Page 41 of Dark Destiny: The Fates' Bargain

"Please call me Annani. We will be seeing each other daily now, and I would like to do away with the formalities."

"As you wish." Bridget kept climbing.

The doctor's office was small, but well organized. Nowadays, everything was done on tablets and computers, so there were no handwritten notes or charts anywhere to be seen.

The electric kettle sitting on a low shelf beside two mismatched mugs was a new addition, and Annani suspected it had been Merlin's idea. Bridget would have gotten a matching set, and Julian would not have bothered.

"I apologize for the mugs," Bridget said. "If I had known I would be hosting the Clan Mother, I would have brought some fine china from home."

Annani chuckled. "It is not the cup that matters, it is the company, and please, call me Annani."

Bridget poured hot water over two teabags, and Annani accepted hers without comment on the simplicity of the whole arrangement, because the tea was truly incidental to the conversation.

"How are the new arrivals settling in?" she asked.

Bridget sat down behind her desk with her mug. "I've only gotten secondhand reports. They are shell-shocked. Too much is happening to them too fast. I think that out of everyone who arrived at this village, they are experiencing the biggest change. Well, other than Ell-rom and Morelle. They were in stasis for seven thousand years and woke up on a very different Earth than the one they had been expecting. Not to mention that Ell-rom didn't remember anything about his life from before."

"They have both acclimated nicely." Annani took a sip from the tea, which was surprisingly good for something that came in a bag instead of loose leaves. "Finding their mates even before waking up helped speed up the process."

"Indeed." Bridget set her mug down on the desk. "I want to get blood samples from all of them once they've settled in and are not afraid of their own shadow. They're all Dormants, which means the moment any of them bonds with an immortal male, they'll transition. I want to establish a baseline before that happens."

"There is plenty of time for that," Annani said. "These women have been traumatized, and it will be a long while before any of them are ready to think about relationships."

"I'm not so sure about that, actually." Bridget's eyebrows rose slightly over the rim of her mug. "Julian told me that there seems to be something romantic brewing between one of the women, the one with the little boy, and Number One. The spokesman for the enhanced soldiers."

Hope sparked in Annani's chest at the news. "That is marvelous. It bodes well for the others. If one of them can bring herself to trust a male again, and especially one of the enhanced, then the others might be ready for relationships sooner than I thought was possible."

"She must be a brave soul," Bridget said. "Falling for a male who shares his mind with seven others complicates things. I can't imagine what that must be like for her, or for him, honestly."

"Nor can I."

Bridget turned her mug between her hands. "As a physician, the collective consciousness fascinates me. It's unprecedented. There's no medical framework for what that actually means, physiologically and psychologically. I would like to examine them. Run some baseline brain scans. I want to understand how they function. Now that the five are stabilized, I can make a quick run to the keep and see for myself what we are dealing with."

Annani set down the mug. "I understand your professional curiosity, but you cannot visit them just yet. You are a council member, which means you know where the hidden entrance to the tunnel leading into this village is located."

Bridget understood immediately why that posed an issue.

"You are correct, of course. I should have realized that myself. They can get that information from me," she nodded. "Their compulsion doesn't use sound. They can do it with a thrall, which is another ability unique to them. That's why Kian asked Turner to be in charge of them. He's immune to all forms of mind manipulation, so they can't get anything from him."

"Then you understand."

"I do. I'm disappointed because the scientist in me wants nothing more than to sink my teeth into their mystery." She tilted her head and smiled. "Maybe you could thrall me to forget where the entrance to the tunnel is?"

Annani smiled. "I can, but they might be able to retrieve it anyway because all I can do is push the memory to your subconscious. Erasing it is not possible."

"I know." Bridget let out a breath. "It was worth a try, though. How long until the restriction lifts?"

"When Kian decides it is safe."

Bridget laughed. "Then I suspect I'll be waiting a very long time. Possibly forever. Kian doesn't relax security measures. He adds new ones."

"This is so true. My son takes caution to another level, but in this instance, I cannot fault him for being extra cautious."

"Neither can I." Bridget sipped her tea. "I'll simply have to content myself with whatever the Russian scientists can tell me until Kian decides the risk the Eight represent is tolerable."

"I regret the unfairness of it," Annani said. "The Eight were a great help to us, and they did everything in good faith. In exchange, we keep them at arm's length because we cannot trust what we cannot control."

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