Read Online A Touch Morbid by Leah Clifford - Free Book Online

two extra cups off in the kitchen and then headed back to the living room with his own.
    Before he tossed his coat across the back of the couch, he checked the time on his cell phone. Az had said they wouldn’t be late. Jarrod sat on the couch. He’d run it by Eden when they got back.
    Sullivan. He tapped a rhythm on his knee. Could she have gotten addicted to Touch?
    When Eden had still been taking out the Siders, she’d gotten too caught up. Jarrod had accused her of being addicted. His fingers stalled on his knee. Maybe Sullivan was like Eden, able to kill other Siders. Maybe Luke—or Gabe—had found another mortal without a path, made another Sider loyal to the Fallen, the way Libby had been before Eden killed her.
    Sider or not, Fallen or not, Sullivan was on her own. You’re not going to help her , he thought, angry at himself. Last time he’d put his ass on the line it’d been for Libby, and she’d ended up luring them to Lucifer, almost taking them all out.
    He stood, pacing.
    The pain of his fall from the roof had stopped, but he hadn’t spread Touch since he’d taken Luke over the edge with him. Since it wasn’t storing up, that meant his body still used it to heal. Even now, he knew his guts weren’t right.
    He rubbed absently at his arm. But this girl, he was almost positive she wasn’t a Sider. That Sullivan was mortal, was—
    “Not your problem.” He’d let Eden decide. He sighed and rubbed his face. “Seriously need to lose the hero complex.”
    He thought he heard Eden’s voice and perked up. Heard her again, closer, but still in the stairwell. Every second she was less muffled. Is she running?
    He moved to the door as Eden and Az slammed through it, her eyes wild.
    She saw Jarrod, sighed his name. “Thank God you’re here.”
    “What’s wrong? Why is your hair green?”
    Her arms came up around Az. She reached past him and locked the door as if something would crash through at any moment. “Jarrod, help.”
    For the first time, he noticed how Az shook.
    “Eden, what the fuck is going on?” Jarrod demanded.
    She trembled, Az’s tremors running through her. “The Bound,” she managed.
    Jarrod’s mouth dropped open. They’d been a threat, but a nightmare one. Distant. “You saw them? Is he hurt?”
    Az’s legs went out. He slammed his hands over his ears, his fingers digging into the sides of his head as he dropped to his knees, rolled over onto his side.
    “No, Az!” Eden dropped, grabbed Az’s fingers and pried them away. “He’s Falling.”
    “Shit,” Jarrod whispered. He’d seen Az this way before, in the basement of the building with Luke. Adam had called him and he’d gone, thinking he could talk him down. Jarrod thought he’d been more shell-shocked than mad. And then Luke had shown up, and Adam’s eyes had glossed over. And the garden clippers. Jarrod forced away the memories, came back to the present. “What do you need, Eden. How do I help?”
    “I don’t know.” She shook her head, panicked. “We shouldn’t have gone. He wasn’t this bad earlier.” Eden laid a hand on Az’s shoulder. “I thought he was better, that it would help him to get out.”
    “Earlier today ?” Jarrod scanned the apartment with a desperate hope that something would jump out at him, anything that could help. And then he had it. “This happened earlier and you talked him down, didn’t you?” She blinked hard, nodded once. He gestured to Az. “So talk to him!”
    She grabbed Az’s face in her hands. “Az, look at me.” Her voice shook. “You open your eyes right now and you look at me, Az.”
    Az’s head bobbed, almost as if he were drunk. “Get away,” Az whispered. “I can’t make it stop.”
    “No!” She grabbed his hand and held their entwined fingers up in front of his face, even though his eyes were still shut tight. “This is me and you together. And I am not letting you go.” Her other hand grabbed his wrist.
    Jarrod shifted awkwardly from foot to