With a Touch: The Guild Chronicles, Book 1

by Rhiannon Leith

  “I’m not strong enough,” he protested.

  “I am,” Eva thought. “I know I am. I have to be.” She forced a confidence into her voice she didn’t feel. “Then we find them. We have to. Can you send an alert to Aidan and Rafael? Can you get them back here?”

  Myra ran inside, slamming the door behind her.

  Hugh stood like a pale ghost by Eva’s side. “He lied?”

  “Yes. But let’s find them, before anything—”

  The sound of a revving engine shattered the night. Lights flared over the ridge outside the settlement, blindingly bright headlights. Four AVs tore over the top like great black bulls rising up and descending the incline, engines roaring, treads ripping up the ground beneath them. Someone screamed—coherent words lost between a warning and pure terror. Guild Military poured into the settlement, clad in black, weapons at the ready.

  Myra raced back outside, the radio dangling from her wrist. “We have to get the kids! Rafael says get them out of here. Hide them. Get them to safety. He’s on the way back. But he’s going to be too late!”

  In the chaos around her, Eva forced her mind to still. She had to keep her calm, remain centred.

  “They’re everywhere!” Panic made Hugh’s voice come out high and sharp. Eva put out a hand and grabbed the rough cotton of his shirt. Her thought followed, silencing him. Reeling back from her, tearing himself free if truth be told, the youth opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

  “Hugh, help me,” she pleaded silently. “I can sense them, the kids, read where they are, but you know the lie of the land. Please. And the others, those who aren’t psychic. I don’t know where they’d hide.”

  Fear washed over her, like the grisly reek of old blood and vomit, sickening, stifling. His fear. No. More than fear, paralysing terror.

  “Please, Hugh!”

  And then his voice reached her. Not the brash, aggressive voice of a teen older than his years, cynical and damaged. This came from a frightened child without proper memories of his own, a boy lost in the dark, wired to machines and other minds, delirious with drugs.

  “Stop it! This is what they did, Eva. Just barged into my mind, like you, and demand to know what I see, or use me to make themselves stronger. You’re just like them. Exactly like them!”

  She forced herself to gentle her thoughts, to mask her strength. Urgency made that almost impossible. She kept imagining those black-clad arms seizing Daisy, tearing her from the clinging arms of a sobbing, desperate Laura. Or worse, from a Laura who lay cold and still.

  “I’m not demanding, Hugh,” she said out loud, aware of the tremors in her voice. To say it out loud had to make it easier on him, didn’t it? Less invasive. God, she hoped so. It had to. There wasn’t time! “I’m pleading with you. I’m begging. Help me.”

  For a moment she was certain he would bolt and run. She couldn’t blame him. But the thought of the children, the fear rank in the air around them, the noise, the panic…

  “Okay,” he replied in a rush and his mind opened to her.

  She didn’t hesitate, not even to voice the thanks she hoped her consciousness conveyed to him. There wasn’t a moment to waste. To her surprise, Hugh’s face transformed, grinning as her gratitude flooded his mind. The beauty of that sight startled her.

  “Oh yes, handsome when I want to be,” his thoughts jeered her, but without malevolence now. A humour like Aidan’s, she thought and a pang of concern for her lover speared her. For both Aidan and Rafael.

  Eva shook the emotion aside—no need to share that with a boy like Hugh—and focused on the sense of the other minds like hers, like Hugh’s, hovering like lights in the darkness.

  “Kitchens,” she told Myra rapidly. “Gardens…near…” What were they? Fruit or vegetable? Red, round… “…near the tomato plants. Bedrooms, on the second floor of the main house. Hiding, scared, can’t move…”

  Eva swallowed hard. The brightest light of all, one that came with a sea of flowers. called out to her. Daisy…Daisy wasn’t safe at all. She was running, unable to catch her breath, sobs hiccoughing their way out of her, arms and legs aching, stumbling, falling…

  Arms seized her, lifted her. She shrieked and kicked. Tried to bite but her teeth closed on leather…

  “Daisy!” Eva cried and Myra shushed her desperately, her eyes wide with fear. Eva broke off the contact with the girl. “Myra, get the others. Hugh, show her where they are. I’ve got to get to Daisy. They have her. They’ve taken her.”

