Bathed in moonlight

She'd reacted back in almost no time at all! Before the man could blink she had grabbed his ankle and again cause him to fall back in the water. This time he did laugh out, and as such sucked in a bit of water when he went under.

He pushed himself up so that he could take in a breath again, coughing a few times from the slight choke. But he was mostly laughing.

He slapped his forearm into the water to splash her again, this splash a lot smaller then the others.

"Damn woman! You're faster then a viper." He chuckled.

Alexis shielded her eyes with her hands as he splashed her, giggling softly as he laughed.

"When you're hunted by lycans you have to be faster, I don't think I would be able to get anywhere near matching you in physical strength."

Physically he was definitely much stronger than her, but she made up for that with speed and vampiric powers.

She chuckled softly and pushed her hair out of her face, smiling over at him. She loved this, just being able to play and mess about without having to feel on guard.

All though he was tall enough to reach the bottom of the pool, Tahir bent his knees up and waded his arms out to keep himself afloat.

"You're speed against my strength... Pitted against each other I'd bet you would win." He said casually, as if admitting potential defeat against another was not even an insult to himself.

"But imagine the kind of damage we could do working together?" He asked with a grin. "We'd go down in history for sure."

"I would not count yourself out so quickly Tahir. Even I have my weaknesses, you just have to find them first."

Alexis had quite a few weak spots that would be easy to expoilt if someone were given the chance, she was just lucky that few people had discovered them so far.

A grin spread across her lips as he spoke for a second time.
"I'd pity who ever tried to cross our path if we were working together, their death would be spectacular."

A pairing like the two of them would have been that of legend back in the day, she could easily see the two of them balancing out the others weak spots in battle.

She could almost picture it, the giant wolf on the attack whilst she defended him from the air. The thought made her smile, no one would be able to break through her defenses, they would be nearly unstoppable.

He smiled at her with hooded silver eyes when she spoke of her weaknesses. Even if he still bet that she would be able to take him.

“Nice to know you think I’d at least stand a chance.” He joked with a grin.

He swam circles around her as he listened to her speak.

He closed his eyes for a moment, picturing them fighting in battles side by side. The Mongol army wouldn’t have stood a chance if he and Alexis had both been fighting against them.

If only that had been the case.

“A spectacular death indeed. Arzu told me that in this day and age weapondry has become more advanced. That there are these things called guns that makes it so that hand to hand combat is nearly extint. I think it’s a shame to be honest. Fighting with a sword can be so intimate, and falling to one just as much so.” He expressed, floating over onto his back and kicking away from the wall of the pool, causing the water to rush quickly over his body before settling into gentle ripples again.

"I think you stand more than just a chance, Tahir."
He was a strong lycan, well versed in battle, besides those supernaturals that she had met who were much older than her (Gia, Alek and his sons), Tahir was one of the few people that she had met that she thought would be able to kill her.

She just hoped that she never had to find out which of them would win in a fight because she suspected that it would be him, she could not bring herself to wound the man.

"Guns are clumsy and slow. I've used them before and I have had them used against me, I find them unreliable.

Bullets are not hard to dodge if you're paying attention and they would do barely any damage to our bodies, I think you'll find that amongst supernatural beings guns are not used much.

After all this time I still trust my blade above all else."

Her smile fell slightly, after her last battle with Taylor her weapon had been severely damaged and still lay in her room unused since then.

She'd had it since she was a child and she could not bring herself to part with it, they did not make weapons like that anymore and she didn't have the skills required to fix it.

Tahir could only smile as she said all this. Perhaps if he had just seen her or heard of the woman, he would agree with her. Yes, she had an air of power, and any supernatural being that had any sort of senses would be able to get that impression strongly.

But even just knowing the vampire for the little time he did, he thought that she would have the advantage over him. He wouldn’t be able to hurt her, only if she hurt his sister first.

Otherwise he would always be hesitating to strike and wound her, and with her speed combined with her powers, he knew he wouldn’t stand a chance to that.

He swam upright again and nodded his head when she spoke of guns. What was personal about a gun? He too had a strong connection to his sword, much as Alexis had with her scythe.

“If I’m ever killed, I would be ashamed if it were through a gun. I’d want to be able to look into my enemies eyes and know that he or she was a worthy opponent. Perhaps soilders and warriors these days aren’t like that.” He said, not at all phased by talking of death.

Having joined the army at a young age in his life, it was something that he always accepted could happen to himself, and he never struggled speaking of it.

It was only talking about the death of his loved ones that he found difficult to talk about.

"I would agree with that sentiment, the only way I want to die is with a blade through my belly and my opponents hands stained with my blood.

Anything less and I would sooner take my own life."

Alexis would rather die by her own hands than die quietly in her sleep or be killed by an unworthy opponent using dishonorable means.

She also didn't fear death, she had faced it that many times that the thought of dying was numb to her.
You could only live in fear for so long.

The vampire swam to the edge of the pool, unable to reach the bottom with her feet she decided to instead hold onto the edge.

The smile remained on Tahir’s face despite the grim words that Alexis was speaking.

