workers, are we--" his voice stopped once his eyes reverted toward the bar tender and wheeled, falling on the girl. Something about her was horrifyingly familiar but she looked younger. The tone of her voice was also a similar ring in the back of his head and yet it wasn't unique. The Avril girl he had met years ago didn't have the tone of voice that could be placed with a face; unfortunately many girls around the world had a similar tone and spoke with that familiarity, throwing him off mentally once again. His mind raced through faces but not for long. Her face meshed along with Avril's but something was different, something was off and he couldn't make a quick assumption.
With a gaping mouth, Lestat recomposed his frame to sit aligned with his ankles, his gray eyes scrutinizing this girl staying tonight at this frumpy little pub. "Excuse me, have we met before? You seem terrifyingly familiar."

[Miss Gates]

The bar tender was about to respond to Lestat's quetion, but he had turned his attention to the new girl. So he went back to work by scrubbing the bar and giving people their orders. He cleaned a couple of dishes when his wife came downstairs. The old man kissed her on the cheek lovingly and she offered him a smile.

The bar tender's wife was just as old as him and her hair was silver. A couple wrinkles in her skin here and there, but her eyes were the color of the sea. Many loved her for her kindness. A few people nodded at her and then a man who was at a booth stood up with his glass raised. He spoke drunkenly in Romanian, but his words were appreciated by the sober ones, including the bar tender. He chuckled and clapped.

"They love you." He said and went back to work; as did his wife serving tables.

Avril froze when he had looked at her. Nothing in the world mattered now. Lestat always had that affect on her. Many months had passed since she last saw him and she remembered the first few days without him. Memories of her sleeping in a sub way or on the streets flashed through her mind. Avril remembered that she had shed a few tears on thoughts of him.

She traveled everywhere and anywhere that would allow her to stay without pay. Which wasn't much. Avril couldn't afford to spend the money she had because she was afraid that her stalkers would find her. Avril had never been truly homeless until the people ruined her.

Avril didn't turn to look at him. Her heart quickened and she panicked. Avril couldn't decide what to do. Should she talk to him? Or tell him that he was mistaken. The kindness in her heart told her otherwise. She couldn't be rude. That just wasn't her character. Avril turned and faced Lestat.

"Its me...Avril." She said softly.

Fear englufed her. She wondered how he would react. Avril looked down and waited for answer.

[Asphyxia.]

"It's me... Avril." The first reactions presented over Lestat's facial expressions were his furrowing eyebrows accentuating deeper into that furrow, coming together in an upward slant in the middle followed by several, registering blinks. The spoken name prodded several of sharp pangs that reeled him further into a hazy state of flashbacks, the name Avril becoming a prominent reminder already in his boggled mind. The mesh faces became the faint, tarnished imagery in the visionary clips of his mind before they fissured and painted his reality before him. It had dawned in him that this altered girl was the Avril that had been haunting his mind this night, this night that he had escaped to Romania just to forget the world. While his eyes re-focused by blinking several of times again, his eyes flickered back to the stained glass clasped in his hand, wondering if they had laced his vital drink with some sort of drug that was making him hallucinate. But the girl had talked to the jolly bar tender tending to his wife at the moment, so it wasn't product of his imagination but a simple, ghastly coincidence. Nowhere in the world could he run to, his mind and heightened senses had betrayed him once again. "Avril..." the words slipped through his French accent this time, a mere windy whisper from his thin, pale pink lips. She ha gone through the trouble of disappearing in thin air like some magician and never telling him why she had done so yet in this pub she so openly reveals her identity to him when asked. What if he hadn't asked after all? Would she still regard it in her conscious as remorse and would have asked him how was he, letting him know? His vision began to film a little, his blinding turmoil effervescing through his brilliant, charming facade. Fury wasn't something Lestat felt often, but frustration was. Through his simmering emotions the vampire could her heat rising through her body, the flustering dawn of realization at who exactly had spoken to her. His lips began to slowly pucker and come together in a purse, forming a wrinkled closed 'o' shape. Grays darted back in her direction, this time falling to her face with a sharp imply without having to search for it. His neck twisted slightly, letting the rest shake off to his rising shoulder before rotating it around, bringing his hands to fix around the laces of his shirt. "So Avril," her name had been emphasized by a hissing undertone he quickly controlled before it sounded like a scorn any further, followed by a wry smiling dance across his lips. "Where have you been all my life? Last time I saw you--oh wait! Yes, I remember. You just disappeared. And now I find you here, what a coincidence. Have a good lavished life? I'd hope so." Even though Lestat had been trying to play it smooth as if he hadn't cared all these years that a woman had disappeared from his life, the stern and sarcastic undertone hidden between the spoken sentences were enough to focus on several breaking points noticed in several of words. They were, however, fluent enough to be perceived as just his accent denoting through his words.

