With a Touch: The Guild Chronicles, Book 1

by Rhiannon Leith

So many of us here. Eva looked around. Every eye in the place was focused on her. Every single one. Child and adult, male and female. But some looked more keenly than others. Especially the children.

  Laura pushed her way through the crowd, Daisy in tow, little David perched on her hip. She took her place by Aidan, glaring at the others.

  “You leave her alone,” she said. “She helped Daisy. That’s all that matters. You were all given a fresh start and she’s just like you. Leave her alone. Or better yet—” She prodded a finger into Hugh’s chest, driving him back a step. “Better yet, help her. Like her father and Rafael helped you.”

  Eva could only gape as the crowd dispersed, Hugh among them. Laura sat down opposite her but didn’t flinch as Daisy took the chair at her side.

  “Well, that was…dramatic,” Aidan remarked blandly.

  Laura huffed and fussed over the baby. “Daisy didn’t like what she was seeing. That Hugh is a good lad, but his heart is a little cracked with what they did to him.”

  “Is it—” Eva broke off. Her voice came out thin and tortured. “Is it true? What he said? What I saw?”

  Aidan’s hands closed on her shoulders, squeezing gently, trying to offer a small comfort perhaps. “Yes. I’m afraid so. I’ve seen it.”

  “But how could I…” Her body shook as if something invisible rattled her inside. Breath seemed impossible to grasp and her skin shrank around her bones. “How could I not know?”

  “They made you forget.” Daisy took her hand and cuddled in against her. “They crept into your mind while you slept and stole the memory away.”

  The revelation that most of her life was a lie wouldn’t leave her. Eva ate only because food was placed in front of her. She helped Laura in the garden, watched Myra reading stories to the children. Eight of them were clearly psychic, Daisy the youngest and Hugh the eldest. They stood out like night lights amid the others when she concentrated. Some, like Daisy, were bright, but others were just a faint glow. Weaker. Those destined, if Hugh was right, to be “drones” as he called them.

  Eva bit her lower lip and tried to remember again, but could recall nothing else. Just empty blackness spotted with brief moments: her mother handing her over, the canteen line, and then nothing. Since she had exposed that one memory, like peeling back a foil seal on her life, the things she thought were moments of her past had evaporated. Dreams. False memories. Lies.

  Part of her longed to relax into the lifestyle she saw unfolding around her. But each time that temptation arose, another part reared its ugly head, making her seize up inside and fall silent.

  You’ve no right to be here. You don’t belong. You’re Guild. You always will be.

  Always. Like it was stamped on her soul, a mark she would never be able to shake off. Day by day, night by night, she wrestled with that knowledge. She should go back. Or she should run, far away from both Guild and Hedonist. She didn’t belong here or there. She didn’t belong anywhere.

  Dumped in the midst of people who distrusted her, what choice did she have?

  Chapter Seven

  “You’re very quiet,” Rafael said, as they sat in the garden and evening fell. He’d spread out a blanket and brought their dinner outside so they could sit beneath the moon and stars while they ate.

  Eva managed a half smile. “It’s nothing. Just lost in thought.”

  “They told me what happened the other morning.”

  “Did they?” Hardly surprising. Most of them looked on him as some sort of prophet. Which made her father a God. Which made her…well, who knew?

  “You know there’s nothing you could have done, don’t you? You were just a child when your mother died.”

  Like a hook in her mind, painful and violent, tugging her attention away, Eva shied back from the words.

  “My mother gave me away. She didn’t die.”

  Rafael looked startled. “I’m…I’m sorry. Your father said…”

  Sudden anger surged in the place of her pain. “What? You know so much about him and I don’t. I remember three things before my first day of work now. Only three things. The ridiculous dream my father planted in my head, my mother being forced to hand me over to the Guild, and standing there in line for food like a beggar. So what did he say?”

  Rafael took her hands and the rage inside her bled away. Tears threatened to take its place but she pushed them away with ruthless force.

  “I’m sorry you don’t remember him, Eva. Really I am. He told me your mother was killed by Security, just like…” His eyes fell. He couldn’t quite say it still, not out loud. “Like my wife.”

