Read [Wildcards 10] - Double Solitaire for Free Online

his awesome telepathy unless he had sex immediately before utilizing his powers. It had been an elaborate joke in Jokertown. "May I charge you up?" had become a euphemism for fucking.
    Tachyon wondered if the fear was evident on her face. She toyed briefly with the notion of telling the ace that she had been raped. No, he would only think she was whining. There would be no sympathy from that quarter -- only disdain.
    "Stand up." Startled, Tachyon obeyed. "Now, turn around." A long thin forefinger twirled in the air.
    Tach pivoted slowly. His gaze seemed to have weight and substance. Heat licking across her face, down the length of her bare arms. The pale golden hairs on her forearms stood up.
    "Now the hair,"
    "What?" Her hand flew to the French braid that contained the heavy blond mane.
    "Take it down."
    The bow resisted her shaking fingers. She thought he would help her, but Fortunato sat, arms folded across his chest, his long legs stretched out before him, showing through the slit in his kimono. At last it came down, and she shook it loose from the braid. It formed a cloak across shoulders and breast.
    "Now the blouse."
    "Why are you doing this to me?" She felt like a limp and helpless victim. Visions of Blaise flashed about the corners of her consciousness. The first flickers of a conflagration that would destroy her with terror.
    "I want to see what I'd be getting. I used to audition all my girls. You're very graceful. Hand movements are nice -- a little clumsy --"
    "Fear has a way of doing that," shot back Tach, anger driving back the fear.
    "You're afraid," Fortunato repeated as if the concept were a new one, the emotion unknown to him.
    "Yes," was the curt reply.
    "Why?"
    "No, I won't give you that."
    "You're about to offer me all of you. Why balk at a little confidence?"
    "I am using you," Tach cried. Rage threw caution to the wolves.
    "Thank you. That's what I was looking for... a little honesty, a little admission that this is all about you... precious you, wonderful you... you... you."
    "I humbled myself and came to you for help. And if asking is not strong enough, then by the Ideal, I'll beg!"
    "So start... I'm waiting."
    "Damn you! How much groveling is required before you can grant me a simple favor?"
    "I've given up my powers."
    "I'll give them back to you! You've fucked me often enough psychologically and metaphorically. You may as well complete the goddamn cycle!"
    Echoes of her shrill diatribe shattered against the mountain's side. The crickets fell silent. Fortunato's eyes narrowed to calculating slits. He studied her. Then slowly shook his head. "No... I don't think I want to do that."
    "You bastard." Her voice was shaking as hard as her hands. A button twisted off as she tried to close her blouse. "Nothing matters to you but yourself. This is not just about me... about a lifetime trapped. Blaise is going to Takis. My people are going to suffer... perhaps die because you can't be bothered to help."
    "Aliens," said Fortunato, edging the word with ice.
    It threw Tachyon completely off stride. She faltered, gaped. "What?"
    "Aliens. I don't give a rat's ass about the sufferings of faggots from outer space. Your people brought the wild card to Earth. What was the toll on Wild Card Day? Sixty thousand dead? Let this Blaise do his worst." Fortunato was talking to her back. A vise had closed around her chest as the guilt slammed home. Mental wails were coming from Illyana as she tried to absorb, understand, buffer against the fire storm of emotions that tore through her mother. It was almost a flashback. The peaceful garden became Central Park. The screams of the dying and the deformed. And the smell -- smoke and feces and vomit. Wild Card Day. September 15, 1946.
    "Hey, Tachyon."
    She kept walking.
    "I'll give you this much -- Jube the Walrus isn't a joker. In fact, he's not even human."
    That got her. Frowning, Tach turned back to face the ace. "You're mad."
    "No. I'm the most powerful ace in the world,