316 - DC: The Infinite Villain (Patreon)

316 - Patty Spivot

The rainbow light vanished.

Mardon blinked. A whirlwind spun beneath his hands, and he tried to rise into the air.

He barely left the ground before his body seized and dropped. His powers would not answer him, and he could not move. "You did this," he said, staring at Damon. "What did you do to me? What do you want?"

Damon shrugged and pointed to Patty. "This detective has a score to settle with you. Before the particle accelerator changed you, you robbed a bank and shot a small-business owner who had come in to deposit his change. That was her father. You killed him over a few hundred dollars. She usually made the deposit, but she skipped it that day. He went in her place, and you shot him. She became a cop because she blamed herself as much as she hated you."

"She has wanted to kill you ever since."

"What does that have to do with you?" Mardon said. He did not even remember the man. "Whatever she's giving you, I can give you more."

"Don't bother." Patty drew her gun and pressed it to his forehead. "I'd pay anything to see you dead. I can give him myself. Can you?"

She turned toward Damon. "Since my father died, revenge is all I've thought about. I haven't had a real relationship. I barely have male friends. Let me kill him, and I'll belong to you. You can do whatever you want with me, even kill me."

"Why do you think I helped you?" Damon asked.

"All right."

Patty looked at Mardon and pulled the trigger.

The gunshot cracked across the hillside.

Smoke drifted from the barrel. Blood struck Patty's face and uniform. Mardon fell, and the gun slipped from her hand.

Clatter.

It hit the ground. Patty sank down beside it and began to cry. She had finally avenged her father.

Damon neither hurried her nor tried to console her. He watched the sunset until her sobs subsided. At last she came to him, eyes swollen and red. "What happens now?"

"Don't you want to take your anger out on the body?" he asked.

Patty stared, then shook her head. Damon set Mardon's body on fire. It burned down to ash in moments.

"Come on." He put an arm around her waist.

When Patty caught her breath, she was standing in her apartment. Her clothes were gone.

Flames flared beside her.

She flinched. Damon was burning her uniform. A swirl of rainbow light carried the ashes out the window, where the wind scattered them.

"Go take a shower," he said.

Patty walked into the bathroom in a daze. Water began to run.

Killing anyone was serious. Killing a metahuman held at S.T.A.R. Labs was worse. As she calmed down, fear set in. Damon had destroyed the body and her clothes; perhaps that would be enough. If not, she thought he could probably handle the consequences. Her police career, though, was over.

She washed thoroughly, then returned to the living room without getting dressed.

Damon was waiting on the sofa.

He looked her over. Ordinarily, Patty would have arrested a man who stared at her like that. Now she lowered her head and stood still, conscious of being appraised like property.

"Not much up top, but the rest of you will do. You look tougher than most of the women I've used as pillows." He had her turn around. "I'll keep you for now. When I get bored, I'll find somewhere else for you to go."

Patty nodded without a word. She did not know what he expected next.

Damon went into the bedroom, and she followed, nervous.

They lay down. She stole a glance at his body and felt herself blush. She had never had a serious relationship, though she had tried dating once. The man on that first date had harassed a waitress, and she had arrested him. Unsure what else to do, Patty settled against Damon and tentatively tried to kiss him.

He turned his head. "Not tonight. Just stay here and be my pillow."

"Okay." Embarrassed, she went still.

She had no idea what being his pillow required beyond doing as she was told.

The night passed without another word.

Patty woke at her usual time with Damon asleep beside her, an arm around her. The bargain she had made the day before came back to her at once.

"I don't know if I can handle this," she whispered, afraid of what he would expect from her.

He woke and pulled her close before she could decide how to respond. The previous night, he had only wanted her beside him. Now he expected more.

The encounter left Patty aching. She remembered moments of pleasure too, but they did not make the bargain with Damon feel any less binding. By the time she got up, it was afternoon. She dressed, drove to the station, and prepared to resign. Joe West stopped her as soon as she arrived.

"Did you kill Mark Mardon?"

Joe had heard that Damon had taken Mardon from S.T.A.R. Labs. At first he had not known why. Then Patty failed to report for work. Joe knew what Mardon had done to her father; putting the pieces together was easy.

...