Chapter 23

The music at the Blue Moon was playing so loudly, they could hear it all the way out into the parking lot. As soon as Dane opened the door to the club for Jacqueline, a big, burly man with a shaved head said, “I haven’t ever seen you in here before.”

“We’re new,”Dane said, sharing the telepathic communications with both the bouncer and Jacqueline.

That was a smart move. If the bouncer thought they were blood bonds, they would have given the name of a vampire who had invited them, most likely. As vampires, they could have shown their fangs, but that could be a sign of aggression in any circle. Telepathic communication was perfect because rarely did a hunter have that ability, so in a non-aggressive way, they were able to confirm that they should be allowed to be there. And technically, they were new in more ways than one.

The bouncer just jerked his head for them to enter.

Vampires were talking, drinking, and dancing, wearing a variety of clothes from tuxes and full-length gowns to cocktail dresses and dress shirts and dress pants. A few blood bonds were standing at various places in the club—visiting with each other, waiting for a vampire to approach, wanting a drink from them instead of buying bloody cocktails.

The ceiling was covered in blue lights and stars and a bright white moon. Lights flashed across the dance floor and the people in the club. It was interesting to see the different decors and ambience in the various clubs. Despite the dancing and music, it seemed more subdued in certain areas where vampires and blood bonds were seeking a sexually charged blood-bonding experience.

“Do you see Green?” Jacqueline asked.

“No. So we kind of blend in, though no one seems to really notice us yet. We could get a drink,” Dane said.

“Sure.” But she really wanted to dance. She loved dancing with Dane and listening to the music. She just felt like moving to the beat.

Dane smiled at her. “Come on, honey.” He took her hand and pulled her into his arms, forgetting about a drink. He began to dance with her, and she loved it.

“This is so nice.”

“Even if we’re not at one of our clubs,” he said.

“When dancing with you,” she said, “anywhere is super good.” She ran her hands over his buttocks, and he smiled at her.

“If Green doesn’t show up soon, we’re going to have to go home and finish this up.” He kissed her, and she tongued him, finding his canines elongated.

She smiled, loving how that happened to him. Not only that, but she could feel his arousal pressed against her body. “Oh, I’m all for it.” Then she began hearing some conversations at tables near the dance floor.

“Isn’t…isn’t he a hunter?” a guy said.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him before. What about her?” the woman next to him asked.

“I think she’s a hunter,” another woman at their table said. “I don’t know anything about him.”

Then they got quiet and the next thing they knew, a male vampire approached, and Jacqueline was afraid this was going to go south. But then he asked Dane if he could cut in and dance with her. Ohmigod, no way did she want to dance with a vampire that wasn’t a hunter turned.

Dane looked like he didn’t like the idea. His teeth had already extended just from dancing close to her and she was afraid he was going to expose them to the vampire and get them in real trouble.

She squeezed Dane’s hand, curious what the vampire had to say to her. “I’ll dance with him and see what he wants.”

“All right.” But Dane didn’t seem happy about it.

She didn’t blame him. She would have felt the same way if he started dancing with a female vampire and left her to fend for herself. But then it happened. A female approached Dane and asked him to dance with her.

Jacqueline started to dance with the male vampire, keeping her distance from him, unlike how she danced with Dane, while a vampiress, black hair, blue eyes, long red gown, looking hot and sexy, danced with Dane. Jacqueline felt somewhat unnerved dancing with a vampire she didn’t know.

The blond male vampire dancing with Jacqueline said, “We haven’t seen you here before—the two of you. But my girlfriend thinks you’re a huntress.”

“I am. And I’m a vampire.” So they were curious about Dane and Jacqueline.

The vampire raised his brows, then it looked like the light dawned as his jaw dropped. “You were turned.”

“Right.”

“Oh.” Then he frowned. “Against your will?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. We don’t see any of your kind in here ever.”

“We’re looking for Green, a blood bond we believe might have some information about a hunter who set up my fiancé to be terminated by a rogue vampire.”

“What if I was a rogue vampire?” The blond guy smiled a little at her, his expression somewhat dark.

“Then I would have to terminate you.”

He laughed. She smiled. She was serious and she was sure he realized it.

“This Green, was he supposed to be here?” the vampire asked.

“Yes, he told us to meet him here.”

“I believe he’s in a backroom then, offering sustenance to a vampire—willingly, of course.”

“Of course.” She really wasn’t here looking for rogue vampires. They had to learn if a hunter was the reason for Lucilla getting the best of Dane.

“Your name is?” the vampire asked.

“Jacqueline.”

“Jacqueline…?” the vampire persisted.