[Miss Gates]

Avril sighed when she discovered that she had hurt him by leaving. She didn't want to leave. She wanted to pour her heart out and tell him the truth about her horrible life now. Now that she had no money or career and she couldn't dare to sing in case her stalkers found her. Let him hurt you, a voice in the back of her mind told her. He deserves that much. After all, he is right. You just disappeared. Like smoke. Still. She thought he was being a little unfair. Had he ever wondered why she left? It wasn't in Avril's heart to just up and leave. If she ever did anything, she had a reason and she left him for a pretty good damn reason. Lestat's tone slashed at her like a gut wound. Avril looked down and let her long blond hair fall, but she didn't take off her hoodie. She was forced to hide her identity. Yet, Avril couldn't tell him this. She couldn't tell him that he was in danger as long as he stayed here. Or as long as she stayed here. Forced to leave yet again. In the distance, she listened to the clinks of glasses that the bar tender used and the pouring of drinks. She had to t hink of an answer, but what could she say? Really? Oh yes Lestat, my life has been great without you... When her life was rather horrible? Avril Lavigne wasn't a liar. That's why she couldn't say good bye. She just had to leave. Now Avril was trapped between him and the door. She knew that if she made an attempt to run for it, he would beat her to do the door in a flash or he would just let her go.

No. Avril told herself. Time to tell the truth.

"No my life hasn't been great actually," Avril told him honestly. "And I'm sorry for disappearing...I had to. I..." She sighed heavily; there was she was again...Holding back.

[Asphyxia.]

Lestat's composure framed to a more direct pose while her words began to threaten through her lips, but his mind reading power lured him to her answers before she could allow to herself to formulate a coherent response. And even though her words finally produced from her fluidly moving lips with odd skips here and there, they weren't a complete sentence giving an explicit or at least elaborate explanation for her disappearance, leaving him hollow once again, the same widow roaming around the cesspool called Earth with nothing else to entertain his ever growing, raging thirst for humor, the humor she hadn't provided him with even upon their first meeting. She had belittled herself in a way that she had turned into the tender, helpless form of a human in desperate need for some attention and his attention provided for her was slowly carved into something considered along the lines of kindness slowly shaping its way into a caring, humane person. Those feelings were long lost gone now, the glimpse of a chance wanting to dawn in between them ebbing into oblivion.
As his eyebrows pulled together in question, his gray eyes skimmed around her silhouette, listening closely to her debate whether she chose to tell him the truth or choose the latter option which washed some chagrin around his emotions, distorting his charming features into hard, defined and shadowed planes of anguish and frustration. I deserve nothing but the truth! His mental voice yelled aimlessly, the only outlet available, filming the turmoil with effervescing embers, glowering and fanning to once again burst into the burning flames they crackled into several of times in the span of his life. "You had to? Can you be any more vague, Avril?" His breathing became short, jagged clips, only necessary to keep some fluid conversation but the right words were all tightened with flat emotion through clenched teeth. His frame leaned further into her direction, his arms stretching out into the stool in front of his, giving him a little smug but wry expression, quite not cruel but still a deep desire to hurt verbally tainted the rest of his lucid ideas to keep some certain chivalry between men and women. Avril had been a woman that thought that knew him well, from every angel possible, and if it hadn't happened before, it would be a swift introduction into his friendly zone. "I'd love to hear the story you have to tell me what you have in mind as an excuse. Perhaps you became some sort of magician? I'd think so. You're so good at disappearing." His words weren't meant to give the sharp, crusty edge that were pierced into the undertone emotion entailed to them but his emotions were a high strung roller coaster of thought, elation lacking and the more he thought over the idea of her disappearing act, the more he hated the fact that this night had become a coincidental confront with the woman he wanted to get away from. "Any elusive apologies guaranteed after this? And the moral of the story, you never want to forget that. It gives the perfect blase touch to the end.

[Miss Gates]

Apologies? Had he not heard her before? Avril had just apologized before, but she knew that he deserved more than that. Lestat deserved an explanation, but what could she tell him? That a vampire was threatening her to stay away from Lestat? Only if Lestat knew how she felt about him. Those feelings that ate someone up after they lost someone important to them...That's how she felt about him. Truncate memories flashed in her mind of when she first left.

Traveling with absolutely no money, Avril would either find a park bench or a park's slide or an alley to fall asleep in. She would think about Lestat to soothe her. Her tears would dry on her cheeks and sometimes she would even call out for Lestat in her sleep. Avril didn't know that, but a person who walked by her had woken her up and asked her if she was alright and who was Lestat? Some people assumed that Lestat had hurt her sexually, but she assured them that he had never done that.

