Dark Waters - Chapter 6A - Love and Memories

Suddenly Amanda hears commotion in the other room as the door in the other room crash open and hit something, hard. She opens the door she had been leaning against and rushes into the other room just as she hears Hunter’s unique growl from his human body.

Hunter had locked the door before heading toward the corner of the room he was going to sleep in. As soon as he heard the doorknob jostle he knew someone had tried opening it. But when he listened he didn’t hear footsteps heading away. He swings around just soon enough to see the door crash open and hit the floor and a totally black clothed Noir steps in, looking around with emotionless seeming black eyes which finally stop on Hunter. Hunter growls slightly, having noticed during the council meeting that Noir was totally unpredictable and uncontrollable without Illuminata. Hunter realizes quickly what Noir is, not having realized before, and realizes at the same time the growl could be a fatal mistake when dealing with that kind. Noir’s eyes flash with some red as he swings his whole body toward Hunter, his long coat swishing around his ankles before suddenly Hunter’s against the wall with Noir’s black clawed hand around his throat. Noir growls and hisses at Hunter, his teeth sharp and serrated. Made for killing. Suddenly Hunter sees Illuminata and Amanda rush in, both with wide eyes.

"Hunter!" Amanda cries, moving toward Hunter, her eyes filled with worry. Noir turns his head toward Amanda and just bares his teeth in warning not to come any closer, though Amanda doesn’t notice, as Hunter struggles to breath.
"Noir, let him down," Illuminata says, calmly and gently. She puts her hand on Noir’s shoulder gently and Noir looks at her for a moment before looking back at Hunter and dropping him. Hunter immediately hits the floor, coughing, and Amanda kneels down next to him. She wraps her arms around him and pulls him close as he passes out and goes limp.

"Noir, why do you insist on parading around in that form. Your scaring the poor girl," Illuminata says sternly to Noir who just rolls his eyes and slowly his skin becomes more of a bronze color, the black of his eyes disappearing and becoming somewhat normal, though still more black than a human. His claws disappear and suddenly he looks much like just a very dark human.
"Don’t worry about Mr. Hunter. He’ll be fine. Noir just put him to sleep for a little while," Illuminata reassures, smiling slightly at Amanda, who feels warmth go through her, "Who you need to worry about is Ms. Kim. She’s disappeared,"

Amanda stares at empty air for a moment, surprise and shock clear on her face.
"Kim‘s been kidnapped?" she asks, her voice shaking as she sees clear images flash in front of her eyes of Kim laying on a soft and comfortable bed, curled up in the darkness, looking around and afraid of what may come out of the darkness. Suddenly the door opens and light filters through, silhouetting a tall figure in the doorway who quickly strides forward out of Amanda’s view. Suddenly the images disappear and Amanda gasps. She had seen. She might not be able to see with her eyes but the images had been sharp and clear with full color. Amanda smiles with joy before suddenly realizing that while she was seeing possibly hundreds of miles away Hunter had moved off her lap and was most likely awake,

"Amanda?" he asks, his voice quiet. Amanda hears Noir sigh in the background before whispering to Illuminata,
"Remind me kill the bastard next time. I hate this lovey dovey bullshit," Noir snarls and Illuminata chuckles quietly.
"Yeah, I’m fine Hunter. I’m more than fine. And I think I know where Kim was taken," Amanda says, standing quickly and stumbling. Hunter catches her and a few memories come back, clear images this time instead of just feelings. Hunter chuckles and steadies Amanda.

"I don’t think Kim is in danger at the moment so we can take time to plan a good way to get in, check the place and make sure she’s actually there, and do everything else we need to do it safely. If suddenly she’s in danger I should be able to feel it," Amanda says, confidence in her voice. Hunter smiles at the sudden confidence. This woman was nothing like the Amanda he had known before. The other Amanda would never have put herself in the face of danger like this or taken on this job, even to save her best friend. He couldn’t decide in his mind which Amanda he wanted to stay.
Amanda suddenly realizes Hunter’s arms are around her and his hands are gently brushing up and down her upper arm in comforting strokes. She hastily moves away from him and feels her way around the room to the end of the bed and leans against it.

