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In Queen Of The Damned, the story covers Daniel's first meeting with the Vampire Armand. Daniel is the mortal who interviewed Louis in Interview With The Vampire. After the interview, Daniel had begged Louis to give him the Dark Gift. Louis had fed upon Daniel and when Daniel awoke to find Louis gone, he replayed the interview tapes to find Lestat's address.
Queen Of The Damned reveals that Daniel had made his way to the house that Lestat lived in, whereupon Armand made him his victim. Armand find Daniel interesting and let's him go "free" saying that Daniel is safe for as long as Armand finds him interesting. Daniel spends the next few years travelling the world, only to find Armand there at the most unexpected moments. When they do meet, Armand feeds on him.
Daniel seems to wander in a half life between living and dying and feels despaire much of the time.
Their relationship develops to the point where Daniel longs for these encounters and finds himself looking for Armand and expecting to see him wherever he is. Eventually, they love each other. However, Armand will not make Daniel a vampire, much to Daniel's confusion and dismay. He wants to be united with Armand as a vampire himself.
As Armand denies this wish, and as Daniel realises that he is dying while Armand remains immortal, resentment grows. Daniel cares less and less about himself as he flees Armand after each meeting. Daniel can live off the royalties he makes from sales of Interview With The Vampire and he continues to travel to far away places to get away from Armand. Inevitably, each time he flees, runs himself down doesn't look after himself and in a very weakened state, he always wishes for Armand back. As if reading his mind (and he is!) Armand always appears to take him home.
This conflict of emotions continues within Daniel for years. He hates the life he has, wishes with all his might that Armand transforms him into a vampire, Armand refuses and Daniel resents him for it.
Unspoken and inexplicable danger stalks the vampires in Queen Of The Damned, and Armand, being scared and also in love with Daniel, eventually succombs to Daniels wishes to transform him. He gives the Dark Gift to Daniel. |
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Queen Of The Damned starts with the surprising revelation that the Vampire Lestat is due to give a performance with his rock band. He is causing a stir amongst vampires young and ancient by revealing the dark secrets about Those Who Must Be Kept.
Marius has travelled to New York to find out more about the upcoming concert, however a shock awaits him when he returns to the secret home that he shares with the unmoving Akasha and Enkil in the icy northlands. Akasha has gone and Enkil is an opaque and lifeless husk. Akasha has drunk Enkil dry of his powerful blood! But she has not yet gone. She tells Marius of her plans to find Lestat and then she makes a violent departure, wrenching steel doors off their hinges and plunging Marius deep beneath the ice where he is trapped.
Pandora's Quest
Pandora, and ancient vampire made by Marius, has been sensing alarming messages about some kind of approaching danger. She travels to India to meet Azim and ask for his help. Azim is also an old and very strong vampire. Azim tells Pandora of the messages that he himself has received: that Marius lies trapped beneath the ice.
Armand And Daniel
Meanwhile, the story follows Daniel's encounters with the vampire Armand (read about Armand and Daniel). Armand falls in love with a mortal who was initially Armand's plaything. Armand had previously made a vow that he would not give the Dark Gift to anyone. However, through fear of the omnipresent danger to all vampires that stalk them in this story (find out more about that later!) and his love for Daniel, he breaks his promise and transforms Daniel.
All around the world, vampire covens are being destroyed whilst those vampires who stay close to Lestat appear unharmed. Is there a link? Is Lestat somehow orchestrating this distruction? Nobody knows, but as Lestat gears up for his performance, vampires from far and wide find themselves drawn to San Francisco where Lestat's concert is due to take place.
Undeniably linked to the imminent danger is the repeated occurrence that most of the vampires - and Daniel - have of an eery dream. This dream involves two red haired twins who are captured by soldiers as they prepare a meal. But this is no ordinary meal. It consists of their mother roasting on a spit. Whilst the burned carcass hangs on the spit, they have a plate each: one with a brain on it, the other with a heart. It is then that the soldiers arrive. The dream is remembered in snippets. Other snippets show the twins walking wearily through a scorching desert, with no respite from the buring sun. The weird thing is that this is a dream shared by all who are seemingly in danger. |
Those Who Must Be Kept
Those Who Must Be Kept were first mentioned in Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat, and not much was said about them, leaving them shrouded in an air of mystery. Who they were, and even how many they numbered weren't known for a good portion of the story.