Though the thought of either of them being killed was a dark and depressing one, it was the kind of conversation that Tahir was used to having with his old comrades in war.

And now, after all these hundreds of years, he was able to find someone to still talk to like this.

“It’s good to find someone who understands.” He said softly, more to himself then to her.

He again rolled on is back and floated in the water, peddling towards the edge to where she was until his head met it with a soft bump.

He blinked but remained on his back, looking up to her with a content expression, again thinking to himself how much he enjoyed her company.

She looked down at him with hooded golden eyes, a small smile gracing her lips once again.

Alexis enjoyed his company more than she cared to admit, he was like an old friend who she had been separated from for far too long.

"I'm glad you came to the coven, it's nice having someone to talk to, I don't think I have just relaxed an talked to someone at all in the last eight hundred years."

The last time she had let her guard down and enjoyed someone elses company with an ulterior motive would have been back before her coven was burned down, before she lost her mind.

He rolled around in the water and leaned against the wall of the pool as well, despite the fact that he could almost reach the bottom, being much taller than the vampire.

His expression softened when she said those words to him.

“I’m glad that Arzu brought us here too. I don’t think I’d get along well anywhere else. And besides, nowhere else has you there." He said, his eyes looking more gentle than usual without the black liner concealing them.

"And truth be told, it’s been about eight hundred years for me as well.” He added with a laugh.

Alexis chuckled softly and looked up at him, her smile widening slightly.

"Anyone would think that you were trying to flatter me, Tahir."

She shook her head slightly, the lycan couldn't be much older than eight hundred, she felt a little bad if he had gone nearly all of his life without being relaxed like this.

She could not help but admire his features when he looked this gentle, his silver eyes were enchanting and she wondered what colour they were before he was turned.

A playful expression came to the man’s face.

“I suppose they would. They would be wrong however. I flatter no one.” He said stubbornly.

It was true though. Flattery wasn’t something he liked. He only ever spoke his mind and that was all. If it came across any other way, well, that was just the person he was speaking to’s fault.

Alexis laughed softly and sighed at him.
"If you say so."

She felt compelled to ask him questions, she wanted to know more about him, about his life.
It felt odd, normally she did not care this much about people to want to know their life story.

"How did you end up a lycan? If it's not too personal."
It was a rarity that people chose to become lycans, and if they did they usually had a pretty good reason for it.

He gripped the edge of the pool and hoisted himself up out of the water, opting to sit on the ledge and let his feet up to his knees dip in. He leaned back and looked up at the night sky, appreciating the constellations.

"It's not too personal at all. I was hunting for food and was attacked by this large and monstrous wolf. It surely would have killed me had I not been experienced in black magic. It bit me several times but in the end gave up and ran away. I hadn't realized what happened at first. But then my eyes turned from dark brown to this silver color. My senses were heightened, and eventually I discovered the full reach of my power. I believed it was a gift from Ahura Mazda*. With this new found power combined with my black magic I grew to believe I was unstoppable." He remembered, a hint of fondness as well as amusement behind his voice.

"But no one save Ahura Mazda is unstoppable." He finished, looking down into the water. There was a humble quality about his demeanor. Not a depressed one or a sad one. The smile even still stayed on his face. But there was no trace of the haughty man he once was.

His traced his fingers along the metal on one of the cuffs around his wrists. He hadn't realized that Alexis might not even know who Ahura Mazda was. In the time he lived in, combined with where he lived, everyone knew that Ahura Mazda was the one and great God, creator of the universe.

He'd be shocked to know that his religion had almost all but died out.

"I hope your deity was kind to you, Tahir."
She had never really had a religion, her coven was secluded enough and old enough not to believe in such things, but she always did find the notions of spirituality to be comforting.

She chuckled softly, not has his misfortune but at some point all supernaturals believe themselves to be unstoppable in one small way or another.

"How young and foolish of you."

Tentatively she moved her hand up to touch the cuffs that clad his wrists.

"I wore metal like this not long ago."

She confessed, moving her hair away from the back of her neck and leaning her head forward, facing away from him so the faint outline of a mark that wrapped around her throat was visible.

Not long ago it had been a blistering scar that wrapped around her neck but it was slowly fading away, a few more months and it would be completely gone.

“Since when do the God’s care about being good to the foolish people that inhabit the earth?” He asked, though more with a philosophical tone then a spiteful one.

“I learned in due time that wasn’t the case.” He nodded, his eyes glazing over just slightly as he tried to fight back memories stained with crimson and the metallic smell of blood.

He blinked and looked back up at her when she touched the cuff around his wrist. Her simple touch had pulled him out from that bad memory. He looked into her eyes gratefully, though she wouldn’t even know what for.

The Persian man watched as she exposed the mark that was fading from her neck. He raised his brow, his curiosity sparked.

“What’s the story behind that?” He asked. He wouldn’t have been so bold to ask such a thing had she not showed him, but since he did he figured it was okay to be so straightforward.

Alexis shrugged softly.
"I am not well versed in the antics of God's, I have never been a religious person, my coven worshiped no God's."

She placed her hair back over her neck, glad that she was a pure blood, scars were rarely ever permanent, all of the wounds she had experienced healed over until there was not even a scar left showing.

