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"Jacques was here to protect you, not the other way around. He died in that duty. It's not your fault or your responsibility. Besides, if you hadn't hidden, you might be dead right alongside him."
He shivered and rubbed his arms. "Are those the things that killed Kaz?"
"The same sort of creatures, yes." I touched his back and guided him out the door. He hesitated the moment he saw the zombie, then squared his shoulders and continued on, stepping over the creature like it was something he saw every day.
From downstairs came the sound of soft steps. I touched Joe on the shoulder to stop him, then slipped past him to the small landing halfway down.
I needn't have worried. It was Cole and his team.
"What have we got this time?" He'd stopped in the hallway, his gaze on the living room rather than on me.
"Jacques and one zombie are in the living room, and there's a decapitated zombie upstairs. Both creatures will probably need Marg's magic touch before they can be put back into the ground. We also have more dust-and I discovered what it does."
"Oh? Do tell."
"It freezes vampires."
"That makes events at the crime scenes more logical." He looked beyond me. "Who's that?"
"Joe, the kid we're protecting. I'm about to take him back to the Directorate."
"Really?" Joe said, his voice containing an edge of excitement as his face appeared over the railing.
"It's not that interesting," Cole said dryly.
"It is when I'm there," I said with a grin.
He snorted and glanced at his team. "We'd better get moving, boys. The bullshit meter is starting to run a little high in this hallway."
Cole and Dobbs walked into the living room. Dusty remained near the door and began setting up a crime-scene monitor. I glanced up at Joe. "Let's go."
"This is going to be cool," he said, bouncing down the stairs.
"Yeah," I said, and hoped like hell Jack thought so.
Jack didn't. Neither did Sal, who ended up with the task of keeping the teenager in line and safe. Although if the kid wasn't safe in a building filled with guardians, then he wasn't going to be safe anywhere.
"You know I don't like civilians down here," Jack said, tossing something my way as he walked back into the day shift's office area.
"I didn't have much other choice, boss." I caught the item with my free hand. It turned out to be a bracelet of twined rope and what looked like dried leaves of some variety. My fingers tingled at contact with it, but it was a cleaner, safer-feeling magic than whatever the sorceress was using. "This from Marg and her team?"
"Yep. The kid will be given one, too. If there's any residual tracking magic left on you, this should stop it."
I slipped it over my left wrist, then handed him the sweater I'd been wearing. "You might want to give them this. The zombie threw some sort of dust at me when he first appeared, and I suspect it was designed to immobilize vampires. I think my werewolf half saved me from the full effects of it."
He took the bundled-up sweater carefully. "If that's true, then it explains why no one has fought back."
"Certainly does." I walked across to my desk and sat down. "Did Marg say anything about how these people are getting in and out of these places?"
"She suspects the killer is using some form of transport magic to get in, but there hasn't been enough of it remaining at any of the sites for her to track down the type of spell being used."
"Bummer."
"Yeah." He glanced at his watch. "It's full moon for you tonight, isn't it?"
"Certainly is." And Rhoan, Liander, and I all planned to head up to Macedon and the strip of land Dia's clone brother, Misha, had left me when he'd died. It was huge and wild, and just about perfect for werewolves to run free without the worry of upsetting or spooking anyone.
Jack grunted. "It's useless trying to get much more out of you today, then. Finish up here, then go home." He half turned away, then stopped. "What are your dancing skills like?"
