Page 30 of Dark Destiny: The Fates' Bargain

The collective stopped listening after Turner had said that Navuh's mate was a goddess. He had been hiding a goddess in the harem, and no one in the Brotherhood had known?

"Stunning, I know," Turner said as if he'd read their minds, and then gestured at the row of open rooms.

There were eight of them, small and long. Each had a small couch, a television with a console below it, a single full-size bed, and a narrow bathroom visible behind a half-wall made of glass blocks.

"Separate rooms," Number Six said. "We don't like that."

"I know that's not how you are used to living." Turner motioned at one of the rooms. "The beds are not big enough for two adult men to share comfortably, and we can't fit another bed in there. Besides, that doesn't solve the problem. If you want, you can carry the beds out to the corridor and sleep out here together, or you can just leave the doors open."

The idea of moving the beds into the corridor was tempting, but the collective decided to try the separate rooms first.

"There's clothing in the closets," Turner continued. "Everything else you need should be in the bathrooms." He turned to the Guardians. "You have the earpieces, I assume."

"Yes." Theo reached into his pocket, retrieved two small black cases, then reached into another pocket and retrieved another two.

Jay did the same.

They distributed the cases to each of the Eight.

"Why do we need earpieces?" Yaaf opened the case and looked at the small devices nestled within it. Was that how the clan planned to control them?

"Precaution," Turner said. "You are sharing this level with Navuh. He leaves his apartment only once a day, for an hour, to go to the pool, and it is at the same time every day. You will be in the gym during that time because it's better if he doesn't know you are here. But in case you bump into him somehow, wearing these earpieces will filter out the compulsion component from his voice and protect you from his influence."

Yaaf closed the case and handed it back to Turner. "We don't need these. We have transcended, and Navuh can no longer assert his power over us."

Turner shook his head and didn't take the case. "You can't be sure of that, and it's always better to err on the side of caution."

So that was why they sent an immune to meet them, so he could tell them a story about the earpieces to convince them to wear them. The clan could incapacitate them by sending a strongpulse through those devices, which would keep them down just long enough to put a bullet in their heads.

The collective could understand why the clan would take such precaution, but that didn't mean they had to agree to it.

"We'll see about that." Yaaf slid the case into his pocket, intending to discard it later.

Turner regarded him with understanding in his eyes. "We can't force you to wear them, but we can ask that you exercise caution around Navuh. Even in his weakened state, he's a very dangerous male. I promise that all these earpieces do is filter out compulsion by converting the words entering them into machine voice. Nothing else."

Or so he says,the collective thought.

The other seven put the earpieces in their pockets, and Turner understood the unspoken response.

"Shower, change, rest or watch television," he said instead. "We have every movie and program imaginable. I'm going to go check on how the scientists are settling in, and I'll come back here once Volkov gives me an answer about starting work on setting up the lab right away."

14

DIMITRI

The van pulled up into a parking spot right next to the other vehicle that had delivered the eight soldiers to the same downtown Los Angeles high-rise building.

Dimitri had committed the license plate number to memory, so there was no mistaking it for a van that just looked the same.

It had gotten there earlier, probably because the other van's driver didn't need to be careful about lab equipment being jostled around the back, or to try to calm down Petrov, who was a real pain in the ass because not only was he injured, but he was also suffering from alcohol withdrawal jitters.

Thankfully, Anita had taken charge of him, so Dimitri didn't have to and could enjoy the ride from the clan's airstrip to the heart of the city with his arm draped over Mattie's shoulders.

"Finally," Petrov said. "I need a shower, a bed, and a bottle of vodka, and I don't care in which order."

"Oh, Konstantin," Anita said in a chiding tone. "I'm sure that you are not thinking about getting in bed without showering. We areall stinky and sweaty. And no vodka. You are recovering from a serious injury."

"No good deed goes unpunished," Petrov muttered under his breath. "I save you, and you boss me around."