There’s a panic within him that Lestat hasn’t felt for years when the sunlight streams in a perfect circle containing Claudia and Louis’s fledgling, a panic he hasn’t felt since the night he felt tainted blood rise to his throat and the love of his life drag a knife across it. It’s the panic of an ending unexpected, of a rug yanked from beneath him. He made his choice. He chose Louis. He knew if it came down to using his abilities to sway the audience, he only had the power for one. It wasn’t even something he had to think about. It was Louis. It was always going to be Louis.
But it’s Claudia before him now, looking back at him with a daughter’s eyes even as her face begins to crumble into ash.
Source: encore – Chapter 1, by PenAndInkPrincess – Interview with the Vampire (TV 2022) [Archive of Our Own]
Mature, canon-divergence. Lestat finds a way to save Claudia. I love all three POVs (Lestat, Louis, Claudia) and how there are no easy fixes for the mess that’s their family.