Fire and Ice: a collection

This collection of ten stories has it all: A hit-woman who inadvertently recruits a bored youth into service; a story of pure, extremely adulterated human nature; an incident in a waiting room; a living vision on a pier in the dark; a cautionary tale that is uniquely American; a ghost story; a young mother-to-be who is nothing short of mental; proof that one man's god is another man's monster; a family coven; and the rag-draped bones of a reluctant prophet, perhaps, moving along the street cursing your life with his existence. Oddly enough, if it weren't for men like him, you wouldn't have the freedom to avoid him.