Of course I can still pass for human all of us can, in one way or another, no matter how old we are.

The fact that I know it only makes it worse. And that's why I keep taking life, isn't it? And I'm as far from salvation now as I could ever get. You know, it was never merely the need for the blood anyway, though the blood is all things sensual that a creature could desire it's the intimacy of that moment-drinking, killing-the great heart-to-heart dance that takes place as the victim weakens and I feel myself expanding, swallowing the death which, for a split second, blazes as large as the life. But the lust I feel for everything that walks tells me that this will never be put to the test. Possibly I could exist now without it altogether. The blood thirst? Insatiable, though physically I have never needed the blood less. I'm also infinitely more powerful, though the human in me is closer to the surface than ever-an anguished and hungry being who both loves and detests this invincible immortal shell in which I'm locked. I'm a little sadder for all of it, and a little meaner and a little more conscientious as well. And the cosmic dust has finally settled and the small rift in the world's fabric of rational beliefs has been mended, or at least closed.

I wouldn't be talking to you if I hadn't. And when I left you, I was hanging from the proverbial cliff, you might say. Then something utterly unforeseen took place. My autobiography was doing respectably with both the dead and the undead.

I'd just made my debut in San Francisco-first 'live concert' for me and my mortal band. And I was off to a good start when we talked last. I even figured I'd do some good in that fashion-playing the devil on the painted stage. I wanted to be a symbol of evil in a shining century that didn't have any place for the literal evil that I am. REMEMBER ME? THE vampire who became a super rock star, the one who wrote the autobiography? The one with the blond hair and the gray eyes, and the insatiable desire for visibility and fame? You remember.

Queen of the damned novel