When they arrived on time to the location that Seamus had told Cassidy to meet him at, Lily felt like her heart was going to burst out of her chest from a combination of the emotions that were eating her up as well as the insane speed Cassidy had driven to get there in time.
It was a building in the middle of the city, it looked like it could've been a large home. Lily stared at the multiple black sprinter vans that parked outside the building. She was surprised when they went inside to discover it was a pub, and a jam packed one at that. With her eyes scanning the crowded venue, Lily noticed how sharp everyone looked, and felt her cheeks get hot. Her long coat that covered her wrapped a little tighter around her to hide the casual outfit beneath. Quinn smiled when she caught sight of Lily, making her way quickly to her side. With her cheeks still warm Lily let a polite smile stick on her face while she refrained from saying anything rude, "Cassidy didn't tell me it was formal."
"Ye look lovely." Quinn insisted with a big smile, her golden eyes glancing Lily up and down, as she reached out a hand to her "Come, let's get ye a drink." Lily raised her brows at Cassidy, who smiled politely as let go of her hand so she could follow Quinn. Lily watched as a few other vamps caught Cassidy's attention, reeling him into their conversation.
"Have you had a Guinness yet?" Quinn asked, raising her voice over the music and commotion of people that filled the venue. Shaking her head, Lily looked forward to the large bar they were headed for, a huge variety of options displayed beautifully, "Not a fan of beer." Lily stated, "I like wine, a cocktail - oh, not whiskey either." She looked at Quinn at her side, "What do you like?"
"Hot whiskey or coole swan." Quinn claimed.
"Hot whiskey?" Lily asked, feeling her mouth salivate at the thought of herself puking, "Surprise me with anything but whiskey of any temperature, please." She requested. Quinn chuckled, leaning to the bartender to place the order.
A voice startled Lily, "You drank a ton of beer." Lily turned to the voice at her other side, her heart skipping a beat, as she realized it was Garth. She let out a quick breath, "What?" Lily asked.
"You said you don't like beer." Garth stated, raising his voice a bit louder over the noisy atmosphere, "You drank a ton of it the other night. The night you first got here." Lily's lips pressed into a crooked smirk while she picked at her nails, the ring on her finger Cassidy had just given her catching her attention as she spoke, "Yeah, well, forgive me for being polite and taking whatever was given to me. I was nervous and overtired, among other things." She turned to him again, "Hello, by the way, Garth."
"Wots yer poison again, Garth?" Quinn asked from the other side of Lily. He shook his head, "I don't drink. Doesn't do anything for me." Lily nodded, "That's fair I suppose." Quinn slid two drinks to Lily's side, "Mind watchin' my glass?" She asked, "I have to use the loo." Quinn said, to which Lily nodded, watching as Quinn made her way to the washroom. Garth raised his brow, "Another reason not to drink liquids." Lily lifted the fresh drink to her lips and had a good sip, exhaling in relief, "I guess that means you don't eat anything either?" She asked. "Food or stuff like that." Lily specified, raising her voice a bit as the music was louder.
"On occasion." Garth raised his eyebrows, leaning to her slightly with a mischievous smirk spreading across his normally serious face, "I have a sweet tooth." She watched his eyes glance backwards, through the crowd of people as he scoffed, "That guy doesn't know when to stop running his mouth."
"Are you listening to Cassidy?" Lily asked, raising a brow. Garth couldn't help but chuckle, "No. But I could understand why you'd think, by that statement." Taking another drink, Lily hummed into her glass, nodding thoughtfully, "How do you focus on so many conversations at once?" She asked.
"I have a lot of practice. It's just a normal reflex now. Like how you don't have to think about blinking, or breathing or how your heart just beats on its own." Garth explained. Quinn was back at Lily's side, "So?" She asked. Lily turned ot her, "What?" She noticed Quinn looking at the cocktail in her hand, "Oh, it's great. Thanks." Quinn smiled politely, her golden eyes sparkling as she raised her glass to clink onto Lily's before taking a drink herself.
"So what is this?" Lily asked, glancing around the room briefly before noticing far too many eyes meeting hers. She quickly moved her stare back to Quinn. "It's just a social thing. We try to do them every so often to get us all together, since we're all around the place and whatnot."
"What do you mean?" Lily asked, her eyes scanning the room quickly, "Wait, everyone here is-" Quinn nodded, "Yeah, we're all vampires. 'Sept you. And the staff who run this place, though the bloke who owns it is one of us."
One of us. Lily chuckled to herself softly, drinking from her glass again. It sounded a bit culty.
"I'm trying to remember our last one..." Quinn hummed, her eyes moving upwards as she thought.
"1982." Garth stated.
Lily almost spat her drink out of her mouth. "That's what's considered every so often?" She asked.
With a shrug and a smirk, Quinn sighed, "Time flies when you're immortal." Nodding, Lily let her eyes wander a bit as she felt Quinn hold her arm, "Jus' 'ave to say a quick hello to some folks over 'ere, be right back."
