With a Touch: The Guild Chronicles, Book 1

by Rhiannon Leith

  But Burgess just laughed and tossed the shockstick to Kaine. The commander flicked the switch and it began to crackle again, recharged, ready. He took up position beside Aidan, his eyes gleaming like the buttons on his uniform.

  “Let me tell you a story not too different to this.” Burgess circled her, like a cat playing with its prey. “A long time ago, I found out my partner was helping people. People who didn’t understand the concept of civic duty or loyalty to the Guild, which has saved us from economic ruin, pandemics, moral collapse, oh and a million other things that were gnawing at the heart of our civilisation. He was helping them run away before their precious children could be gainfully employed for the good of all. Just a small fraction of them. The freaks, the oddities. The ones who counted themselves as so special. His wife, as it turned out, started it. Led him astray.” He ran the back of his hand down her cheek. His knuckles dug into her skin. “You’re very like her, you know? It would have broken Harmon’s heart to see you as an adult, to look into that face again and realise what he’d lost. I probably did him a favour in the end.”

  “My mother left him,” Eva gasped. “I remember. She handed me over to save herself.”

  Burgess just chuckled and resumed his pace, circling her. “Of course you do.”

  Rafael’s words came back to her, taunting her now.

  They can change your memories, Eva, alter what you think you know.

  Memories could lie. But that one? The only family memory she retained, no matter how bleak? She squeezed her eyes tightly closed and clung to it, to her mother’s face, to the desperation in her voice as she made her terrible choice. Bitter and heartrending as it was, it couldn’t be a plant. It was all she had.

  Mother and siblings, desperate to keep her, desperate to survive. Her family. Abandoned. Lost…

  The voice of her tormentor resumed its sing-song storytelling. “I caught them taking one of my cells. I don’t know where you were. In daycare or something. Such a little thing and they’d never risk you on one of their escapades. Not their precious only child.”

  Only child. The words seemed to taunt her just like Burgess. Only child. She’d never had siblings. Her mother had never given her up. She was precious to them. Precious.

  “I made that interrogation last for hours. Harmon had to watch me pick her mind apart, one layer at a time, just like I did his.” He jerked his head over his shoulder to where Aidan hung. “You missed the beginning, but I’ll ensure you’ll see the end.”

  Aidan! She couldn’t let him destroy Aidan.

  Burgess waved a dismissive hand, the only cue Kaine needed. The shockstick slammed into the small of Aidan’s back and ignited again.

  Eva’s body reacted instinctively, trying to rise, but Burgess slammed her back down onto the chair again, driving the breath from her body.

  When Aidan’s screams fell away, when Eva could see again through her tears, Burgess leaned in face to face.

  “I made your father watch while we killed her, just as you’re going to watch this treacherous piece of shit die. And then I wiped his mind. We were friends and partners again and your dear mother… Well, a man needs his friends when his wife betrays him. Harmon fled to the Hedonists but he never stopped looking for you. And with every one of his little raids, he took out other children, other Hedonists. And when I was ready, I could just take what I needed, building up cell after cell. I alone had access through him, and through Rafael. And now through you.”

  The sound of a fist hitting flesh made her wince. The shockstick would be too quick for Kaine. Such a sadist needed to feel his victim’s agony. Aidan’s breath came out in a grunt. No words, nothing intelligible. Not anymore.

  Butterflies filled her mind, butterflies whirling, falling, dying. All the bright colours crumbling to dust.

  “Aidan, stay with me. Please, don’t go.”

  “We’re going to kill him slowly, and you can watch, Eva. Then I’ll wipe your mind but you will still be able to take us to wherever bolthole Rafael has hidden in. Or if not, you can join my cell and lend me that exquisite mind of yours. And a lot more, I think.”

  His hand curled around her neck, but she felt it only distantly, as if it happened to someone else. It slid lower, bringing with it rising revulsion as it delved into her cleavage and groped at her breasts.

  It was a lie. It had all been a lie. Her life. Her father’s life, all his good works, her mother’s betrayal…

  The uniformed arms that cradled her, the sobs of her mother, and the chimes as the credits were transferred…the smiling face that had crumpled in sorrow…

  Her own screams.