"The bounty hunter that sealed me away in a coffin, I came here to kill her, and failed.
She was assisted by two lycan, they caught me off guard and she placed a binding on me again, a metal collar which bound me as her slave."

She grimaced slightly, it had only been a few months ago and the memory was still raw.

"I defied her until the end, the collar punished me accordingly for it.
Yet, after everything she put me through, I let her live."
She chuckled softly and shook her head, she should have killed Taylor.

She moved closer to Tahir, leaning her head against his leg as he sat up on the edge of the pool and she stay holding to the edge, wading in the water.

Tahir contemplated what that would have been like, to have no God or no faith. Many people in his time took solace in having a set of beliefs and a religion to add comfort to their often short lives.

So many lives would be cut short before their time, and without the belief that there was an afterlife, that would have been very difficult to deal with.

Tahir himself believed that his mother, his father, all of his siblings, and all of his comrades were enjoying eternal exaltation beyond the veil of this dark and tainted earth existence.

His eyes widened when Alexis told him of how and why she had the collar. He couldn’t believe that she had been enslaved by someone that lived here.

“Did no one try to help free you?” He asked, the surprise evident in his voice.

He was glad to hear that the vampire had defied her captivity, that she wouldn’t submit despite things looking to be hopeless. He would have been the same way, even if it caused more pain for himself.

His cheeks got somewhat hot when she leaned her head against his leg. Like so many other things, he wasn’t sure if this was something that women and men just did normally now, if if this was an intimate move.

Gingerly he reached his hand over and rested it on her head, letting his fingers smooth over her silver hair slicked back against her head from the water.

She looked up at him with a gentle smile, slight sadness entering her otherwise bright eyes.

"No."

She answered simply, there was nothing anyone could have done, at that point she had no friends, only Aeker.

And her brother would not free her because she was wild, a danger to herself and others, he just wanted to see her sane again.

She closed her eyes briefly, enjoying the feeling of his hand smoothing over her hair.

It had been so long since she had enjoyed the touch of another, so long that she could actually feel her heart start to beat a little faster.

Tahir furrowed his brow as he looked down at her, still gently running his hand over her soft and silky hair.

“Then I wish I had come to the coven sooner.” He said, disgusted that no one had tried to free her from enslavement.

He didn’t understand that she was wild and bloodthirsty then. He couldn’t imagine her being such a way unless she were being attacked or had a special purpose.

To know that once she had no real reason to kill other than to just simply kill, he would have a hard time believing it.

The Alexis he knew was charming, beautiful, and wonderful company. She was strong, but she wasn’t a monster.

She gazed up at him again, the sadness that had filled her eyes for a moment now gone completely.

"I don't, I'm glad you got to see me like this, instead of who I was before. I don't want you to ever see me like that."

Alexis could think straight now, her mind was no longer plagued by voices which twisted her understanding and manipulated her.

If the day came where she lost control and her eyes returned to red and black, she hoped that Tahir was far away from her.

She knew that in that state she could hurt anyone.

Without meaning to her eyes slid shut again, and a gentle purr escaped her lips, she loved his touch already, those large hands, which had long been stained red stroked her so gently.

“Oh? I guess I can understand that. I wouldn’t have wanted you to know me back before the taking of Merv.” He said, though he wouldn’t go into much more detail than that.

He couldn't help but smile when he heart the soft purr come from the woman.

“Maybe there was a reason we met each other in the time that we did.” He mused with a soft smile.

He let his hand slide down from her hair and caress her cheek tenderly without thinking much before doing so. He felt the soft skin on her face and brushed some of the water away with this thumb softly.

He too liked touching her, even though his mind told him not to, that he was overstepping boundaries.

"I was not a pleasant person to be around back then, I have a feeling you would not have liked seeing me like that."

She was not the same person in that state, she was beyond reasoning, all she wanted was blood, and she would take it by force.

"I'd like to think that too, sounds like we have both gone through a lot to get to this point in our lives. I'd like to believe that this is a reward for out struggles."

She was probably being too forward with him, but she liked him, more so than other men she had met before.

If she were to expose herself emotionally to him and be shut down, than so be it, at least she would not spend her time wondering what could have been.

"If you ever look into my eyes and see red instead of gold, run away from me."
She muttered softly, talking to her in that state would not help either of them.

Alexis leaned into his touch, reveling in his rough, warm touch.

Tahir looked up at the sky, again admiring the stars up in the heavens. A soft smile was on his lips, and his expression was more content then it had been in a long long while.

"I like that thought." He admitted, his voice a near whisper. He reached his hand down to hold her shoulder, his strong hands caressing her tenderly.

A small feeling of fear came into his chest. He was feeling emotion for her... a stronger emotion then before. Something he'd never experienced before he met her. He didn't want to do anything he would regret, he didn't want to lose her by getting to close.

"Speaking of gold I've got to piss." He said bluntly, patting her shoulder before standing up and walking over to the bushes a small ways away.

He grumbled a little as he struggled to figure out exactly how he was suppose to free himself from the swim trunks. Finally he found the zipper and tugged down so he could take a leak.