The Sijistani's Arrive to the Coven

Tahir Sijistani walked up to the large coven, his silver eyes taking it all in as he approached.

He had a few large bags slung over his broad, tan shoulders. It was all of his and Arzu's belongings. He himself didn't have very many possessions, and as such he was carrying mostly his sister's belongings.

He didn't mind however. In the time since he'd been cursed she had grown to become an unhealthy thin weight. The once strong looking and capable girl he knew now looked as though she was fragile and could break easily. He'd have to change that soon, get some more meat on her bones again.

Arzu had spotted some herbs and flowers in the forest that would be good for her magic and alchemy. She wanted to stop and collect them, but Tahir was able to tell that the mansion was close. So he decided to go on ahead of her as she gathered up the ingredients. She assured him she would catch up soon.

The sun had just settled down beyond the horizon, everything a lovely and dark shade of blue. All ready the stars were starting to glisten in the nautical dusk sky.

Tahir took a deep breath, taking in the scent and air of his new home. The architecture was unlike anything he'd ever seen in his time. The size reminded him of one of the many palaces in his homeland of Merv before it was destroyed. But the actual design of the building was far different then Persian architectonics.

As the sun set Alexis woke, the vampire was in a good mood, a rarity for her but she found it becoming increasingly common the longer she stayed at the coven.

She had fed the previous night and her face still kept some of the colour of being freshly fed.
Her lips were a pale shade of pink and a slight dusting of colour graced her cheeks.

Like most nights she had taken to strolling around the garden, perhaps she would find her brother out here playing with Aodh and Maccon.

She wanted company tonight, but finding someone willing to converse with her was even more of a rarity than her good moods.

Her bright golden eyes fell on another, she pursed her lips slightly, she had not seen this man before.

Judging from his skin tone and build it was easy to guess that he was a lycan even before catching his scent, he was much larger than most of the other lycans, not only in height but in build too.

She walked over, her silver hair licking at her calves as it caught the gentle breeze.

"Good evening."
She muttered softly, many of the other vampires, or lycans for that matter, may have approached him more cautiously, but size didn't faze Alexis, the way she approached him, he could as well been a chihuahua.

Tahir blinked once, coming out of his thoughts when he heard the feminine voice. He looked down at her and raised a brow.

By assumption Tahir knew that there wouldn't be any human's at the coven. However this girl had an even more supernatural aura about her then most.

He let his eyes gaze her up and down, taking in the little details about her such as the length of her silvery hair, her flickering golden eyes, the graceful way in which her slender body moved, and of course the curves of her breast.

He was a man after all.

But he wasn't a creep and didn't let his gaze linger. Just merely let his eyes flicker up and down her body once before settling on what was above her neck.

"Good Evening." He said back,nodding his head. He liked the carefree way that she approached him. Most people danced cautiously about his presence, but she bravely passed him with not so much as an anxious glance.

"I'm Tahir Sijistani. What's your name?" He asked, stretching his fingers out on one of the straps slung over his shoulder before gripping onto it again.

Alexis chuckled inwardly as he gazed at her, men, at least his had the decency not to let his gaze linger for too long.

"Alexis Rozen, I take it that you're new here. The bags being a subtle hint."

This time she chuckled softly, it was barely audible but still present. She flicked a few stray strands of hair over her shoulder.

Being near the man there was no second guessing his species, the domineering presence lycan's gave off simply rolled of of him.

"If you need someone to show you around, I'd be willing to help."

She had nothing better to do after all, nights had been boring ever since her last encounter with that bounty hunter, seemed everyone was busy doing their own thing.

Tahir's lips curled up into the faintest hint of a crooked smile at her words.

"Smart one you are." He said playfully, his sarcastic side all ready showing. He couldn't help it really. Arzu and him always bantered back and forth sarcastically. It as just second nature to him.

He shrugged the bags up further onto his shoulders as to reposition them from falling off.

"That would be great actually." He said at her offer. A beautiful woman escorting him to his new home, how could it get much better then that? He liked it here all ready.

"Indeed, I'd put Einstein to shame." She replied flashing the man a small grin.
All too often people assumed that she was nothing more than a pretty face, oh how wrong they were.
She may not be a genius but she had a very particular skill set, and what she did, she did very well.

"This way then, lets find you a room. Aria or Terra?"
She asked softly as she pushed open the large oak door and motioned him in.

She'd place him in which ever room had a spare bed, then at least he would not need to be lugging bags around with him.

This time the smile did fully come to his lips at her words. She wasn't put off by his sarcasm, and he took that as a good sign. If the people here were too snooty as to take a joke he wasn't sure how well he'd get along here. He was glad Alexis wasn't like that.

