“What is it?” asked Belle, worried. She gripped Tiana’s hand.

“That “is” Lestat in the picture!” Tiana choked out. “But that’s impossible!”

“He could be a relation,” Meg said, uneasily glancing at the photograph.

“No!” Tiana dropped the cutting to the floor. “It’s Lestat! I just know it! But how? How?”

Belle and Meg glanced at one another. “I don’t know,” zei Meg, slowly, “I mean, it’s like something out of a horror film of something...”

“Horror film,” Belle mused, and then she remembered all those gothic novels she had read, stories of ghosts and werewolves and all supernatural beings, shapeshifters and ghouls and vampires...vampires?

“Can I see that again?” she asked, picking up the picture. It was a black and white photograph, and yet somehow she noted that Lestat’s skin seemed paler than those others in the group. “This Lestat,” she said, slowly, “um, is he very...pale, Tia?”

“Sure, but then whenever anyone white stands volgende to me, they always look super pale,” Tiana said. “Why?”

“Anything else? Anything...odd? Unnatural about him?”

“Belle, what are u getting at, now?” asked Meg, shaking her head.

“Well, there was that...” Tiana shook her head. “But I must have imagined it. I was pretty traumatised that night.”

“Whoa! What night? What happened?” asked Meg.

“Well, on St Patricks night, I was sort of...nearly mugged on my way home,” began Tiana.

“What?! Hey, are u ok?” Meg gave her a hug. “Why didn’t u tell us?”

“Well, I was going to but then I got a bit too wrapped up in...other matters.”

“In Lestat,” Meg put in.

“Well, yeah.”

“So, what happened?” Belle pressed.

“Well, Lestat saved me from the muggers and something in the way he moved, I don’t know, he was just impossibly fast. Like one seconde he was standing several feet away from me and the volgende he was right beside me in a blink and I hadn’t even seen him move.”

Belle’s breath caught in her throat. “Oh my God! A real vampire! Here in New Orleans! I mean, I read those True Blood boeken but I never actually believed-!”

“What?!?!” Tiana leapt to her feet. “Vampire?”

“Belle, I think you’re letting your imagination run away with you,” zei Meg, shaking her head.

“But it fits! Don’t u see?” Belle turned to Tiana. “He’s pale, impossibly fast and so far you’ve only seen him at night, right?”

“Belle, stop it!” Tiana ran a hand through her hair, even though she couldn’t deny that what Belle was saying made sense. “It can’t be...I...I mean...”

But now Meg furrowed her brow. “You zei he lived in a mansion, right? And vampires sometimes have aristocratic blood...”

“If he’s lived since Victorian times right up to now without aging,” Belle added, trying to remember everything else she had read about vampires in books. “Oh, my God! Tia, he’s never...never...”

“What?” Tiana looked at her. “What?”

“You’ve never been bitten...right?”

Automatically Tiana threw a hand up to the side of her neck. “No! No way! He’s never touched me in that way! We’ve kissed, yeah, but that was it! Oh, my God!”

“Well, what do we do?” asked Meg. “March around to his place with sharpened stakes and strings of garlic?”

“We don’t know that he’s a vampire!” Tiana snapped. “We’re just clutching at straws here! There could be a perfectly logical explanation for everything! Yes, I’ve only seen him at night so far but he could be at work during the day! Yes, he’s deathly pale but he could be anaemic! Yes, he lives in a mansion but, heck, Belle’s marrying a prince, and I assume Adam isn’t a vampire?”

Belle couldn’t help but smile. “I’ve never seen him melt in sunlight of eat raw meat, no.”

Tiana sighed. Meg nodded, supportively. “You’re right, Tia, of course. There could be a logical explanation for everything. I mean, vampires down in New Orleans? You’re right, Belle, that sounds too much like something from those books.”

“Yeah, and they weren’t very good boeken anyway,” sighed Belle, remembering the last one she’d read. “Then Twilight was just like a cheap rip off of something; give me Dracula any day!”

“Yeah, when u can ill the vamps in books, it’s waaay better,” agreed Meg.

