The Tale of the Body Thief

The fourth installment of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles follows the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, a 200-year-old immortal trapped in the body of a 20-year-old, as he makes a reckless bargain to become human again and faces the consequences when the deal goes wrong.

In 1990, Lestat is profoundly lonely. His fellow vampires have scattered, and despite enormous preternatural powers, including flight, telekinesis, and telepathy, he is filled with despair. He is haunted by dreams of Claudia, the child vampire he created in 1794, who was destroyed by a coven in Paris over a century ago. His only consistent companion is David Talbot, the 74-year-old Superior General of the Talamasca, a 1,000-year-old scholarly order devoted to studying the occult. Lestat has repeatedly offered David the Dark Gift of vampiric immortality; David has always refused.

In Miami, Lestat hunts a serial killer as part of his self-imposed rule of feeding only on evildoers, but after draining the man, he kills the killer's intended victim as well, an innocent old woman whose blood he cannot resist. Devastated, he stands on the beach and encounters a tall, brown-haired young man who watches him with recognition. Lestat feels a bizarre sensation, as though he is being squeezed out of his own body. The stranger tosses him a short story and flees. Lestat flies to England and tells David he plans to destroy himself by ascending into the sunrise over a desert. Despite David's pleas, Lestat departs for the Gobi Desert, where the sun scalds him but does not kill him. He returns to David's manor badly wounded and heals over several nights, his skin darkening to a deep amber that makes him appear almost human.

The mysterious mortal continues tracking Lestat, delivering more stories and films. In Paris, Lestat and David realize every item concerns body switching. The mortal's awkward movements and refined voice suggest he already occupies a stolen form, and that his attempts to dislodge Lestat's soul failed against the vampire's resistance. A note signed "Raglan James" directs Lestat to New Orleans.

Lestat tells his fledgling Louis de Pointe du Lac about the proposition. Louis reacts with fury, ordering Lestat to destroy James immediately. Instead, Lestat meets James at a café near Jackson Square. James proposes trading his young mortal body and $10 million for Lestat's vampire body. He reveals he was expelled from the Talamasca for theft. David's research confirms James is a 67-year-old career criminal and powerful psychic who stole his current body from a London mechanic who had experienced a severe mental health crisis. Lestat negotiates the exchange down to one day, doubles the guarantee to $20 million, and agrees.

In Georgetown, James guides Lestat through the switch. Lestat wills himself out of his vampire body and plunges into the mortal form. James, now in the vampire body, panics, smashes through the back door, and flies into the snow. Lestat discovers James has stolen his money and stripped the house, leaving mocking notes. James never intended to return.

Lestat's mortal experience veers between nightmare and transcendence. He is overwhelmed by dim vision, bitter cold, and the body's revolting necessities. A young restaurant hostess takes pity on him and invites him home, but Lestat ignores her insistence on a condom and forces himself on her. He is consumed with shame. Yet the next morning, waking to sunlight, he weeps at the beauty of the sky and spends the day roaming Washington's monuments with Mojo, a dog he befriended at James's house. A worsening cold leaves him feverish by evening, and when James fails to return for the agreed-upon switch, Lestat collapses and is hospitalized.

A nun named Gretchen, a missionary nurse on leave from French Guiana, takes Lestat to her cottage and nurses him through his illness. They grow intimate. A former piano prodigy who gave up music to serve God, Gretchen suggests Lestat's mortal incarnation may have redemptive purpose. Lestat is moved but refuses: He cannot bury his soul in anonymous service, declaring that his identity and his will are the only truths he possesses. They part tearfully. Lestat learns that James has murdered his financial agent in a vampire-style killing.

Lestat flies to New Orleans and begs Louis to make him a vampire again. Louis refuses, arguing that Lestat has been given the miracle he always wanted and should embrace his mortal life. In a fury, Lestat sets fire to Louis's cottage. Marius, Lestat's ancient vampire mentor, appears briefly, his face marked with wrath, and vanishes without a word, confirming the old ones will not help.

David arrives and together they track James's crimes to the Queen Elizabeth 2, Cunard's flagship and the very ship from which James was once fired for theft. They board in Grenada, where David teaches Lestat to veil his thoughts and perform psychic assault. At dawn, they confront James in his suite. After two failed attempts, Lestat makes a desperate third assault and reclaims his vampire body. He flees through the ship as David fires shots at James, who escapes.

Before meeting David in Miami, Lestat visits Gretchen at her jungle mission in French Guiana. When she sees his luminous vampire face, she recoils in terror, calling him an unclean spirit. She flees to the chapel and develops stigmata, blood flowing from her hands and feet. Lestat departs, devastated.

In Miami, Lestat encounters what appears to be David in his familiar elderly body, claiming he now wants the Dark Gift. As Lestat drinks his blood, a process that reveals a victim's memories to the vampire, he glimpses the true occupant: James, who stole David's old body after the confrontation on the ship. Lestat hurls James away and flings the body against the wall, fatally injuring him. Outside, the real David appears in the young mortal body that James originally possessed. David explains that when James seized his elderly body on the ship, David entered the only available form and escaped. David's old body dies in the hospital with James's soul inside it. David quietly accepts his situation, comparing it to the story of Faust.

Lestat returns to New Orleans and restores the Rue Royale apartment where he, Louis, and Claudia once lived. He visits the woman he sexually assaulted in Georgetown, leaving her gifts in remorse. Louis comes to the darkened cathedral and asks forgiveness for his refusal. Lestat lights a vigil candle for himself.

Weeks later, Lestat finds David in Barbados, at ease in the young body. Without warning, Lestat declares his intention to give David the Dark Gift. David protests violently, but Lestat drains him in three progressive draughts and forces his own blood into David's mouth. The mortal body dies and is reborn as a vampire. David disappears for days before reappearing at the Rue Royale apartment, where he reveals he has already forgiven Lestat: Lestat spared him the moral defeat of choosing immortality by giving him what he secretly wanted without forcing him to capitulate. David proposes they travel to Rio de Janeiro with Louis. Lestat picks up the locket containing Claudia's portrait from Louis's desk, though he had earlier thrown it into the sea, its mysterious reappearance left unexplained. He reflects that he told Claudia he would create another vampire, and he has.