Dark Waters - Chapter 2B - The Date

Thank you to everyone who has supported the story so far. Hope your still loving it.

Oh and a note to everyone who is reading Dark Waters. With Chapter 1 I wasn't sure how to label them so this is the order of the sections.

Dark Waters-Introduction (found in Short Fixion)
Dark Waters- Chapter 1- Hunter Comes Back (found in Romance stories section of Short Fixion)
Dark Waters- Chapter 1- Jaclyn's Club (found in Short Fixion)
Dark Waters- Chapter 1- Kim's Secrets (found in Short Fixion)
Dark Waters- Chapter 2A- Alexon (found in Short Fixion)

From now on the stories will all be labeled with chapter number and a letter corresponding to the section of that chapter. They will also all be found in Short Fixion. Hope that clears up the confusion.

And now to the romance (finally) : D

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Amanda awoke the next morning to a light knock on her door. She sat up slowly, rubbing her cheeks with her hands to warm them up.
"Coming," she calls, getting up and pulling on a pair of jeans and a fairly nice t-shirt with flowers painted on it. She walks to the door and opens it. On the other side stands Hunter in his black Armani suit.
"Hey, Amanda. Good morning," Hunter chuckles, handing her a single rose that was swirled with red and white that also has an amazing smell.
"My god, Hunter. It smells wonderful," Amanda says, smelling the rose and smiling.
"If you plant it and water it just occasionally with a bit of sunlight it’ll continue growing and eventually it’ll give you red rose, white roses, and some mixed roses," Hunter says, happy to see that Amanda liked the rose. He had gotten it from Jaclyn, who loved to grow spectacular plants that don’t form naturally.
Amanda grins and suddenly throws her arms around Hunter’s shoulders and neck and hugs him. Hunter hugs her back gently, laughing at her exuberance.
"So how about you come out on a date with me?" Hunter says, grinning as Amanda suddenly looks bewildered and scared.
"A date? You… want to go on a date with *me*?" she asks and Hunter can’t help but laugh at her expression.
"Is there another girl around here that I’m not aware of?" Hunter teases, taking Amanda’s wrists and pulling her out of the room gently, "So what do you say? Just one time and then I’ll never ask again if you don’t want me to."
Amanda smiles at the sound of Hunter’s voice, it seemed like he was actually in a very good mood. She could just imagine his grinning face, playful and teasing.
"Yes, I’ll go out on a date with you. At least this once," Amanda teases, knowing that she’d do whatever he asked when he was like this. Hunter grins, taking Amanda’s hand and gently holding it to his cheek.
"Good, cause else I would have had to bribe you with chocolates," he laughs, not noticing the look on Amanda’s face. Just as Hunter heads off down the hallway, about to drag her along with him she stops him.
"I just have one request. I want to see your shape shifter form… I know I can’t technically see it…" Amanda says, breaking off as Hunter freezes in place and becomes rigid, "Hunter? Um… never mind. It’s fine. Let’s just go." Amanda says, now trying to pull Hunter along but he wouldn’t budge.

"Are you sure, Amanda? I don’t want you to run away from me…" Hunter says, pulling her back into her dorm room. Amanda just nods silently and Hunter’s pupils narrow into slits,
"Ok… I’ll do it. But after the date ok?" Hunter says, his voice quavering slightly.
"Ok," Amanda says, somewhat stunned. Hunter leads her down the steps and out into the city within a few seconds, moving a bit too fast for Amanda.
"Slow down, Hunter!" Amanda says, out of breath already even though she was quite athletic.
"Oops. Sorry. I forgot your human…" Hunter says, sounding like he was frowning once again. He continued to lead her along, still a little too fast but Amanda didn’t complain anymore. Suddenly they stopped at they hit an area of trees that separated them from the zoo. Hunter very carefully led her through the trees, looking around at all the creatures in the trees that the humans knew nothing about.
"Hunter? What’s all around us?" Amanda asks, turning her head every which way as she heard sounds of the creatures and felt their energy around her.
"Fairies, nymphs, birds, tree spirits, a million different creatures that all depend on this small little patch of trees. Humans are always cutting down the trees and destroying millions of creatures… it’s a saddening thing. About a hundred lives are lost when one tree is cut down…" Hunter says, sounding sad and yet also angry.
Amanda tilts her head down and thinks about what Hunter had just said. Thousands of lives to build one building for a few humans to live in… it was amazing that the creatures of nature hadn’t attacked and killed humans yet…
Suddenly a realization hit Amanda. It was because something was protecting the humans. That had to be it.
"Hunter? Is there something that protects the humans? Cause if not what stops all these creatures from just wiping us out?" she asks, continuing to be dragged along by Hunter.

Hunter’s heart stilled for an instant as Amanda asked her question but he knew it was inevitable that she would find out.
"Yes, there is an organization known as Le Conseil that protects humans from the magical world. Any magical creature that attacks a human with out a legitimate reason is labeled as ‘rogue’ and then is hunted down by Le Conseil. Le Conseil is comprised of humans with magical gifts that have been found and trained… from people like Kim, who have the abilities needed to track people and creatures and be stealthy when needed to people like you who can sense any magical creature near you and possibly some other abilities," Hunter says quietly as they enter the zoo, "We’re here."

Amanda hears the sounds of the zoo animals and smiles, "The zoo. I love it here," she says, running to the edge of a fountain that she hears and waiting for Hunter to catch up. Hunter takes her hand and laughs a bit, twirling her around,
"Well then I chose the perfect spot didn’t I?" Hunter whispers into her ear, suddenly there and suddenly gone, dragging Amanda off around the zoo.

Amanda and Hunter spent most of the day looking around the zoo, watching (and in Amanda’s case-listening to) the animals be fed and doing their tricks and such. The last place Hunter and Amanda went was to the panther exhibit.
Amanda heard the sounds of the panthers which she had listened to quite often when she came here to think. She ran to the edge of the pen, grinning at the panther’s yawns and sounds of welcome. She felt Hunter behind her and she turned, smiling at him.
The moment she turned though it was like Hunter’s aura had exploded and she could feel all the colors and feels enveloping her for a fraction of an inch before it disappeared.
"Hunter?" Amanda asks, a little afraid of what had just happened.
"Come on. It’s getting kind of late," Hunter says, his voice sounding strained and hard but he took her hand gently and lead her back to her dorm room. Amanda was expecting him to just leave after he got her to her dorm but Hunter walked in quietly.
"You sure you still want to ‘see’ this?" He asked, looking at her with a peculiar look in his eyes, though of course she couldn’t see it. With those words Amanda remembered her request from earlier.
"I’m sure," she says, sounding confident and fearless. For a brief second the air in the room contracted before becoming normal and Amanda got down on her knees just as a very large panther slowly nuzzled her hand.
"Wow…" Amanda says, wrapping her arms around the panther’s neck and laying her head against it’s shoulder before she fully comprehended that this was Hunter, "This is amazing…" she murmurs, hugging him just a little bit tighter before letting go and standing up.

Hunter shifted back into human form, standing and looking at Amanda. She looked so gorgeous to him, especially in this moment. At the zoo he had gotten proof that she could possibly be his mate, if she accepted him after she had seen who he truly was. So far she hadn’t run away and just now she had actually *hugged* his panther form when most would have turned and ran.
"Well goodnight, Amanda," Hunter says, pulling Amanda to him and gently kissing her on the lips, smiling, before leaving the room while Amanda was still stunned by the kiss.