Why did the vampires want to kill Louis, Claudia, and Madeleine?
The vampires were acting under orders from Armand to destroy Claudia and Madeleine and imprison Louis in a coffin, under the guise that it was retribution for having killed Lestat. Claudia was actually destroyed because Armand wanted Louis to himself and thought that, if he got rid of Claudia, Louis’ paternal love for her would go away. The novel presents another possible reason: Armand did it out of spite against Lestat. (Armand indicated to Louis in the movie that he once had dealings with Lestat). The novel explains that, years before when Lestat was a newborn vampire, Armand lead a coven of Satanist vampires. Armand tried to have Lestat condemned for not following their rules, so Lestat revealed to Armand’s followers that Armand was deceiving them. Armand killed many of his own followers for trying to leave him and never really forgave Lestat. It would be in Armand’s nature to want to lure Louis away from Lestat, too.
