Free Sons of the Crystal Mind (Diamond Roads Book 1) by Andrew Wallace Page A

self-consciousness, free of guilt and fear, free of confusion and thinking. When I run my hands over myself it’s like they leave a trail of sparkles.
    There is a slow drain away and the golden glow dims. When I focus on my surroundings again I see I’ve already dropped past the edge we leapt from. I continue down into a huge room with levels built around the column of light.
    Harlan reaches up and pulls me out of the air; I land in his arms and he strides through the dispersing crowd. We head up a spiral ramp to the first level and a table at the back, where Harlan lowers me to the floor. He gestures to a chair and I sink into it as he sits opposite me. Two drinks grow out of the table; we pick them up and sip without breaking eye contact.
    “You’re a phenomenal dancer,” Harlan says.
    “Oh stop.”
    “I imagine you work out a lot.”
    “Everyone in Centria has to be at battle-ready fitness,” I say.
    “And are you battle-ready?”
    “Did you want to start something then?”
    “Yes,” he says.
    “Why me?”
    “You just happened Charity. Do you mind?”
    “No. You owe me though.”
    “Hmm?”
    “You messed up my party,” I say.
    “The one where I saved your life?”
    “No, the other one. There’s still a load of weather about who you are. You need to pretend to be my boyfriend for publicity purposes.”
    “We both know I’m not going to pretend to be your boyfriend.”
    I feel myself blush. I need to say something important, something striking.
    “Harlan,” I say, “have you ever heard of something called the Guidance?”
    He goes still.
    “How did you hear about that?” he says.
    My heart jumps.
    “Someone trusted me with it,” I say.
    Harlan looks at me for what seems like a very long time.
    “I don’t know much,” he says. “But in my various misadventures I get to hear things.”
    “What things?”
    “Where the real power is. That’s always worth knowing.”
    “Is that what the Guidance is? Power?”
    “Yes.”
    I watch him, poised. Harlan takes a deep breath.
    “Everyone accepts that Diamond City is a pure capitalist utopia,” he says. “There’s no government and there’s no one in charge.”
    “We stand and fall by the market,” I say.
    “Or do we? Because it seems there is an authority after all and the Guidance is it.”
    “You say ‘it’-?”
    “Could be a group or a person or…”
    “Something else? What?”
    “I don’t know Charity.”
    I’m dizzy; my body hums with mysterious energy and my thoughts seem barely my own. There’s a strange, deep itch between my legs and I realise I’ve been wet since Harlan picked me up and jumped into the light.
    “You need to make love to me,” I tell him.
     

 
     
    9
     
    The room is in a MidZone hotel. There are no windows, which is fine, and low lighting, which is also fine. A round, white bed grows with infuriating slowness out of the floor.
    I hurl myself at Harlan, astonished at the violence of it. I grip one of his legs with both of my own and hear myself scream. He claps a hand around the back of my head, uses the other to grip the front of my jacket and yanks me up so I’m almost on tiptoe. He kisses me and as our lips touch I lose the ability to see.
    Everything comes back blurred. My eyes ache. I thrust my tongue into his mouth; he tastes of apples and wine. I dig my fingers into his wiry hair and pull it and he gasps. I whip my legs around his waist; the spreading feels so good that my skin shakes and all my muscles jump. Beautiful energy builds uncontrollably in my centre. Too amazed at it to stop, I come in a sweet storm of agony and arch back-
    A thousand inexplicable images erupt in my mind, each a fragment of some mysterious whole and gone before I register it. My mouth stretches in a silent scream. Harlan pulls me back and holds me tight as I twitch and shake against him.
    “Bad girl,” he rumbles in my ear.
    Recovering, I start to wind myself around him again and deposit my clothes; they run down