Hexed

time he’s in the neighborhood. «
    » I will relay your greetings. Now go, child. You have my blessing upon you. «
    » Peace be with you, « I said, and as I turned to resume my journey with Coyote, I added under my breath, » and asskicking be with me. «

Chapter 9
    » I gotta admit, Mr. Druid, I didn’t think we’d be seein’ anythin’ like that. You kinda surprised me. How’d you know that shiny white lady’d be there? «
    Coyote was dressed the same way as I had seen him the night before, except now he was wearing dark sunglasses. His expressions tended to run to either amused or inscrutable, and right now he was showing me the latter. Perhaps he mistrusted me. I shrugged my shoulders as I steered the SUV south to U.S. 60. » I just had faith, I guess. «
    » Pfffft. You don’ have any more faith’n I do for the Christian folks. «
    I felt myself slipping automatically back into the rhythms of Coyote’s speech. » Yeah, but I had faith in a Cath’lick friend o’ mine. She did the prayin’ for me. «
    » Well then, why didn’ she just pray for Jesus to come down and smite the demon or somethin’? We coulda slept in. «
    » ’Cause Jesus don’ like to come down very much. People keep thinkin’ of him bein’ nailed to a cross or wearin’ a crown of thorns, or else he’s got huge bloody holes in his hands an’ feet, an’ that’s just gotta be damn uncomfortable. Plus they think he was a white guy with straight brown hair, but he was dark-skinned. Shucks, I bet you know what that’s like, when people think o’ you like one o’ them stylized sandpaintings or a fetish animal. You don’t wanna go prancin’ around lookin’ like that, do ya? «
    » Hell, no. « Coyote grinned. » I tried appearin’ as one o’ those sandpaintings once. My body was so stretched out I completely lost track o’ where my ass was. «
    We shared a laugh over that as we turned east onto U.S. 60 and the clouds that had been threatening to dump on us all morning finally let loose. Big fat drops splattered noisily on our vehicle, and it reminded me of those drumrolls you hear before a circus acrobat does something remarkably stupid without a net. I had difficulty figuring out how to turn on the windshield wipers, and Coyote sniggered at me until I got them on.
    » So how many fallen angels you killed afore this, Mr. Druid? «
    » This’ll be my first, I reckon. «
    » Shee-it. « Coyote shook his head with a rueful grin. » We’re gonna die. «
    I looked sharply at him. » Are you approachin’ this like a suicide trip? You figgerin’ it’s okay to die and leave me there without no one to watch my back, ’cause you can just come back from the dead anyway? I’ll tell ya right now, Coyote, I’m plannin’ on livin’ a long time after this. If you ain’t plannin’ on survivin’, tell me straight and I’ll go get someone else to help me. «
    » Aw, cool your britches, Mr. Druid. I ain’t gonna walk on up to ’im and ask ’im to eat me. « Coyote threw up his hands. » All I’m sayin’ is this ain’t gonna be no picnic. A fallen angel’s gonna be a far sight smarter than a reg’lar demon, and more’n a little stronger too. «
    » All right, then. You got any idea where the demon is? «
    » Last I saw, he was perched on one o’ their buildings overlookin’ a courtyard area. It’s got some grass and trees in it, so you can draw power there. «
    » We’re gonna have to go through the school building to get there, though? «
    » That’s what I ’spect. «
    » We’ll have to go camouflaged. School officials tend to get worried about people bringin’ weapons onto their campuses. «
    Skyline High School is a monolithic building of stucco-sprayed cement block trimmed in hunter green. I parked in the no-parking drop-off zone, because I just didn’t care about parking etiquette. I cast camouflage on both myself and Coyote, then got out and opened the cargo area, where I camouflaged both our bows, the quiver of arrows, and Fragarach too. It didn’t make us completely invisible, especially in the rain, but it sure helped. Once inside, we’d blend into the bland institutional décor without trouble. Coyote pitched in by giving us something he called » Clever Stalking, « which really meant we wouldn’t make any noise when we moved. (I’m not sure why he didn’t call it Silent Stalking; I suppose Coyote thought it was clever of him to think stalking should be a silent exercise.)
    We glided by the