Moonlight Held in Flesh

"Trash. Trash. Rubbish." Things were flying over James' shoulder and into the doorway of the room behind him, even as Tash sat calmly in that room, on a beanbag, and flicking through a glossy magazine that had been one of the first items James had thrown out of the room he'd claimed as his.

They were settling in well here. All things considered. Daniel had, of course, cased the house for places that might need guarding against. Then, around five minutes later, Sebastian had done the same thing. Tash had no doubt that, given another ten minutes, and once he was done throwing things out of his room and into hers, James would suddenly realise he'd not yet cased the place and would remedy that.

While that happened, Tash would move everything he'd thrown in her room back into his without lifting a finger. Sometimes, it was good to be a witch.

Somehow, she had the idea that Bri wasn't adjusting so well as the rest of them. It might have been that the blonde just hadn't seen as much as the rest of them. Even as she flicked on through pages of her magazine, her mind reviewed the merry band she'd come to ally herself with. Daniel had seen enough to be a smart ass, even though he was merely human. As far as Tash could see, there seemed to be a silent pissing contest between Daniel and James that Daniel still seemed to think he could win.

Sebastian was definitely the brains out of the men. Well, not so much brains. James demonstrated brains on occasion. Particularly in plans that involved himself getting out of situations scot free. Sebastian was the brains behind figuring out what the rest of them might do.

Bri still seemed as though the whole vampire world was a mystery to her. Not surprising as she'd barely been a vampire six months so far. Coming here via the underground must have been a real treat for her. She'd give the girl till later on in the night before trying to approach her about it.

As for her, she had her own reasons why she'd left her home town and come on this jaunt with a group of vampires and their human. But if she had to define it, she'd probably say...

Coming to the end of her glossy mag, Tash delicately removed herself from her beanbag As she started on down the hall to see what the rest of the house was up to, she stopped idly by James' bedroom door.

"Try getting into my mind again? You're going to find all manner of strange things start crawling their way into your head."

James had stopped muttering under his breath and throwing things from his room into hers some time ago. In answer to her accusation, he turned slowly to look her up and down. He wasn't even attempting an innocent fascade. Instead, he gave her a special smile that did not make it even halfway up to his eyes. "Looking forward to it," he answered, with a dare-devil glint.

Tash turned away from his room, made it to the end of the hall where Sebastian was in the process of pouring himself a drink. While she plonked herself on the couch and kicked her legs up over one side, she called out to him, "I thought you said you were going to keep a better leash on your brother."

Sebastian turned aside from the bar -well, dresser, but they had already begun to stock it like a bar- and gave Tasha his whole attention. His eyes were kind of lazy as he considered Tash's request. Really, they'd only been here about two hours. "What's he done now?" he asked, with the world-weary voice of one who has been tied to an unruly twenty-three year old brother for the better part of half a century.

Tasha heaved a sigh. "Tried to get into my mind. Didn't get very far. Obviously. I think I need a drink to make myself feel better about the whole thing."

Sebastian hesitated, then turned back to the bar where there were beverages that were people-friendly, not just vampire-friendly.

"What would you like?" he asked.

"Mm, scotch and soda. Do we have soda?"

Sebastian shook his head. "Guess you'll have to just make do with scotch."

Tasha's lipstick darkened lips twitched in mirth. "Oh, damn."