"I always did believe that an educated woman is one of the biggest threats mankind has seen." He said with a grin, meaning his words. The assassin that had taken him down was an educated woman. And the person who was finally able to free him from such a binding curse was an educated woman as well.

It would be near impossible for Tahir to be sexist with a sibling like Arzu. She was a capable woman with a strong personality. She got it from their mother.

"My sister, Arzu, said we were Aria. She's the one that arranged for us to live here." He said as he followed Alexis, his footsteps heavy.

Alexis' heels clicked against the hardwood floors as she walked him towards Aria wing.

An educated woman is one of the biggest threats mankind has seen...

That thought made her giggle inwardly, she had to bring her hand to her mouth to stop herself from laughing.

Tahir, how right you are.

"Speaking from experience?" She questioned softly, it was uncommon to hear something like that from men.

She could not help but wonder is there was a woman alive with a bigger bounty on her head than the one she currently held, granted she was not overly proud of it anymore.

"Aria, same as me.
Your sister can share my room, I currently don't have anyone sharing with me. Each room houses four people."

She explained, glancing over her shoulder at him, she admired his smile for a moment, it lit up the man's face but she suspected that he wasn't the type to be grinning constantly.

The content expression remained on his face even after she asked him that question. He wouldn't mention the assassin, but his sister on the other hand he was just find talking about.

"I think you'll see that for yourself when you meet Arzu. She lacks brute strength but makes up for it with her mind. I wouldn't cross her." He said, the smile still on his thick lips.

He again adjusted the heavy belongings hanging from his back and shoulders.

"Good luck." He muttered with a smirk at hearing Alexis would be sharing a room with his sister. He liked this one and hoped that Arzu wouldn't drive her too crazy.

"Well in that case, I look forward to meeting her."
She replied, slowing down slightly to walk beside him as they entered the hallway.

She thought about offering to help him carry those bags, he looked like a pack mule, but doubted he would accept her help, it would probably question his masculinity.

"Unless you two are nocturnal I doubt I will be seeing much of her anyway, so there is no need to fret on my end I suppose."

She'd be fast asleep during the day when the lycan's were active so it was likely that the only times she would ever see Arzu were the early evenings.

Shit...She thought for a second, picturing the coffin that lay against the floor on her section of the room. She would have to adjust back to a bed now that she had company.

Alexis didn't particularly want news her odd habit being spread around the coven.

"Nocturnal? Would it be safe for me to assume you were a vampire? I've never met one before but you do have that mysterious if not nefarious air about yourself." He said, the words rolling off his tongue.

He may not look like the type of man who would know his way around words, but linguistics was something he enjoyed.

He didn't want to fit any stereotypes of the brainless meat-head who was only good for lifting heavy objects.

Though he did get that a lot.

"Nefarious.."
She mused softly, finding it quite amusing for a man that looked like that to use such language, though she avoided jumping to conclusions about people, more often than not it landed you in trouble.

"I must admit that is the first time I have ever been described as nefarious."

She put on an expression of mocked shock and shook her head.
"No, clearly I am a lycan."
She joked and smirked up at him, nothing about her at all said 'lycan' in any way, shape or form.

She giggled for a moment and nodded slightly.
"Yes that would be a very safe assumption. I'm a pure-blood vampire."

She didn't state her pure-blood heritage pompously as most vampire's in her situation would, it was just a little fact about her that meant nothing more than she died faster in the sun.

Tahir raised a brow. Maybe he had spoken without thinking.

"I assure you I didn't mean it offensively. You just have a sinful charm about you is all I meant." As soon as those words left his mouth he smacked himself internally. Now that had been said without much thought. A sinful charm? She probably thought he was a real creep for saying that.

He cleared his throat once before moving on quickly to respond to what she had said next.

"Pureblood eh? So you were born as a vampire. I suppose that would mean you've never felt the sun before. That's a shame." He said, not even knowing that Alexis Rozen had indeed been exposed to the sun on the fateful day that her family and home was taken from her.

Tahir himself loved the warmth of the sun. He'd missed it while he was bound inside the cold steel of his sword. He had been conscious during that time, unable to speak or hear or even breath. But death would not come to him within that metal confinement. It was a torturous curse the assassin placed upon him.

She waved her hand dismissively.
"Not at all Tahir, I am normally called far worse things than nefarious, I assure you."

The sinful charm comment made the corners of her lips twitch up in a smirk.

"Actually rather recently I did get to spend a day in the sun, there is a metal and stone mixture then when properly combined can let a vampire walk in the sun as long as it is exposed to their skin.

A friend of mine bargained with the owner of the coven to let me borrow some so I could spend a day outside."

