Meridian Warriors: Xander and Des Read Online Free PDF

laying only feet from
her, curled into a ball, trying to protect herself.
    Alex crawled to her friend, as she held her
arm, which felt like her shoulder was dislocated. “Sam, Sam, are
you okay?”
    Her friend groaned and rolled over. Alex
could see the bruising on her friend’s face and knew Sam had taken
a direct hit in the face. Damn it, they needed to get back
inside. She turned to look up at the window of the Captain’s
Cabin, she mouthed, “Help,” to Gabby. There was no way she would be
able to get Sam inside with her arm.
    Gabby could set the wheel on auto for a few
minutes—she would bet they were already off course anyway. The wind
had been tossing them around a lot. Alex turned back to tend to
Sam, she was bleeding from the temple and her face was pale. When
Alex tried to talk to her, Sam didn’t seem to make sense, or she
was not hearing correctly. She kept saying there was a man in the
ocean playing. It seemed to take hours until she saw the flash of
yellow coming out of the cabin—the rain slicker was a beacon of
hope to Alex when she saw it.

    ***

    One by one, the men went through the tunnel.
Xander and Des were the last ones as usual when the entire group
went out. Des went first, and then Xander followed. As they walked
into the water, Des could feel the tingle of the water as it flowed
around his legs, his Meridian blood begged to change, but Des kept
ahold of the magic as it pushed against him. They could hold off
the shift as long as they needed to, but it felt like it had been
forever since they shifted, it felt good.
    When his chest was covered with water, Des
took a deep breath and dove under the water—it only took
moments—the Meridian blood flowed through him like fire. He felt
the webbing between his fingers develop first, then using them, he
pushed his way to where the tunnel was. Right now, until he
shifted, he was on autopilot. It didn’t take long though to
complete the shift. He kicked his legs one last time and felt them
close together as began to form his tail. On the sides of his neck,
two slits appeared on either side and he sucked in his breath.
    Des felt the water rush into his lungs and
then his Meridian blood took the oxygen from it and pushed it back
out. Des smiled when he felt the scales and tail appear to replace
his legs and feet. Now he was cooking. With the flick of his tail,
he shot through the tunnel. He could see the barrier Rosul created
as a doorway. It was a large entry so they could bring what they
needed down with them and through the entrance. Sometimes it took
five to six men to bring necessities in the waterproof containers
they developed.
    Sucking in a breath again, he pushed his way
through the doorway. He could feel the coldness flow over him, the
technology making sure his blood allowed him to pass. It took
seconds to pass through the barrier—it was not really a pleasant
experience.
    Then he was free, flipping his tail he moved
forward to where the rest of the men waited. Des smiled and nodded
as he looked around. When they came to Earth, the salt water was
different from their home world. It took a while for them to get
used to it. One of the differences was their tails.
    The first time they shifted, they had been
shocked. It took their historian years to figure out why some men
had the colors they had. Des and Xander both had gold tails, with
red on their tips. The men on the Council held silver tails with
blue on their tips. Then it went through a series of other colors,
red and yellow, blue and green. Finally, they were able to
determine that for some reason the salt water was able to pick up
something in the Meridian blood that showed their ranking. All were
Warriors, and as far as Xander was concerned, it didn’t matter to
him, they were only fifty strong. However, it did explain a few
things.
    When Xander appeared, Des laughed when he
pointed up. They could tell the surface was swirling and moving
fast, there was a storm above, they all loved a