Read Xander vol.1 Transmutation for Free Online Page B

took a step forward. But was stopped from taking another by
Loni’s death grip on his shoulder.
    “ Don’t,” she insisted,
pulling him back by his shoulder and stepping in front of him. She
reached into the pouch that was attached to her hip and pulled out
a small, but powerful gun. “I’ll go,” she reluctantly offered, not
wanting to let her fear and disgust get in the way of her
protective nature as a Guardian. Seeing the weapon, Xander
hurriedly reached forward and pressed his hand on top of hers,
preventing her from firing.
    “ Loni, wait,” he urged
more than ordered, not wanting to destroy the house with less than
five minutes of being in it.
    As Xander lowered Loni’s
gun, a small white cat crept out from the shadows of the kitchen’s
corner. With a brown spot in the middle of its forehead, the cat
peered up at them with its large blue eyes, its tail slowly
flickering about.
    Xander’s body eased its
tension, seeing the size of the creature. While Loni’s noticeably
grew more wary. Her hand snatched the gun from Xander’s re-aiming
at the cat’s head.
    “ Out of the way,” she
hissed, taking a step towards it and making it crouch low
defensively. Xander rushed to push down her gun again, frowning at
her lack of compassion for the creature.
    “ Loni,” he asserted.
“Honestly. What could it possibly do to hurt you?”
    “ You don’t know what it’s
capable of. What if it’s a Guardian? It could morph in the blink of
an eye,” Loni argued.
    “ Into what? An infant?
Look at its size.”
    The cat mewled, its
posture beginning to relax as it crept forward towards them. Loni’s
eyes widened as she stumbled backwards, abandoning her gun in
Xander’s hands and heading back for the living room. Xander rolled
his eyes, his hands, one holding the weapon, falling to his waist
as he turned to see her flee.
    “ Loni,” he chuckled.
“Powerless planet. Remember?” Xander looked over at the cat that
had waltzed over to sniff at his boot. “Look at it,” he insisted,
reaching down and scooping up its small body in his large hand and
holding it up in front of his chest. “It’s downright
adorable.”
    Loni watched from what she
considered to be a safe distance inside the living room. Her
features held a permanent scowl as she glanced over the cat’s
features. The cat wriggled in Xander’s grip, its claws latching
onto the fabric of his shirt. Loni’s eyes widened as she hesitated
to move forward.
    “ It’s got you,” she
warned, glaring at the cat as it mewled.
    “ Honestly,” Xander sighed,
as he titled his head to look into its eyes as it mewled. “I think
it kind of looks like you, actually,” he suggested, looking more
closely at its feline features. “It may even been a relative of
your species.”
    “ Don’t insult me so
blatantly,” Loni disputed. The cat turned to look back at Loni,
making her stiffen and take another step back. “Hurry up and
dispose of it,” she pressured, waving her hand at it
dismissively.
    “ What? No way,” Xander
protested. “That’d be like killing a tinier you. And I made it
clear – or rather, Saphora made it clear that we’re not to harm
anyone or anything unless it is of self-defense.”
    “ How would she know its
dead?”
    “ Are you going to lie to the future
queen?” Xander pressed with an arched brow.
    Loni frowned, rolling her
eyes and turning away from them both, making her way back towards
the front door, which they had carelessly left open.
    “ I don’t care what you do
with it. I’m going to go secure the ship and calculate the
locations they’ve been. You’d be wise to start your research as
well,” Loni advised, not giving Xander a chance to respond before
she left the house, closing the door behind her.
    Xander sighed, prying the
cat from his shirt and setting it back down on the floor. It mewled
again before darting off back towards the shadowed corner of the
kitchen.
    “ You go on to live another
day.”

    Xander spent