It is Marius who tells Lestat the story of Those Who Must Be Kept. It must be around the time of the birth of Jesus Christ that Marius is made into a vampire. He is sought by the minions of an old vampire "god" who capture him and take him to the sacred tree in which he lives. He is burnt to a cinder, and Marius learns that this calamity has befallen vampires all around the world. The old vampire transforms Marius into a vampire and urges him to travel deep into Egypt to search for the cause of this disaster.
Marius travels to Egypt and it is not long before a powerful presence appears at his door - another burnt vampire. This vampire, who is named The Elder, tells Marius the story of Those Who Must Be Kept.
The Story Of Those Who Must Be Kept
It is ancient Egypt, at a time before the pyramids and when the Egyptians were still cannibals. Akasha and Enkil are human beings who arrive there from an older land and subsequently teach the Egyptions how to grow crops and farm animals. They are encouraged away from their practice of hunting, killing and eating other humans. Akasha and Enkil become good and just rulers.
One day, a demon makes its home in the house of the royal steward and starts a commotion by throwing the furniture around. Akasha and Enkil decide to go into the house and address the demon, to see if they can harness its power for the good of the people. However, there was a band of conspirators who resented the banishment of their old ways. They seized the situation and saw it as an opportunity to do away with the good king and queen.
They enter the house with the household objects flying about at the command of the demon and stab Akasha and Enkil multiple times. They are left for dead when the conspirators flee. However, something strange takes place.
The demon was waiting for a chance to enter the bodies of the two rulers and their imminent death was the opportunity it needed. Now, the demon inhabited the blood of Akasha and Enkil. The wounds of the king and queen heal miraculously. Although the demon blood has no mind or character of its own, it enhances the mind and character of the king and queen. There were also many other changes that had taken place in their bodies.
Legend has it that the demon entered the body of Enkil first, thereby making him the more powerful. However, this theory is turned upside down, when in Queen Of The Damned, it is Akasha who drinks Enkil dry of his powerful blood and leaves him as a lifeless husk. |
Dark Gift
In The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, the dark gift refers to the act of transforming a mortal human into a vampire. The vampire bites the victim on the neck and feeds on them, drinking their blood. When the human is weak and close to death, they are released and then urged to drink of the vampire's own blood. In completing this transaction, the vampire has given the human the dark gift and very soon the human becomes a vampire.
The mortal life of the human is said to die, and then they become vampire.
Giving The Dark Gift
Although these characteristics are not exclusive to the giving of the dark gift, they are worth mentioning anyway. As the vampire feasts on the teh human's blood, they become weak and often swoon. The vampire must be careful not to carry on drinking to the point of the human's death, though the urge to do so is almost irresistable! If they do, it is known as a Bad Thing. I'm not sure whether the vampire dies, but they are certainly encouraged strongly to stop feeding before the human reaches death.
Whilst the vampire drinks, the victim experiences a feeling that can only be described as ecstacy and they don't actually want it to end. The vampire must be very careful that they push the victim away before it's too late though. The same feelings are then experienced in the vampire when it is the mortal's turn to drink.
Curiously, from that point on, the "made" vampire experiences a feeling of love towards the "maker".
Note: simply feeding on a human does not give them the dark gift. They have to then feed on the vampire's blood. It becomes an exchange of sorts.
The following titles comprise The Vampire Chronicles where you will find dark gifts galore (each link takes you to Amazon):
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The Vampire Lestat - Plot
Check out The Vampire Lestat Cast Of Characters.
It is 1984 and Lestat wakes after going underground in 1929. He literally "went underground" by sleeping in the earth for 55 years. In Interview With The Vampire, Lestat was badly hurt and sleeping for so long in this way healed his wounds and revitalised him. Indeed, he found that his strength had tripled and he could leap atop four storey buildings.
The writing style of The Vampire Lestat is different to Interview With The Vampire. It's much more personal and informal, perhaps reflecting the openness of the age?
Vampires are immortal (excepting the infrequent death by burning under the sun, and dismemberment) and often struggle with living through change. Some commit suicide because they can't adapt. However, Lestat is completely absorbed by the newness of the 1980s - although he does recognise musical concepts of his age in rock music.
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The Vampire Lestat