Illuminata raises her eyebrow at Hunter and smiles at the way Hunter frowns at Amanda but moves away into the corner of the room and seems to disappear into the darkness, or at least to mortals.
"Well then we will not panic and we will plan a safe way to get in and out with Ms. Kim with us. Ms. Amanda we’re putting you in charge of a squad as leader and you are to work with your squad and get used to them. You will be completely in charge of them once they are on the field. Their lives will be in your hands. Make sure they learn to follow your every instruction. Even the smallest deviation from plans can get you all killed," Illuminata says before turning to Hunter, "Mr. Hunter you will be in charge of Ms. Amanda’s protection and you will reinforce her every command. I’m going to trust your good with stealth, hand-to-hand combat, and tracking.

Those will also be your jobs. I’ll have someone come to your room to take you to your other squad members," she says before turning regally and striding out of the room. Noir follows after right after glaring at Illuminata’s bodyguard with clear wariness and yet something like hatred in his eyes. Amanda relaxes as soon as everyone is out of the room and she takes a deep breath, closing her eyes and going completely still. Hunter had been about to walk over to her but as soon as he sees her go still he freezes, instinctively knowing not to interrupt her concentration. Amanda lets herself go completely relaxed and still and she clears her mind of everything except an image of Kim. Suddenly the image blurs the surface seems to be like rippling water, distorting the image and changing. Suddenly Amanda feels like she’s right there in the dark room with Kim, except its no longer just Kim.

Kim was standing in the corner of the room, her eyes wary as she holds the knife she still had in her hand and in front of her.
"You come one step closer and I will not refrain from attacking," she threatens, her voice shaky but a lot less than it should be considering the tall and exceedingly muscular and large man on the other side of the room from her.
"Mr. Poderasky told me to make sure you ate your food miss," the man says, watching her knife warily.
"I refuse to eat it," Kim says, raising her chin in defiance and pushing the tray of food across the room with her foot.
"But miss-" the man starts but is interrupted by another voice,

"Its fine Mr. Konia. I’ll take it from here," a soft and yet dangerous voice says from the doorway where a shadowy figure of a considerably leaner man stands. Quickly Mr. Konia nods and moves out of the room, closing the door behind him leaving the room in complete darkness. The lights suddenly flickers on and the leaner man turns out to be Alexon who sighs and shakes his head, moving toward the tray of food and picking it up, ignoring the fact that Kim was still holding the knife and watching him warily.
"Your scaring my employees milaya moya. You need to eat something," Alexon says, carrying the tray over toward her while watching her with bright golden eyes.
"No. I won’t listen to you ‘Mr. Poderasky,’" Kim says with a humorless laugh, seeming to disdain the title. Alexon’s eyes flash and the tray of food drops out of his hand before he stands and moves to the door. He opens it and looks over his shoulder quickly, anger in his eyes.
"Be careful miss. I’m not someone you want to mess with," he says before leaving the room, the lights flickering off to encompass a now sobbing Kim in darkness.

Amanda jerks out of the image as she feels strong arms cradling her against and hard and muscular chest.
"Sh…" Hunter’s soft voice murmurs, rocking her back and forth as she cries.
"She’s so afraid Hunter. Alexon’s got her trapped in a dark room that brings back horrible memories for her. And he’s so frightening to her," Amanda says, gripping Hunter’s shirt in her hands, not even realizing what she was doing she kisses him fiercely, the million emotions running through her head making it impossible for her to think. Hunter pulls Amanda close and kisses her back until his head is spinning and both of their breaths are coming in short gasps. Amanda kisses his cheek several times, wrapping her arms around his neck as Hunter tries to catch his breath.
"Amanda stop. You have to think about what your doing. I don’t think your ready for this," he says, gripping her shoulders tightly and pushing her away. Amanda’s eyes clear up slightly as she stares in his direction blankly. Hunter’s words barely penetrate the awful haze in Amanda’s mind but she takes a deep breath and stands up just as someone knocks on their door.