“Anderson. And you are?”

“One of the good guys. Reese Butler. We don’t like to see rogue vampires get away with crimes against anyone—hunters, humans, and vampires alike. If we can, we take them down ourselves. But sometimes they have friends who help to protect them. Then they’re considered rogues also. They give us a bad name, you do understand? We can’t have that.”

“Just like we can’t have hunters turning on other hunters, or humans or law-abiding vampires,” Jacqueline said.

“I like you. If you weren’t already with a hunter turned, I would make an effort to get to know you better.” Reese gave her a genuine, rather devilish smile.

She was thinking Dane might want to put him on his terminal list, whether Reese was a rogue or not. “Can you tell us where Green is exactly so we can talk to him briefly?”

“He’s busy. Believe me, when a powerful—friendly—vampire is busy with a blood bond, you don’t want to interrupt things. Now that you’re one of us, you’ll have to learn how to live by our rules too,” Reese said. “I would be willing to teach you more about us.”

“Thanks, but we’re good.” Not really. It would be nice, she realized, to make acquaintances with a few decent vampires to learn what they could about their ways. She also was now aware that though she still thought of herself as a hunter, she and Dane were also vampires and there were another set of rules to navigate by as such. “Wait, I have an idea. I would have to ask the others in the group what they thought about it, but maybe a couple of vampires who have always been vampires, or at least early on, centuries ago, could come to a couple of our…uhm, meetings.” She didn’t want to say therapy sessions because it might sound like they were weak. But she thought having vampires speak to them about doing things their way might help the newly turned deal with the changes better.

“Meetings,” Reese said.

She glanced at Dane, and he looked like he was ready to take her back in his arms, though the music was still playing, and he was still dancing with the vampiress. “Okay, a few of us who have been turned by vampires are meeting to talk about how we feel about the changes.”

“When we were turned centuries ago, we could have used such sessions,” Reese said, sounding truthful.

She knew it had been awful for them because they hadn’t had blood banks to draw from and everyone wanted to hunt them down and eliminate them. The situation had improved so much for them and most lived by the rest of society’s rules like anyone else who just worked, had families, friends, socialized, and were fairly normal in every other way.

“I’ll ask a couple of my friends and get a hold of you. In the meantime, you can ask your group if they would be willing to have us talk about what you might have to deal with.” Then Reese glanced at Dane. “I believe your fiancé wants to dance with you again. I thank you for your honesty.”

“You’re welcome. And I thank you for yours.” She had never socialized with vampires before and was so used to going after the bad ones, that she never really gave the decent ones any thought. But she could see here at the club, everyone was having a good time and they looked just like the hunters at a hunters’ club, or the humans at the human clubs.

Then he kissed her hand and moved off to ask the woman dancing with Dane to join him in a dance. Dane quickly rejoined Jacqueline and they decided to get a drink.

She explained what Reese had said to her about Green being in a back room, and even about maybe coming to one of their therapy sessions.

“We would have to talk to the whole group about it,” Dane said.

“Yes, of course. We might even be able to come to a club like this more often, if we can have a bloody cocktail and dance and the other vampires don’t mind that we’re also hunters,” Jacqueline said. “Did you learn anything from the woman?”

“Only that she knew I was a hunter, then she saw my fangs, not that I meant to show them off to her, and I told her why we were here. She said the same as Reese. That Green is with a vampire in a back room.”

They got their cocktails and stood at one of the tables, watching the other vampires. But many of them were watching Jacqueline and Dane now. “I think we’ve been found out,” she said.

“I think Reese and Eleanor came to speak to us while we were dancing to learn who we are and then shared the information with the rest of the patrons at the club,” Dane said.

“I think you’re right. I wonder how long it takes for a blood bond to be with a vampire? It seems to me if he’s with one for this long, he would be drained dry,” Jacqueline said, wanting to just talk to him and get on their way.

Then the bouncer approached them, and she figured he was going to make them leave. “You didn’t tell me you were hunters.”

“We’re vampires. Newly turned. We told you we were new. If we were humans newly turned, then we would be welcome, right?” Dane asked the bouncer.

“You’re hunters. You still hunt rogue vampires,” the bouncer said. “You need to leave. Now.”

“We’re here to meet a man named Green,” Dane said.

“You’ll have to meet him elsewhere. If you have business with him, you’ll have to go somewhere else.” The bouncer folded his meaty arms and stared them down.

They finished their drinks, not about to leave without doing so.

“I guess we can wait in the pickup,”Jacqueline said telepathically to Dane.

“Yeah, let’s do it.”