Lily stood at the bar with Garth, who seemed to be staring directly into her. Before Lily could come up with more small talk, something shifted. Suddenly, Lily felt her stomach turn. Her head began spinning and she'd grabbed onto the bar counter at her side. Garth thought Lily was having some sort of seizure, watching her as her eyes nearly rolled back and her lips moved so fast, he couldn't make out what she was saying. But she wasn't having a medical episode, she was having a terrible vision.
Lily and Garth were talking at the bar, the music blaring loudly as they struggled to talk over it, when suddenly there was a loud bang, they turned to see Seamus get his entire head blown off. But when the shot was fired, there was also a flash of light that filled the entire large room. Blinded, they hit the ground. Lily heard terrifying screams and as her eyesight came back to, she noticed in the direction that Seamus had been shot, every vampire in the area was set ablaze. There was another bang, followed by another blinding light, and more screams.
This time when Lily was able to see again, she noticed the men with large goggles on, walking with handguns as they pointed for their next target. The loud crackle of the flames that engulfed all the vamps in the room soon surrounded Lily, and she felt herself begin to heat up as she began slowly burning...
A gasp escaped Lily as she came back to reality and there was a look on Garth's face that Lily didn't notice. For the first time in what was probably many decades, Garth felt panic.
From the opposite side of the room, Cassidy had already left mid conversation, his drink spilling on the floor as he noticed the erratic pace of Lily's heart as the overwhelming sensation of terror consumed her. Already drenched in sweat, Lily felt her breath escape her.
With her head turning so quickly it almost snapped off, she found Seamus across the room. While Lily ran toward where Seamus stood, pushing herself through the crowd of vamps, Cassidy grabbed her from behind, "Wot is it?" He asked urgently, his eyes were wide and a harsh look of panic was filling them.
"Cass-" Lily gasped as she turned to him, "We all got to get out. Now."
At the same time she'd recognized the music blaring over the speakers lining up in sync with the moment in her vision. She hadn't realized the vision was mere moments in the future. There was no time to leave, they had to act. Cassidy could see the instant fear in her as he watched her eyes as they moved behind Cassidy. She was watching as a man reached into his waist and she didn't hesitate. By instinct, she reached for where she'd normally store her gun on her, but of course, it had been a long time since she'd been armed. Her body seemed to take over on its own, "Seamus!" Lily screamed. Cassidy watched her begin to launch herself towards the man and grabbed her, tossing himself in with her. They knocked him off his feet and collapsed onto the ground.
At the same time as everyone around shifted their attention to the tackling a seemingly innocent server to the ground. The exact moment, a loud bang from the other side of the room shook the building. Without hesitation, Cassidy already jumped over Lily, covering their heads as the explosion went off.
Neither of them could see as there was a blinding light that engulfed the room. When Lily pulled at Cassidy's arm over her head, it seemed that Lily was able to adjust her eyes far before any of the vamps. With her eyes squinted, she struggled for several seconds before she noticed a few blurred figures moving quickly around the area. In the background, she could hear screams and struggle. Cassidy couldn't see anything, it was just a blinding white sheet that took over his eyesight, and it was the same for every other vampire in the room. He clawed at Lily as he felt her sitting up, "Get down!" He demanded.
Lily turned back to the man on the ground, who held a gun in his one hand. Quickly, she grabbed it, slamming his hand into the ground as she disarmed him. With his other hand he'd punched Lily in the nose. She winced, her eyes watering as she struggled to get a grip on the culprit. Cassidy was blind, but he could still get a good sense of what was happening around him. He reached his hand out, clawing at anyone around him until he felt the ankle of the attacker. He pulled quickly, sweeping him onto his back as Lily stood above him. The man scrambled, grabbing something from a front pocket on his jacket as he threw a pill into his mouth.
"Hey!" Lily yelled, grabbing at the man's collar, "No, no, no-" But it was too late, the man had swallowed something, and within seconds he was foaming from the mouth. He'd ingested something that killed himself. "Fuck!" Lily yelled, throwing his lifeless body back to the ground. "Wot?" Cassidy asked, confused and blind as he clawed onto Lily.
There were already flames filling the room, and the screams of the many vampires hit by what seemed to be a blast of sunlight itself. Just as Lily was starting to get her bearings, there were more shots fired into the building.
They were coming in through the small windows at the top of the large ceiling, smashing through the glass as they entered in with another blinding shock. The flames were quickly multiplying, and the screams of agony coming from almost every vampire in the room was severely unsettling. The flames were creeping their way closer to their side of the room. With her heart practically bursting out of her chest, Lily struggled back onto her feet, she spotted a fire alarm on the wall closest to her. She quickly ripped her coat off of herself and threw it over Cassidy before she stepped around the vamps on the ground, blinded as they struggled to move even from the impact across the room. When she ran to the alarm, she yanked it down, and was relieved to see a sprinkler system had been installed in the building. Within a few seconds, the fire system kicked in and the water began spraying down to the room. It wasn't much, but she hoped it would make a difference soon enough.
