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Zusatztext “SPELLBINDING . . . LUXURIOUSLY LUSCIOUS . . . There is the promise of more chills to come.” –USA Today “[ Merrick ’s] greatest strength is Rice’s skill at constructing a believably eerie New Orleans overrun by the charismatic undead and those who wish to join them. . . . Its closing pages prime the stage for the continuing adventures of the beguiling Merrick and her new fanged pals. They will all be back! of course! and Merrick leaves you looking forward to their return.” –The Boston Globe “RICE AT HER CHILLING BEST.” –The Seattle Times “RICE’S PACE HAS RARELY BEEN BETTER. . . . For those already enthralled by Ms. Rice’s witches and vampires! Merrick will strengthen the spell. And for those who haven’t been . . . well! sucked in yet! Merrick proves a worthy initiation.” –The Dallas Morning News Informationen zum Autor Anne Rice Klappentext In this mesmerizing new novel, Anne Rice demonstrates once again her gift for spellbinding storytelling and the creation of myth and magic, as she weaves together two of her most compelling worlds? those of the Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair witches. Leseprobe Proem My name is David Talbot. Do any of you remember me as the Superior General of the Talamasca, the Order of psychic detectives whose motto was "We watch and we are always here"? It has a charm, doesn't it, that motto? The Talamasca has existed for over a thousand years. I don't know how the Order began. I don't really know all the secrets of the Order. I do know however that I served it most of my mortal life. It was in the Talamasca Motherhouse in England that the Vampire Lestat first made himself known to me. He came into my study one winter night and caught me quite unawares. I learnt very quickly that it was one thing to read and write about the supernatural and quite another to see it with your own eyes. But that was a long time ago. I'm in another physical body now. And that physical body has been transformed by Lestat's powerful vampiric blood. I'm among the most dangerous of the vampires, and one of the most trusted. Even the wary vampire Armand revealed to me the story of his life. Perhaps you've read the biography of Armand which I released into the world. When that story ended, Lestat had wakened from a long sleep in New Orleans to listen to some very beautiful and seductive music. It was music that lulled him back again into unbroken silence as he retreated once more to a convent building to lie upon a dusty marble floor. There were many vampires then in the city of New Orleans -- vagabonds, rogues, foolish young ones who had come to catch a glimpse of Lestat in his seeming helplessness. They menaced the mortal population. They annoyed the elders among us who wanted visibility and the right to hunt in peace. All those invaders are gone now. Some were destroyed, others merely frightened. And the elders who had come to offer some solace to the sleeping Lestat have gone their separate ways. As this story begins, only three of us remain in New Orleans. And we three are the sleeping Lestat, and his two faithful fledglings -- Louis de Pointe du Lac, and I, David Talbot, the author of this tale. Chapter One "Why do you ask me to do this thing?" She sat across the marble table from me, her back to the open doors of the cafe. I struck her as a wonder. But my requests had distracted her. She no longer stared at me, so much as she looked into my eyes. She was tall, and had kept her dark-brown hair loose and long all her life, save for a leather barrette such as she wore now, which held only her fo...
