After the ruination of the Children of Darkness, Eugénie is one of the first vampires Lestat meets who do not wish to destroy him but to learn from him. She appears in The Vampire Lestat (1985), Prince Lestat (2014), and Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016).
Before 1000 C.E., when Rhoshamandes still rules the region known today as contemporary France, he sires a fledgling named Eugénie, whom he includes in a coven that he refers to as his “line of de Landen vampires,” which also includes Benedict, Allesandra, Eleni, Notker the Wise, and Everard. They live together in relative peace for centuries, until the Children of Satan learn of their existence. Observing that Rhoshamandes and his fledglings live in a state of opulence, wearing the finest clothing of the time and dwelling in comfort, the Children of Satan perceive their lifestyle as completely antithetical to their Great Laws of vampire behavior, which fundamentally state that, because of the evil nature of vampires, they have to live in an abased state, existing in squalor, wearing ragged clothing, and feeding only on the poor and degenerate of cities. Thus, seeking to convert Rhoshamandes and his fledglings to their belief system, the Children of Satan attack them and capture Eugénie, Allesandra, Eleni, and Everard.
Rhoshamandes and Benedict, not wanting any further conflict with other vampire covens, flee from that region of France to the north of England around 1100 C.E., where they spend centuries building and modifying a castle fortress while abandoning the other four de Landen vampires to torture and starvation at the hands of the Children of Satan. Once Eugénie and her three vampire siblings finally convert and are indoctrinated into their new coven, they remain a part of the Children of Satan for the next few centuries, foul and feeding in the filth of Rome’s growing city.
Around the middle of the second millennium, after Santino chooses Armand to start a new coven in Paris, Armand takes with him several vampires, including Eugénie and her de Landen siblings. In time, Everard escapes, and Allesandra grows increasingly mad. A few centuries later, when Lestat and Gabrielle convince Armand that the Children of Darkness represent an outmoded belief system in the era of the Enlightenment, Allesandra persuades Armand to destroy the Paris coven by burning them in a great fire that she willingly, madly, leaps into first. Only four vampires escape that initial burning, two of whom are the de Landen sisters Eugénie and Eleni. Once their coven has been destroyed, they implore Lestat to become their new coven leader. He refuses, but his fledgling Nicolas de Lenfent convinces Lestat to give them a small theater he owns on the Boulevard du Temple. Eugénie and Eleni are delighted, especially when Nicolas and Armand join them. They transform the theater into the Théâtre des Vampires, where they perform theatrical shows pretending to be humans who pretend to be vampires.
When Lestat returns years later as Louis and Claudia are about to stand trial for their crimes against him, Lestat seeks Eugénie and Eleni among the others at the Théâtre des Vampires, but these two de Landen vampires have already left the coven. Eugénie and Eleni eventually join an underground coven, in the beautiful golden caves beneath Cappadocia, led by Sevraine, the former Blood Wife of Rhoshamandes’s ancient friend Nebamun. Sevraine also gathers into her coven Marius’s fledgling Bianca and Allesandra, who did not die in the fire she started in the catacombs beneath the Cemetery of les Innocents. After so many centuries of oppression and confusion, Eugénie has finally found a home where she can be with her two de Landen sisters.
For more perspectives on Eugénie’s character, read the Alphabettery entries Allesandra, Benedict, Bianca Solderini, Eleni, Everard, Lestat de Lioncourt, Line of de Landen Vampires, Nebamun, Nicolas de Lenfent, Notker the Wise, Rhoshamandes, Santino, Sevraine, and Trinity Gate.