Read Online 03 Before The Devil Knows You're Dead-Speak Of The Devil by Patricia Eimer - Free Book Online

mattered.”
    “Why not?” I asked as everyone stepped back and I managed to stumble up the stairs.
    “Because it’s my job to keep you safe, stupid.”
    “You probably deserve a raise then.” I pulled the door open and managed to get myself inside with everyone else trailing three feet behind us as they watched me staggering through the building’s tiny foyer.
    My hand brushed across the leaves of a palm tree in the corner and Matt sucked in a shocked breath of air, I looked up at him. “What?”
    I let my eyes follow to where he was looking. Where there once had been a sort of dingy, sad looking palm tree, there was now nothing but a column of ash with shriveled palm leaves attached.
    “Well, that doesn’t look promising,” I said as everyone immediately took another step away from me. I was going to try my best not to be offended by the fact that everyone was treating me like I was my own personal IED.

Chapter Six
    Lisa was standing in the doorway to her apartment, watching me lurch toward the stairs like some sort of monster in a B movie. She started forward, her arms outstretched. “What happened to you? Tolliver said there was an accident.”
    “Don’t.” Malachi’s voice was so sharp he could have hidden a razor-tongued demon tax collector inside it. “Don’t touch her.”
    My stomach dropped into my knees. Malachi was right. If I’d killed the plant by brushing it with my foot, who knew what kind of damage I could do to my best friend? To my patients? I would kill them trying to make them feel better.
    “She’s hurt.” Lisa stepped forward again. My blood froze as I noticed the slight bump between her black top and pink pajama pants covered in grim reapers.
    “He’s right.” I took two steps back, putting as much space as I possibly could between us. “You can’t touch me.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because touching me might hurt you. Or AC 2.0.”
    “We’re not naming my baby AC 2.0 and I don’t care what anyone says, you’re not going to hurt me. You’re my best friend. You are incapable of hurting me. It’s not in your nature, no matter what happened to you.”
    “Lisa.” Matt’s deep baritone had a jagged, painful edge to it. His face was drawn like a man who’d gone two days without sleep. His eyes were filled with misery. “She could accidentally destroy your mortal form. Alpha knows what she could do to the baby. I know you want to help, but you’ve got to stay away from her.”
    “How can I—” Lisa swallowed and I knew that her self-preservation instincts were warring with her nurses training. I was in pain and that meant she was supposed to help me except helping me would kill her.
    “None of us can touch her. Not her father, or the Alpha. Not even me.” Matt’s voice was rough and his hands were trembling. He bit his lower lip and kept his eyes focused on the floor, not looking at me.
    “Matt…” I looked at my family. There wasn’t anything left to say. There wasn’t anything I could do. I was toxic.
    I started up the stairs and there was the clatter of footsteps as Lisa followed behind, quietly questioning Malachi, but I was too tired to listen to them. All I wanted to do was find somewhere quiet to sleep and let someone else figure out what to do for a change.
    Hope was waiting for us at the landing in front of my apartment. Her face was tight, and she was gnawing on a thumbnail. She moved silently to the door, opened it, and then stepped aside, her thumbnail going back into her mouth like a security blanket.
    “I don’t understand,” Lisa said and I grimaced at the grating sound of her voice I stumbled into the apartment and started toward my couch.
    “It’s true then?” Hope asked. “She’s the angel of death?”
    “How did you know?” My voice sounded thick and phlegmy as I flopped down onto the sofa Matt and I had picked out after we’d started dating. A couch that had been bought because it met all of Matt’s cuddle requirements—smooshy