"You going to rape me, too, asshole? Everyone's on to you. Such a big man. What you do to children, you sick fuck…"

"Rubi, whatever you think you know about me, it's not true."

"Don't you hurt my Lulu!"

From the couch Lulu said, "This is what everyone's like when they talk about you. What did you do? You're like Charlie Manson all of a sudden."

"I killed a demon's best friend," Spyder said. "Lulu, put some stuff in a bag. You're coming with me."

"No, she's not!" screamed Rubi. "I won't let him hurt you, baby."

"I don't want to go anywhere, Spyder. I'm scared."

"And you're stoned, too. Listen, it's not safe for you. If this curse or spell or whatever made people think I'm a killer, it means sooner or later, some of that's going to land on you. If they can't get to me, you're next on the menu."

"No! Don't listen to him, Lulu. He's sick. He's a murderer!"

"I'm so sorry, Rubi. I like you. I really do." Spyder held the bartender down and punched her as hard as he could across the jaw. Rubi was unconscious immediately.

"Rubi? Oh shit, Spyder."

"Lulu, don't fade on me now. We have to get you out of here." He held up the dirty syringe. "If these deluded assholes don't kill you, you're going to do it yourself."

He pulled her from the sofa and walked Lulu to the bedroom closet. "Get dressed," he told her and grabbed the small leather backpack that Rubi always carried. Spyder dumped the contents on the bed and pulled shirts, underwear and socks from Lulu's dresser, shoving them in the pack until it was full.

When he was done, Lulu was sitting quietly, dressed in a scuffed pair of Doc Martens, black jeans with ripped knees and a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt. Spyder put Lulu's favorite 50s gas station attendant jacket on her and led her to back to the living room. Rubi hadn't moved. Spyder knelt and listened to make sure she was breathing all right. She was. He got some ice from the freezer, wrapped it in a washcloth and laid it on Rubi's jaw. He dialed 911. When the operator came on, Spyder said, "There's been an accident. A woman's hurt," and gave the address.

"Bye Rubi," said Lulu as Spyder led her out of the building. "Hold on to me," he told her as they got on the bike. Lulu wrapper her arms around his waist and leaned heavily on his back. Spyder kicked the Dead Man's Ducati into gear and took back streets across town to a twenty-four-hour diner he knew down by the waterfront.

For all her scars and mad despair, Lulu seemed better after a second cup of coffee. She took a long breath and even smiled the now familiar raw flesh smile.

"Aren't we a pair? A couple of real desperadoes. Like those kids in Badlands. Kit and…who was his girlfriend?"

"Sissy Spacek."

"Even though she was Carrie and had that crazy mind zap thing going, I think I'd rather be Martin Sheen. That okay with you, Sissy?"

"A man likes feeling pretty sometimes."

"You sure got a purty mouth," Lulu said, in her best Deliverance hillbilly drawl.

They drank coffee, ate pie and french fries, and Spyder watched the clock over the counter creep ever so slowly toward dawn.

"So, Sissy…"

"Holly. Her character's name was Holly."

"So, Ms. Holly, what happens to a couple of outlaws like us, hopped up on caffeine and sugar, and on the lam?"

"I figure it's a lot like the movie, really," said Spyder. "We leave here, catch a ride and head straight to Hell."

Twenty One

Jubilee

At the far end of Fisherman's Wharf, past the eager early morning tourists and their bleary children, a jeweled airship hung in the air.

The balloon portion resembled an enormous, ruby-colored seahorse. Below this was a comfortable looking gondola of a dark, lacquered wood with gold filigree. Spyder saw the seahorse blocks away, but wasn't worried. By now he knew that no one else could see the thing or would remember it for more than a few seconds if they did.

Spyder parked the Dead Man's Ducati by a clam chowder stand in front of Fisherman's Wharf and left the keys in the ignition. Taking Lulu by the hand, he led her down the long wooden walkway connected to the piers. Long before Fisherman's Wharf had been transformed into a video game and fried fish tourist trap, the place had been a working pier for fishing boats coming in from beyond the Golden Gate. Even weekend sailors avoided the place now, however. It wasn't just the tourists. The few places left to tie up had been staked out by hundreds of growling and extremely territorial sea lions. Mostly, the animals used the piers to sun themselves, so in the cool morning air there weren't more than a dozen or so sacked out on the deck. Spyder walked Lulu carefully around the sea lions to the airship.

Primo waved to them from the end of the pier. Shrike was sitting on one of the pilings, her face to the sun. Her pale skin was outlined in the orange and pinks of dawn light. Spyder stood behind her. She got to her feet, put a hand on his chest and smiled at him. "I never doubted you for a moment, even if you doubted yourself," Shrike said and pecked him on the cheek. She went to the balloon and Primo helped her into the gondola, then Lulu. Spyder followed them inside as Primo cast off the rope that tethered them to the wharf. For a second, it seemed as if nothing was happening. Then, they rose straight into the chill morning sky. Spyder's stomach dropped with the nauseous sensation of riding in a freight elevator.

Shrike was passing around cups and a thermos full of hot coffee. Spyder poured some and watched Primo at the front of the gondola operating a spider web of lines and pulleys, positioning the airship to catch the bay winds. Spyder took his cup and went to little man.

"Want some coffee?" Spyder asked.

"I don't drink stimulants, sir."

"Need any help with the ropes?"

Primo grinned. "Oh, no thank you. I'm fine." He pulled enthusiastically on one line and let another slide through his hand as they turned away from the coast and drifted toward the Golden Gate Bridge, steadily gaining altitude as they went.

"You look like the cat who ate the canary, after fucking it," said Spyder.

The little man nodded. "I'm doing what I love," he said. "I serve Madame Cinders because that is my duty. She gave my clan sanctuary centuries ago and we always honor our debts. But living sedentary in her palace isn't the happiest life for me."

"A ramblin', gamblin' man."

Primo laughed. "We Gytrash are travelers both by profession and by disposition. I grew up on horseback, in trading ships clad in gold and on endless overland treks through all three Spheres.

"This airship reminds me of one I was on many years ago. My clan landed on the island of Montes Lunae to make repairs on take on supplies. Montes Lunae is a rich, green island in the second Sphere which, back then, was ruled by Chashash, the Raven King. It was the hundred and fiftieth year of Chashash's rein and in keeping with Lunae tradition, he'd declared Jubilee."

"That some kind of party?" asked Spyder.

"It's much, much more than that, sir. During Jubilee, all laws are suspended, all slaves freed, all the lands won in battle are returned to their original owners. Jubilee is a time of renewal and madness. A time to burn the fields-both physical and metaphysical. Prisons became art galleries. Art galleries became bordellos. Bordellos became court houses. Then it all changes again over night.

"As time goes on, the laws of physics begin to fall apart. Mortals can fly…badly, in my experience. On Montes Lunae, many aeronauts cracked their skulls before they got the hang of it. And when they did learn the basics of flying, they'd still get air sick. It was a bad idea to enter some neighborhoods without an umbrella.