Playing with Fire Read Online Free PDF Page A

self.
    “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” he’d persisted.
    She would have. She should have. It wasn’t that she was that unhappy with her chest size, but lugging a few extra pounds of saline on her chest would have been a hell of a lot easier than the power to kill people in a blaze of lust and fury.
    “Or there’s this new treatment you might want to try instead,” Patrick had continued, giving the breasts in question a strong slap. “Power conversion. I know a guy who can get us in. Have you heard of it?”
    Oh, she’d heard of it. Everyone had heard of it.
    At the time, it had been the only thing anyone talked about. It was a serum made from a mysterious asteroid that had narrowly missed taking out the Strip in Las Vegas. The whole world had been promised big advantages from the unknown metals it contained. A cure for cancer. A new energy source. Proof of alien technology.
    But it turned out to be none of those things. When tested on human subjects, they discovered the serum made tiny alterations to normal human capabilities, a sort of radiation Russian roulette. The government, unsure what else to do with the serum, did the inevitable: they decided to make a profit selling the stuff.
    “Aren’t you going to invite me in?” asked Patrick. He was living, mouth-breathing proof of what a stupid idea that had been.
    “Sure. My home is yours,” Fiona said. He’d come in either way. He’d never been great at taking hints. “We’ll shoot the shit and talk about the good old days. And maybe when we’re done, you can go give those poor little girls upstairs some money for a new pet goldfish.”
    A hit. His face clouded, a momentary drop of his smooth veneer, so quick she would have missed it if she blinked. But she knew. Nothing got to Patrick like a reminder about his failings as a man.
    For those first few months before the program had been hastily closed, people had clamored to participate in power conversion. It was expensive and risky, and unless you knew someone, the waiting list was a mile long. Everyone wanted to try, to see if the serum was all hype…or if maybe, just maybe, it was possible to magnify your natural abilities to create a better, more powerful version of yourself.
    The short answer? Fat chance.
    Patrick and his underwhelming ability to kill fish was proof of that. He couldn’t even do it on purpose. Any unfortunate ichthyoid within a hundred-foot radius went belly up.
    “As you wish, Fiona. I’ll sneak in and leave a dollar under their pillows while they sleep. The Fish Fairy,” Patrick said. “Will that make you feel better?”
    With the easy gait of a man on the town, Patrick went to the door of the apartment and stuck his hand through the hole she’d made. He switched the deadbolt, swung the door open, and gave her a small bow.
    “You could have called me like a normal human being,” Fiona muttered, slinking into her apartment. She tried not to notice that she’d shot fire straight through to her blinds, which had melted to the window. She could cover the hole in the door with plaster. Warped windows weren’t so easily disguised.
    “What can I say? I always liked a more subtle approach.”
    Right. Subtle like a desperate teenager in a bikini hanging off his arm. Subtle like buying her power conversion serum to keep her from leaving his middle-aged ass.
    “And I’d like to be left alone,” she said. “So where does that leave us?”
    “Don’t be rude, Fiona,” he admonished, showing his teeth again. They were cocky, glittering teeth. She wanted to kick them in. “I just want to talk.”
    Since he was already hulking in her entryway, looking over her one-bedroom apartment with thinly veiled disgust, there didn’t seem to be any way around it.
    “I’m not sure what the use is, Patrick,” Fiona aid, motioning for him to come in. “You lost all your charm when you called me, and I quote, ‘a mutant bitch who’s no good to me now.’ Or am I remembering that