Tricked

What looked like a lot of defense confined in a bucket was somewhat sparse when spread out on the ground. » Are you sure that’s the whole buttload? «
    » Yep. Look. Let’s say they get through—I don’t think they will, but let’s pretend. You stand sideways and protect your throat and guts, okay? You also protect your femoral artery that way. Just try to push or roll them into the caltrops. «
    » And shoot ’em. «
    » Right. And I’ll try to stab ’em. « I had Moralltach with me, but I hadn’t told Frank about its magical properties. It occurred to me that perhaps I should. » Frank, whatever you do, don’t cut yourself with my sword, okay? Even by accident. «
    » Is it poisoned too? «
    » Something like that. It’s enchanted with some Druidic hoodoo. You won’t walk away. «
    » So if you hit ’em with that, they’re dead? «
    » Right. Not instantly, though. Takes a few seconds to work. «
    » Huh. What happens if the skinwalkers push us onto the caltrops? «
    » Then we are most likely not going to live much longer, because they will tear us apart if we’re on the ground. However, if you find yourself with the luxury of time, you can try this. « I pulled from my pocket one last unopened box from my drugstore raids: a single disposable dose of physostigmine salicylate. It was the only one I’d found. » That contains a syringe with the antidote for tropane alkaloids. Stab yourself with it and press the plunger. « Frank grunted, shoved it into his front pocket, and then thought better of it and moved it to his back pocket.
    » Shouldn’t ever have a needle next to your johnson, « he explained.
    We watched the shadows lengthen as the sun sank below the sandstone of Tyende Mesa. It was beautiful and quiet and hid an evil against which I had no magical defenses.
    Frank looked down at his shoes and scuffed the ground a bit. » I’m gonna say some stuff. Prayers. Get myself in balance, hózh , in case this don’t work out the way we want. So, you know. Don’t mind me. «
    » Good idea, « I said. I could probably do with some prayer myself. But praying to Brighid or any of the Tuatha Dé Danann would probably be unwise at this point, since I was supposed to be dead to them. Praying to the Morrigan would probably do me no good. I noticed that she hadn’t shown up to help out when that one skinwalker snacked on my neck. True, I hadn’t died, thanks to Coyote, but she had warned me before about much lesser threats than that one. It suggested that I’d failed somehow to be specific enough in the wording of our deal. She had already made clear that she preferred to honor the letter of agreements rather than the spirit of them. If I called to her now, she might think I wanted her to pay a social visit, and that sounded about as blissful as cuddling with a porcupine.
    I could certainly use some balance in my life. There had been little enough of that since I’d decided to fight Aenghus Óg—though even the smidgen of balance I’d achieved as a fugitive was a joke: If my inner peace was a calm sea, then my constant paranoia was the wind that chopped the surface. My two centuries with Tahirah were probably the closest thing to peace I’ve ever had.
    Once the sun set, I cast night vision on Frank and myself. He stood as I had suggested, protecting his vitals. He held his gun in his right hand. I centered myself and placed myself en garde with Moralltach.
    » Here, kitty kitty, « I said softly. » Come on, evil kitties. «
    They attacked a few minutes later. We heard them snarl, and that was all the warning we got before a couple of blurs rushed at us, so fast that we didn’t have time to say anything obvious to each other like » Here they come « or » Weapons hot! « It was more of a single Doppler-shifted cat screech; we heard them from a distance and they seemed to nearly catch up with the sound and bawl right in front of us with that unholy, shorn-steel sound. Suddenly they were visible, scrabbling and braking on the dirt not ten yards away and trying to backpedal as they hit the caltrops and the maddened charge died within them. Frank raised his gun and fired six times, but they saw his arm move and they actually dodged, their bodies blurring and sustaining those feline rrreoowr sounds you hear in catfights. They came to a halt outside the range of the caltrops, two panting bobcats with problems in their paws. They rolled onto their backs and began to shake and twitch all over. At