When he says “I love you” but the vampire Lestat said “This primitive country has picked you clean. It has shackled you in permanent exile. Every room you enter, every hat you are forced to wear—the stern landlord, the deferential businessman, the loyal son! All these roles you conform to, and none of them your true nature! What rage you must feel as you choke on your sorrow. The first time I laid eyes on you—your beautiful face—I saw that sorrow. I did not know how it got there or why it was so voluminous. I can take away that sorrow, Louis. I can give you that death you begged your feeble, blind, degenerate, nonexistent God for. But I can do it joyfully. I can swap this life of shame. Swap it out for a dark gift and a power you can’t begin to imagine. You just have to ask me for it. You just have to nod your beautiful head and say yes. I love you, Louis. You are loved. I send my love to you, and you send it back round to me, and this circle, this home we barely had a glimpse of—know it frightens me as much as it does you. Be my companion, Louis. Be all the beautiful things you are, and be them without apology. For all eternity.