Chapter Text
“For the Heretical Desecration of the first, third and fourth, and the murder of the vampire Antoinette Brown and the attempted murder of her maker the vampire Monsieur Lestat de Lioncourt, what say you for the vampire Claudia? Guilty or not guilty?”
Santiago’s voice is booming, mocking, as he leers in triumph to the crowd of unsuspecting mortals that had no idea of the murders they would commit tonight.
“Guilty!”
Claudia scoffs under her breath as she glares at the blonde vampire. Even in the last few moments of her undead life she still can’t escape her maker’s curse bestowed upon her.
But she feels strangely calm and unafraid, her voice and body tired from the sheer rage and desperation that had occurred to her tonight on this stage.
She looks back at her beloved, Madeleine, and her eyes soften with an apology.
I’m sorry. Claudia thinks. Her voice is raw from screaming.
“It’s not your fault, mon ange.” The French woman whispers back. “I believe you.”
And that’s all Claudia ever really needed to hear, she thinks bitterly. She wonders briefly, if decades ago she had found Madeleine, if she would still be in this situation. She reimagines her life even after her vampiric self and finds that no matter how many small, different decisions she makes, she still finds herself back in Paris - back to the damned coven and Louis, yet again, choosing another over her.
But she clears her mind of all that as she leans into her beloved’s presence once more. She could die happily like this, she decides.
My coven is Claudia.
And she would do her best to shield Madeleine from the pain of the sun. It was the least she could do.
“And the sentence?” Santiago beams widely as Claudia scans the audience. She sees people smoking - some even bored and falling asleep - she decides with certainty that she would kill every single person that was sitting in this theater.
As Claudia prepares herself for the inevitable death sentence the audience would give, she hears - nothing.
She can sense the confusion in Madeleine and Louis’s minds as she frowns, only to find the audience members gasping for words that were stuck in their throats. Claudia looks up at Santiago, who reflects her frown, and she can sense that this is definitely off script.
Claudia shoots a look at the armchair where the only vampire that she can’t read the mind of is sitting. She squints, but even in her foggy state of mind she can see one of Lestat’s hands gripping the armchair so much that his knuckles turn white, with the other hand up to his temple
Claudia wonders if this is her pre-death hallucination. She shoots a look at Louis, but he seems to be as confused as her as he still stares at the audience, blood still dripping from his head.
Finally, a woman in the crowd shouts “Banishment!”
The rest of the audience, as though snapped from a trance right then, all follow suit to yell “Banishment!”.
Claudia glances at Santiago again to see him grind his teeth, fangs on the verge of protruding to kill.
“Banishment! Is not an applicable punishment. ” He finally exclaims, but then leans right back into his drawl. “Oh, but you mortals are bastards, aren’t you? Arguably, a sentence worse than death. Alright, have it your way.”
Without turning back, he says with a flick of his hand. “Send her to Belgium.”
That earns a laugh, and Claudia’s eyes widen as she’s pulled back into her chair. She presses up against Madeleine.
You’re not dying without me, Claudia thinks as she leans into her neck.
Madeleine gives a tired laugh, and merely tucks her chin to rest upon Claudia’s hair. Neither are you.
Santiago moves on to Louis, who still seems as dazed as he finally turns his gaze towards Lestat.
“For the Heretical Desecration of the Great Laws one, two, and four, and the murder of the vampire Antoinette Brown and the attempted murder of his maker the vampire Monsieur Lestat de Lioncourt, what say you for the vampire Louis de Pointe de Lac? Guilty or not guilty?”
“Guilty!” The audience continues their fervent cries.
“And the punishment?” Santiago continues, gripping his gavel much tighter than before.
The room falls into a hushed silence yet again, but this time the humans were not choking on their words, but whispering to their neighbors. The whispers turn into something louder - arguments even - as the crowd debates Louis’s fate.
“If I may-” Claudia’s eyes turn back to Lestat as she watches the vampire rise from his seat with ever so much grace. “If the vampire Claudia’s sentencing was banishment, would it not be reasonable that Louis’s sentence be anything…harsher?”
He turns back to look at them with his usual smirk, but Claudia can see the sweat building up on his brow. The whites of his pale gray eyes are laced with red and his face, although pale like usual, is drained of all the usual flush of arrogance.
Lestat turns back to the crowd with his arms raised, commanding this stage like he always does.
Claudia can't deny the effect that Lestat has on people - he was charming, deviant, and it was no wonder that Louis always went back, no matter how he had wronged them.
You are a manipulator, Claudia de Lioncourt.
Armand’s voice comes back to her, and Claudia glances up at the box that the Maître of the coven is sitting in. She always hated how he would use Lestat's name to refer to her.
She may be everything Armand had said about her, but Claudia has never denied that. In fact, she remembers what she said to Santiago before-
He taught me how to lie well.
In a twisted sense, Claudia would think that Lestat would be proud at how well she had executed the plan to kill him.
I see the best of my vampiric self in her.
Claudia wishes the architects of darkness or whatever bullshit hadn’t been so fair - there is nothing she wouldn’t give to take one peek into Lestat’s mind and without all the scheming and manipulation and lies, to just know if he was telling the truth or not
You said that like I really am your daughter, she thinks to herself in a trance as she watches Lestat on stage. The spotlight is hitting him and Claudia thinks back to briefly on the day she died-
An angel. A savior.
“Banishment!”
Claudia's thoughts are interrupted as a man finally shouts from his seat. Like before, the rest of the audience follow like sheep in a flock.
How stupid, Claudia thinks to herself. But for once she is grateful for this stupidity to be manipulated by Lestat.
“Silence!” Santiago slams his gavel down, seething with anger. Claudia holds her breath as she catches a furious glare from him.
“Well,” Santiago clears his throat before giving a big smile, as if all this was part of the grand theatrics of the theater. “I see that you mortals are being particularly…quaint tonight. Alright, have it your way. Belgium it is for him as well!”
Claudia screams as she is dragged off, clawing her way to Madeleine as the vampires behind her force her back. She can hear both Madeleine and Louis’s voices, blending together as they scream her name back.
She looks back at Louis also being dragged off stage, trying to fight the vampires holding him back as well. “Louis!”
Louis disappears in an array of bodies grabbing at him. “No!”
Claudia whips her head back to the stage and there is too much happening at once. She can see the little box of sunshine that reaches the stage like a spotlight, but there would be no glory from this.
“Madeleine!” Claudia lurches forward, struggling against the pain of her own injuries and the vampires holding her back. She turns to Lestat in a fit of delirious desperation. “Do something!”
Lestat looks back at her. If she had more time, maybe she could have discerned something of guilt, sadness, adoration even? But his expression is unreadable to Claudia.
“Please!” Claudia falls to her knees, now focusing her attention on the vampire that had started it all. “Please, do something!”
She sees Lestat take a breath to say something, but darkness is all she sees next as one of the vampires knock her unconscious.
Claudia wakes to nothing but darkness next, but this darkness is grainy and fills her mouth and eyes and ears.
She screams, unsure if she was able to make any sound with the rawness in her throat and the rocks blocking her lungs.
She stills herself, panic closing in as various names flash across her mind. Madeleine. Louis. Lestat.
Tears begging to pour out of her are blocked by the rocks, and she can only scream.
Claudia isn’t sure how long she stayed in the rock-filled hell. She can imagine it being a couple of hours, or days, or even months with how starved she is.
She tries desperately to reach anyone - Madeleine, Louis, even Lestat - but she can’t focus from the rocks filling all her senses and the starvation overpowering her mind.
As she feels the hunger take her, shes reminded of an old, old memory-
"Is that how vampires die? From starvation?”
Claudia knows she’s pouting as she looks to Louis and Lestat, eyes wide with her fresh, first kill dripping down her dress.
“You don’t want to engorge yourself, ma petite,” Lestat is smiling at her, a bit of pride in his eyes.
“More tomorrow, okay?” Louis’s voice is gentle, unable to be angry at the young fledgling.
“Pleaaaaaseeeee.” Claudia falls to her knees, her hunger still unsatiated and her mind buzzing with adrenaline.
As Louis and Lestat argue (as they often do) Claudia sneaks away to get another kill in.
Claudia isn’t sure why she’s remembering this now, but it does make her think in her hazy state.
Maybe she does take after Lestat more - the "histrionics", as he used to call it, the bloodlust, the scheming.
She must be going insane - Claudia thinks - to be thinking about Lestat as some sort of father figure after all these years.
And she really thinks she is on her way to hell when she hears him.
“Hello, Claudia.”
Claudia blinks - or tries as much as she can - to reach the unfamiliar, yet too familiar voice that is muffled, but still reaches her ears.
“Don’t be too excited to see me, little sister-daughter-murderer.”
It’s definitely Lestat.
“You just tried to kill me too.” Claudia tries to reply, and if she wasn’t so damn hungry she would be angry.
“I saved you,” Lestat’s voice is still as arrogant and aloof as she remembers. “But again, no rush to thank me.”
Before Claudia can reply, she gasps as she feels the rocks finally fall away to a comfortable, different kind of darkness. She gasps, clawing at her throat as she’s pulled up.
“Drink.”
Claudia can’t even get her bearings before she’s pushed onto Lestat’s wrist. Hunger overtakes her rationality as she latches onto the other vampire, crassly sucking at the blood that was so welcomed in that moment.
“Still as messy as ever.” Lestat comments and if Claudia wasn’t so hungry, she could be planning her second attempt at murder.
Finally, Claudia lets up, taking a deep breath and marvels at how great air is without rocks.
She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, looking warily at the older vampire. “Why did you save me?”
Lestat shrugs flippantly. “I was in the area.”
“Where’s Madeleine? Where’s Louis?” Claudia feels claustrophobic again as she grabs onto Lestat frantically.
“Calm down,” Lestat doesn’t pull himself away from Claudia, but puts his hands upon hers to steady them. “They’re alive.”
“Where are they?” Claudia demands and Lestat sighs.
“Madeleine is…asleep. I could not get to her before the sun hit her, but I was able to salvage what was left before she burned completely. But she is alive, although barely, and will need to heal for a long time.”
“And Louis?” Claudia’s shoulders relax just a bit, and because she knows that Lestat would not be here if he could not save Louis.
“He is fine.” Lestat says back simply. Claudia believes him.
“For now, you should rest.” Lestat says, and Claudia knows this must be some sort of dream with the slight bit of affection he seems to carry in his reply.
But that doesn’t matter to her anymore, and she lets Lestat help her stumble to a coffin - where even is she? - and close the lid over her.
For a second, it almost seems like everything is back to 1917.
Claudia closes her eyes and dreams of New Orleans.