“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.”

  24

  Moose pulled up into his driveway, looking a little surprised to see Dane and his brothers, and Jacqueline and hers. Wendy was also riding in the car with him.

  He didn’t smile and Wendy was frowning. He pulled the vehicle into the garage and then the two left the car and walked out of the garage.

  “Hey, what’s up?” he asked Matt, since he was Dane’s older brother.

  “Lucilla told me a hunter set me up so she could take me down. But instead of her killing me like the hunter hoped, she turned me,” Dane said.

  “Yeah?” Moose said. “What has that got to do with me?”

  “You use Green as an informant like me. One good thing about being a vampire is I can question a human and get the truth out of them.”

  Moose’s eyes widened. Wendy stared at Moose, her jaw dropped.

  “Yeah, so all we need to know is why you would work with a rogue vampire and an informant you and I both use to have me ambushed,” Dane said.

  Jacqueline hoped his bluff would work and Moose would come clean. But he knew he would be eliminated for such an act of sabotage so it behooved him to keep the secret, if he truly had been behind all this.

  “Uh, Green must have been confused when he said I had anything to do with it. I mean, like you said, I’ve worked with him any number of times.”

  “That’s the thing about using vampiric persuasion,” Dane said. “The person you question can’t lie to you.”

  Moose glanced at the other hunters. He shoved his hands in his pockets. He looked and smelled uncomfortable. Sweat beaded up on his forehead. His heart was beating like crazy. There wasn’t any reason for him to be scared unless it was all true. Though Wendy’s reaction mirrored Moose’s.

  “Well, I didn’t do whatever he said, but I want to clear my name. I need to use the bathroom and then we can go to League headquarters,” Moose said.

  “We’re taking you into custody,” Matt said. “You can use the bathroom there.”

  Jacqueline was glad that Matt said that because she was afraid he was going to try and get away if he went into the house.

  “I’ll take you there,” Dane said, then told Jacqueline, “I’ll return for you.”

  She knew that Dane was going to take Moose the vampiric way to headquarters. She gave him a hug and kiss and he hugged her back and then kissed her. “See you soon.”

  Then to everyone but Jacqueline’s surprise, Dane grabbed Moose’s wrist and vanished. She just hoped that the League would put Moose in custody and wouldn’t let him go. And that they weren’t upset that Dane had arrived in a vampire’s way with Moose in his grasp.

  Dane figured the best way to take Moose before the council was to just do it in the vampiric way. It would make a statement. This was what Moose had deliberately done to him. Well, most likely Moose had wanted him dead and that hadn’t worked out like he had planned.

  He was surprised to see Tobias there and he hurried to meet with them. “Jacqueline told Adonis you were bringing Moose in and what the charges were for, and he notified me. Come on, Moose, we have a cell for you until we sort this all out.”

  Dane sure hoped the guy wouldn’t get away with it. He had to make sure that everyone believed that Green had told them the whole story. From Moose’s own comments, he hadn’t realized that Lucilla had wiped Green’s mind. But when Green would be questioned in court, he would probably tell the hunters that he didn’t even know who Dane was.