Lestat also makes his friend and lover, Nicolas de Lenfent, a vampire. They find work at a small theatre called "Renaud's". Lestat starts off as a stage hand and then, to his surprise, becomes star of the show when he steps in for another actor. Nicolas is a violinist and performs with the theatre's small orchestra. After Lestat is abducted and made a vampire, he tries to distance himself from his mortal friends and family, but he still provides for them. He buys Nicolas an apartment and many other luxuries, such as a Stradivarius violin, with his newly acquired "coin of the realm". Nicolas is suspicious, and insists that Lestat was in fact abducted from their room at night, calling out to Nicolas. Lestat gives in to the love he feels for Nicolas and makes him a vampire as well after saving him from the self-proclaimed Children of Darkness, a coven of vampires led by Armand. But Nicolas rejects Lestat and sinks into insanity. Lestat collapses Armand's coven, buys Renaud's old theatre, and gives it to Nicolas and Eleni, one of Armand's former acolytes. Nicolas founds the Théàtre des Vampires, while Lestat and Gabrielle leave Paris to explore the world. Unhappy with life as a vampire, Nicolas immolates himself in a bonfire, leaving Lestat scarred with his insanity and death.