"Have mercy on me, sir," he begged the pharmacist. "All I need is a sample pack to get me through until my doctor will open up again ( Read more... )

She was hunting the news when the news found her. In years to come, she would wonder if somehow she'd lured it to herself by wanting, so passionately, to scoop the big story. The newsfeeds were rough on newcomers, mocking them for newbies and pointing out their every mistake, while allowing them no budget and no fan network. You had to get that ( Read more... )

He finished his drink, wiped his mouth, and set the glass upside-down on the bar with some decisiveness. Then he turned around, leaned his elbows on the bar, and waited for the first taker. A low mumble went up around the bar as they noted his challenge, and some of the closer men picked up their drinks and moved over to a place where they were ( Read more... )

It was a swarm of love, pouring over her in a thick heavy smothering wave of pink. Love, love, love--screamed the love-gnats as they danced around her, trying to take their love into her orifices, up her nose, into her fragile inner ear, through her clothing and into the bits of her that she most didn't want to catch the love bug. She knew that ( Read more... )

He'd been bulldogging her news fly like mad all evening, so he wasn't too tot surprised when he got the wave from her sitting by the bar. Such devoted attention as he'd been lavishing might make her think him a stalker, but his rep was wide and free of creepy-vibe, so if she'd checked him as she must have--her not having a rep for being a fool or ( Read more... )

The rabbit ears bounced around on the top of its head as it rolled along the cracked sidewalk. Not ideal operating conditions at all. It would have shaken its head regretfully, but it had lost that functionality two years ago when a couple of teenagers threw their beer bottles with unexpected accuracy. Perhaps, had its trajectory-calculation ( Read more... )

He smiled down at the little baby and then looked up at her parents, her father in a shirt that was buttoned up to the collar, horn-rimmed glasses, and a surprising bulge of muscle beneath his shirt, her mother in a prim shirtwaist and ankle-length skirt that nipped tightly around her waist, a lush mane of chestnut hair that was swept up into a bun ( Read more... )

The blue curtain shimmered like a waterfall as he approached it. He paused just outside its reach, smiling appreciatively, and then picked up a pop can that somebody had tossed away and threw it at the curtain. There was a hiss and sputter as the curtain flashed brilliant with electricity that would have fried him where he stood, and when the can ( Read more... )

"Do not use this product as a substitute for medical attention,” blared the warning label on the helmet that M held. She glared at it for a moment and then jammed it on. As if she could freaking' well afford real medical attention. Not with the way that she lived. She’d been risking enough lifting an object this size from the boutique; she ( Read more... )

In the silence between raindrops, he heard her whisper, "Come to me." He tilted his head up and saw the glimmer shine of the camo suit against the glassplex sides of the building. He smiled a little, a wry half-smile that didn't disturb the corner of his mask or the exquisite painted tattoo scrolling across his lips. She was always one for ( Read more... )