About The Vampire Aina: Part 4
As I mentioned last post, Lestat is one of Aina's patrons on recommendation by Louis (Louis and Aina's relationship will get the next post). She periodically offers him samples of Blud to try and he gives her feedback on its viability as an alternative food source.
Why see him directly? Well, having read Interview with the Vampire front to back, Aina is wary of Lestat in the sense that she doesn't feel it safe to send any of her mortal colleagues out to him. And as a vampire herself, she thinks it better overall to correspond with other vampires directly to build trust--especially since Aina cannot use telepathy like other vampires.
Indeed, the first thing that strikes Lestat, and Louis, is that neither can access her mind any more than she can access theirs. Lestat can't resist cracking a joke about it at her expense: "No thoughts. Head empty." It's nothing Aina hasn't heard before, so she shakes off the hurt gets down to business with a smile back, proving her vampirism by using her super strength to change a tire on Lestat's tour bus without a jack.
At one point, he installs Blud in his shower, likening it to bathwater. He goes out of his way to shower in front of her during one of her visits, vaguely impressed with her ability to look away without peeking once.
This becomes their routine: every time she visits, Lestat tries to get on her nerves somehow. Yes, she is put off by his penchant for being, well, a brat. Nevertheless, she does her best to remain polite in their interactions.
To her face, Lestat mocks her and her ideas. But privately, he comes to respect her willingness to go against the proverbial grain.
Meanwhile, Aina does genuinely enjoy some of Lestat's music and will tell him so. Not the songs like "Long Face" or "Black Licorice." I mean the ones like "The Loneliness" and "Stained Glass Eyes". The ones that sound more authentic.
Aina has lived long enough to learn to tell apart sincerity from bullshit. People often make the mistake of assuming she doesn't notice these things just because she doesn't often point them out verbally, but she does.
She also notices that "Sofia" is not who she and Lestat say she is. She doesn't need telepathy to sense something is wrong with their dynamic.
One night, she hears about the shooting that upends his tour (from 3x04). Sure, Lestat would have survived the ordeal just fine as a vampire. But something tells her she ought to go see him, see how everyone's doing.
Getting shot at isn't fun in any capacity. In the distant past, Aina WAS attacked by a mob the night of her own turning, so the news probably made her think of that. Plus, what about his humans?
You could say it's that stubborn twin root of empathy and desire for connection that compels her.
Bearing flowers, she finds him alone. No band, no entourage, no Sofia. He looks pretty down. Not knowing what to say to make this better, she offers to just sit with him and listen. "So, ah, you wanna vent? Or do you want solutions?"
The gesture confuses Lestat, to say the least. He's done nothing for this woman lately but ridicule her and try to pick fights with her. She's taken Louis's account of their past relationship as gospel. So why is she being so nice to him, all of a sudden? What's her angle? It can't all be for the sake of maintaining their business partnership, surely? Why is she the one reaching out to him instead of Louis? (Louis, as we see in 3x05, is distracted with you-know-who.)
Just when it looks like they're about to share a breakthrough...Lestat ruins it by making a pass at her.
That must be it! She's trying to sleep with him!
"N--no?! Where'd you get that idea?"
"Please! Your coquettish ways can't fool me. There is no woman on Earth who would pass up the opportunity to warm my bed."
"That can't be true! I don't want you like that! And neither does your ma."
Aina has a penchant for weaponizing literal interpretation of words in moments like these. She doesn't mean anything by it but to refute Lestat's assertion that all women want to get in his pants. All she did was hold his hand, after all.
But then Lestat gets this look on his face at the mention of his "ma". It's subtle and gone in a flash, but Aina is nothing if not observant. She chooses mercy and does not call him out on it.
She wouldn't have gotten to say something about it even if she wanted, because Lestat makes another pass at her.
She flips the whole sofa over him, then grabs one of his guitars like an axe in case that doesn't stop him. Thankfully, he does stop then and there. They glare at each other across the room, silent but for their breaths ragged like two territorial wolves facing off.
"I...you...what the fuck's wrong with you? Son of a bitch!"
Lestat grins. He grins because he's won. For the first time since they've met, he's made her lose her cool.
"What's the matter? Have you nothing more refined to say?"
Has this whole night been just a game to him? She comes to him with compassion and this is how he repays it?
"G-go find somebody else to fuck away your loneliness!"
She could punch, kick, spit in his eye. All of these and more cross her racing mind. She's older than him by at least 200 years. Instead, with tears in her eyes, Aina drops the guitar and shoves past him, hurrying into the night.
Should she tell Louis what happened?
No. She's not stupid. Despite everything, against all sense and reason, Louis is still very much in love with Lestat--and Lestat, in love with Louis. At best, Louis won't care. At worst, he'd probably blame her for the situation ever happening. Blame her for daring to hold Lestat's hand.
Lestat is not her friend. Neither is Louis. It was foolish of her to think they could be friends just because they're all vampires. From now on, they're business partners. Nothing more.
Only when she returns to her lab, to her coffin, does she break down and cry.