  No, there had been screams. Endless, tortured screams.

  Kaine laid into Aidan, no pretence of wanting information, no interrogation this, just the intent to beat him to death. To make her suffer. To break her.

  And Aidan, that brightness of their love, the whirl of coloured butterflies, slipping away from her, weakening, falling…

  “Don’t leave me! Don’t go!”

  She reached for her final false memory, the lie that her mother had given her up, the last control she had kept Rafael from breaking. And she tore through it like tissue paper.

  Memories roared back through her, too many to separate. A tidal wave of experience—laughter, love, joy, her family. Burgess reeled back from her, the backlash startling him as his failsafe fell, but the other minds, the cell upon which he fed like a leach—they craned towards her, reaching out, hungry for experience, for a taste of life.

  Eva’s mind sharpened to a razor’s edge. She had her crack, the weakness in his power. She reached out to the others, to the grey minds in their grey cell, hidden down here in Burgess’s domain, the sub-levels he and Kaine ruled with a joint iron fist. Where no one ever asked questions because they got the job done. Where no one dared raise their voice.

  “Help me.”

  The backlash nearly hurled her chair from under her, brought her to her feet so quickly it felt like levitating. She had no idea how many there were, perhaps only five, but it felt like a million voices invading her mind. They were so strong. So very strong.

  “It doesn’t have to be like this, Eva,” Burgess whispered, his voice low and beguiling. She could feel him trying to work on her defences, to heighten her fear. And beneath it, the reek of his own terror was rising. “You can come home, back to the Guild. You’re one of us, after all. Raised by us, and of great value.”

  A shudder ran through her, and Burgess came closer, the shockstick in his hand again, at the ready. She knew that, knew what he was like and how much he hated her. Feared her.

  Oh yes, he feared her now.

  And if he got past her, they’d all suffer. The cell, the Hedonists, the children, Aidan, Rafael…

  A single image assaulted her, the one Aidan had inadvertently triggered. Her attack, the faceless figure in the dark who had drugged her and tried to rape her. Burgess brought the stick up, ready to strike her and she unleashed every nightmare she’d ever heard of upon him: his, her own, Aidan’s, the children in the dark room and the terrors of everyone whose minds she’d ever touched. She wrapped all those nightmares in everything he and Kaine had done to others and hurled it directly into their minds.

  Burgess reeled back, the shockstick igniting against his own body and sending him down in a jerking heap of flesh. Kaine flung himself away from her, clawing at his own face as he shrieked and sobbed.

  Eva scooped up their weapons and slammed her hand onto the release switch on the far side of the frame. She was too late to catch Aidan. He crashed to the ground, the final indignity. Hauling him to his knees, she tried to get him up further, but his body just slumped against her.

  “Aidan. Aidan love, you have to get up. We have to get out of here!”

  His eyes parted a crack—all he could manage, he’d been so badly beaten—and a sliver of blue ringed with blood red focused on her.

  “You…go. Give me…the gun. Get out.”

  “No!
” she snarled at him and he flinched back. Tears flooded his martyred face and he gritted his teeth.

  “Please, Eva…”

  She tightened her grip on the commander’s sidearm as footsteps reached them, thundering down the hall outside. It shook as she trained it on the door, ready, waiting, whatever happened.

  Three men in black featureless uniforms slid into the room, sleek and silent in their movements. Two took up defensive positions, their weapons charged and ready to fire. The third stooped over them both, gun in hand.

  Aidan tried to pull Eva aside, to place himself between her and this new threat, but he didn’t have the strength.

  “Hardly according to plan, Eva,” Rafael growled in reproach. Then he dropped to his knees and pulled Aidan into his arms, holding him close.

  “You had my secondary card,” she reminded him testily. “I knew you wouldn’t be far behind if I needed you.”

  He hugged Aidan to his chest and glared at her. “I felt it all. What they did to you, what they did to him! I might have lost you both!”

