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

up and then grimaced as he lay back down again. “Polish lady in Apartment C. Ninety-five years old today. She laid down for a nap and the kids are all hanging out in her front room, eating the old lady’s cookies and changing the volume on her television. The bastards.”
    “Valentin?” Michael said. The archangel I’d tossed in the ocean off Antarctica the night before stood inside our bubble, his mouth hanging open as he stared at the man lying on the ground beside me. “What happened? Why are you on the ground? Why are there demon spawn here? Especially Faith. I told you she’s evil. She’s sabotaging me.
    “Faith!” My mother called out from the car and I glanced over at her. “What’s going on?”
    “Just stay in the car Mom.” I held a hand out.
    “But—”
    “Just stay in the car. We have this under control.”
    “Of course we do,” Valentin said. “I’m fine. You just help me up, and I’ll go over and congratulate your mother on her wedding. I didn’t make the ceremony after all. Earthquake in Indonesia I had to supervise.” The angel struggled to sit up, his arms wobbling and instead of making it upright he collapsed backward again.
    “We need to get you to a hospital,” I said, ignoring the idiot on the other side of him, and he clamped down on my hand, gritting his teeth.
    “Valentin, lay back down and try to keep still while we get someone to look you over. You’re going to be okay.” Michael came closer and his voice had taken on a note of panic. Obviously he had gotten a grasp on what was going on. “You have to be okay. We’ll make sure of it. Won’t we, Bettincourt? You’re a nurse. You can do something-- can’t you?”
    “Absolutely, let me call a doctor and—”
    “Don’t think we need to worry about that now do we?” Valentin said, and let his head drop back. He brought his other hand up to pat mine and tightened his grip on my fingers. “You look like a nice girl. Louie’s youngest, aren’t you?”
    “Yeah,” I said, my voice cracking, and then I swallowed. “I’m Faith. And Michael’s right, I’m also a nurse. You’ve been hurt very badly, and for some reason you’re not healing like you should. We need to get you medical attention. There’s a demon on staff at Presby. An internist. Let me call him. He’ll be able to explain what’s going on.”
    Because I definitely couldn’t. When angels and demons took on physical bodies they were virtually indestructible. When we’d hit Valentin Tolliver’s SUV should have crumpled—not the angel in front of us. Something was very definitely wrong and I had no idea what it was.
    “Dehalme?” Valentin coughed and the muscles in his chest spasmed. “There’s no way in Mary’s blue tunic I’d let that old hack work on me. He used to advocate leeches and bleeding back before you were born. I’m not letting him anywhere near me with those slugs of his.”
    “Dr. Dehalme is an excellent physician. Let me call him and he can phase right over. Whatever is keeping you from healing, he’ll know how to handle it,” I said, dropping back into what we used to call a ‘reassuring the crazy patient voice’ when I was in nursing school.
    “Mal?” Valentin tightened his grip on my fingers, but focused his attention on the dread demon beside me. “Have a drink for me. Tequila. That’s one of those things I’ll miss. Good tequila with a little twist of lime.”
    “Sure.” The dread demon started to untangle our fingers but Valentin clamped down tighter, refusing to let go of me.
    “What are you—” I tried to jerk away from the angel but he wouldn’t release me as heat arced between us.
    “You need to give me your hand now.” Malachi grabbed my wrist with one hand and Valentin’s with his other, trying to break the other angel’s grip as I pulled with all my might to get free.
    “No. I know what to do. I’m prepared. Give me your hand.” Michael tried to snatch Valentin’s other hand in his, but the