Granted it was on the promise that she would go on a date with him, but Aodh was dating Aeker now so that detail was unnecessary.

She led him down the hall and into the Aria wing, quickly checking a few of the male rooms for spare beds.

The man tilted his head in confusion. He couldn't imagine someone calling a lady like Alexis anything worse. At least in his eyes she was beautiful and had a nice personality. Anyone who wouldn't like her probably had a problem with themselves.

Not wanting to sound like a kiss ass though, Tahir decided to keep that thought to himself. Flattering a woman too much was only something he did when he wanted to lay with her.

And all though he definitely wouldn't mind sleeping with a woman as beautiful as Alexis, he now lived here and didn't want to make a fool out of himself. Every girl he'd been with was a one night stand.

Seeing a woman the next morning would be awkward for him to say the least, let alone another woman that lived in the same house as him now.

He listened as she explained the charms that allowed her to see the sun. It was amazing what magic and spells could do. A topic that interested both him and his sister very much.

"It was alchemy like that that allowed me to be able to speak modern English." he admitted. "Fascinating what magic can do. Otherwise I'd still be speaking thirteenth century Persian."

"You didn't teach yourself English?"
She asked, Alexis had taught herself quite a few languages in her time, if she hadn't she would be speaking only twelfth century German.
"Do you do a lot of alchemy?"
Magic and science of any kind interested her.

All of the male rooms were fully occupied at the moment, she pursed her lips slightly.

"Looks like you get a room all to yourself for a while."
She smiled up at him and opened up the door for him, the room was furnished with four of everything, beds wardrobes, the lot.

"Home sweet home."
She smiled and she walked into the empty room, chances were as more people moved in the room would become more decorated with everyone's belongings.

"If you like I can take your sister's bags to her room?"

Tahir looked to the side, feeling a little ashamed that she called him out on that. But he quickly shrugged it off. What did he care if she thought less of him for it?

"Yes. It was an alchemy spell though so in the process I had to give up my knowledge of my old language. I'll be honest I've only just been freed from a curse that had my soul bound away for the past few centuries." He said casually, his voice low and husky. He didn't feel the need to hide anything from Alexis for some odd reason. In fact he felt pretty comfortable around her.

"And yes, both Arzu and I enjoy any sort of magic. I specialize in the dark arts myself, but Arzu is skilled in all types of magic. Like I said earlier, I wouldn't want to cross her. She's more powerful then she looks... What about you? You like any sort of magic?" He asked as they walked down the Aria hallways.

When she showed him the empty room he couldn't help but get his crooked smirk again. He hadn't been too excited to share a room with a bunch of guys he hardly knew. He'd had enough of that his whole life coming from a large family and then joining the army.

It'd be nice to have a little privacy for once in his life. Even if it was just until more people arrived.

He looked at Alexis and raised an eyebrow again.

"Funny you should ask because that would be the majority of what I'm carrying." He said. He tossed a small duffle bag onto the bed, about a fourth of his load.

"That's mine, the rest is hers." He said with a small grin.

"But hey if you want you can just lead me to the room and I can drop the stuff off there. I wouldn't want you to have to carry all of her shit." He said, not even realizing it wasn't suitible to use such language in front of people he didn't really know.

Much like his sarcasm, his foul mouth was like a second nature to him.

"You had your soul bound away, that sounds hauntingly familiar."
She replied without explaining the last part, the world didn't need to know who she was and what she had done.

Not many people felt comfortable knowing they were sharing a roof with a homicidal maniac, she sighed inwardly as she reminded herself that those days of ravenous slaughter were over.

Though that was difficult when she still had a large bounty on her head.

"Most vampires know magic, I've had experience with bindings and curses and apart from that I can transform and control elements as well as a few summonings."

She skimmed over that in a rather blase fashion, in the vampire world those were nothing special but if he had not interacted with any vampires it might sound interesting.

"A girl after my own heart."

She chuckled softly before glancing at all the bags, she could carry the weight of them easily enough but her small stature made if difficult to carry such large objects.

"I suppose you should know which room she is staying in."

She replied without thinking and grabbed the largest back and hoisting it over her shoulder with ease.
Alexis was small but by no means was she weak.

She flashed him a warm smile and headed across the hallway, their rooms were really not that far apart.

Alexis stopped at her door and bit her lip softly, remembering the coffin...
"Uh, leave the bags here and I will take them in."

Tahir perked up slightly when she said that the binding curse was hauntingly familiar. He wasn't the type to pry though and so he wasn't going to question her further on it.

Once she explained that she was familiar in that magic he merely assumed that was why she had said such a thing. It would be ironic if the first person he met in his knew home had shared a similar past as he did.