With a brief sigh of relief, Lily noticed a shuffle not far away as she saw Cassidy, who was covered in her coat, trying to stand up, "Lily!" He bellowed in a stern tone. "Cassidy, stay dow-" Then, something ran across her eye, a sight she knew all too well. The flash came from the window at the peak of the roof, and she knew it was a laser sight. Quickly, she dove behind the bar, hearing the sound of gunshots fill the room as she covered her head, before there was another explosion. It felt like years before the commotion of fire stopped, but when it did, it took a while for Lily to make the next move. She slowly lifted her head, hearing the groans of the surrounding vamps as her ears rang from the impact of shots. The music still played from the speakers surrounding the room, and the quiet trickle of the water coming down from the ceiling didn't seem to be doing a whole lot for the vampires who were suffering, scattered along the floor. Lily could still hear the crackling of flames that swept through the most of them.
With her head facing into the ground, Lily gasped to catch her breath. She felt her adrenaline slowly wearing off, and her hands that left her head were shaky as she tried to slowly lift herself up. She felt for the gun that she'd grabbed from the attacker that was tucked into her side and pulled it out, not taking her eyes off the top of the bar countertop as she struggled to see if there were any more shooters around. Her eyes didn't move, her hands searched the gun on their own, making sure it was armed as she crept up a little more. As soon as her eyes peaked over the counter, she paused, trying to drown out the screams of the burning vampires in the room, scanning for any signs of the next attack. Her eyes glanced at the handgun in her hand, her brows furrowing as she realized that firing off more of what seemed to be explosive flash bangs of sunlight wouldn't be the best idea. She kept the gun out just in case.
With a huge bang, the entire bar wall at Lily's side burst open, sending bottles, glass and the bricks it was built out of everywhere. She dove backwards, covering her head as kept the gun in her hand. Loose bricks flew everywhere, one smacking Lily in the front of the head regardless of her efforts to protect herself. Out of the rubble, she was relieved to see Garth, who must've left the room before anything bad had happened to him. As Lily looked through the gaping hole in the ground, she saw that Garth had actually made his way into the back alley of the building and opened a side of a fire hydrant, busting through three walls to allow for the powerful burst of water to flood into the room. Lily watched him as he began tearing the bar counter out of the ground effortlessly, allowing for the powerful flow of water coming from the fire hydrant to make its way to the incapacitated vampires.
He ran back into the main large room, briefly scanning as he noticed flames from the farther end of the area. He bolted out to the bar and pulled at the sink, ripping it out of the counter in one swift motion as the broken piping sprayed water in the air. There was yet another loud bang, followed by another burst of light. Once again, Lily hit the ground, groaning as she struggled to think of how to get the upper hand on the situation. She waited what felt like forever for the next explosion - but it didn't come. Instead, she waited on the floor helplessly, the water pooling on the ground as the cackling of flames transitioned slowly into sizzles. Garth came back in, "Coast is clear. Saw them leave." He tossed a fire extinguisher towards Lily, falling at her head with a heavy thump.
The ones who were attacking must've seen the abundance of water enter the building and decided to flee. Lily got up to her feet as quickly as she could, pulled the pin and sprayed the fire extinguisher at whoever she could that still seemed to have flames engulfing them. When it was empty, she tossed it on the ground and ran for another that Garth had dragged in. With his vampire strength, Garth had been pulling who he could into the lake of water now pooling in the center of the room.
With her throat dry, Lily stared at the severely charred body's scattered around the floor. The sizzling sound that filled the room was almost as terrible as the smell. The moans from the dozens of charred bodies scattered around were unsettling. Though there were no more open flames, the sight was morbid. Lily gasped for air, her entire body covered in cold wet water, and her body feeling like it was on fire herself.
She'd hardly noticed Cassidy at her side as he yanked at her shoulder, pulling her to face her. His sunglasses were still on his face, though they were shattered, and she looked at his wide eyes as they desperately searched her, "You alright?!" He asked. The entire left side of Cassidy was burned severely. His skin was entirely exposed, pink and blistery. A piece of his face hung off of him, looking like a piece of lunch meat as it dangled from his jaw. She felt him graze his hand around her hairline, noticing blood dripping down from her scalp where the brick had smacked her. Finally, Lily nodded, her hands grabbing him, "Yea." She said shakily, "Your face-"
"I'm fine." He stated shortly, not entertaining the idea of worrying about him. Cassidy's eyes moved quickly, noticing Seamus approaching them fast as his serious eyes met Cassidy's. Seamus looked about as burned as Cassidy was, but they were in the better looking group of the bunch of incapacitated, charred bodies that surrounded them, "Get her out of 'ere." Seamus growled at Cassidy in a tone so low that Lily couldn't hear him even though he was mere inches away, "N'wait fer instructions." He ordered.
Without even responding, Cassidy grabbed a hold of Lily, pulling her through the carnage that spread the venue as they burst out the doors and back into the rental vehicle they arrived in, speeding away without looking back.