  An urge to ask her name came with a sharp stab of jealousy. She studied his face instead. Strong, tortured, and so handsome in his pain. “When?”

  “I first met him when he got me out of—”

  “No, your wife. What happened?”

  “Ah…” His grip on her hand loosened as the boundaries he placed on his mind quivered. To keep holding on would have allowed her to see the extent of his pain. And he wouldn’t do that, would he? Not Rafael. “Seven years ago. We married very young, but we were very much in love. Sorcha had golden hair, same colour as Aidan’s but her eyes were more like yours. We weren’t here back then, but in another encampment, only about fifty miles north of the Guild compound. Too close. Far too close. Harmon was still leading raids in to get kids out, and anyone else he could contact who needed an escape. We didn’t have the name then that we have now.”

  He grinned, as if hoping to see a similar smile on her face. When she didn’t, the expression faded.

  “Sorcha and I were in the open when the Guild came. Grey AVs—those old-style armoured vehicles they use in ops, you know?”

  She nodded solemnly even though she didn’t and kept her mind to herself. No doubt that he was telling the truth. His hands were shaking violently now and his voice was clipped with the stress of retelling it. She didn’t need to press into his consciousness and let him tell his tale his way without digging into his thoughts—even if he would have let her.

  “Well, we were totally unprepared. Naïve, I see that now. We thought we were free and they wouldn’t come after us again, but we’d underestimated our value to them.”

  “Even unwilling?”

  “Yes. The Guild has built its corporate success on the psychics it employs.”

  Eva pursed her lips. Employs. Interesting choice of word. The veiled resentment she had always felt from her superiors made much more sense now. Maybe it had just stemmed from the fact that her father had betrayed them, but a more likely source was the idea that psychics were tools rather than people. Things to be used. Which meant she had the same basic worth to them as a highly advanced computer. No one thought twice about wiping a computer, did they? About changing a memory board, or upgrading an outdated machine.

  “They rounded up everyone they could catch. Some of us got away and tried to fight back. Sorcha was shot.” Rafael wrapped his arms around his chest and stared up at the stars. “She died right there.”

  And so did part of him. Eva frowned as the thought became perfectly clear. His thought? Had he meant her to see it?

  “I’m going to be away for a few days,” he said quietly. “But Aidan will be here for you.”

  She reached out, touched his arm. His skin felt warm and smooth, the dark hairs teasing the pads of her fingers. A shiver ran through him and he turned to face her.

  “Will you be in danger?” she asked. Not that she needed to. Rafael lived his life in danger. She understood that now.

  “Possibly.”

  Good, he didn’t lie to her. She moved in closer, lifted her face to his and pressed a kiss to his lips. “Come back to me.”

  He nodded briefly and returned the kiss. Easing her down onto the blanket beneath him, his mouth teased hers, gently at first but with growing determination.

  A second spike of jealousy lanced through her and Eva gasped. Not her own this time. Rafael froze, feeling it too, a powerful emotion which slippe
d out into the night, unexpectedly strong.

  Rafael sighed and lifted his head. “You don’t have to stay there and watch, you know?”

  Eva couldn’t help but laugh at the tone. Affection stained the words, and flirtation. And love. She rolled over so she could more comfortably follow his gaze. The mind stood out like a fire to her, because she knew it so intimately, because it had become so very special to her.

  “Not unless you want to,” she added.

  Rafael laughed as well, the sound rumbling through her body.

  Aidan stepped from the shadows by the trees. His hands were deep in his pockets, and he strode forward like a surly teen caught in an act of rebellion. “I suppose there’s no point in saying I was just passing,” he muttered.

  Rafael raised his eyebrows. “None at all.”

  Aidan rolled his eyes and then sank down to his haunches beside them. He picked up the bottle of brandy and knocked it back, his throat working, the movement hypnotising Eva. He broke off with a long gasp and smiled. “Needed that.”

  Rafael sank back onto his side, his body stretched out the length of her body. In the distance, back inside the house, there was a sudden burst of laughter, followed by the sound of a guitar. A rich voice filled the air, singing a song which stirred her blood, and she closed her eyes to listen.