"Sounds like you two will get along just fine then." He said, letting the small grin return to his face. He'd hoped that Arzu would be able to be herself here and make a few friends.

He didn't understand his sister fully, but he knew what happened in 1221 was enough to change her, scar her even. Ever since that day there was a veil of loneliness and sadness in her eyes.

Once he had seen her for the first time in hundreds of years, he could sense it even more.

His eyes widened and his jaw dropped just a little when Alexis took the heaviest bag and heaved it over her shoulders like it was nothing.

So she was stronger then she looked as well.

Tahir blinked and let the smile return to his face, following after her quickly. This girl was also one not to be messed with, he could tell.

The fact that she was not only strong, but could be strong in high heels was always something to be impressed with after all.

Once they got to her door he committed it to his memory, since this was where his sister would be staying after all. Not only that but he enjoyed this woman's company quiet a bit.

"Hiding something?" He asked playfully as he set the bags gently down by the door. He rolled his shoulders once he was free from all the extra weight, his back cracking while he did.

"I hope so, it would be nice to have some more companions."

She smiled softly, if he was anything to go by Alexis couldn't see why she would not get along with his sister.

After all her time here it would be odd having to finally share a room, the amount of times she had stumbled in here bloodied and broke were many.

She had liked that she could do so and slip into her coffin to heal without interruption of silly questions of if she was alright or not.
Alexis chuckled as he gaped at her ability to lift the bag.

Not just a pretty face.

She thought to herself with a smirk, the vampire had plenty of strength, it was all a matter of whether or not she wanted to use it at any given time.

A mischievous smirk spread across her lips as he spoke again.

"Yes."

She spoke simply, there was no use lying about it, not that she really wanted it exposed. She made a mental note to move the coffin as soon as she was out of his company, before his sister arrived.

His smile grew and his eyes flickered at her response.

She had a fire about her and he liked that a lot. Mysterious, but playful at the same time.

And to think he wasn't sure on joining this coven not all that long ago.

"Good answer." He said, nodding his head up and down. "And although you have me curious I'll respect a ladies secrets." He added with a smirk.

"Good."

She smiled and twirled her finger around in front of her.
"Turn around, no peaking, I will be out in a second."

Alexis waited for him to turn before opening the door and swiftly moving all of the bags onto one of the share beds, quickly pushing her coffin beneath the bed that was meant for her.

That would be a good enough hiding spot for now if his sister wandered in while she was away.

When she was satisfied that no one simply walking in would see it she made her way back out and shut the door.

"Done. Is there anywhere else you want to acquainted with? Kitchen, library?"

She already knew most of the mansion so it would be easy enough to show him any place he wanted to know about

Tahir let out a soft laugh and turned around as she wanted him to, placing his hands in his pockets.

He couldn't help but listen though, and the sound that the coffin made scrapping against her floor as she pushed it intrigued him all the more. Whatever she was trying to hide, it was pretty big.

Once she was done he turned around again and offered her another smile. He was actually a little surprised at how comfortable he felt smiling around her. Usually he kept a blank expression on his face, but something about Alexis just made him want to smile.

"Actually I'm starting to wonder what's taking Arzu so long. I figured she'd be able to pick up our scent or something. It's probably nothing but I can't help worry about my little sister, you know?" He said, pulling his hands from his pockets.

"Want to walk back out the the front of the mansion with me?" He asked, motioning with his thumb in the direction they came from.

"Of course."

She could not help but return his smile with one of her own as he led him back down the hallway.

"I have a twin brother, so I know what it is like to fret about their well-being.

Though I am sure nothing has happened to her, not at the mansion, no one is stupid enough to do anything sinister within these walls."

That wasn't entirely true, she had nearly killed Taylor twice while on the mansion grounds, not to mention nearly killing Zeke too.

In all honesty she found it strange that none of the Elder's had scolded her for those events, not that she was complaining.

"What brings you to the mansion anyway, if it is not too personal. Seems most people around here have quite the story to tell."

"Ah a twin brother. So now if I see a man walking around with your face I'll know I'm not going crazy." He said with a smirk. "Does he live at the coven too?"

It was nearly impossible for him to not fret about Arzu. He knew she was strong and capable, but she would always be his little sister and as such he'd always be protective of her.

"Like I said earlier, Arzu was the one that arranged for us to live here. She'd been spending a lot of time trying to free me and once she finally did we realized we didn't have much anywhere to go to. She heard tale of this place and thought it'd be nice to settle somewhere such as this." He explained, staring ahead as they walked. His thumbs were hooked into the belt strap of his jeans and his boots caused his steps to be heavy.

"What about you Lexis? Why're you here?" He asked, glancing down at her with a crooked grin.