"Stay put, Spyder. I'm ending this right now." Lulu was walking backwards into the dark, keeping the gun pointed at the group. "Those bloodless motherfuckers think they can watch TV out of my head? I'm going off the air, like I should have done a long time ago."

"Don't do anything stupid," said Spyder.

"Look at me!" Lulu yelled. "Look at what's left of me! I've pretty much used up all my stupid for this lifetime. I'm done." She ran into the dark.

Spyder ran after her, pausing at the dune line in case she was waiting. He didn't think that Lulu would want to shoot him, but she still might out of fear or surprise. He moved slowly down the base of the dunes, letting his eyes adjust to the dark. Finally, he saw a woman running. Spyder lit out after her.

"Lulu!" Spyder yelled. "Lulu!"

When he reached her, Lulu was on her knees in the sand, the four-ten wedged under her chin.

"Stay the hell back, Spyder."

"Give me the gun."

"I didn't want you to get hurt. And I didn't mean for you to get involved in my shit. The Clerks are coming for you now, too. For all of us."

"They're not coming for anyone. We're going to get that magic book and get clean."

"Look at us, Spyder. Those people back there have a clue. We get loaded and hunt for girls. We can't help them."

"Not dead, we can't."

"We'll mess everything up."

"That's a possibility."

Lulu looked at Spyder. "I really love you, you know. You're the best person I know. But I can't have those things crawling around inside my skull." Spyder heard Lulu pull back the hammer on the four-ten.

"Before you do anything, I want you to listen to me, Lulu," Spyder said in a calm and even voice. "You listening?"

"I'm not putting the gun down."

"Fair enough. You hold on to it, if it makes you feel better."

"Okay."

"The Clerks took your eyes. We know that and are agreed on it, right?"

"Yeah."

"Did they take your ears?"

"No. I've still got them."

"Right. So all they can do is watch TV with the sound off. You following me?"

"Not really."

"If the Clerks are spying on us through your eyes it's because that's all they can do. They can't listen to us. They don't have your ears. That means, all we have to do is keep you from seeing where we are and they're blind as a bat."

"You think that'd work?" Lulu asked. She moved the gun from under her chin and scratched the side of her head with the barrel.

"We just cover up your little eyeholes and the Clerks get to play Three Blind Mice till we're home, drinking tequila and winking at college girls."

"Maybe," she said.

"If you're nice, I'll get Shrike to slip the blindfold on for you. You like a little bondage with your morning coffee, right?"

Lulu seemed to think about it for a moment. "I'm not giving back the gun," she said. "I've been useless and naked up till now. But I know how to use this."

"I'm sure the Count won't mind. Come on over here."

Lulu got up and went to Spyder. He kissed her cheek and hugged her tight. "Don't scare me like that again."

"I won't," she said, and hugged Spyder back. "So, can Shrike really put my blindfold on? That sounds kind of hot."

Spyder slid his arm around her shoulders and led Lulu back to camp.

"Christ, you got a cigarette?" Lulu asked.

"Nope. Don't worry. We're almost to Hell. Bet they have plenty of smokes down there."

Thirty-Nine

Anthropology

"We're moving too slowly without the horses," said Primo. "I'm afraid we won't make it to the mountains in time."

"When will the moon reveal the entrance to Hell?" asked Shrike.

"Tonight, I think. Perhaps tomorrow, too. After that, it will be invisible for a month."

"Where are we exactly?"

Primo looked up at the stars, then at the mountains ahead and behind them. "Perhaps halfway between Mount Cholula and Mount Culhuacan, near the Tajin burial mounds."

Shrike nodded. "If we push through, we can make the base of the mountains late tonight," she said. "But we'll have to rest at midday."

"I'd rather not, ma'am."

"I know, but we all have injuries and no one's had any sleep. I don't want us limping and yawning into the underworld."

"You're right, of course."

They'd been walking most of the night, since an hour or so after the attack. Food and water was weighing heavier on their backs with each step. Spyder had a length of the Count's rope tied around his waist and this was tied to Lulu's left wrist. She was blindfolded with a yellow scarf, like a Tibetan prayer flag, Shrike had taken from a boudoir conjured by her magic book. Lulu didn't have much to say as they trudged through the sand. She never let the four-ten drop from resting on her shoulder, Spyder noted.

"How you doing, Lulu?" Spyder asked.

"Feel like I'm your Rottweiler bitch you're taking out for a whiz. Find me a fire hydrant so I can mark my territory."

"You're lots sweeter than a Rottweiler. Hell, you might be a Shih Tzu. Maybe one of those little teacup poodles old ladies like."

"It's not wise to taunt a woman with that much firepower," said Count Non. "That gun is enchanted and will never run out of shells."

"I have this demon-made knife Madame Cinders gave us. Is that some kind of demon blunderbuss?" asked Spyder.

The Count sighed. "The way you people use words, it's a wonder you understand each other at all. Every vaguely inhuman creature you find unpleasant or frightening or just strange is a 'demon' to you. And everything conjured or made by these creatures is 'demonic.'"

"Back in San Francisco, there was a fat fucker with a monster mouth right in the middle of his chest. He wanted to eat me. You telling me that wasn't a demon?"

"He was no more a demon than Primo. Primo is Gytrash. Simply another humanoid race. A different kind of human animal. A more interesting and durable species than you ordinary humans, and probably a bit scary to you First Sphere bumpkins."

"So, what was Mister Mouth?"

"He sounds like a Bendith," said Primo. "They're a particularly ugly sort of troll and aren't averse to human flesh."

"A Bendith or possibly a Nagumwasuck," said Count Non. "You boring one-headed, two-eyed humans are scattered through all the Spheres. Take our Butcher Bird. Like you, she's an ordinary human, but clearly she didn't grow up in some First Sphere backwater. She's lived with other intelligent races and understands the infinite varieties of life, the magical possibilities, that spring from the conjunction of different living species."

"I was right there with you, Count. Up until the bestiality stuff right at the end," said Lulu.

"Humans and animal entities have been mating and producing offspring since the world began, little sister. It's still quite common in regions of the Second and Third Sphere."

"Okay, Shrike, Lulu and me are white trash, Primo is a Second Sphere Ubermensch and you're some incredibly old rich kid slumming from Upper Coolsville," Spyder said. "What the hell is a demon?"

"A fallen angel," said Count Non. "Demons are from Hell. They serve Lucifer, command his armies, run his cities and, when called upon, torment the souls that have been consigned to the underworld. True demons travel throughout all the Spheres and while they can seduce and despoil almost any creature that catches their fancy, they can't produce offspring. The demons that exist now are the same ones expelled from Heaven long, long ago. Give or take a few."

"What happened to the demons that aren't around anymore?"

"The prophets tell us that a few managed to beg and cajole their way back into Heaven. Others are dead. Demons can be moody company and while a human exorcist can, for instance, expel them from a possessed body, they can't kill them. Only God or another angel can kill an angel, fallen or otherwise."