The office building they'd gone to in the dead of night in the middle of what appeared to be a city seemed to be completely normal, until they took the elevator. She'd watched Seamus stick a key into a special lock and felt the lift drag them down for what felt like far too long. She wasn't sure exactly how far down they were, but it made her claustrophobic to think about. With her head spinning in shock, Lily hardly noticed Cassidy's arm around her waist as he spoke to her while the elevator door opened, "Alright?" He asked. With her eyes fluttering as she looked him, she shook her head slightly, leaning in towards him, "Alright what?" "Said jus gotta go sort some shite out wit Seamus." He used his arm around her to guide her down the long hallway.
Cassidy waved his free arm out towards one of the tables in the lounge-like room they'd just entered, "Ere- talk to Vick. He's a riot. Yer gonna get along famously." Before she could even protest, he'd pulled her in to kiss her on the head, "Won't be long." He assured, making his swift way after Seamus.
As Lily moved her eyes towards the man Cassidy had pointed out, she pressed her lips into a polite smile, feeling very awkward. With a deep breath in, she shifted her glance and felt herself stiffen. She hadn't noticed all the other people. There were at least a dozen people there, and not a single pair of eyes wasn't looking at her. Someone cleared their throat, and Lily couldn't really find the right thing to say or do. In any regular circumstance, this wouldn't be too big of an issue for her, but Cassidy had so briefly explained on their car ride from the airport that Seamus was essentially a head member of this group. It was top secret, for obvious reasons, the main one being they were all vampires. Lily replayed the interaction in the car ride just a few moments ago. Seamus hadn't said much, and even though Cassidy had seemed entirely relaxed and nonchalant about the whole thing, even he didn't talk as much as he normally did. She wondered how much more there was to learn, and whether Seamus approved of her knowing anything about them.
Since the drive, Lily's head wasn't sitting straight. She didn't exactly have the best impression of vampires, Cassidy being the best one out of all the two she'd ever met and that didn't say a whole lot. Her tense state was hard to hide, being left in a room with a bunch of strangers to meet all at once. Not to mention each of them was a vampire. She wasn't sure which one was worse - small talk was never her forté.
Thankfully, the silence was broken, "Come, sit. Make yerself familiar." Someone said from a table along the back of the wall. With all her courage she had left, Lily let her feet walk seemingly on their own towards the beacon. Carefully, she let her eyes peak up. The golden hue of light coming from the large, copper plated light fixtures with their honey yellow glass shades seemed to make things warmer. With the tightness in her throat easing slightly, her eyes shifted to the tables, the industrial finish on the concrete countertops, the copper piping exposed. As she sat in the booth of the table, she let her hands graze against the dark emerald green velvet upholstered to the seat. She was relieved how comfortable she suddenly was. The setting was certainly a lot more welcoming than the many intimidating sets of eyes she'd seemed to only notice.
"Lily." Someone said at her side. "Vicktor." He introduced himself, a warm smile across his face. He had the most beautiful dark skin, and his cheek bones were especially accentuated when his grin spread out, "This is Roland, Vera, Marty and Claire." He said quickly, introducing those who were also at the table, "There's Quinn, well, Hell. You'll meet everyone eventually.." He assured, waving a hand, "What's your poison, darling?" His accent wasn't Irish, Lily knew that much. It sounded a bit British, but she was too afraid to ask and offend in some way. Shaking her head, Lily raised her brow and shoulders at the same time, "I'm fine with anything. Beer. Wine. Doesn't matter." Pretty much at the same time the words came out of her mouth, a beer bottle slid her way, and she was thankful to have something to keep her hands occupied as she quickly took a good drink out of the cold bottle. "Thanks." She said, placing the bottle on the table.
"So, how's yous n'Proinsias meet?" One of them asked her. With the bottle in her mouth, she nearly choked on her mouthful of cold beer, not expecting such a question right away. Placing the bottle down on the table in front of her with a clink, she cleared her throat, "At a bar." Lily said without hesitation.
Some laughed, the others scoffed, "O'course." Quinn chuckled from the table behind them as she rolled her golden eyes playfully.