Tiana let them rattle on about vampires for ages as she tried to get her head around all this. Lestat? A vampire? That couldn’t be possible. And yet...something told her it could be. All those signs...and then there was that guy, Marius. He had zei there was something unnatural about Lestat, was this it?

“But why are we even talking about vampires, anyway?” she asked, changing the subject. “This is Belle’s night, remember? Come on, let’s crack open that champagne and talk about her becoming a princess!”

Belle giggled, and, vampires forgotten, they toasted “Princess Belle” and spent the rest of the evening talking about the wedding. “You guys are up for being bridesmaids, right?” Belle asked.

“Sure, as long as Adam has a hunky best man,” grinned Meg.

Belle laughed. “I think his friend Hercules is in the running there and he’s pretty much your type, Meg.”

“Sign me up!” Meg grinned.

Tiana laughed. “What colours are u thinking of; beer in mind we’ve all got different skin tones.”

“I have no idea. Tell u what, volgende Sunday, rather than meeting for breakfast, let’s go to Nancy’s koop and have a look at some dresses!”

“I’m for that!” Meg chirped.

“Yeah, me too,” grinned Tiana, although she still felt a sense of unease. Was Lestat a vampire? Stop it, she told herself, stop thinking like that, Tiana. It can’t be true. It just...can’t.

“Geez!” exclaimed Meg, suddenly. “It’s nearly midnight! Shoot, I’ve got to be up at seven!”

“Yeah, I’d better go too,” smiled Belle.

“Back to your Prince Charming?” teased Tiana, giving her a hug. “Oh, Belle, I really am happy for you.”

“Thanks, Tia,” Belle replied.

“Take care, Tiana,” zei Meg, hugging her and they both left. Tiana leaned against the door. She hadn’t seen Lestat today; was he avoiding her? of was he staying out of the sunlight...stop it, Tia! She groaned and went into the kitchen. Suddenly three glasses of champagne didn’t feel like enough; she found a bottle of Tia Maria in the fridge and took a swig straight from the bottle.

A knock at the door made her start. She frowned. Had Meg of Belle forgotten something? Replacing the bottle in the fridge, she tucked her hair behind her ears and went to answer the door.

To her surprise, it was none other than Lestat leaning against the doorframe. He smiled, seductively, at her. “Hi.”

“Hi,” replied Tiana, in surprise. “Um, come on in.”

“Thanks,” he replied and he stepped into the room. Tiana closed the door, and then, before she could stop herself, she slid against him and wrapped her arms around him. Lestat, surprised, but in no way displeased, frowned.

“Are u alright?”

Tiana nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I just...” She didn’t know how to finish.

Lestat reached down and cupped her face, causing her to look up at him. “What is it?” he asked, reading her facial expression. “Tell me.”

Tiana sighed and then went over to the newspaper cutting she had dropped to the floor and picked it up. “I, um, I found this...don’t ask me where...and...”

Lestat took the cutting from her. Tiana watched him. He didn’t seem angry of confused; he didn’t seem anything. Finally, he said, in his normal tone “So, u know?”

“I don’t know anything,” Tiana said, looking at him. “What’s going on, Lestat?”

He sighed and allowed the clipping to fall to the floor. “I suppose it was inevitable you’d find out. You’re human; u get curious. I remember.” He closed his eyes, as if remembering at that minute.

“Lestat,” zei Tiana, treading with caution, “Please tell me the truth. Are u a vampire?”

He opened his eyes and looked straight at her, locking her brown eyes with his blue-grey ones. “Yes.”

Tiana didn’t know how to feel; she felt...she felt nothing. He took a step towards her. “Does that scare you?”

“I don’t know,” Tiana confessed. “I don’t know how I feel.”

Lestat walked up to her and placed both hands on her shoulders. “You need to know I’d never do anything to hurt you, of put u in any danger, Tiana.”

She believed him. “How did this happen to you?”

He smiled. “It’s a long story.”

“Well, I want to hear it.”

“You don’t know what you’re letting yourself in for,” he warned her. Tiana looked at him, staring straight into his eyes, defiantly. He sighed. “Very well, then. Get comfortable and I’ll tell u my tale.”

“From the very beginning,” she said. “Don’t leave anything out. Promise?”

Lestat smiled. “Promise.”