"Wait, Kuhn, what are you doing?" Thomas grabbed Detective Kuhn by the arm and asked: "We're working here."
"What? One drink wouldn't hurt, right?" Detective Kuhn looked at Thomas and Caroline, confused. Caroline was quick to catch up that his pupils were dilated, and his breaths seemed to have become shorter and faster.
"As it turns out it probably would." Caroline smacked Detective Kuhn on the back of his head with the back of her hand, a small trace of her Xuanli and power of mind and will flowed into Detective Kuhn's body.
Detective Kuhn gasped and his body shook for a short moment, then his pupil shrunk to its previous size, and he had to take a few deep breaths to soothe his own breathing patterns.
"What - what just happened to me?" Detective Kuhn looked to the bartender, who was in the process of making a drink but stopped due to his getting out from under the influence of her "charm": "What did you do?"
The bartender immediately threw her cocktail jar at the three and hopped from behind the bar with incredible slickness and momentum, and started running towards the backdoor of the bar.
Caroline's feet stomped the ground so hard that she left two slightly charred dents on the ground she was standing on, and her body shot towards the bartender like a cannonball, before the bartender could even reach the halfway to the backdoor, Caroline already caught up to her, grabbed her by the back of her collar and threw her to the wall on their left.
"Shit!" Detective Kuhn drew his gun and pointed at the two staff in the bar doing the cleaning and reorganizing: "SJPD! Stand down!"
But the staff just threw down the mob and the chair, revealed their sharp fangs and claws and lunged towards Thomas and Detective Kuhn.
Caroline flicked her finger and shot out a small fireball at one of the staff who was charging at Detective Kuhn, which exploded on his face and sent him into the air and down on the ground. The bartender, on the other hand, though struck with a blow that would easily debilitate a normal human, still leapt from the broken wall and pulled out two daggers from her back and tried to jab at Caroline's shoulder and neck with them.
Before the two daggers got close, their blades were grabbed by Caroline. The bartender tried to pull them back, but was immediately kicked in the abdomen and her body flew back and hit the dented wall once again.
"Crack!" "Crack!" the linings and engravings on the two enchanted daggers, which once pierced through various hard armors and even the hide and skin of some very powerful lycans, were destroyed, broken into pieces, with the blades melted, and the guards softened and twisted due to the heat. And two carbonized and smoking wooden handles were all that were left of them when Caroline threw them away.
"Bang!" the training and body tempering back at the inn paid off for Thomas, the attacks from the bar staff were fast and powerful for any normal human or even a well-trained human, but he was able to block and parry right away, and in counterattack delivered a heavy blow to his opponent's face with his fish, breaking and fracturing the nose bones and charring his skin and flesh.
"Stand down." Caroline walked up to the bartender: "You're a succubus right? We're not here for you."
"HALF succubus." the bartender wiped the blood off the corner of her mouth and gave Caroline a resentful look: "So who are you here for?"
After Caroline proved her ability to subdue the bartender and all of the vampire staff currently working in the bar, the bartender had no choice but to sit down with Detective Kuhn, Thomas and Caroline, with the two other vampire staff tied up on two chairs behind her and the bar. The two staff were still awake and tried to warn and intimidate her from having the conversation, but they were instantly restricted from speaking by Caroline's rough but effective spell.
"As you probably know already, this is an exclusive members only underground bar." the bartender tried to pull another drink, but was refused by all three that were questioning her, so she drank it herself: "It's run by a bunch my Boss, whom we call Loks. He's a vamp, and has a few goons under him, all vamps or dogs."
"And by 'vamps and dogs', you mean vampires and werewolves?" Detective Kuhn asked.
"Vampires and lycans, werewolves are something else, newbie. Get with the program." the bartender rolled her eyes and turned to Thomas and Caroline: "They're in charge of this bar and the entire turf around here."
"And why are you working here, half succubus?" Thomas asked: "I don't recall reading about close relationships between vampires, lycans and succubuses."
"My other half is lycan." the bartender shook her head with a disgusted look: "And what can I say, I have my debt to pay."
"So you have no loyalty to them, why are you running?" Caroline asked.
"You come in posing as cops and dispelled my charm, do I even need a fucking reason?" the bartender threw the empty glass back to the bar counter: "You're either sent by the Division or by other High Brokers, anyway I don't want to be collateral damage."
"Tell us about the 'Drainer'." Detective Kuhn did not respond to the bartender's probe: "They're definitely vampires, tell us what we know."
"I don't know nothing about whatever the fuck a 'Drainer' is." the bartender scoffed: "But I do know about some dirty side hustle of the owner. They're in the business of finding single young humans that live alone, hunting them down and harvesting their blood. They say this kind of blood is specially processed, even some high level vamps have become frequent buyers."
"Do you sell it here?" Caroline asked.
"... we do. Hold on." the bartender hesitated for a brief moment, then she looked back at the two tied up vampires, who were staring at her and the three individuals that were questioning her, but still decided to opened up a small door under the bar, and took out a small vial of slightly dark red and liquid blood and handed it to Caroline: "Careful not to burn this one down like you did my knives. This one's cold, because we keep them in refrigerated units. "
"Thanks." Caroline took a close look at the vial of blood, then passed it to Thomas and Detective Kuh: "What else do you know about the dealings of this kind of 'special product'?"
The bartender thought for a second, then said: "Come back at 3 this afternoon. I'll show you the entries of the ledger I found and collected."