My round !

[lilyrose]

As Lily and Narym walked into the club a few people stopped to stare. Lily smiled to herself , she supposed they did look like an odd couple , the vampire and the warrior!

"I think it is defiantly my round" she said and turned to smile at Narym "The least I can do for my new friend!"

"Two beers please" Lily asked the barmaid.

She walked back to Narym with the beers in hand and smiled "so shall we grab a seat or do you fancy hunting out a pool table?"

[narym]

Narym eyed the pool table with dismay. She had never played. In all her long years she had studiously managed to avoid it. Sighing, she took up the cue......and proceeded to miss every ball...every time. She could see from the corner of her eye that her new friend was desperately trying not to laugh. Humph! Laying the cue down, not so gently, she straightened and and announced huffily that she was going to get another round.

She stood at the crowded bar and spent the next few minutes checking the place out. Her experienced eye quickly located two doors hidden in the shadows at the back of the room. Few people entered or exited, but those that did looked just a liitle furtive. Hmm, interesting. