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Everyone knows it." The steel buttons of his denim jacket were icy cold, asthough he had come from some far worse winter in a very fewmoments of time.
We are never entirely sure about each other's powers. It's all agame. I would no more have asked him how he got here, or in whatmanner, than I would ask a mortal man how precisely he made love tohis wife.
I looked at him a long time, conscious that David had settleddown on the grass, leaning back on his elbow, and was studying usboth.
Finally I spoke: "The Devil has come to me and asked me to gowith him, to see Heaven and Hell."Armand didn't answer. Then he frowned just a little.
"This is the same Devil," said I, "which I told you I didn't believein, when you did believe in him centuries ago. You were right at leaston one point. He exists. I've met him." I looked at David. "He wantsme as his assistant. He's given me tonight and tomorrow night toseek advice from others. He will take me to Heaven and then to Hell.
He claims he is not evil."David looked off into the darkness. Armand simply stared at me,rapt and silent.
I went on. I told them everything then. I repeated the story ofRoger for Armand, and of Roger's ghost, and then I told them bothin detail about my blundering visit to Dora, about my exchanges withher, and how I'd left her, and then how the Devil had come pursuingme and annoying me, and we'd had our brawl.
I put down every detail. I opened my mind, without calculation,letting Armand see whatever he could for himself.
Finally I sat back.
"Don't say things to me that are humiliating," I averred. "Don'task me why I fled from Dora, or blurted out to her all this about herfather. I can't get rid of the presence of Roger, the sense of Roger'sfriendship for me and love for her. And this Memnoch the Devil, thisis a reasonable and mild-mannered individual, and very convincing.
As for the battle, I don't know what happened, except I gave himsomething to think about. In two nights, he's coming back, and ifmemory serves me correctly, which it invariably does, he said he'dcome for me wherever I was at the time.""Yes, that's clear," Armand said sotto voce.
"You aren't enjoying my misery, are you?" I admitted with a littlesigh of defeat.
"No, of course not," Armand said, "only, as usual, you don'treally seem miserable. You're on the verge of an adventure, and just alittle more cautious this time than when you let that mortal run offwith your body and you took his.""No, not more cautious. Terrified. I think this creature,Memnoch, is the Devil. If you had seen the visions, you would think he wasthe Devil too. I'm not talking about spellbinding. You can dospellbinding, Armand, you've done it to me. I was battling that thing. Ithas some essence which can inhabit actual bodies! It's objective andbodiless itself, of that I'm sure. The rest? Maybe all that was spells.
He implied he could make spells and so could I.""You're describing an angel, of course," said David offhandedly,"and this one claims to be a fallen angel.""The Devil himself," mused Armand. "What are you asking of us,Lestat? You are asking our advice? I would not go with this spirit ofmy own will, if I were you.""What makes you say this?" David asked before I could get out aword.
"Look, we know there are earthbound beings," Armand said,"that we ourselves can't classify, or locate, or control. We know thereare species of immortals, and types of mammalian creatures whichlook human but are not. This creature might be anything. And thereis something highly suspicious in the manner in which he courtsyou ... the visions, and then the politeness.""Either that," said David, "or it simply makes perfect sense. He isthe Devil, he is reasonable, the way you always supposed, Lestat?
not a moral idiot, but a true angel, and he wants your cooperation.
He doesn't want to keep doing things to you by force. He's used forceas his introduction.""I would not believe him," said Armand. "What does this mean?
he wants you to help him? That you would begin to existsimultaneously on this earth and in Hell? No, I would shun him for hisimagery, if nothing else, for his vocabulary. For his name. Memnoch.
It sounds evil.""Oh, all these are things," I admitted, "that I once said, more orless, to you.""I've never seen the Prince of Darkness with my own eyes," saidArmand. "I've seen centuries of superstition, and the wonders doneby demonic beings such as ourselves. You've seen a little more than Ihave. But you're right. That is what you told me before and I'mtelling it to you now. Don't believe in the Devil, or that you are his child.
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