Free The Genie's Witch (Dirty Djinn) by Lyn Brittan Page A

him out. The man was all muscle, but she set her jaw and grunted her way through it. 
    All the universe screamed at her to drive away, but the last thing she needed was to crash into something and pass out behind the wheel. As much as it terrified her to stay near him, she climbed back in and waited for strength to return.
    Twenty minutes.
    As the sun made a dangerous dip to the horizon, she made her move and exited the jalopy. She jumped over an unmoving Demetrius to rummage in the trunk of the car. Bile rose at what she found. Bloody clothes, shoes, purses and tape. She hoisted out a length of chain and went to work on him.
    “Are you awake? Can you hear me?”
    He didn’t move, but his eyes watered.
    “Good. This is me tying you up. When I find the cops, they’ll destroy you. We’ll never see each other again, so have a wretched life. Enjoy prison. ”
    Demetrius, wrists and knees tied together, was the last thing she saw in the rearview mirror.
    Ahead of her, nothing made sense. She’d been asleep for most of the trip and had no real idea of where to go. Yet by any measure, heading down the mountain made a lot more sense than going back up it.
    She drove for an eternity and didn’t stop until a woman jumped out in front of her. Dinah screamed. Her feet pumped the breaks, but the car didn’t slow in time to avoid her.
    Good thing she was already dead. The woman carried the horror of her death, bloodied and twisted, but a sense of calm settled over the car as the ghost materialized in the seat next to her. Fear wasn’t an issue. The creatures weren’t of this world and couldn’t do much in it without a little inside help.
    “Did he do this to you?”
    The dark haired, transparent figure nodded. She was beautiful or had been, before the Glasgow smile split her face.
    “How many are you?”
    Six tiny fingers rose.
    “Are they here?”
    The hairs on her arms frosted in the chilled car. Despite the temperature, the windows froze over and she knew the answer was yes.
    “Do you want to be found?”
    A nod.
    “Do you want to be free?”
    The figured twisted to look at her sisters in death. Eyes, once blue, now burned vermillion. The smile split and curled.
    “Then I welcome you into this world to have your revenge.” Dinah opened her body to them, feeling their rage pass through her, taking tiny bits of her essence needed to make it into this plane of existence. She had no worry for herself as they went through her body. She felt their purpose. They didn’t blame her for living. No, they thanked her for the opportunity to make things right again. Demetrius wouldn’t leave this mountain the same way he came up it.
    With a new promise to keep, Dinah started up the car and drove away.

Chapter Ten
    “I ’m rich. I won.”
    “I know.” Tig sat on the edge of the bed, his face in his hands. It’d been nearly twenty-four hours since he’d seen Karlin. She’d sailed through the door in the middle of the night, waving the ticket in the air.
    This he expected.
    The dark glow and stench of evil along with it came as an unwelcome surprise. Her skin was clammy - he could see drops of perspiration from across the room and she held herself too tightly, clutching her arms and looking at him through bulging eyes. What he’d mistaken for delight was far worse. She stank of dark magic. The kind that seeped into your soul and charred it forever. Every jerky action of her body served as testimony to it.
    “What have you done?”
    “I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
    “Whatever you’re messing with, you need to stop.”
    “I don’t need to be told what to do by...well...a servant. Slave. Prisoner. Pick one.”
    Let her soul rot then. What did he care? And yet, he should. Karlin was no more than a child about to stick a wet finger in a socket. “That stuff will change you. You are not born of magic. You can’t handle what you’re playing with. It’s bigger than you can manage.”
    “You care so