in his head, the hand on the nape of my neck went limp, and he toppled to the floor, his head knocking a puff of filthy dust into the air as it thumped into the shag carpet.
I looked up. That bitch Nate had one hand out and pointed at Matthew, and a smug smile on his face I wanted to smack off of him with a water bottle. Or my fist.
“Nice going,” Ian said, sounding impressed. Asshole.
“Dor taught me how yesterday,” Nate replied, and brushed his hands together. “Whammy. I thought we might need to be able to do that if Matthew acted like a fucking moron again.”
Well, fuck. Not so easy after all.
With the speed of long practice, I forced my rage down and out of sight. “He’s your pack leader, and he’s doing his job,” I said, careful to still sound breathy and weak. It wasn’t that much of a stretch. They really hadn’t fed me, except for a granola bar the night before. “He’s trying to make sure you aren’t abusing helpless pris—”
“Oh, save it,” Nate snapped. “Helpless my ass. You might have him right where you want him with your crappy spell, but we’re immune to the bullshit.” I blinked up at him, slowly, giving him the full force of what I’d been told were very pretty green eyes. I’d also been told they made me look like an alley cat, but hey, pretty was pretty — and also, that wasn’t entirely wrong, if they only knew. “We’re immune to that too,” Nate added, although he took a defensive step closer to his hulking Neanderthal of a mate as he did, like he was afraid my wiles might have more of an effect on Ian than they did on him.
Which, maybe — okay, no. Under the circumstances, no, although seducing two brothers at the same time was well within my wheelhouse on a better day. But if it worked? Ugh. I wasn’t putting out for Ian, and he didn’t seem like he was the type to let a guy get away with empty promises.
“Look, let’s make this simple. Break the spell or I’m going to rip your throat out,” Ian put in, losing whatever appeal he might have had in the process. He crossed his massive arms across his equally massive chest and glared down at me. “Matthew won’t care once you’re dead.”
Nate shot him a worried look. “We can’t just kill him. I mean, he may not be harmless, or helpless, but he is a prisoner. That’s — we won’t do that, right?”
“The hell we won’t,” Ian growled. “You might not. But I definitely will.”
I glanced down at Matthew, sprawled next to me on the floor. They hadn’t even bothered to move him to the couch; apparently they were still really, really pissed about his part in betraying his pack. His hand, the one that had cradled the back of my head so tenderly a few minutes before, lay limp next to my knee. He was out like a light, and likely to stay that way for a little bit, by the even rise and fall of his broad chest. He wouldn’t hear any of this, and he probably wouldn’t believe it when Ian told him.
Fine. No more Little Orphan Annie. “Go ahead, kill me,” I drawled, looking back up to meet Ian’s furious gaze. “If you want to watch your brother die too.”
Ian and Nate stared at me for a second. “I call bullshit,” Nate said, although he didn’t sound as confident as he clearly wanted to. “Spells die with the caster.”
“Sometimes they do.” I shrugged. “When the caster’s not very skilled. I mean, I’m sure your spells wouldn’t last if someone did the world a favor and lit you on fire.”
Nate’s cheeks went flaming red. “Fuck you, you sorry excuse for a shaman! I knocked your ass out with a water bottle!”
Fury spiked up in me. “That was a fluke!” Fuck, fuck, I had to keep myself together. No anger. No emotions. I didn’t need them. “Anyway, this spell won’t die with me. You kill me, and Matthew’ll be dead within a few weeks. A couple of months, at most. Slowly. Painfully. No cure, and no counterspell.”
I broke off, breathing hard, and glared back at them. My heart was beating way too fast. I needed water. I needed off this fucking floor. And I really, really wasn’t sure they’d believe me.
“You’re so sure we won’t call your bluff?” Ian asked. His arms were