My eyes pricking with tears and feeling helpless, I put my arm over his shoulder and led him to the informal seating area where relatives waited for their kin to awaken. His back was hunched, and he moved without thought, grasping the back of a chair before falling into it.

He slipped out from under me, and I stood over him as he put his elbows on his knees and dropped his head into his hands. “I didn’t mean for it to happen,” he said, his voice sounding dead. “It’s not supposed to happen. It’s not supposed to happen!”

Glenn had shut the last drawer and was making his way to us with an aggressive FIB swagger. “Back off,” I warned him. “I see where you’re going, but he didn’t kill those women.”

“Then why is he convincing himself he didn’t?”

“David is an insurance adjuster, not a killer. You said it yourself—they were suicides.”

David made a harsh sound of inner pain. Turning to him, I touched on his shoulder. “Ah, hell. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

He didn’t look up as he said flatly, “They were all alone. They had no one to help them, to tell them what to expect. That the pain would go away.” His head rose, and he had tears in his eyes. “They went through that alone, and it was my fault. I could have helped them. They would have survived if I had been there.”

“David…” I started, but his face abruptly lost its expression, and he rose.

“I have to go,” he stammered. “I have to call Serena and Kally.”

“A moment, Mr. Hue,” Glenn said firmly, and I gave him a dirty look.

David’s face was white, and his small but powerful build was tense. “I have to call Serena and Kally!” he exclaimed, and Iceman peeked in past the door.

My hands out in placation, I insinuated myself between Glenn and the distressed Were. “David,” I soothed, gently resting my hand on his arm, “they’ll be okay. It’s a week before the full moon.” I turned to Glenn, my voice hardening. “And I told you to back off.”

His eyes narrowed at my harsh tone, but though he was the FIB’s Inderland specialist, I was an Inderlander. “Back off!” I insisted, then lowered my voice lest I wake someone up. “This is my friend, and you will cut him some slack, or so help me, Glenn, I’ll show you what a mean, mad witch is capable of.”

Glenn clenched his jaw. I glared right back at him. I’d never pulled my magic on him before, but we had come down here to answer the question of whether the focus was turning humans into Weres, not submit to a homicide charge.