The two of them vanished. No sense in leaving there any other way. They might as well make the point that they were genuine vampires.

“What if Green doesn’t come out of the Blue Moon before it closes?” she asked.

“Then it means the vampire took him home with him…or her,” Dane said. “We’ll just wait and see.”

Vampires were still coming out of the club or going into the building, the place hopping. It was just as well attended as their hunter clubs. Then a man came out of the club and Dane straightened. “That’s Green, but he looks a little unsteady on his feet. I’ll grab him and we can talk to him.”

Dane left the truck, grabbed Green’s wrist, and moved him to the truck.

“Okay so what was the deal with a hunter telling you to inform me that Lucilla would be at the location where I was ambushed?” Dane asked Green.

“Hell, man, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Maybe he didn’t know anything because all of this was just supposition on Dane’s part. Dane stared at Green. “Tell me which hunter had you set me up when I went to take down Lucilla and how that had come about.”

For a moment, Green didn’t say anything. Jacqueline suspected he was weighing his options. If he told them the truth that the hunter hired him to set him up? It was one thing if Lucilla had controlled his mind and forced Green to entrap Dane. But a hunter couldn’t do that. So what would the incentive have been? Money? Something else?

She was kind of surprised the hunter, if that was truly the case, hadn’t terminated Green to keep him from telling Dane what had happened, either voluntarily or by vampire compulsion. She figured that the hunter didn’t realize that Dane was going to learn of it. She didn’t think the hunter would let Green live otherwise.

Dane said to Green, “You will tell me everything that had happened before I met with Lucilla.”

But Green said something similar to what he had told them already. “I didn’t do anything. I…I don’t remember anything about Lucilla.”

“Did you try to use your vampiric control?” Jacqueline asked.

“Yeah.”

“Try it again. Or I can. I’ll try.” Then Jacqueline said to Green, “Which hunter set Dane up when you told him to eliminate Lucilla?”

Reese came out to their truck with the vampiress he had been with and who had danced with Dane. “What’s up?” Reese asked.

“We’re trying to learn what Green knows about how I was ambushed by the rogue vampiress Lucilla. But we’re not having any luck with our vampiric mind persuasion,” Dane said.

“It could be that Lucilla wiped his mind,” Reese said.

“Oh, great,” Jacqueline said. “We never considered that could be the case.”

“I’ll try it on him,” Reese said. “Green, tell us who hired you to betray Dane.”

Green just shook his head. “I don’t know anything.”

“Who is Lucilla?”

“I…I don’t know anyone by that name,” Green said.

“I’m an ancient vampire, and I know the man’s mind has been wiped. He couldn’t fight my questioning. Whatever information you’re searching for isn’t there any longer.”

“Do you know me?” Dane asked Green.

“No. You called me and just left a message for me. I just figured you were a vampire who wanted some blood. But I already gave too much. I was going to tell you that but then the next thing I know, you took me to your truck and began questioning me. Knowing some vampires can get violent if they don’t get their way, I was just listening to you and trying to figure out what you were asking me. How could I know if you were set up if I don’t even know you?” Green asked, sounding thoroughly confused.

“Hell,” Dane said. “And thanks, Reese, for helping us out.”

“If I’d been a hunter and was setup like that, and some hunter was behind it, I would want to know the truth too. And do something about it. Take it easy,” Reese said, and then he and his girlfriend left.

“Green, good luck out there,” Dane said, sounding like he was truly hoping he was going to be okay.

Green headed for a car and wished them well.

“Well, we learned a few things,” Jacqueline said. “Number one, I was thinking maybe our vampiric abilities weren’t working, but it appears they still are. He just didn’t know anything. Number two, I never thought of a vampire blanking out his mind.”

“I’m glad our abilities were working. I was afraid maybe we needed to use them more to get better at it. So it’s good to know they’re adequate like when we used them before with the housebreakers. I’m like you. I never thought a vampire would wipe his mind, and why would she? Unless she had made a deal with a hunter who set this all up.”

“Right. And number three, it looks like going to the vampire club was fine with the vampires, as long as we’re not hunting rogue vampires in there. And we even seem to have made a couple of vampire friends,” Jacqueline said. “We just have to convince the bouncer we can be there.”

“He might have thought we were there to find rogue vampires. So the next thing we need to do is talk to Moose. It’s too bad we can’t use vampiric persuasion to get him to tell us the truth. I doubt he’ll talk, but we need to at least try it. He’ll know if he lets the truth slip, if he was involved, he will be on a hunter’s target list.”

“Should we go now to see him?”

“Yes, when he’s least expecting it.”