  Flares burst in the air overhead, illuminating the settlement with a rancid yellow glow. To her left an explosion rocked one of the squat storage buildings. The blast sent Eva staggering to her right, scrambling to her knees.

  “For your own safety,” a voice boomed out of the night, amplified so it was deafening, “stay in your homes. Security will safely relocate you. Those resisting this relocation will be dealt with harshly. This is in your own interests. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.”

  Three AVs formed a barrier between her and the gardens. Security ringed the house now, closing in. Only a few still manned the hulking transports. They gleamed darkly in the rising sun.

  The whine of stunners filled the air. And other weapons, sharper, deadlier. Men and women fell, but there were more Security to take the places of their losses.

  Then Eva saw her—Daisy, huddled on the ground at the door of the nearest AV with two older children. All three of them shivered, terrified, clinging to each other.

  Eva edged forward, reaching out with the most gentle of mental touches, mind to mind. Daisy looked up, her cornflower blue eyes wide, startled, red-rimmed, and found Eva’s unerringly.

  “Go back! They’ll take you too!”

  No chance of that. No way Eva was leaving them behind. Dirt and gravel crunched under her as she crept forward, nearer now, keeping to the wall of the storage hut for shelter. A distraction, that was it. She needed some kind of—

  One of the guards swivelled on deft feet, his eyes widening at the same time as he opened his mouth to call out a warning, to give her away. A stunner whined in the silence and he fell, convulsing and then still.

  Hugh charged into the open space before the AVs with a roar, the stunner in his shaking hands firing so wildly it was a miracle he’d hit anything, his scarred face white with fear.

  Eva darted forward. She couldn’t let his action be wasted. She grabbed the kids, pulling them to her while the guards rushed Hugh. She felt him fall, felt the kicks and punches that followed even as she ushered the children into the shelter of the nearest storeroom and out of sight.

  “Wait, he’s one of ours,” someone said in a coldly determined voice. All other noise seemed to stop and Hugh’s flare of pain faded in her mind. It didn’t matter. Shock drowned it all out. And fear. All she could hear was her own breath. And that voice.

  She knew that voice. It was the commander who had captured and tortured Rafael. Her fear condensed like a shard of glass at the back of her brain.

  “Just a drone,” he was saying. “Under normal circumstances hardly worth it.” Another kick drove the air from Hugh’s battered body in a stab of pain. “But waste not want not. Put him in the back.”

  God, no!

  Eva jerked forward, determined to find some way to break Hugh free. She couldn’t leave him captive, couldn’t let him go back to the hell he’d come from.

  Strong arms clamped around her, one pinning her hands to her side, the other covering her mouth.

  Chapter Nine

  Eva drew in breath to scream and her mind coiled to lash out at her attacker, even as his musk snagged her memory. And another voice entered her mind. Just as determined as Commander Kaine’s, but never so cold or cruel.

  “Eva, it’s us. It’s okay. We’re here.”

  Rafael! And Aidan held her, pressed to his body, safe in his arms.

  “Inside,” Aidan breathed, pulling her after him through the doorway. His sidearm was already in his other hand, sleek and dark agai
nst his skin. Inside the storeroom she could finally breathe again, even though they were just outside, even though any second now the Security officers would find out the kids were missing.

  Aidan’s arms unwound from her body as if reluctant to do so. He gave her a brief smile as she turned to him, as she leaned in to brush her lips to his, and then his face hardened, his eyes assessing the scene before him. He joined Rafael, who crouched at the doorway, peering out into the growing daylight. She knelt behind them, aware that the children moved too, huddling behind her.

  “How did you get so close?” she whispered. The rest went unspoken—without her knowing, without her feeling their presence, without setting off her personal alarms.

  “I’m shielding us,” Rafael replied without speaking. “And the kids. Just stay here, don’t make a sound. Think we can take them, Aidan?”

  Aidan’s eyes gleamed like the armour on the state-of-the-art AVs before them. He nodded once.

