Meridian Warriors: Xander and Des (7 page)

“Ma’am, I really hate to disappoint you, but
what I am saying is the truth. We are underwater, now, as I was
saying. We are the Meridian. Our people came here when your planet
was developing, after ours was destroyed. We live underwater
because on our home planet, that is all there was. Our planet,
Meridian, its surface was only water. We lived similar to this
underwater there; however, we had a lot more sophisticated things,
unlike now, where we are reliant on humans,” Casius said and looked
at the women who were staring at him with their mouths open.

“We came here because your water was the
closest to our planet, we need it to survive. Over time we found
that we could help with your development, which we did and we have
been able to advance more over the last few years,” Casius said and
then went on to explain their history. The women never said a word
while he was talking.

Xander and Des watched Alex as the story
unfolded. She looked curious and not scared, which gave them hope.
Sage stepped into the room behind them quietly, held a folder, and
waited patiently for Casius to get to the part where he told them
about their blood.

They agreed to give the women the basics.
Where they came from, why, and how. They would all explain the
present and the future to them. “So you see, the Hopis have been
hunting us for all these years, so we stay hidden under the water.
They have been unable to detect us. If we singularly go to the
surface, we use our source of power for all of our technology, so
they are looking for the large power trace, but we have been able
to hide it from them, Cash and Rosul developed a cloaking field to
help. We have never had any hope that we would find our female
mate, but here you are.”

There was silence when he finished. The women
looked at each other with a stunned expression. Des smiled,
this
was good, they were thinking
. His hopes were dashed when Alex
finally spoke.

“Are you out of your fucking mind? Did you
really think we would believe that line of bullshit? Now, tell us
where we are or things are gonna get nasty. I am serious,” she
yelled and her friends nodded and looked indignant.

Xander stepped up, looked at the women, and
said softly, “Casius speaks only the truth. I assure you that we
are what we say. We are not keeping you here against your will;
however, we really hope you will give us a chance to talk and
explain a few things before you demand to leave.”

Alex looked up at him and scoffed, “Right?
You are the King? Well, King of this Freak Circus, we are demanding
to be taken to a real hospital, right now.”

Sage held up his hand and said, “Wait, we
have more to discuss.”

“No, we really don’t,” Alex said and folded
her arms across her chest. “Not until you either prove what you are
saying is true or you let us make a call.”

Xander sighed and then shook his head as he
saw the three women looking at each other smugly. Xander looked at
Sage and nodded.

The man walked over to the far wall of the
room. It was covered with what looked like a white wall. The tech
guys developed this wall; they could change it from the wall to a
realistic picture of the surface, with the sun shining in the
window. It was calibrated with the rotation of the earth so when
the dial was adjusted to the surface setting, it was real time,
they could watch the sun rising and setting, see the birds flying,
whatever. It could also be changed to see directly out into the
city and from where they were sitting, it would show most of the
town and the large barrier between them and the ocean. The view was
spectacular. You could see the fish swimming around and the
foliage, it was peaceful and dark, but the lights from the city
allowed them to see out.

Sage looked over his shoulder and Xander
nodded. The women looked curiously as he first hit the surface
view. The storm still raged above, and the waves were huge. It had
been a day since they had brought the girls down, but they could
still see the remnants of the boat they were sailing. Des and
Xander turned when Alex gasped at the sight, recognizing her own
boat.

“What the hell?” Alex muttered and then Sage
switched the view to the city. It was a darker view, but the lights
from the source lit up the city like a beacon.

Sage backed up and they all watched as the
girls struggled to see out the window. Sage brought wheelchairs for
all of them and they helped the women into the seats then placed
them right in front of the ceiling to floor window so they could
look out.

Once again, there was silence. The men looked
at each other grimacing and when Gabby started to speak the men
held their breath.

“Oh shit, Alex, Sam, look at that,” she said
and pointed to where the barrier between the ocean and the city
was. The men leaned over and looked up. There was a large whale
resting on the top. It was beautiful.

“This has to be a trick, how the heck did we
get this far underwater, I mean look at the ground, parts of it are
sand. There is no way, we would have died, no one can come down
this far,” Alex whispered.

“Maybe we are dead,” Sam said and shrugged.
“Or drugged and we are sharing a hallucination.”

“Great, those are our two choices?” Alex said
and sucked in a trembling breath.
What she was seeing did not
make sense, nothing was
.

“What are these buildings?’’ Gabby whispered
and Casius started to point and explain what each were. The women
were silent and listened. When he was finished, they turned
around.

“How did you get all this stuff down here?”
Gabby asked smugly. “I mean you want us to believe we are five
miles under the surface of the ocean, which is impossible by the
way. Plus, you want us to believe you are an alien race who came
here hundreds of years ago when your planet was destroyed.”

Alex took over, “And you want us to believe
you can just go up anytime you want, bring back down all of this
stuff with you, all with no one noticing. We are supposed to
believe you have been waiting for a woman to be mates with two of
you at the same time. Are you crazy?”

“Are we talking like ‘hey man you are crazy’
or like ‘you need to be evaluated and put in a mental
institution?’” Des said smiling with amusement at the women.

Xander turned and slapped him on the back of
the head; sometimes his sense of humor left a lot to be desired.
Xander loved him but
damn, this was not the time to be
funny.

“It is pretty much like, ‘you are a cult and
have crazy ass beliefs and you are drugging us to brainwash us,”
Alex said seriously.

“We of course have help from the surface;
there is no way we could do this without the help of humans. Can
you imagine us bringing down these huge crates and being caught?
Let me tell you the story of the last time we were caught,” Xander
said with amusement.

