though she is making me feel like I’m going to die in yet another car accident. Every time the car veers, I have to brace myself so I don’t fall on my left side. I think my adrenaline rush helped my body metabolize the remainder of the meds, because I am moving much better and am in excruciating pain. It’s still hard to keep myself upright, but that’s from being injured, not from being sedated.
The doctor looks back at me. “How are you doing?”
“Probably not the best time to ask me that,” I say as tears from pain slide down my face.
The sound of crunching metal swings my head around to look out the back window. Brielle made it through the last light unscathed, but our friends in the silver car got t-boned by a Chevy pickup. I’ve never been so happy to see an accident in my life. That goes against the Hippocratic Oath that I’m going to take someday, but I don’t care. A tiny flash of guilt about the safety of the person who hit them is easily pushed aside by my selfish desire to survive the day.
Chapter 8 - Hideout
“I assume you have a bat cave somewhere?” the doctor says.
Brielle looks at him trying to determine whether he’s mocking her or not. She goes with not. “Yeah, it’s not that far from here.”
“And those things won’t follow us?” I ask and there’s a lot more fear in my voice than I care for. Then again, those creatures were a lot scarier than I care for as well.
“Nah, they can’t pick up our scent in their human form. Besides, my place is surrounded by a sine wave emitting 18,000 Hz at all times. Their heads would explode if they tried to penetrate it.”
“How do you know all this stuff?” I ask. I hate to admit it but I’m in awe. Not only does she know these monsters exist, she knows their weaknesses, too.
Taking a corner way too fast since we’re not being followed anymore, she says, “A friend taught me about them.”
“Interesting friends you have,” the doctor says. I notice he’s still holding onto the panic bar; I’m not the only one fearful of Brielle’s driving. “You said something back there I don’t understand. If it’s against genie law to show themselves to humans, why did they show themselves to us?” Oh. Good point.
Brielle sits a little straighter in her seat but doesn’t turn to look at him. “Because I, and now her,” she gestures with her head towards me, “are B*DG 'D,F.”
“For those of us who don’t speak that language, will you please translate?” the doctor says drily.
“We’re djinn killers. For the djinn, it’s only acceptable to show their true forms to us if they happen to be trying to kill us.”
Wow. I bet the doctor’s sorry he ever met either one of us. A djinn killer. It wasn’t my mind playing tricks on me; I really did see a monster before he changed to human. Wait, something isn’t right here. “But the djinn that I hit showed himself to me before I killed him.”
Brielle looks vaguely uncomfortable and she keeps her eyes firmly on the road. “Yeah, I’m not really sure what’s up with that.” Well that’s just peachy.
“I assume since they showed themselves to me, I have made my way to their shortlist of who to kill?” the doctor says. He’s a lot calmer about all of this than I am. Or maybe he’s in shock.
“Pretty safe assumption,” Brielle responds as she pulls over to the side of the road, takes a small remote from the visor and punches in a series of numbers longer than the national debt. When a garage door across the street opens, she whips the jeep to the left and we practically fly into the garage. I don’t think she even looked for other cars on the road. Once in the garage, the jeep stops so abruptly that I hit the back of the seat in front of me. The overhead door is already closing when we