  She reached out, ran her fingertips down the tense line of his jaw. He trembled beneath her touch. “But you didn’t, love,” she whispered. “Now, let’s get the hell out of here before someone gets interested in what we’re all doing here tonight, okay? I doubt they had anything but the vaguest kind of clearance for this but that’s hardly going to help us if we’re caught here.”

  “Are they dead?” asked Hugh from his place by the door. She hadn’t recognised him in the uniform. He looked hard rather than cynical now, fired with purpose.

  Eva got to her feet. “Forget them. Hugh, I need your help. We have to find the cell, get those kids out of it. I can take you there.”

  As they passed the sprawled figures of Burgess and Kaine, Rafael paused, his weapon rising again, the narrow whine of a full and fatal charge filling the air.

  “Don’t,” Eva said. “Leave them.”

  “Do you think they’d show mercy? Did they show mercy to him?” He nodded at Aidan.

  She shook her head. “Look. Really look. Then tell me they don’t deserve that.”

  Rafael’s face took on that now-familiar studied expression and all colour bled from his skin. His mouth tightened to a thin white line and his pained gaze met hers. “Let’s get Aidan out of here,” was all he said.

  The AVs rolled across the countryside, taking narrow roads that had not seen traffic in decades, passing through abandoned towns and villages until the signs of former civilisation dwindled and died. The escape of four AVs from the settlement gave Eva some hope. Add to that the one they stole from the Guild compound and the prospects began to improve. The newest one carried the five children rescued from the cell, attended to now by Myra and Hugh. And they were miles from the Guild, putting more distance between them and the compound with every passing hour. Some of their ragged company walked alongside, scouted ahead or rode on top.

  She rarely saw Rafael during the day, staying with Aidan, who, fighting off a fever, slept and woke screaming and incoherent with nightmares. Rafael, she suspected, couldn’t bear it. He’d lost a loved one long ago, a wife he’d cherished. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing another. She understood that. But it didn’t mean she was willing to give up so easily. Aidan would live, she kept trying to tell him, but Rafael never responded and her insistent attempts to engage and reassure him were gently turned away.

  Eva fell asleep each night through exhaustion, and Rafael stretched out alongside her. The two of them lay under the stars together, with Aidan no more than a few strides away in the AV. Though they slept wrapped in each other’s arms, it went no further than that. There was no “two of them”. Not really. They were three and one part of their hearts was missing.

  When Aidan’s fever broke and he opened his eyes to see her once more, Eva wept tears of relief. And also of grief that Rafael was not there. Especially when Aidan’s cracked voice managed to form words.

  “Where’s Rafe?”

  “Scouting ahead. He’ll be back soon. Rest now. You need to build your strength up again. I’ll fetch Myra.”

  He slumped back down, petulant as a child, and winced at the pain the petty demonstration caused him. As she rose to go, he caught her wrist in a grip surprisingly strong after his convalescence.

  “You came for me.”

  “Of course I did.” She tried to smile.

  “Your butterflies…” He winced again, tried to shift to a more comfortable position and then, failing that, he forced himself to sit up. “Your butterflies saved my sanity.”

  She smiled and kissed his forehead.

  Rafael didn’t come back that night. Nor the next. While Aidan grew stronger by the hour—through sheer determination, she thought—Eva watched the countryside roll by and tried to keep an eye ahead for the returning scouts. He had to come back. She sent out mental summons, no longer caring who might catch an accidental glimpse, image after image of Aidan, but with no response.

  Some of the others, Daisy in particular, tried to send her comforting thoughts, reassurances, but she pushed them away. There were too many psychics around her, it seemed, and the only one she really wanted—really needed—was missing.

  The third day, when she woke, her mind filled with butterflies again. Her heart took wing in her chest as she sensed Rafael’s approach.

  “He’s here,” she told Aidan.

  The AVs formed a metal shell around the camp. Further up the road, figures were running towards them in the morning light. Rafael was foremost. When his eyes fixed on Aidan standing by Eva’s side, he broke into a sprint which outstripped everyone else.

