Marked (10 page)

“It took you long enough, asshole,” Brielle says.  She’s crouched down, one knee on the ground and the other supporting her elbow as she points a rifle at the djinni.  An orange tipped rifle.  What the hell is she doing?

“Your human bullets won’t hurt me in my true form,” he snarls.

“Well duh.  That’s why I’m not going to shoot human bullets at you.”

The djinni narrows his blue eyes.  “Then you are a fool pointing a useless weapon at me.”  He begins to walk towards her.

Roman moves to block his path, but Brielle says, “Get out of the way, Doc.  He’s mine now.”  Reluctantly, Roman stops.  I hope she knows what she’s doing. 

There’s only about ten feet between her and the djinni now.  When he is close enough to reach for her, she fires the rifle.  Repeatedly.  The djinni howls in pain and begins to back away from her, his hands covering his face.

I watch in amazement as little pieces of the djinni just disappear with each shot of the rifle.  What the hell does she have in those things?  I’m guessing they’re specially made.  I hope she has lots of them, whatever they’re made of. 

Knowing he’s beaten and wanting to preserve as much of his body as possible, the djinni continues backing up, trying to get away from Brielle’s gun.  He looks at me with a sneer and says, “There will be more like him.  A sea of humans will spill blood in your name until you are where you belong.”  Then he’s gone.  He escapes into the corn field next to the road.  Brielle finally stops firing when she can no longer see him.  

“Where does he think I belong?” I ask no one in particular.

“I think it’s pretty safe to say he wasn’t going to bring you to beaches of white sand and sunshine,” Brielle says, rising to her feet.  The anger in her eyes has not abated.  I back up a step as she approaches me.

“Oh, give me a freakin’ break,” she says, disgusted by my leeriness of her.  “If I wanted to kill you, I would have a long time ago.  But I do want to know who you are and why the djinn are willing to brutally kill humans to get you.  This is not their usual MO.”

I shake my head, dumbfounded.  “I’m just me.  I work at a gym and I’m in medical school.  End of story.  How could that make me interesting to the djinn?” 

Brielle gives me an assessing stare.  “There’s nothing in your past, nothing whatsoever that could have pissed these guys off?  Did you run over a few more with your car before this last time?”

I scowl at her.  “You make it sound like I’m a serial killer.  No, I’ve never run anyone over before.”

She shrugs.  “Just throwing out a theory.  So, what do we do with the homicidal note the djinn left for you?  Shallow grave or just leave him here?  Either way, we need to get the hell out of here.”

“There’s nothing more we can do for him,” Roman says.

My mouth drops open.  Aghast, I say, “What does that mean?”

His turn to shrug.  “The man has bled out.  Whatever we do for him at this point significantly decreases our chances of survival.”

“He’s right,” Brielle says.

“Oh. My. Fucking. God.  Who are you people?  A human being is lying in a pool of his own blood and all you can think about is what a bother he is to us?  He didn’t deserve to die.  He died because these monsters are after us.  He was killed because of us; the least we can do is call the police!”

“Technically, he died because the djinn are after you, not us,” Brielle says.

Roman catches my arm before I can slap her.  “Skye, think about this.  There is a dead man with your name carved into his abdomen.  How are we going to explain that to the police?  There’s no evidence that the djinn are responsible.  The police would hold us as suspects and that would make us sitting ducks for these guys.  We need to leave him.  Someone will come along shortly and will call the police.  We need to be as far away from here as possible when that happens.”

Leave a dead man’s body in the middle of the road.  I hate them both right now.  But is Roman wrong?  The police would think of us as suspects and they would bring us in for questioning.  With my name carved into the dead guy, how could they not think we were involved.  And if Brielle’s right, that wouldn’t stop the djinn from coming after us.  After me.  Not them.

I look at the two people who have put their own lives on the line to save mine and I’m questioning their humanity?  I’m being a fucking idiot.  I cross my arms over my still aching chest and walk sullenly back to the jeep knowing they’re right behind me.  If I want to stay alive, this is the right thing to do.  That doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.

Roman retrieved his bloody shirt from next to the man’s body and put it in the same box that had Brielle’s wig and the giant stickers.  Don’t want to leave a DNA trail.  It doesn’t take long for the air in the jeep to take on a distinct metallic smell that can only come from blood.  Roman’s naked torso is the only thing distracting me from the smell.  To say he works out would be like saying a cat kind of likes catnip.   A huge understatement.  I am trying not to stare, but my eyes keep darting in that direction, ignoring my inner turmoil.

Mmmm.  His chiseled chest and abs are just begging my hands and lips to explore them.  Heat shoots to my core every time my eyes slide in his direction.  The bastard knows it, too. 

I can’t believe I’m thinking about sex after leaving a brutally murdered man, who died because of me no less, in the road for someone else to find.  I should be sitting here horrified that I’m not the person I thought I was.  If someone had asked me last week what I would do in a situation like this, I would have scoffed at the very idea that I could be so cold and heartless.

But damn, the man looks so good shirtless.  There’s a nagging voice at the back of my mind reminding me of the warning in the fog, but my hormones are ready to take it out back and kick its ass if it doesn’t shut up.  I even catch Brielle peeking at him in the rearview mirror.

“Nice nips, Doc.  Are you cold?” Brielle asks with a smirk.  “I could turn up the heat.”

