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Hours later, he was still telling himself this when he strolled onto the Monterey wharf packed with tourists and the evening dinner crowd The air smelled of clam chowder and the ocean The occasional bark of a harbor seal broke up the chatter of hu the wharf and treaded carefully Whatever they were doing here, they hadn't thought to put up wards around the area They wouldn't sense him until he was in their midst

Jonny paused in front of a boarded up restaurant, one of the largest buildings on the wharf He counted … seventeen vaer nuathered in one spot though nowhere near the several hundred that had defected Still, they weren't recruits either, whichto knohere the others were

He followed a sign pointing to a spot fro No one else was present The tour boats were docked and dark, and a pallet filled with harbor seals swayed from the movement of waves and animals He was able to sense Ashley, too She read as a Natural, and he began to suspect Brandon was able to do nature the night before Without hi back by the railing, gaze on the two-story restaurant The upper level had been an open air club, and some table and chairs remained Instinct told him to step aside and allow Charles to handle the vaed him to act on his own He wanted to think it was a sense of duty and not e learned to be patient and cautious under pressure, he had the urge to be reckless for once, to barge into the va Ashley back to her brother

Jonny debated another second then strode towards a door hidden under a stairwell beneath the upper deck of the abandoned building He eased it open and slid inside, senses alert The interior was dark and dusty

He walked silently in the direction of the grouped vauard they'd left near the back entrance of the building It took a thought and a touch for him to paralyze then kill the creature He had learned many ways to kill over the years with Charles' help His pohen concentrated and channeled in a single direction, ed to short out someone from the inside out He was able to sever the spinal cord or boil so more than a foot or two from someone He could also hold theht, and physically beat them to death or stab theh, was to tear out their throats Messy, sie that even vamps understood