“It happened quite by accident. It was the
year 1690, during the “Golden Age” of pirating. We were surfacing
in the Caribbean Isles hoping we would be able to keep our cover
when the seas were so active. We usually went to the surface at
night, when we surfaced there was a Pirate Captain with his full
crew waiting for us,” Xander explained.

“It was one of those moments where we were
either going to kill them all, or we were going to make an accord
with the Pirates,” Des said and looked around the room. They had
the complete attention of the women, although they looked
skeptical, they were sucked into the story.

“The Captain of the ship was a man named
Bernard, William Bernard. He was a force to be reckoned with and I
was proud to call him a friend. After the standoff that lasted
about an hour, with no one moving, trust me it was uncomfortable.
We sat down for a drink and proceeded to explain our existence. The
man was not surprised, saying they had seen men in the water, with
tails before,” Xander said.

“Hold the fucking phone. Are you telling me
that you are Mermaids?” Alex said.

“No, I am telling you that our DNA allows us
to shift in the water, our legs become a tail with the fin on the
bottom, they are called tails, and we get webbing in between our
fingers so we can swim fast. This happened many years ago on our
home plant, we assume because of our evolution as people who lived
under the water. The water on this planet is different—it has salt,
whereas ours didn’t,” Xander finished.

“However, it still contains the necessary
source and elements for us to shift when we enter the water to swim
to the surface,” Rosul stepped forward and explained.

“Still you are Mermaids,” Gabby said and
looked up at Casius who was frowning.

“MEN, I guess if you had to have a name for
us, it is Mermen, or Meridians,” Xander said gruffly.

Alex snorted and looked at Xander and Des.
They could tell she was thinking of them as the storybook
creatures. Both men fought their urge to grab her, take her to
their home, and claim her. Rosul and Cash seemed to be
contemplating the same. The urge to complete their bond was hard to
ignore.

“You are our mate,” Xander blurted out, he
was getting sick of so much talk.

Alex felt her eyes widen, “Really and what
does that mean, mister. Maybe I don’t want a mate, let alone
two.”

“It means that you were meant for us, and
only us. It means that you will be our Queen, do your duty to our
people. It means that you will take care of us, just as we will
take care of you,” Des said smoothly.

Since they were young, they heard stories
about what the mating would feel like. The feeling of being
complete, and apparently if the King was mated the others would be
content. None of them knew what the hell to expect when they did
mate. However, Xander and Des were more than ready to do that.

“Fine, whatever,” Alex said and flipped a
wrist at them to continue.

Xander snorted, “Bernard assured us that he
would keep our secret, and together we even developed a way for us
to get supplies without having to alert the humans.”

“But he is dead, how did you do all this
after that?” Sam asked skeptically.

“That is part of the story. Bernard believed
in us, and we helped him in return, searching for treasure in the
ocean. The man became one of the wealthiest pirates to ever have
sailed the high seas without pillaging and killing people,” Xander
said.

“Bernard married and had a son, but he felt
so strongly about helping us, that when it came time for him to
turn over the ship to his grown son, the son had to promise to help
us and keep our secret. William Bernard was an amazing man. We
protected him, as he protected us. His son William II did as his
father asked and proved to be an asset as well. We all mourned the
loss of Bernard, when he died. As the world evolved and changed, we
changed with it, and the line for Bernard has been our ally since
then. We helped them build a small shipping company in Florida.
Yes, they do compete with Collins Shipping. Bernard Meridian
Shipping is half of our company. We help run it from down here,
while the descendants of William Bernard run it from up there,” Des
explained.

“I know Bernard Meridian Shipping. I should
have known when you said Meridian that it sounded familiar. They
are a good company. The, um, owner, Richard Bernard IV, is a very
nice man. Although, for some reason my father does not like him,
but I do. I think his son and daughter are set to take the helm,
soon, I think I heard,” Alex said.

Xander nodded his head at his mate and then
Sage stepped forward. “There are some other things, the next topic
to discuss. Your DNA came back; we were checking it because we
could not figure out how human females were actually our mates. We
have done research over the years, and normal human DNA is not
compatible with ours. So we were trying to figure this out.”

“Our DNA? What is wrong with us?” Gabby
asked.

“Nothing is wrong, but something is right or
strange, however you want to look at it. You would see this normal
DNA strand in any human. Of course, there are defects—you know what
those are. This is the Meridian DNA, you will see ours has this
section and this section,” Sage said as he pointed at the pictures
he kept hanging on the wall.

“What does this have to do with ours?” Sam
asked slowly.

“Well, when I did the DNA test on you, this
is what yours looks like, all of you the same, although of course,
not completely the same. See, here is a marker that would be from
say your father, and then this one would be from your mother,” Sage
said, pointing to three separate pictures.

The first thing that Alex saw was that they
were colored differently than ones from a human. “Oh my God, are we
dying?” Alex said and looked at her friends who were just as
upset.

“No, you are not dying,” Sage said and looked
at the girls patiently. “This is a Meridian marker—like ours,” as
he pointed to one of the markers, “and this is not human either,”
he said as he pointed to a different marker on the girls’ film. “I
can’t say what it is, but with the Meridian marker, we are able to
mate with only another Meridian. You would not have been able to
carry a human’s child.”

“Hold the damn phone, are you saying we are
alien and don’t know it?” Alex said and looked upset. So many
things were running through her head, she could not even think
about what this meant other than her father had lied to her. “My
father, the Shipping King, has been lying to me and everyone else,
he is alien. You have to be wrong.”

Sam and Gabby wheeled their chairs and
surrounded her. All of the men looked at the women as they began to
cry with Alex who was clearly distraught.

“Shit,” Sage said and looked back at Xander
to get some help.

However, all of the men looked like they were
gonna be sick. They hated that their mates were so upset,
foolishly, they thought that maybe they would be happy about this.
Fuck, they had been so wrong.