In the present, Daniel reads Claudia's diaries. She is saved from the fire by Louis, but she is horribly burned. Louis convinces Lestat to make her a vampire rather than let her die. Claudia receives a crash course in vampirism and makes her first kill, but she proves to be impulsive. As a vampire's thoughts cannot be read by the one who made them, Louis and Claudia have a special connection apart from Lestat. Louis's mother dies, and his sister Grace wants him out of her family's lives. Over time, Claudia becomes frustrated to be an adult in the body of a teenager, and acts out. She falls in love with a man named Charlie, but in her excitement she accidentally kills him. Lestat makes her watch Charlie's body burn.