Marty threw his head back and cackled, "Wot'd'ya mean!?" He howled, bearing a thick Irish accent, "Yer tellin' me that yer car didn't break down in the pourin' rain n'Pronsias 'ere didn't come t'yer aide and rescuin' n'sweep ye off yer pretty little feet there like he always does wit the lasses?!"
Lily raised her brows with a polite smile and wished she'd ordered something stronger as she took another big gulp of her beer. "Eh!" One of them said, turning to the other behind him, and smacking his shoulder. "Ye remember that time Proinsias had that metler around for a bit? The one with the limp?" "Yea, yea," The other nodded his head, a grin across his face, the two of them going off on a tangent of an old story, "Took her for a dooter down by the bay there, eh? And the rain is absolutely lashin', right?"
Lily let her eyes wander a bit, someone beside her began talking at the same time, and the words were all soon overlapping. "I'm Quinn." The woman with the beautiful golden eyes scooted beside her and shook her hand, "Have you ever been?" She asked, her accent was also Irish, but it was easier to understand, "To Ireland?" Quinn added. "No." Lily said simply, picking at the label on the beer bottle subconsciously. The other voices and people exchanging conversation distracted her again, "Oh lord, Proinsias, he's no stranger to the craic."
Their conversations exchanging over one another seemed to last for a long time. In a way, Lily was relieved there wasn't a tense quiet any more, but at the same time she was struggling to focus on one thing. They tried keeping her in their conversations, but most of the time, the jargon didn't make sense to her. She kept her answers short and tried to just drink her beer and listen.
Feeling a set of eyes on her, Lily turned to see a man - who she thought was introduced as Marty, but couldn't be too sure, smirk with a playful spark in his amber eyes, "Yer awfully quiet fer a yankee." He stated, "Compared to the ones I met at least, pfft." He chuckled, puffing at a smoke between his fingers, "Issit the jet lag or the fact yer surrounded by a buncha vamps n'yer the only blood pumpin' thing in this room right now?" He cackled. Quinn lowered her eyes at him, not amused by his joke.
Lily found it in her to let a soft exhale escape her nose as she laughed at herself. Those were good points, but neither of them were correct. She took a quick breath as she leaned towards him with her arms folded on the table, "I feel like I'm listening to another language with you all talking back and forth and over top of each other the way you are." She stated truthfully, "I have no fucking clue what you're talking about. And honestly," She tilted her head, "I'm dying for a cigarette, but I can't get a word in to ask someone to bum one off of them."
For the first time since Lily got there, there was silence that filled the room. In a split second, there was a burst of laughter that startled Lily.
Roland leaned against the table toward her dreamily, offering a cigarette with his hand and a lighter sliding towards her from the other end of the table, "You got that accent that sounds like a song, like." He said, "Keep talkin'. We'll shut our holes."
Lily's brow scrunched, "Thanks." She said, lighting the cigarette in her mouth before finishing the last of her wine in her glass. She exhaled a trail of smoke as she finished the last of her beer. As she placed the empty bottle down, there was already a new one.
"Tell us about yerself." One of them named Elliot said. "Yeah," Quinn sang, "Tell us what kind of a crazy fuckery a persons gotta go through to willingly be with Proinsias." She said, only half joking.
With her mouth around her cigarette, Lily raised her brows as she held the smoke in her lungs, "We're going to need a lot more smokes and booze to keep us entertained through my boring life story."
They all eagerly stared at her for some sort of explanation. With a shoulder raising, and her head dipping to one side, Lily sighed as a stream of smoke escaped her lips, "I got myself into some shit and he got himself in the middle of it." She said, flicking her cigarette over an ashtray, "Then we got into some shit together, and here we are."
"What sort of shite?" One of them asked without hardly giving Lily a moment.
Each of them watched as Lily's eyes seemed to move back and forth slightly as she struggled to come up with the words. She wasn't sure where to start. Flicking her cigarette in the ashtray on the table again, Lily leaned forward, "Any of you believe in God?"