  But neither man moved, they stayed, poised beside each other, weapons at the ready. Eva counted in her mind, waiting, guessing rather than knowing what they planned. They wouldn’t leave Hugh to the Guild, no more than she would. None of them would. She pulled Daisy and the other two in close.

  “Stay still now. Stay silent.”

  As if she really needed to tell them.

  Aidan and Rafael sprang forward as one, flinging the door open again. Round after round rang out until they ploughed into their attackers. Three went down, another dodged. Aidan leapt on him, too close for firearms now. Hand to hand, his lethal skills too much for the man he faced.

  Rafael bent over Hugh’s prone form, trying to wake him, sending out thoughts to draw him back to consciousness. Someone shouted for reinforcements, the voice pitched high with nerves. Eva never saw where the Security officer came from, but suddenly he loomed over Rafael, the shockstick sparking in his hand. Rafael turned, started to rise, but too late. The stick ignited with a crackle, and ozone filled the air around them.

  Eva’s mind screamed Rafael’s name, though she dared not voice her panic. Not that she could help him. With a sound like glass breaking, the shockstick released its charge directly into his stomach. The backlash of pain and panic his mind sent out almost made Eva’s limbs go from under her.

  Aidan kicked his opponent in the guts, lifting him off the ground with the force of the blow. But he didn’t pause to see him crumple. He continued turning, firing his stunner at close range at Rafael’s attacker. Even as both men crashed to the ground, Eva was scrambling across the open ground, half running, half pulling herself forward with her hands. Even the time it would take to stand upright was moments too many. She collapsed beside Rafael’s spasming body. He twitched and jerked, his eyes rolled up, his face etched with agony. One final convulsion made his back arch like a bow, and he passed out. The air crackled above her head and a stunner beam burst through the empty air.

  “Down, Eva!” Aidan grabbed her bodily and they went down in a heap in the lee of an AV. Pushing her behind him, Aidan fired off three rounds.

  Another guard crumpled, a shockstick still grasped in his hands. The second retreated, yelling for reinforcements again.

  Without pause, Aidan pulled Eva to her feet. “Quick, before he’s back with his mates. Help me get Rafe.”

  She couldn’t move. It felt like her feet were cemented to the ground. It was the vision, Rafael’s vision, all over again, playing out this time right in front of her.

  “Help, Eva!” he yelled.

  He’d been shouting in the vision. Just before he was shot.

  Someone stepped from the gardens, a tall and imposing figure, one she knew. The commander lifted his ancient revolver. This was no stunner, designed to incapacitate and capture. Made in the days before the Guild, its purpose was death. Like Kaine’s. So suited to the man. She could read him, just like reading a viewscreen. He wasn’t going to risk letting Aidan go, let alone alive.

  Eva surged forward, grabbed Aidan’s lowered sidearm and, turning, squeezed off the charge before she even focused on their enemy.

  A cry rang out from the far side of the courtyard, followed by a thud. Kaine lay in the dirt.

  Aidan heaved Rafael into his arms. “How did you see him?”

  “Just lucky,” she replied breathlessly and tried to take some of Rafael’s weight herself.

  Between them they dragged the unconscious Rafael into the AV. The back of the vehicle was like an armoury. Aidan didn’t hesitate, grabbing as many weapons and ammunition as he could pack about his person. “Keep an eye on the door.”

  The shouts were coming closer. Weapon fire lit up the night, and the headlights of other AVs swept through the settlement. There were more on the way. More and more.

  He took Rafael from her arms and settled him down in the base of the AV as comfortably as he could.

  “We have to get the kids,” Eva said. “And Hugh.”

  “Shh…”

  She went silent, sensing the approach of someone outside. Still as a statue, Aidan waited, listening to the crunch of dry dirt outside, then kicked the door open. With a thud it caught the nearest Security officer full in the face and Aidan fired off two more rounds. The body jerked.

  “Run!” Aidan tossed her a loaded weapon so hard the impact made her hand spasm. She almost dropped it, fumbled, and brought it up just in time to see light glint off the smooth surface of a Security guard’s helmet. Her hand acted before her mind could catch up, squeezing the trigger. The stunner whined and the guard went down.

