But he was still moving, still trying to attack.
Still being controlled by the sorceress.
I looked around and saw my laser in the corner. I ran for it, quickly grabbing it as the zombie's footsteps echoed behind me. I swung and fired without really looking, sweeping across the creature's legs and dropping him like a wet sponge.
It didn't stop him.
He simply crawled after me.
I raised the laser to hit him again, but didn't pull the trigger. This time I attacked psychically, diving deep down, into the darkness that had once been this thing's mind, once again feeling nothing more than the chill of death and a decaying emptiness.
But the sorceress lay in the deeper recesses, and she was whispering words of command and hate. Kill it, kill it, it doesn't deserve to live, kill it…
It? I obviously wasn't an "it," but I let it go as I wrapped a psychic rope around her presence and pulled it tight.
Shock rolled through the darkness, and then she was fighting, struggling, like a mad thing. A fierce ache formed behind my eyes as I fought to hold her, and the sweat already rolling down my cheek became a river.
"Tell me who you are," I said, both out loud and within. "Tell me why you're doing this."
Even as I said it, I attacked her, trying to rip past her shields and grab the answers. But it was taking all my strength to hold her, and I just didn't have enough left to break her shields.
She didn't answer, just continued to struggle. Then something grabbed my leg and yanked me hard. I yelped as I went down, my butt hitting the floor hard and sending pain jarring up my spine. My control over the sorceress snapped, and she was gone instantly, leaving her creature to carry out her last command-attacking me.
I kicked out with a boot heel, squashing his nose back into his rotting flesh, then rolled away, climbing to one knee and firing the laser, cutting off his head with one swift slice. Without the remnants of his brain and the orders planted within it, the creature stopped moving. I don't think he was dead, as such, but I didn't think he was dangerous anymore.
I stepped over him, the tingling in my legs once again evident now that the adrenaline from the attack was fading. I had no idea what it was, though it obviously was designed to stop me somehow. And if that stuff had been used on Jacques and the other victims, then maybe that explained why they hadn't put up much of a fight before they were hacked to pieces.
Though why had it only partially affected me? What was so different about me that I'd been able to fight back and the others hadn't?
There was only one reason I could think of. I was half vampire, while the other were all full-bloods. A powder designed solely to stop them probably wouldn't work on me the exact same way, thanks to my werewolf heritage.
Of course, I wouldn't know for sure if I was right until I talked to the magi, but I very much suspected I was on the proper track. It was the only thing that made sense.
I walked back to the end of the hallway and checked the remaining bedroom. Nothing and no one else was there. I moved back into the bathroom and stood on the edge of the bath, shoving the hatchway cover to one side. "Joe, are you up there?"
No answer came, but that didn't surprise me. Any kid with half a brain wouldn't come out of hiding on first hearing a familiar voice. Especially after what he'd just witnessed.
"Joe, it really is me." I grabbed my badge and held it up into the hole. "Here's my ID."
There was no response for several seconds, then came a shuffle of movement, and suddenly the scent of man and fear wafted down through the hatchway. It was Joe, all right.
"Are those things dead?" he asked.
"Yes." Although technically they probably weren't. Not until the magi came in and removed whatever spell the sorceress had used to raise them.
"They killed Jacques."
"I know. You coming down?"
A pale face appeared briefly in the hatchway, and the tension lining his bright eyes eased a little when he saw that it really was me. His feet replaced his face, and he slithered through the hole and dropped to the floor.
"I couldn't help him," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I just couldn't."
He wasn't meeting my eyes and his expression was a mix of defiance and guilt.
"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."