Lestat was always kind that she remembered, but this Lestat...This Lestat was different. He was a completely different person than when she met him. Avril feared she was the cause of that and she admitted that mistake. Snap. Something was close and her heart pounded loudly. Avril opened her mouth to say something, but out of the corner of her eye she saw the vampire that stalked her outside the pub in front of the window.

He was tall, dark, and handsome like Lestat, but he was dangerous. Avril had never seen the dangerous side of Lestat and never even knew that he had a dangerous side. Not until she heard his mean tone and saw the change in his attitude towards her. The vampire faced the window and narrowed his dark eyes. The look in his eyes told her she needed to get away. She needed to leave Lestat again before he got hurt. Again. Fear flooded Avril's face, her eyes widened, and she snapped up and went to take off in a run, but stopped to say good bye to Lestat.

"Lestat," Avril said nimbly. "I have to go, I can't stay here. He found me again." She paused. "I am truly sorry that I left. I never wanted to, please understand that." She headed for the door of the restauraunt.

The vampire outside that Avril did not know only grinned at her pain and Lestat's pain. At least he thought Lestat was in pain and he enjoyed maniupulating this Avril girl. She was so easy to toy with, but sooner or later he would give Lestat up to the media. He was just bored of vampries living in secrecy.

His outfit consisted off an off-white sweater neck shirt and dark blue jeans so he looked semi-normal. He was also very brillant for his teacher and sire had been the infamous Killian. His reputation was bad, but bad as in evil. He was also evil and his duties to his sire was to make older vampire's lives miserable. Plus, this was entertaining to this unknown vampire. He watched Avril closely as she walked to the door.

He imagined her blood in his mouth; sweet and warm. Not as good as Slayer's blood, but pretty close enough in his opinion. He wanted to feed off her to make her even more bendable to his will and powers. He would also have connection with her once he bit her. Then he could haunt her. Oh the ideas that swirled around in this vampire's head made him appear to glow with happiness. Patiently, he waited for the pathetic human girl to come outside.

[Asphyxia.]

In the return of Avril's non responding mannerism, Lestat began to probe once again the depth of the girl's mind, seeing if he could find an inkling of an answer, the answer he had been looking for or at least a minimal explanation to this disappearing situation. Her thoughts were fleeting messes of her vague, blurred past from when she left and a faint little pang jabbed the vampire inside his stomach. It wasn't enough to find pity in the imagery pictured inside her thoughts because the vital information he had been searching for so long wasn't there. Grounding his teeth, Lestat was about to exit his focus on her particular thoughts until this new face took his peripheral, the familiar scent of cleanliness flaring his nostrils. Another vampire? What did that have to do with anything about her and him most of all? His impatient brooding had been interrupted by the girl's goodbye and the meek, wistful expressions distorting the small, soft facial planes of her countenance. And because this thing was dangerous didn't mean he was dangerous to him but mostly her. Not yet. The others thoughts crossed over Lestat's mind and his arm raised into the air, grasping the warm mortal girl from her flight, hoisting her over to his side. "No, you don't." His mind became a whirlwind of chagrin and blurring anger, heating the rest of his thoughts with destruction and the mental illness of a serial killer. "Are you mad, girl? Running away towards this thing will hurt you and you can't take it. Don't underestimate me. I'm quite capable of handling this other vampire." Lestat hadn't understand the reason for her running and her thick-headedness when it came to trouble at hand. Did she really doubt his ability? What was happening that she had to protect him so much but he couldn't protect herself?

[Miss Gates]

Avril was stunned by his reaction. She didn't know that he had still cared. She went to open her mouth to say something articulate, but all that came out were small fragments of a sentence. She closed her eyes and concentrated on a good way to explain herself. Nothing came to.

"Lestat..." Avril said softly. "No you can't," there was extreme panic in her voice and a memory appeared in her mind again.

The first time she encountered this vampire who was standing outside the bar now. She had gone out for a walk one from a club and crossed an alley. He reached out and pulled her in and slammed her against the wall. His fangs were out, threatening to bite her. Avril grimaced at Lestat as she remembered this.

"You girl," he said and leaned into her ear. "I know all about your relationship with Lestat." He said in a low voice. "My name is Jared and if you want to live you will do exactly what I tell you." Jared kissed her neck and then whispered into her ear.

There it was: the answer to why Avril had suddenly disappeared. Jared walked into the bar and looked Lestat up and down. Then he looked at Avril with disgust and evil in his dark brown eyes.

"I thought I told you to stay away from him." Jared said smoothly.

Fear washed over Avril and lingered on her skin. Goosebumps walked over her arms and her heart pounded loudly.

[Asphyxia.]

