Categories > Movies > Queen of the Damned
(Note: This was written for fun one night after watching Queen of the Damned and feeling kind of cheated that we didn't see the results of Marius' visit to David Talbot. Since the character in the film is quite different from the David Talbot in the books, I have taken a bit of creative licence. )
'Hello David'
The sound of Marius's silky voice instantly made David Talbot look up from the heavy leather-bound journal. He hadn't heard the vampire enter, but one never does, he reminded himself. An involuntary shiver ran down his spine. He had spent most of his adult life in the Talamasca studying the vampires, the Ancients in particular held fascination for him, and the history of Marius, one of the oldest his organisation was able to uncover, was a personal hobby/obsession. He had never expected to see him face to face at LeStat's debacle of a concert. The few moments he had spoke to David had been like no other experience in his life, apart from meeting the infamous Vampire LeStat himself. To know these beings, to talk with them, to see them with his own eyes and truly know they existed, and not just as shadowy figures in yellowed books had been the pinnacle of his career in the Talamasca. And now only minutes after LeStat and Jessie (his sweet Jessie, his prized apprentice and friend, now one of them) had left his office, Marius the Ancient was standing on the other side of the room, arms folded, regarding him with keen interest.
'Marius' David's voice sounded small and awed to his own ears. His mouth was suddenly very dry and his heart was pounding in his throat. He closed Lestat's book with a snap, and started to get up from his desk, but Marius, graceful as a cat and resplendent in his red 19th century velvet, was suddenly looming over him pushing him back down into his chair with a pale, elegant hand.
'Leaving so soon?' the vampires tone was light and mocking 'and to think I came all this way just to see you.'
'To see me?' David managed, his voice shaking only slightly
Marius smiled and David could see his sharp white teeth. 'Yes, David, to see you'
The vampire settled himself on the edge of David's desk.
'What you told dear Jessie just now, it was a lie' said Marius, casually looking down, running a finger across the edge of the antique desktop.
'Excuse me?' David frowned; he wasn't sure where this was going
'About not wanting to know what its like to be one of us'
'I don't want to know!' David blurted out. Then he composed himself 'It is true I find vampires fascinating, and have made a life's study of them in the Talamasca...' He set aside LeStat's book, and calmly adjusted his wire-rimmed spectacles, pushing his chair back from his desk to better look up into the face of his supernatural visitor.
' ... It is the vast knowledge and rich history you have to share with us that interests me, not joining your ranks'
'Indeed?'
Marius regarded Talbot like an affectionate parent regarding a fibbing child
'Indeed, I am honoured by your visit, and I hope that you will share your account of your life with us. We know much of LeStat, but of you only what is briefly mentioned in his journal...'
'David, David, David' Marius shook his head 'Ever the scholarly English gentleman, always thinking in terms of the Talamasca, but what is it that you, David, want?'
'To know your story and the stories of the other ancients...to know everything about your kind' David could not hide the excitement in his voice ' this would be the greatest thing I could aspire to know...'
'You would know everything?' asked Marius quietly
'Yes, everything!' David sat forward and began to reach for his tape recorder
'You wont need that' his cold hand took hold of David's, and David shivered at his touch. 'There is a very simple way for you to know everything of myself and the ancients, dear David. The only way I can give to you this knowledge.'
'All right'
'But it is not without cost...'
Talbot answered immediately 'I can give you whatever you ask, the whole of the resources of the Talamasca are at my disposal. For such information they would consider no price too great...'
Marius smiled 'and do you feel this way as well?'
'The gathering of knowledge for the order is my whole life'
'Then so be it...' and again Marius smiled and before David could react, the vampire was at his throat
'No!' but the thought never left David's lips, only a cry of pain and shock and bewilderment as Marius swooped down on him and sharp teeth pierced the tender flesh of his throat. Talbot struggled to break free, but the ancient vampire held him fast as if he were a child. The pain of the bite was intense and David nearly fainted from it. The vampire fed, his cold arms wrapped tightly around David's slight form, and with the taking of blood came a pleasure just as keen as the pain had been. The sensation was paralysing, all consuming and David found himself lost in it and all but deafened by his own quickening heartbeat. The room was fading around him as he weakened. He could barely think, but he felt; fear, hopelessness, betrayal...and failure to the Talamasca, to all that had mattered in his life. When Marius released him David fell back in his chair, unable to move. The vampires face was a blur above him and he was suddenly, stupidly aware that he had lost his glasses
'Soon, David you will know all...' Marius drew a long, sharp fingernail across his wrist, watching calmly as blood, ancient, dark and rich, welled and oozed from the thin red line. He recalled, without regret, his making of Pandora, Armand and LeStat centuries before, and now he would give the dark gift yet again.
'Please... ' David Talbot's voice was barely audible ' please I don't want to die...'
'Then drink from me and live forever...'
Marius held his hand above David's head and drops of blood dripped down from the vampire's wrist, spattering Talbot's chin and mouth, and automatically he licked at it, a shock of sensation flooding through him, his bright blue eyes growing wide. Marius pressed his wrist to David's lips and David drank. The vampire's blood burned like fire in his stomach, as intoxicating as rich liquor. His and Marius' heartbeats became a deafening, all encompassing duet pounding throughout his whole being. Images of people and places flooded his mind, memories spanning centuries became as his own, until he was overwhelmed by it all...and then Marius pulled his wrist away, and David was left gasping.
'That's enough!' Marius frowned, watching as the wound on his wrist slowly closed and healed
'Oh god...oh god...oh god...' a shudder ran through David and agony knifed into him, doubling him over. He fell to the floor, convulsing, changing... dying, his lips parted in an anguished cry, revealing suddenly outsized canines. At once David's neatly cropped hair grew down to his shoulders in rich, mahogany curls, and his fingernails grew out far longer than they had ever done in his mortal life. Then he lay there on the floor of his office, whimpering until the last of the pain of becoming had passed
' It's over now, David' Marius knelt beside him, helping him to sit up. Talbot's hair, now long and a bit wild, obscured his face, but David made no attempt to sweep it back, instead his immediate action was one of long habit and Marius watched with amusement as David fumbled about for his missing glasses. The vampire retrieved them from where they had fallen, miraculously unharmed, just out of David's reach. He pressed them into the fledgling vampires hands
'You no longer need these you know' Marius reached out and gently pushed the hair back from David's face; the Englishman glowed with vampiric beauty, and Marius felt as enamoured with him as he had been with his beloved Pandora, the beautiful boy Armand and the incorrigible LeStat
'Open your eyes David, see as a vampire sees...'
David looked at Marius with eyes like sapphires, clutching his spectacles to his chest like a security blanket. He was seeing with vampire eyes for the first time and was spellbound by what he saw. Marius tenderly caressed David's cheek and smiled.
'Hello David'
The sound of Marius's silky voice instantly made David Talbot look up from the heavy leather-bound journal. He hadn't heard the vampire enter, but one never does, he reminded himself. An involuntary shiver ran down his spine. He had spent most of his adult life in the Talamasca studying the vampires, the Ancients in particular held fascination for him, and the history of Marius, one of the oldest his organisation was able to uncover, was a personal hobby/obsession. He had never expected to see him face to face at LeStat's debacle of a concert. The few moments he had spoke to David had been like no other experience in his life, apart from meeting the infamous Vampire LeStat himself. To know these beings, to talk with them, to see them with his own eyes and truly know they existed, and not just as shadowy figures in yellowed books had been the pinnacle of his career in the Talamasca. And now only minutes after LeStat and Jessie (his sweet Jessie, his prized apprentice and friend, now one of them) had left his office, Marius the Ancient was standing on the other side of the room, arms folded, regarding him with keen interest.
'Marius' David's voice sounded small and awed to his own ears. His mouth was suddenly very dry and his heart was pounding in his throat. He closed Lestat's book with a snap, and started to get up from his desk, but Marius, graceful as a cat and resplendent in his red 19th century velvet, was suddenly looming over him pushing him back down into his chair with a pale, elegant hand.
'Leaving so soon?' the vampires tone was light and mocking 'and to think I came all this way just to see you.'
'To see me?' David managed, his voice shaking only slightly
Marius smiled and David could see his sharp white teeth. 'Yes, David, to see you'
The vampire settled himself on the edge of David's desk.
'What you told dear Jessie just now, it was a lie' said Marius, casually looking down, running a finger across the edge of the antique desktop.
'Excuse me?' David frowned; he wasn't sure where this was going
'About not wanting to know what its like to be one of us'
'I don't want to know!' David blurted out. Then he composed himself 'It is true I find vampires fascinating, and have made a life's study of them in the Talamasca...' He set aside LeStat's book, and calmly adjusted his wire-rimmed spectacles, pushing his chair back from his desk to better look up into the face of his supernatural visitor.
' ... It is the vast knowledge and rich history you have to share with us that interests me, not joining your ranks'
'Indeed?'
Marius regarded Talbot like an affectionate parent regarding a fibbing child
'Indeed, I am honoured by your visit, and I hope that you will share your account of your life with us. We know much of LeStat, but of you only what is briefly mentioned in his journal...'
'David, David, David' Marius shook his head 'Ever the scholarly English gentleman, always thinking in terms of the Talamasca, but what is it that you, David, want?'
'To know your story and the stories of the other ancients...to know everything about your kind' David could not hide the excitement in his voice ' this would be the greatest thing I could aspire to know...'
'You would know everything?' asked Marius quietly
'Yes, everything!' David sat forward and began to reach for his tape recorder
'You wont need that' his cold hand took hold of David's, and David shivered at his touch. 'There is a very simple way for you to know everything of myself and the ancients, dear David. The only way I can give to you this knowledge.'
'All right'
'But it is not without cost...'
Talbot answered immediately 'I can give you whatever you ask, the whole of the resources of the Talamasca are at my disposal. For such information they would consider no price too great...'
Marius smiled 'and do you feel this way as well?'
'The gathering of knowledge for the order is my whole life'
'Then so be it...' and again Marius smiled and before David could react, the vampire was at his throat
'No!' but the thought never left David's lips, only a cry of pain and shock and bewilderment as Marius swooped down on him and sharp teeth pierced the tender flesh of his throat. Talbot struggled to break free, but the ancient vampire held him fast as if he were a child. The pain of the bite was intense and David nearly fainted from it. The vampire fed, his cold arms wrapped tightly around David's slight form, and with the taking of blood came a pleasure just as keen as the pain had been. The sensation was paralysing, all consuming and David found himself lost in it and all but deafened by his own quickening heartbeat. The room was fading around him as he weakened. He could barely think, but he felt; fear, hopelessness, betrayal...and failure to the Talamasca, to all that had mattered in his life. When Marius released him David fell back in his chair, unable to move. The vampires face was a blur above him and he was suddenly, stupidly aware that he had lost his glasses
'Soon, David you will know all...' Marius drew a long, sharp fingernail across his wrist, watching calmly as blood, ancient, dark and rich, welled and oozed from the thin red line. He recalled, without regret, his making of Pandora, Armand and LeStat centuries before, and now he would give the dark gift yet again.
'Please... ' David Talbot's voice was barely audible ' please I don't want to die...'
'Then drink from me and live forever...'
Marius held his hand above David's head and drops of blood dripped down from the vampire's wrist, spattering Talbot's chin and mouth, and automatically he licked at it, a shock of sensation flooding through him, his bright blue eyes growing wide. Marius pressed his wrist to David's lips and David drank. The vampire's blood burned like fire in his stomach, as intoxicating as rich liquor. His and Marius' heartbeats became a deafening, all encompassing duet pounding throughout his whole being. Images of people and places flooded his mind, memories spanning centuries became as his own, until he was overwhelmed by it all...and then Marius pulled his wrist away, and David was left gasping.
'That's enough!' Marius frowned, watching as the wound on his wrist slowly closed and healed
'Oh god...oh god...oh god...' a shudder ran through David and agony knifed into him, doubling him over. He fell to the floor, convulsing, changing... dying, his lips parted in an anguished cry, revealing suddenly outsized canines. At once David's neatly cropped hair grew down to his shoulders in rich, mahogany curls, and his fingernails grew out far longer than they had ever done in his mortal life. Then he lay there on the floor of his office, whimpering until the last of the pain of becoming had passed
' It's over now, David' Marius knelt beside him, helping him to sit up. Talbot's hair, now long and a bit wild, obscured his face, but David made no attempt to sweep it back, instead his immediate action was one of long habit and Marius watched with amusement as David fumbled about for his missing glasses. The vampire retrieved them from where they had fallen, miraculously unharmed, just out of David's reach. He pressed them into the fledgling vampires hands
'You no longer need these you know' Marius reached out and gently pushed the hair back from David's face; the Englishman glowed with vampiric beauty, and Marius felt as enamoured with him as he had been with his beloved Pandora, the beautiful boy Armand and the incorrigible LeStat
'Open your eyes David, see as a vampire sees...'
David looked at Marius with eyes like sapphires, clutching his spectacles to his chest like a security blanket. He was seeing with vampire eyes for the first time and was spellbound by what he saw. Marius tenderly caressed David's cheek and smiled.
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