"Ms. Amanda and Mr. Hunter? The rest of your squad is ready to meet you," the male voice says from the other side. Hunter stands and opens the door, letting Amanda walk out first while he catches his breath and prepares to go out and look tough in front of the squad. Quickly Hunter walks out the door and trots to catch up to Amanda who is standing tall and proud and looking like a strong and powerful goddess. Hunter smiles, realizing that this was the Amanda he loved.

Hunter’s steps only falter for a moment as he realizes he loves Amanda. It was right there in front of him. This was the Amanda he loved and was proud of. The Amanda who would fight with everything she had to protect her friends and family. He smiles to himself before they enter a small room with chairs in a semi circle facing a white board and a bunch of high tech equipment and everything needed for a meeting room next to the door.

Amanda looks at the other people in the room, three other women and four men. Everyone except for one of the guys and one of the girls were sitting. The girl and the guy who were standing were throwing wild punches and kicks at each other, moving back and forth with moves at incredible speeds, barely touching each other even though it was clear they were trying. The woman was faster than the guy and working around the guy in circles, throwing kicks and punches whenever she saw an opening. Her black hair in a tight ponytail bobs up and down on her back, hiding the black wolf ears on the top of her head but the black wolf tail was completely under hidden. The guy was much more muscular and his punches were stronger but lacked the speed of the girl’s. His teeth were incredibly sharp and his skin was slightly tinted red, matching his crimson hair which hung in a ponytail behind him which swung wildly. Suddenly the guy freezes mid-punch as he realizes Amanda and Hunter are there and the girl spins around, her hair fanning out behind her, and kicks him in the chest, sending him back into the wall. The guy barely grunts however and moves away from the wall, smiling at the girl,

"Wow. Your good," he says as the girl sits down, crossing her legs.
"The two you just saw fighting were Alicia and Markus. Alicia is half wolf shape shifter. She can’t actually shift into a fully human or wolf form. But she’s got the advantages of both forms and only some of the disadvantages of both," the man who led Hunter and Amanda there says, motioning toward Alicia who smiles in greeting and bows her head to them quickly, "The guy’s name is Markus. He’s a Fieran demon. He can take a human form, a half human half demon form, or a full demon form but in each form he has all the advantages and disadvantages of his full demon form. These two are the resident hand-to-hand masters and this is their first time meeting. The one with the blonde hair and is Rhiannon and she’s a human with a voice that can literally make anyone do whatever she wants them to do. We found her when she was talking her way through a high security prison for fun.

Then the girl with brown hair and wings crouching on the chair is Marissa. She’s a Gurasi demon and she’s about two thousand years old but acts like a ten year old at times. She can teleport into anywhere and can immobilize almost anything she comes across along with wiping memories. Then this tough guy in leather you see is called Azriel. He’s a world class sniper and descends from cat demons and so he has enhanced senses but is mostly human. But never get on his bad side because you’ll end up with a bullet wound in a very painful, and most often fatal, spot. The other two guys are Scott and Maxwell.

Their twins and highly telepathic along with being able to use each other’s sight and senses. Their also telekinetic. The bad thing is if one dies the other does. Anyway that’s your whole team. Go ahead and talk. They all know who you two are already. Feel free to use anything in this room and if you need anything else just press the button next to the door. The green one. The red one is for emergencies only," the man says before leaving quickly.
Alicia stands up and walks forward to shake Amanda’s hand, smiling.
"Nice to meet you," she says, also shaking Hunter’s hand. Everyone else in the group gets up in order and also greets Hunter and Amanda, going back to where they had been before but just staying standing up. Hunter smiles at Amanda reassuringly before walking over and joining the group.
"Well… everyone take a seat," Amanda says, feeling like she suddenly fit in somewhere as everyone sits and looks at her with friendship as they listen.