"How's he doing?" Jonny asked, looking over the shoulder of the tense hacker vamp.
"Good," came Stuart's preoccupied response. "I figured out he's been using the cell phones they find to locate other local vamp activity for the vigilante."
"I didn't think it was possible with throwaways."
"If everyone were using throwaways, it wouldn't be. But only the foot soldiers use disposables. Per your orders, everyone programs their boss's number into the contacts as soon as they get the phones. He's using that data to track our vamps."
Jonny growled under his breath. "Smart," he admitted reluctantly.
"Can we vamp him? He can help me with the Guardian roster challenge," Tasha asked.
"No. Not an option," Jonny replied. "Can we do the same thing with the rogue vamps?"
"If we had a phone, yeah," answered Stuart.
"The talisman is starting to learn to link the locations of our vamps but it's not as quick as I'd like it to be," Tasha said. "A phone might be enough to give us the location of the rogues."
"Someone who can write algorithms better than I can would help," Stu said hopefully. "If you could vamp someone like that …"
"We're working on it." Tasha shot him a look. "But this is a good development so far."
I love good news. It was rare when Jonny heard it. "Charles."
His loyal second stepped forward from his position watching near the door.
"Send someone back to the restaurant and warehouse in Monterey. See if there's a phone someone missed we can exploit," Jonny ordered. "We can track them this way while we continue to recruit the Natural Trackers we want to vamp."
"You think it smart to trust a vigilante?" Charles asked, frowning at the display of their vamp locations on Stu's computer screen.
"No," Jonny replied. "But I can't touch them."
Charles glanced at him. The vamp had enough experience with Jonny to guess who the only people on the planet were considered off limits, and Jonny didn't volunteer any information.
"If you see the vigilante attacking our vamps, I want to know immediately," Jonny added, thoughts on Ashley.
"You think they'd be that stupid knowing you can find them?"
"Yeah. I do." He'd scared her but he didn't think one warning was going to be enough to discourage her, especially when she knew his hands were generally tied because of Xander. "I need to know the second someone spots her."
"Her," Charles repeated.
Jonny gave him a warning look. Charles took the hint and didn't pursue, instead issuing Jonny's orders to his underlings.
Jonny left the command center for his room. He'd been unable to forget the way Ashley tasted or how she felt in his arms. Or the fire in her eyes that was more of a turn on than he expected. He normally preferred his dinner not to fight him, but with her, he relished the challenge. If he were vulnerable to her skills, he'd be more concerned. She moved like no one he'd ever seen. Any injuries she managed to inflict upon him would heal instantly, but he almost anticipated watching her marking him up the next time she attacked his vamps.