"Lestat..." Her voice rung in the depths of his mind, his gaze still marveling her, not deviating from her eyes. What?! His automatic mental response. What could she want now, they were confronting each other and she couldn't even express her emotions to save her life? She was only condemning his further than it already had been. "No, you can't." The skin surrounding his eyeballs tightened, creating puckering lines and accentuating his shape, the gray color in his eyes shifting with a hue of an icy glower, but her words stung deep inside however much denial washed over his body, causing his eyes to widen and the pupil to dilate. The thoughts coursing through her mind welled up inside his vision, leaving his eyes with a clouded, distant daze. The picture came in a swelling zoom with tainted distinctness before it sucked back into a dismal abyss, coloring back the reality without the grainy film clouding it. And even though all of this had happened and the vampire had seen it, the answer still wasn't there.

Lestat's ears perked up now, the new fragrance saturating the air as the hollow, breezing steps that were muted to humans approached them. The skin around his eyes tightened again, a furrow encountering his eyebrows in the middle with a signature scowl, shadowing his features with an intimidating aspect. Avril's heartbeat thrummed inside of Lestat's ear with an annoying thump each time, the blood gushing through her veins and pooling in awkward places heating the skin of his hand from the arm he was still holding. Sometimes it had been so easy to forget that the world still was surrounding by humans, the main reason these creatures of the night usually survived. The first impression this new vampire gave to Lestat was appealing however pathetic. The words he spoke gave him the glint of a crazed, obsessed lover pushed away. "What do you want?" His words broke through the strain and distraught suddenly fluttering through the air and inflaming turmoils all around. is hand pushed behind him, the one grasping Avril's hand, trying to haul her into a protective shield behind his frame.

[Miss Gates]

This time Avril didn't fight Lestat. She was too afraid. Fear blew up in her like air did in a balloon. She shook her head and there were no words coming out of her mouth. Avril couldn't even bring herself to move her feet. Though she was happy that Lestat was protecting her. Her shining knight in armor. Like there was a chance that fire could be brought back. Pang. There was another pang of loneliness. She missed everyone including her brother.

"Lestat I'm sorry," Avril whispered.

Jared grinned; it was cold and heartless. He craved Avril since the very first night he bit her. He tried to find a way around Lestat, but couldn't. There was also that sense of knowing that Lestat was stronger than him. He smirked.

"Mind if you give Avy back?" Jared laughed.

"Stop calling me that!" Avril spat, but hid behind Lestat.

Jared narrowed his eyes. "And since when do you tell me what to do?"

He was getting pissed off that Lestat was in between him and the thing he desperately wanted. The thing he needed. but if the thing wouldn't come to him, he would reveal Lestat's secret. Yes everyone knew that vampires were real, but not all of them knew about this vampire.

[Asphyxia.]

"Let me get this straight," Lestat's hand stabbed through the air, his finger pointing upwards toward the ceiling of the bar, his figure still shadowing over Avril's. "You want her, but she wants me. Since you can't get her, you'll expose my secret unless she stays away from me to stay with..." his gray eyes gave a vague skim around the night club, wheeled around to the outskirts where leather chairs sat and dodged around to the ceiling before hovering momentarily over the front door of the club. "You?" A glint of smug crossed over his countenance, the corner of his lip twitching into a little smirk before it broadened into an impish grin, a soft laughter huffing from his parting lips. "You're so naive. Here I thought you had the potential to be a worthy opponent. You can't force anyone to like what their heart doesn't spark." The new glint glowering in his eyes had a taste of slight insanity, that of a fearless serial killer ready to strike. "I suggest you just walk away now." His voice lowered down a notch before a gruff rumble overpowered it.

[Miss Gates]

Avril's mouth dropped at Lestat's words. Yes she wanted him. But did he want her still? After what she had done? She disappeared off the face of the earth. Thankfully, not literally, but still. Avril didn't leave him any explanation. Not even a note and her family couldn't tell him either. She had just...left. She cringed at his words slightly in hopes that cringing would make the pain go away. Avril looked up at Lestat and cowered a little behind him, still afraid of Jared. Wasn't he afraid that Jared would spill all his secrets? Avril knew he would.

Jared ground his teeth together. He wanted to taste Avril's blood again. The taste of sweet nectar haunted his mind. Anger engulfed him. He would get her even if it killed him. He would not back down. Jared narrowed his eyes, which danced with fire. There was a split second of confusion written on the lines on his forehead, but he never faltered. Jared hissed and looked at Lestat.

"She will be mine," Jared snarled. "Or you'll be sorry."

He turned to walk away. However, he grinned and changed his direction quickly. Jared moved behind Lestat with inhuman speed and reached out to touch Avril.