♛He stood with his arms folded, taking this all in, gnawing at his knuckle. It was a troubling vision, these desiccated little bodies, maybe twenty of them, scattered about the parlor. Only a few had made it unto furniture, most were on the floor. Probably flung from the door near the foyer.
Even in his most angered state, Louis could no more stand to collect those dead bodies than do so in order to bring them back to their home. No, this didn’t seem like his doing at all.
Claudia’s little heart-shaped face shone as she looked up at Lestat, her slight eyebrows merely painted worry above mischievous blue eyes. He sighed, deeply regretting that they had ever told her about Louis’ previous diet. Not that they could ever have kept it from her, fiercely inquisitive by nature, she had discovered all on her own that she could kill animals. She had a taste for pampered house cats in particular.
“Perhaps he has finally grown weary of us both, dearest.” Lestat concluded, gathering up the corpses in a wastebin. Claudia watched, leaning coquettishly in the doorframe. She didn’t respond, absorbed in her own thoughts, only her hair moving in the slight breeze disturbed the illusion that she was actually a still portrait gazing out at no one.
Claudia stood by the frame of the door, watching him as he removed the dead bodies as Louis had left them there. As Lestat spoke, she let her brain to process his words, not replying yet and staying where she was.
She was feeling the night spring breeze blowing her golden curls and pale soft skin, focusing on the calmness this made her feel. Her eyes closed for some moments then before opening again, Lestat being he first one they saw once more. He was putting the last body into the bin when her lips parted to speak.
“You have no idea where he went again… do you?” The child-looking vampire asked with the softest of voices, looking back up at him after her eyes pierced the bloody floor where the rats lay moments earlier.
♛His curiosity was piqued at her insistence at this game. It must be a game. What was she trying to do? She was no longer a little child inside that body. Her gaze was sharp.
“Ah, I haven’t seen him, he hasn’t left us any message, where do you think he would be at this hour, ma petite?” He put the bin outside by the garden refuse for the maid. The rug would need to be replaced.
Returning to Claudia, he dusted his hands off on his pants, checked that he had his billfold and keys, and swept her into his arms. “Let’s go out and find Papa Noir, shall we?”
Lestat couldn’t resist planting a few kisses on the cool skin of her cheek as they left the flat.
