The first thing Gunny noticed was the contrast between her raven hair and her ivory skin. The second thing he noticed was the nose ring. He must have been staring because she caught his eye and smiled. "Hey, handsome," she said.
"Hey beautiful," he said back, smiling.
"Do you know her?" asked his friend Jorge. Gunny shook his head but didn't look at Jorge. Instead he walked over to the raven-haired beauty. "I'm Vic.""Victor," the name rolled off her tongue. "I'm Amanda."
"Amanda... would you like to go to my apartment?"
"Well, that would be very nice Victor."
They were kissing before the elevator reached Gunny's floor. They paused for "Victor" to put the key into the lock. "It's not much, but it's ship-shape," he apologized, opening the door.
"Ship-shape? What are you ,in the Navy?"
"Marines," he said.
"Oooh, Marines, what's your rank?"
"Gunnery Sergeant," his lips were on hers again.
"Oh, can I call you Gunny?"
"All of my friends at work do."
"I wasn't talking to you, Victor hunny. I was talking to him."
Victor followed her eyes. "Oh, now you've ruined it. Every time someone calls me Gunny I'll think of him," Victor complained.
"Every time they call you Gunny, you'll think of me."
"Well, that might be nice," he smiled. "I want you to know, I don't usually do something like this.. i mean just take women to my apartment from bars..."
"Mmmm? Oh, me neither," she pulled his shirt over his head.
"It's just...it's..."
"What?"
"It's dumb," he protested.
"No, what? Tell me."she said.
"It's like a kind of magic."
"Well I've never heard that one before," she smiled, unzipping his pants."
"And I'm clean, just had my annual check up."
"Oh? Me too."
"Do I need to use anything?"
"No." There was a tinge of sadness in her voice.
"Shall we move this into the bedroom?"
"Let's."
Victor saw a flash of light through his living room window. He ran across the apartment and saw a figure in the center of a storm of lightning. He looked closer and saw a body laying on the ground. He grabbed his gun and ran out of his apartment and pushed the button for the elevator. When it didn't come right away, he pushed through the emergency exit door and ran down the four flights of stairs.
He saw the figure wearing a long cream trench coat standing over a decapitated body.
"Turn around," he commanded, pointing his gun at the figure.
The figure turned around and he saw her face. Amanda. A quick intake of breath and she collapsed. Gunny dropped the gun and ran to her side. "Amanda!"
He saw that she had been ran through by her opponents sword, and had several gashes elsewhere. He gathered her up in his arms.
Suddenly her eyes opened and she gasped for air. "Hey, Victor," Amanda tried to smile.
"Hey, yourself. We need to get you to a hospital."
"No hospitals, just take me upstairs."
Normally Victor would have protested, but maybe it was the body lying in the alley next to them, or maybe it was the attraction he had to this woman to want to do her bidding, or maybe it was a kind of magic, but Victor obeyed and carried her to the elevator.
Once in his apartment, Victor layed Amanda on the bed.
"Let me get some bandages," he tried to think of what to do.
"No need." Amanda lifted up her blood encrusted shirt and the wound healed itself.
Victor backed up. "You are some kind of magic," he said as the cut across her forehead healed itself as well. "Well, what are we going to do about the other body?" Victor had now convinced himself that Amanda had acted in self defense in decapitating the mysetery man.
"I suspect it's already gone," she took off her shirt all the way. "Mind if I use your shower?" Amanda was already halfway to the bathroom by the time Victor responded in the affirmative. "We can talk about this when I'm cleaned up."
"That's about the size of it," said Amanda.
"And this man wanted your head?" Victor wanted to be sure.
"Right," Amanda confirmed.
"And where did the body go?" that was one thing he was still confused on.
"I'm not altogether sure, but I think it has something to do with the Watchers."
"The what?" Gunny ran a hand over his head, silently cursing himself for picking up a strange woman in a bar. Never again...
"Come on Victor, hunny, relax," Amanda got up from her seat on the couch and came over to straddle Gunny. She took his hand from his head and ran her hands over his close cut hair "Let me help you relax. Look you don't have to worry abou the Gathering or anything else. Just worry about being with me. Now."
"I think I can handle that," Victor ran his hands up either side of her body, to her head where he cupped it with his hands and pulled it close. He kissed her soundly on the lips and smiled. "You are some kind of magic."
END...for now.