Of course Lestat's gaze falls to Louis' mouth. How could it not, when they carry the same memory of a moment like and unlike this one? His own lips part slightly as he stares at the split of red over the swell of Louis', one of those looks he knows he is forbidden to linger in, and so often did anyway.

It's almost a balm for the sting of the question. He ought to take some pleasure in the knowledge that Louis still thinks him capable of anything, given how low he's fallen in his opinion of late, but he never enjoys being reminded of a shortcoming.

"No," he says, in the same tongue, with a curt shake of his head. "It took me unaware."

A better explanation than sheer ineptitude. It isn't as though he doesn't believe he could do better, the next time the creature descends on them. And descend on them again it will, or so the evidence suggests. His eyes flick up to Louis', and a thin, ironic smile flits over his features, an expression only for them.

"Did you worry about me, Louis?"