  For a moment Eva feared Rafael would slam into them both, or seize Aidan in his bearlike grip and undo all the healing in his enthusiasm and relief to see their lover whole again. But he stopped short, staring in wonder. Words froze in his throat. She felt him longing to spill out his love, voice his relief, but he couldn’t.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Aidan asked gruffly, hiding his smile.

  Something passed between them, something Eva was not party to, nor did she wish to intrude. Rafael reached out and his hand shook as he closed his grip on Aidan’s shoulder. Then he bowed his head.

  “Forgive me.”

  Aidan grabbed a fistful of his jacket and pulled Rafael abruptly to him, kissing him with force and determination. “Don’t do it again. You had her worried sick.”

  Rafael glanced at Eva, who felt her face redden under his enquiring gaze. Then he dropped to his knees, bowing his head to her instead. “Forgive me, my love. I was a coward. I couldn’t bear the prospect of losing him. It’s only thanks to you that I didn’t.”

  She smiled down at him but before she could reply a scoffing noise broke the moment.

  “Yeah, ’cause Myra and I had nothing to do with my getting better,” Aidan said. “Now unless you’re about to propose to one of us—or both of us—get up!”

  Rafael scrambled to his feet, too overjoyed to be put out by Aidan’s teasing. He enveloped them both in his arms. “Come. I have something to show you both. Something you two, of all people, have to see. We checked it out. Spent some time scouting the area to make sure it’s safe, and it is. It’s perfect.”

  “What?” Eva asked, as he pulled them along behind him.

  “Our new home.”

  It was, or had been, a manor or farm in some distant past, before the Crash, the pandemics and the rise of the Guild, before the compounds and the general depopulation of anything outside a city. It nestled far enough away from an urban centre to be ignored during the spread of the compounds. Far enough away to be safe now from a people who didn’t dare stray too far from what they knew, what they thought they knew. After so long travelling in the AV, Eva couldn’t wait to get out and stretch her legs, to explore the place. A single long road swept through rolling meadows, past a river which fed a well-stocked lake. And at its heart rose a house.

  Eva had never seen anything like it outside of o
ld clips and online movies. It was huge, though ramshackle, but not so bad that it could not be repaired. Vegetation ran wild in what had been a kitchen garden.

  “If some of those herbs are medicinal, Myra will go nuts,” Aidan said.

  “And what if Guild troops come?” Eva asked.

  Rafael rolled his shoulders and gazed off to the south. “They won’t. We’re too far from their comfort zone out here. They don’t see anything of worth out this far. Not while they can continue to use their own people. We…our children were convenient for Burgess, under the radar as it were. The rest of the Guild would sooner exterminate us. But only if we’re a threat. And we aren’t.” He turned his face back towards the house and its gardens, the fertile fields overgrown but spilling out promise. And he sighed, a sound of pleasure that came from his heart. “It’s going to take work. But we’re good with our hands.”

  Aidan snorted. “I am.” And he ran them up the sides of Eva’s body to demonstrate. She shivered with suddenly renewed lust.

  “You’re feeling better, I see.” Rafael’s smile made him glow.

  Aidan hummed his reply, deep in his throat, a noise which rumbled through him and into her. Eva snuggled closer, her body reawakening at last.

  “One more thing to see. It’s why the three of us came on ahead,” Rafael said. “Please.”

  He took their hands and led them away from the house, away from their friends who were delighting in all the new home had to offer. They walked through long grass, down an incline and through a grove of apple trees. Beyond them, a meadow opened up, dotted with wildflowers. Dots of white and pink, but mostly blue. The blue of cornflowers, the blue of Aidan’s eyes. Long grass, seed-heavy, swayed in the breeze, and at the bottom a river curved into a deep pool. The scents encircled her, sweet and high, warm like summer. And beneath them, another note—musk and earth. Like Rafael, like Aidan. It stirred desire in her stomach, and something began to melt inside her, like molten honey.

  As they walked through the grass, many of the patches of vivid colour Eva had taken for flowers took wing, circling around them. Bright blue, crimson and saffron, speckled and striped, decorated like great eyes, all the colours of the world, swirled around them in butterfly wings.