I dropped to all fours, getting as close to the body as I could without touching the drying blood. I moved one hand over the face, like a child reaching for the special effects at a 3D movie. “A lot of magic fades with death. The Golem’s Eye is strongest, and easy to read. But I can see another text overlaid with the first.”

“Can you read it?” asked Steinkamp.

“It’s too degraded.”

Nidhi turned her attention from the body to me, her brows crinkling together. I avoided eye contact.

“Are there werewolf species who can control thoughts like that?” asked Rowland. “An alpha wolf or something, ordering the others to help?”

“I don’t think a were did this.” I sat back. “There are books I can use to look into the past and hopefully give you a better idea exactly what happened. The spells manipulate real light, so you’d be able to photograph the attackers and broadcast their faces throughout the state.”

“Magical evidence isn’t admissible in court, and you know it.” Rowland scowled as she listened to a report from one of her officers via radio. “Defense attorneys would argue it was all illusion, that you could condemn anyone you liked.”

“More importantly, we’ve got plenty of security footage for that,” added Steinkamp. “We’ll be running facial recognition against FBI and DHS databases.”

“Besides,” said Nidhi, “you’re done with magic for the day.”

Rowland looked up. “What’s that mean? Do you libriomancers run out of gas after a certain number of spells?”

“Sort of.” Given the physical damage I’d done to my eyes last year, Nicola Pallas had ordered me to limit the amount of magic I did in any twenty-four hour period. Recreating Will had put me close to that limit. I massaged the tingling numbness from my hands. Close to that limit, or maybe a little beyond it.

“How do you plan to stop the other weres?” I asked. “Stroudus are tough, but they can obviously be killed by normal bullets. That won’t work on most species. Pepper spray will be effective on some. Heightened olfactory senses make them more sensitive. Don’t bother with a Taser. In most cases, that’ll just piss ’em off.”

“You have something that will take them down?” asked a passing CSI. “I didn’t sign up for this shit. The academy didn’t teach us how to deal with ghouls and goblins.”

“Oh, goblins are easy,” I said. “They’re cowards. They’ll run away if you so much as look at them cross-eyed.”

He looked from me to Rowland, probably trying to tell whether I was joking. She waved him away. “The feds have agents who’ve been trained on this sort of perp. They’ll be helping us bring the others in. Is there anything else you can tell us about this one?”