Roman is not self-conscious about his body at all.  He stretches his arms up so his hands are behind his head, linking his fingers together.  “I’m fine,” he says smugly.  “Eventually it would be nice to buy a new shirt since I didn’t get to pack for this excursion.”

“And deprive us from the masterpiece that is your body?” Brielle teases.  “What do you do, work out between patients?”

“Only the dying ones,” he says with a wink.  

I’m glad they can have cheery banter back and forth.  I can’t think of anything I would find funny at the moment.  “Can we talk about something other than dying people?  That seems disrespectful at the moment,” I say, my voice sharper than I intended.

Brielle catches my eyes in the rearview mirror.  “Look, I’m not any happier than you are about leaving that guy back there.  But, I’ve learned that you can’t fight the djinn playing by human rules.  They are sneaky, evil bastards who would rip your heart out before saying hi to you on the street.  As you’ve already seen, they’ll do anything to get what they want, including trying to make you crazy.  As in totally insane.  If you give in to their cruelty and let them take your mind, then they’ve already won.  We need to keep moving forward.  Grieve for the guy if you want, but I highly doubt they’re going to stop killing people if they want you this badly.  There will most likely be many more just like him so you better get used to it.  So buck up and quit being such a whiny little bitch.”

“How does it end, Brielle?” I snap.  “Do we have to kill every djinn that’s come through the veil in order for me to be safe?”

“I don’t kill them, I bind them,” Brielle snaps back.  “And you tell me.  What did you do to piss the djinn off and what do they want from you?  From where I’m sitting, the only one who can clue us in on how this is going to end is you.”

Now I’m mad.  “I’ve already told you, I haven’t done anything to the djinn,” I growl.

“Funny, I’ve been hunting them for a couple of years now and I haven’t found a dead person with my name carved in him on my doorstep; so you had to have done something big.”

“It was probably something you weren’t even aware of,” Roman interjects trying to calm things down.  “Some meaningless thing to you, but unforgiveable to them.”

I can’t believe this.  I’ve never done anything cruel or unforgivable to anyone.  That I know of.  Shit.  Instead of acknowledging that Roman could be right, I fold my arms over my chest again and stare out the window.

We fall into a strained silence; my outburst and Brielle’s response effectively squashing any conversation attempts.  I am so on edge now, my nerves are prickling.  I have to say something, anything that distracts me from wanting to crawl out of my skin with stress and worry.

“What were you shooting at the djinni?” I ask Brielle.

She takes more time than necessary to answer me.  She’s obviously still pissed about me being judgmental towards her and Roman.  Eventually, she says, “Air.”

She’s going to make me work for this.  “Why air?”

She scowls at me through the rearview mirror.  “Because it works.”

I have to count to ten before I say anything else or I’m going to snap back at her and she’ll never tell me.  One.  She’s a really annoying bitch.  Two.  Annoying bitch.  Three.  Bitch.  Four.  I started this.  Five.  But does she have to be so nasty?  Six.  Her life is in danger because of me.  Seven.  Her knowledge is the only thing that may keep me alive.  Eight.  She’s still a bitch.  Nine.  I’m going to have to suck it up and deal with her on her terms.  Ten.  Deep breath.  Apologize.  “I’m sorry about what I said earlier.  You were right; I do need to buck up.”

Her eyes open wider in surprise.  After a moment, she says, “The lower djinn aren’t really solid unless they’re in human form.”

My brows pinch together.  “How does that work?”  Roman has taken an interest in the conversation now.  He’s leaning forward slightly so he can hear Brielle’s response.  God I wish he had a shirt he could put on.

“Like I said before, there are different levels of djinn.  According to the lore, the djinn were failed experiments by the powers that be that created the angels, with each level being closer to human but their magic kept them from being truly ‘humane’.  So they were eventually all sent to a parallel dimension, behind the veil, to make way for humankind.  The first of the djinn weren’t solid; they were made of smokeless fire.  These are the lower level djinn.  They have weight and mass, but their form is delicate.  It’s just a bunch of molecules precariously clinging together in one area but not truly solid mass.”  Of all the djinn I’ve seen so far, delicate is not an adjective I would use to describe them. 

“I’m not explaining this right,” Brielle continues in frustration.  “Okay, say you’re going to shoot a gun through smoke to try to get rid of it.  The smoke may separate to let the bullet through, but you didn’t really get rid of the smoke.  The molecules fall back into place as soon as the bullet passes.  But if you put a fan in front of the smoke, you push the smoke away and the molecules blow apart.”  I’m not really following her on this yet.  “It’s the same principal with the lower djinn.  When in their true form, their molecules will simply shift to let a bullet through, no harm done. Then, the molecules will come back together like the air does.  But if you shoot air at them, it pushes their molecules forward and they are unable to fall back into place.”

She lost me at ‘the first djinn weren’t solid’.  Roman is less confused than I am.  “So the pressure of the air leaving the air gun pushes the molecules of the djinn too far away to fall back into place.  Essentially, you’re putting holes in the djinn that won’t repair themselves.”

“You got it,” Brielle says, then gives me a ‘god you’re stupid’ look through the rearview mirror.

I give up.  I go back to looking out the window, watching the sun set.  Roman puts his hand on my leg but I shake it off me without looking at him.