What an amazing place to have gotten yourself to, he thought, when even Hell isn't an option.
In May, on Orson Welles' birthday, an old art house theater in the Mission District had a marathon screening of his films. Spyder had seen the early stuff dozens of times, so he only came for the late-night flicks, It's All True, Welles' doomed Brazilian epic, and The Other Side of the Wind, a dark, micro-budget film about a bitter director, played by John Huston. He knew there weren't enough guns or tits in either movie to get Lulu to sit through them, so he went alone.
It was almost two in the morning when the movies let out. Spyder went to the corner where he'd parked the Kawasaki and lit a cigarette. It was cold and wet. Heavy fog was blowing through the streets like sparkling ghosts.
"Hey, pony boy."
She was leaning against the front door of a check-cashing shop. Through the open door was a miserable line of restless illegals pretending not to see the down-on-their luck Caucasians who were busy pretending to be somewhere else entirely.
Spyder sat on the bike, took a drag off the American Spirit.
He said, "I have this scar on my arm. Sometimes at night I touch it just to make sure I didn't imagine it. It's where the Clerks marked me. On the floor by my bed, I have this great big knife. I close my eyes and my head is full of the craziest things. Like some kind of acid flashback, only it's not mine. It's someone else's. But when I fall asleep it's all okay because at the end of the craziness, I get the girl. Only I wake up and remember I didn't."
"I'm sorry I ran off. I'm worse at goodbyes than you are," said Shrike.
"How's your father?"
"He died."
"I'm really sorry to hear that."
"Don't be. I took him home, to the Second Sphere. He was happy when he went."
"So, there's a happy ending after all. I'm glad you both got that."
"You don't have to be so magnanimous."
Spyder nodded, took a pull on the cigarette.
"Yeah, I do. Otherwise the walls start doing that closing in thing and I want a drink and I'm trying real hard not to want that."
"You're not drinking? I'm impressed."
"I still drink. Just less." He shrugged. "Leaves more money for cigarettes."
"I'm really sorry I left you like that."
"You said that already."
Shrike walked over to him. Her eyes were clear and bright, though a little dark, as if she hadn't slept in a while.
"My father was dying. I knew it the moment I saw him back in Madame Cinders' tower. I had to take him home," Shrike said. "And I had to get away from you."
"Did I do something wrong?"
"Just the opposite. You saved me."
"Bullshit. You're the one with the sword, the one who knows magic and how to move between worlds. I was just doing card tricks."
"You don't understand. I'm a killer. I'd dedicated myself to destroying life because mine had been stolen from me. And I enjoyed taking life. Doing it for something as cheap as money made it all the better. I wanted to burn down the world for what it did to me and my family."
"I know the feeling."
"If things had gone a little differently years ago, I might have become someone like Madame Cinders. If you hadn't come along on this journey, I would have given her the book. I would have made a deal with the Dominions to bloody the whole world. I still thought about doing it, right up until the end."
"Why didn't you?"
"What do you think? I used you that first night because I wanted sex, so I gave you drugged wine. I needed someone to stand next to me at Madame Cinders', so I lied and told you she'd fix you. I needed someone who knew Hell, so I dragged you into something that could have killed you a thousand times. And I wouldn't have blinked if it had. Every time you gave me something I needed, I wanted to get rid of you. I strung you along because I knew how."
"If you came back to call me a sucker to my face, why don't you put it in a postcard and stick it up your ass?"
Shrike came closer, resting a hand on the bike's throttle, not touching him.
"I kept waiting for you to bolt. I kept waiting for you to catch on and betray me. But you wouldn't. At first I thought you were playing a game, waiting to get the book for yourself. Then, I decided it was simple self-preservation. You wanted to get out alive and get the magic to restore your precious ignorance. But you kept not betraying me. You kept:" She hesitated.
"Caring about you?"
"I told myself you were trying to manipulate me, but when you destroyed the book, I knew you'd never deceived me. I would have killed anyone to have the power in that book. You had it in your hands and you threw it away to save me."
"You know I did."
She looked away and frowned. "I couldn't bear that. Being with you brought back all these feelings I'd thought I'd burned up years ago. Then, I had my father and I knew he was dying and it was all too much. I had to run away. Can you forgive me?"
"Consider yourself forgiven," he said, putting the key in the bike's ignition.
"No," she said, holding onto his coat sleeve. "Not like that. Don't forgive me like you forgive some street urchin who picks your pocket. Save me one more time, that's all I want. Forgive me from that other part of you that refused to betray me or leave me."
Spyder tossed his cigarette, looked at the crowd milling in front of the theater. "I can. I do. For a long time I wanted to strangle you for that Houdini in the tunnel, but I knew you must have had a good reason. And I always knew I'd see you again."
"Really?"
"No. That was me being gallant. I didn't know what the hell to think when you took off. I was going out of my mind and I fucking hated you." He turned and looked at her. She was beautiful in the drifting fog. "But you didn't lift my wallet, which is more than I can say for most girls you meet in alleys."
Shrike smiled and leaned against him.
"Maybe we can go to your place and try that first meeting again."
"On one condition."
"What?"
"Teach me magic. I'm going out of my mind. I can't control it. I dreamed about my younger self the other night and in the morning the street outside was full of all the cars I'd ever stolen."
Shrike stroked his hair and nodded.
"I can only teach you the little I know. But there are others who can teach you more." She shrugged. "I'm going to take back my kingdom from the brigands who now hold it. If you come along, learn to control your power, we can figure out a way to drive the Dominions back into the oblivion where they belong."
Spyder ran his hands down Shrike's back, thrilling to her warmth and smell, the reality of her presence.
"It's sweet, how you have no ambition," he said.
"I'll have to leave this Sphere to get ready. You'll come with me?"
"There's not much holding me here," he said. "I can't go without telling Lulu."
"In the morning," said Shrike. "In the morning."
Shrike climbed onto the back of Spyder's bike and wrapped her arms around him. Spyder kicked over the motor and gunned the engine. They shot off and the fog closed in behind them, swallowing the tail lights and even the engine noise.
They were gone.