  A faint grunt startled her back to alertness and she let her eyes flutter open, already guessing what she would see.

  The two men were leaning across her body and, just above her face, their lips met. Rafael’s hands framed Aidan’s face, dark against the gold of his skin. The music drifted through the air, guitar strings strumming right through her body. Their lips moved, hypnotic in the darkness, and she lifted her hands to touch them, to feel and caress them.

  Their hands touched her. Amazing really that they did so, that they thought to include her when they had seemed so wrapt in each other. For several moments, she watched them, her body aching, melting, yearning. Their kiss continued, but suddenly it seemed she was part of it too. Light and dark mingled above her, drawing her in, making her part of their love, and the feelings that washed through them found an answering echo in her.

  Aidan broke their kiss and bent to her, his lips claiming her. The rich taste of coffee and brandy filled her mouth with his questing tongue.

  Rafael pushed the blouse up to expose her breasts to the night air and his demanding lips. The wet heat of his mouth alternated with the chill breeze and she arched up with a groan.

  Aidan’s hands closed on her shoulders, but he didn’t push her back down this time. He caressed her skin through the light blouse, his touch so gentle, maddening.

  “Someone might come,” Aidan murmured. “Maybe we should go inside.”

  “Prude,” Rafael teased and rose up from her body. “The kids are all in bed by now. No one’s going to mind.”

  “I don’t think Eva would appreciate an audience, that’s all.”

  Damn right, she wouldn’t. But she didn’t want them to stop either. She couldn’t bear it if they stopped.

  Rafael scooped her up in his arms, so strong, holding her without any effort at all.

  “Of course. Let’s not put anyone in a position they would find unpleasant, Aidan.” He laughed, the sound rippling through her, infectious. She smiled as she glanced at Aidan and saw, in the faint light, the blush in his cheeks.

  Aidan? Golden-haired, brash and handsome, so sure of himself, Aidan was embarrassed. The laughter she had been about to let out fell still in her chest.

  “What is it?” she asked, her desire still pounding through her, but tempered by concern.

  Aidan looked away quickly, but Rafael smiled fondly. “Just because we love freely and indulge in all of pleasure’s hues doesn’t mean we’re all exhibitionists, sweetheart.”

  She reached out a hand, her fingers touching Aidan’s cheek, stroking his fiery skin. His own hand rose abruptly, closing around hers, enfolding her fingers in such a gentle grip. The pad of his thumb pressed to the racing pulse on her wrist. That simple touch alone made her gasp his name.

  “Come with us,” she whispered. “Come inside.”

  Rafael set off without a word, and since Eva didn’t release him, Aidan followed after them.

  They crept through the now silent house, all the time touching, keeping contact with each other, each brushing of their bodies and stroke of their minds together an intimate caress. When they reached Eva’s room, however, Aidan broke away, lingering by the door once he had closed it behind them. He stayed in the shadows, watching Rafael and Eva together, his eyes hooded.

  “What is it?” Eva asked.

  He hesitated, then sighed. “Nothing.”

  Rafael tilted his head to one side, studying his lover. “Aidan?”

  Eva sensed his curiosity, and his concern, but he kept his mind to himself. He could have reached out and plucked whatever thought was troubling Aidan right from his head, but he didn’t. He waited patiently, just waited.

  So she did as well.

  Aidan lowered his gaze. “You two…you’re good together. You’re alike. You belong together.” His voice came out strained and painfully sharp. He grabbed the handle again. “I should go.”

  “No.” Eva surged to her feet. He was leaving? He couldn’t be leaving. “Aidan, please—”

  “What are you thinking, Aidan?” Rafael covered the space between them in moments and grabbed Aidan by the shoulders, pinning him there, as he had held her. But Aidan wasn’t her.

  He moved in a blur, knocking Rafael’s arms aside. “Don’t, Rafe. Please. You want her and she wants you. And you’re the same. You belong together.”

  “You’re making some awfully big assumptions.” Rafael reached out again, gently now, and cupped Aidan’s chin.

