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After leaving the Théâtre des Vampires, Claudia and Louis returned to the Hôtel Saint-Gabriel. Unsettled, Claudia admitted she hated the troupe and feared they might kill her because she sensed that they knew about Lestat’s murder. She told Louis that Armand wanted Louis entirely for himself and would not stop until he had him. Although Louis resisted the idea, he felt genuinely torn between his devotion to Claudia and his fascination with Armand; he was drawn to Armand’s knowledge, power, and calm presence. Even though Claudia warned him that Armand was dangerous, Louis refused to believe her..

The next evening, Louis returned alone to the theater, where Armand warned him that Santiago was determined to uncover Louis and Claudia’s history and learn what had happened to their sire. Although Armand did not have the power to stop Santiago, he helped Louis by giving him a key to a side entrance so that he could come and go from the theater in secret. Though Louis wished he could stay with Armand, he knew he had to get back to Claudia.

Leaving the theater, Louis wandered around Paris in a daze and encountered a drunken artist who begged to sketch him. An intrigued Louis followed him to his studio and posed, but Louis became desperately hungry, drank from the artist, and stole the portrait in progress. When the artist tried to fight back, Louis killed him.

Feeling the weight of what he had done, Louis returned to the Hôtel Saint-Gabriel with a guilty conscience. He placed the portrait above the fireplace and tried to come to terms with his actions. In the meantime, Claudia returned to the hotel with a woman named Madeleine, a doll-maker who had crafted porcelain dolls for her. To Louis’s surprise, Claudia had already bitten Madeleine and now offered her to Louis. Since she was too small to sire anyone herself, Claudia begged Louis to turn Madeleine into a vampire, saying that Armand might let Claudia live if she had a new companion and he could have Louis for himself. When Louis refused to comply, Claudia reminded him that Lestat, with Louis’s complicity, had made her a vampire and kept her trapped in a child’s body, making Louis feel even more guilty. She demanded that he redeem himself by giving her Madeleine, but Louis still hesitated, fearing the consequences of creating another vampire.

Madeleine, who was grieving her own daughter’s death, agreed to become Claudia’s protector. Eventually, Louis finally gave in, drinking from Madeleine and then allowing her to drink from him, completing her transformation. Louis told Claudia they were now even: he had destroyed his own humanity by turning Madeleine, just as he had destroyed Claudia’s humanity long ago.

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