  Eva scrambled for the storeroom and Daisy flung her arms around her neck. “No time, sweetheart. Get into the AV. We’ve got to find the others.”

  She got them inside the vehicle at the same moment as Aidan pulled Hugh through the door.

  “I’ve got to get the others,” he panted. “Can you hold the AV? If we can take these beasts we can go anywhere.”

  Aidan’s chest was heaving, but more from adrenaline than exhaustion. He transformed in battle, like an intense flame, quick and determined, terrible and beautiful at once. Now he pressed against the wall beside the door, coiled, ready to strike.

  “Yes.” She didn’t hesitate, couldn’t allow herself to think of what might happen. He’d be all right. Nothing could bring him down. Not now.

  He gave her another nod, his teeth gritted, his jaw tight. And then he was gone. She pulled the door closed, locked it and climbed into the front of the cab, ducking down so as not to be seen.

  “Eva?” Hugh groaned. “You okay?”

  “Yes,” she told him, desperately searching the gap between the buildings with her eyes. And then she saw them, Aidan in the lead, twelve other Hedonists with him, all heavily armed, and the kids. The rest of the kids.

  Eva slammed her hand on the lock release as they reached the AV.

  The kids tumbled inside, along with Myra and Laura. Daisy flung her arms around Laura, who sobbed into her hair, wrapping her in arms that would never let go, holding her close. They were okay. The sudden relief of it made Eva’s eyes sting with unexpected tears.

  Myra cursed when she saw Rafael. She climbed inside the AV and scrambled towards him. “What happened?” She bent over him, the consummate medic, checking his breathing and heart rate with practiced capability.

  Aidan’s eyes never left the shadows outside. “We got back by the skin of our teeth—Guild Military and Security everywhere. One of them got Rafe with a shockstick. We have to get the kids out of here, Myra, and work out some way to either get the trace substance out or give it time to wear off.”

  “He’s okay. Stable at least.” But her voice shook.

  Eva wrapped her arms around her chest, squeezing tight. If Myra sounded so scared…

  “There are four AVs.” Aidan strapped more weapons onto his body. “You drive this one, I’ll get the others sorted.”

  He was hiding something. Hiding something huge.

  “Aidan?”

  He made for the door without a glance back, but
his shoulders tightened as she reached for him.

  “Aidan.”

  He didn’t look back, but his voice was low, so only she could hear. “We need a diversion, something to draw them off. You have to get him out of here. The kids and the psychics, that’s who they’re after. Do you understand? You know what the Guild will do to them, to any of them. You have to get them away at all costs. They have other AVs and gliders on the way, no doubt. We’ve got to hold them off. You have to get away.”

  And she knew, knew what he planned to do. And knew she couldn’t stop him. “Please, no—”

  “No time,” he said.

  The weapon fire was getting closer. Three of the Hedonists retreated across the space outside, firing rapidly, but two others held the gap between the stores and the main buildings. The roar of the AV engines starting up drowned out their cries as they fell.

  Not just to stunners, Eva realised. Blood blossomed crimson in the air and she sensed the lights as their lives flickered and went out. These weren’t psychics. They were just people, but now, in that brief moment before death, all their life condensed to a spark of pain she could sense clearly. The Guild had switched to using live rounds out there. Aidan’s people were dying. The rest fled into the remaining AVs. Just a few remained, holding their escape route open, their lives glowing as they fell, as they died.

  “Ready, Myra?” Aidan asked.

  Myra slid into the driver’s seat, her face a mask.

  Aidan swallowed hard and finally looked at Eva, his eyes boring into her, wanting to go with her, unable to do so. There was no other way.

  The children huddled around her, Hugh, and Rafael in the base of the AV, and she stilled her mind, forcing herself to be calm and create the strongest wall around all of them, pouring every fear she had into fuelling it. It meant closing off her emotions, her desires. Everything. It meant becoming the same cold-hearted bitch again. But she did it willingly. How could she do anything else?

  Myra hit a switch and the AV roared to life. Aidan still stood outside the door. His mouth quirked into a grim smile and his cornflower blue eyes sparkled like glass.