I said.
"You were stronger metaphysically than we planned, so Jacob called in our team witch. She's done something so that while you're on this land you won't be able to contact anyone mind to mind."
"What if they try to contact me?"
He shook his head. "Nope, Ellen is good, and very thorough, and we're also over two hours outside your city. Even if your guys break through, they'll never be able to get to you in time to stop Jacob from telling the snipers to finish the job."
It was my turn to try to tell if he was lying. I took a deep breath of the cool, earthy air, and there was nothing. He was as peaceful and empty as a still pool of water. It was strangely Zen, and very unlike most of the shapeshifters I knew.
"Besides, if Jacob or Ellen senses you trying to break through the barrier she's put up, then Micah Callahan dies." He said it with almost no change in inflection, and only the smallest speed of pulse.
My stomach clenched tight at that lack of inflection. It seemed worse that it didn't bother him to talk about destroying someone I loved, someone who was a linchpin on which my happiness revolved. That it didn't matter to him both helped and hurt. It hurt because lack of emotion can make people harder to manipulate, and helped because it made me calmer, made me understand the rules, or lack of them. I could play this game.
I fought the urge to search for the barrier the witch had put up, the same way I'd try a locked door, just in case. If this Ellen was any good at all, she'd sense me trying her barrier. I couldn't risk what her reaction would be; if it had been a real door I could probably have rattled it a little without my "guards" getting upset, but how do you rattle a metaphysical barrier just a little? My powers tended to rely on brute force more than subtlety. I couldn't risk it. I couldn't risk Micah like that. My voice came out steady; point for me. "Not that I'm complaining exactly, but why do you keep threatening to kill him first?"
"He's just your Nimir-Raj; the others are your animals to call. We aren't sure exactly what powers you've gained from your vampire master, but if you are some kind of lesser vampire, then killing a wereanimal that you've bound to yourself can sometimes kill you both. We need you alive to raise the zombie, so Micah goes first."
"If they die..."
"Yeah, yeah, you'll kill us all. I know."
"Did I talk while I was unconscious?"
"No, but we know your rep, and if we kill someone you love there's no going back, no more being friends." He gave me a very direct look, ruined only by the fall of his pale bangs over the one side of his face. It gave him a perpetually young, frivolous glance, as if nothing that came out of that haircut could be serious. But the weight of his one eye, the face I could see, was very serious.
"If you have to kill Micah then you'll kill me, too, because you know if you don't I'll hunt you down."
"Yeah, Jacob doesn't want to kill you for a lot of reasons, but he understands that if certain lines are crossed he'll have no choice." He leaned against the wall of the shed. "The wood's solid even with all the cracks," he said.
"Solid or not, it's not exactly a secure prison for me. Why are we in here?"
His hands were looser on his knees as he said, "Jacob's afraid you've rolled me like a real vampire. I've never challenged him before, Anita, never. I've been with his pride since I was nineteen, and I've never challenged him. I want to touch you. I mean, you're beautiful and all, but this is more than that. My fingertips tingle with the need to hold you. What did you do to me?"
I was calm only on the surface; underneath was that bubbling fear. He might not be able to tell I was lying by smell or body language, but why lie when the truth will do? "I'm not entirely sure."
He studied me, head resting on his knees. "I don't believe you."
"You could tell if I was lying earlier; can't you tell now?"
"Your pulse sped up when I talked about killing your Nimir-Raj, and you're scared for him, so, no, I can't tell." He frowned and