“I’m with you on it.” Though she was thinking they were overdressed for the job. “I guess you don’t want to change clothes.”

He chuckled. “No. I think if we’re dressed like this, he won’t feel we’re as much of a threat.”

“Do you have swords in the car, or something else we can arm ourselves with if we need to protect ourselves?”

“A couple of folding swords and daggers. But we won’t be able to hide them in our clothes with the way we’re dressed,” he said.

“Okay, well, we should tell your family that we’re going to speak with him just in case he tries to say we were threatening to kill him over some perceived conflict.”

Dane thought about it for a few minutes before he spoke. “If we do, my brothers will want to be there.”

“That works for me. That way he can’t twist our words. We’ll have witnesses. Maybe I should call my brother and see if he wants to join us too. I would like to see if he will be there for us when we need him.”

“Sure, go ahead. Of course, they might all try to talk us out of it.”

“If they do, we go anyway. We need to know the truth. You know Lucilla wouldn’t have wiped Green’s mind of who you were if something more hadn’t been going on behind the scenes.”

“Right.” Dane called Matt first and told him what had happened with Green and the vampire Reese.

“Damn, brother. You know how to live dangerously, but yeah, I’ll get hold of our brothers and we’ll meet you at Moose’s house.”

“Okay, we’re calling Jacqueline’s brother too, though he might not want to be bothered with helping us. We want to give him the opportunity though.”

“Good. We’ll see you there then.” Matt ended the call.

“I’m so glad your brothers will be witnesses.” Then Jacqueline called up her brother. She told him what had happened, and that Dane’s brothers were coming to be there for them. “Do you want to meet us there?”

“Yeah. Don’t approach him until after we are all there.”

“All right. We’ll see you in a few minutes then.” She felt relief that her brother was willing to help out. “I didn’t know what to expect from him, but I think he has really come around.”

“I think so too. So when we get married, maybe your family will all be there.”

“Yeah, maybe. We haven’t even talked about where to go for a honeymoon.”

“Someplace where we can still get blood,” he said.

She sighed. “Yeah. We don’t know about other locations. I mean, probably it’s all set up in the States. But around the world? Not sure.”

They finally arrived at Moose’s house and waited for their brothers to arrive. She sure hoped this worked. Once everyone arrived at the stucco, one-story, ranch-style house that Moose owned, a blue Corvette in the driveway, Dane said, “That’s Wendy’s car.”

“Oh. Do you still want to question him?”

“Yeah, I do.” He got out of the truck and Jacqueline joined him.

The brothers got out of their vehicles and walked up to them. Matt asked, “Are you ready?”

“Yeah. Let’s do this,” Dane said.

Then they all went together. Dane was holding Jacqueline’s hand. He knocked at the door.

No one answered, then Matt got a notification on his phone, and he texted someone. “A rogue vampire was just eliminated. I asked who the hunter was, and the police said it was Moose.”

“What about Wendy?” Dane asked.

“She’s not listed on the paperwork.”

“Unless Moose is going out celebrating or he’s on another hunt,” Dane said.

“Then we hold tight,” Matt said.

Everyone agreed to sit around and wait, wanting to get this resolved if they could.

“I wonder where Wendy is,” Jacqueline said. “Her car is here, but she didn’t get credit for the vampire Moose eliminated.”

“Maybe she was there but he killed the vampire and took the money, not giving her any of it,” Dane said. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Jacqueline’s brother wanted to know what happened when Dane and his sister went to the vampire club, and she said, “We danced, had drinks.” But he was shocked when he heard that Dane and Jacqueline had actually danced with other vampires.

“What could they do? Bite us?” Dane asked.

Robert shook his head. “I’m just glad you weren’t in trouble.”

“We actually were more accepted there than at the hunters’ club, though it might not always be the case, depending on who is at the club, just like we might have better luck the next time we’re at the hunters’ club,” Jacqueline said. “The bouncer did make us leave though.”

“I can’t believe Lucilla wiped out Green’s mind of the whole incident,” Matt said.

“It sounds like there was collusion between the hunter and the rogue vampire,” Robert said. “But what would be the motivation? The hunter has to know if you ever figured it out, he could be outed and put on a termination list.”

“That he was able to date Wendy? That’s all I can figure,” Dane said. “Her parents are really wealthy, and they give her anything she wants. She’s an only child and when they’re gone, she’ll inherit all their wealth. That’s not why I was marrying her, but Moose is the kind of person who would. I had my own money, so her parents knew I wasn’t marrying her for her money.” Then Dane said, “There’s Moose’s car.”