Page 90 of Huntress Unleashed

“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.