  “Rafe, I can’t—” He shuddered, caught Rafael’s gaze for just a moment and then looked away. “I won’t be the one who clings on. I don’t want to hold you back. I only want—”

  “—what’s best for you.”

  They couldn’t help but hear the words. The pain in his mind sent them careering out, slamming into the minds of the two psychics. Fear powered them, fear of being cast aside, of being abandoned. Of losing either of them, even to each other.

  “What…what makes you think that I’d…” Rafael’s voice trailed off and he frowned.

  The image struck Eva a moment later. Sorcha, Rafael’s wife, as she had been before her death, the two of them blissfully happy.

  Rafael recoiled, releasing Aidan as if he burned. “It’s not like that.”

  “She was your wife. You loved her.”

  “Yes. And I…I love you, Aidan. You know I do.”

  Eva took a step forward, her stomach quivering now. She caught hold of Rafael’s outstretched hand and lifted it to her lips. Aidan’s eyes followed her movement and the light in them hardened to a glare.

  He wanted her, his body screamed it at her. He wanted them both. But he was afraid. Not of being with them both, but of being left behind afterwards.

  Aidan fumbled with the door handle, ready to escape, ready to run and never stop.

  Eva gritted her teeth and wrapped her mind around him, holding him there, immobile. She reached inside his mind, setting aside regretfully her promise not to do so. But she wasn’t there to look, just to make him stop, make him listen, just to hold on to him for as long as she could.

  His face flushed red for a moment and then went white, blood draining away from his skin. “What are you…what the hell are you doing?”

  She took another step forward. “You think we don’t want you?” she asked in a low and dangerous voice. Aidan shuddered and Rafael’s hand dropped to rest on his chest. A gentle, calming touch, an attempt at comfort and reassurance.

  “Are you sure about this? The question popped right into her mind.

  “He needs to know, to see as we see, that we want him. You do, don’t you?

  Passion flared red around Rafael, flames that licked through her bod
y as well as his own. Yes, Aidan needed to see this, to feel it, to know as intimately as they did that what they felt—what all three of them felt—was real.

  And that he would never be cast aside, forgotten, left behind.

  Eva held him still and nodded to Rafael. Aidan trembled, outraged, trying to fight her off. But he couldn’t. He kept up his struggles right up to the point where Rafael ripped his shirt open to bare the ridges of his abdomen. He let his hands explore the fevered skin while Aidan squirmed beneath his touch.

  “Rafe, stop it. Please. This isn’t…this isn’t going to help…”

  Rafael ignored him and slid his hand down to Aidan’s bulging crotch. “You think?”

  Aidan just groaned, his eyes fluttering closed as his head fell back against the door.

  Rafael sank to his knees, his hands working deftly at the fly until he drew out the long shaft and pulled Aidan’s jeans down, casting them aside. Aidan gave an inarticulate cry as Rafael took Aidan’s cock in his mouth, swallowing it down, working its length while his other hand cupped the heavy balls.

  “Please,” Aidan gasped and his mouth opened wide.

  “Please what?” Eva asked.

  Aidan’s hips jerked forward at the sound of her voice and his eyes snapped open, blue and brilliant, unfocused but sharp as polar ice. “Please, Eva. Please…”

  “And what about Rafael?” she teased.

  Aidan moaned, his words lost. Eva stepped closer again, struggling now to maintain her hold on him. Her body ached for him, for both of them. She longed to release him and beg them to take her. But this wasn’t about her. Not this moment, this time.

  This was about Aidan.

  She reached his side, ran a hand over his chest, teasing the sprinkling of hair, pinching his nipples until he cried out and his back arched from the door where she held him pinned, his muscles still obeying her. Rafael worked faster now, revelling in his work, delighting in the joy he felt and the joy he gave.

  Eva slipped her hand up behind Aidan’s head, tangled her fingers in his overgrown blonde hair and pulled him down to kiss her.

  There was nothing tender about it. A kiss of possession, of hunger and need. A way of branding herself onto his soul as he was branded onto hers.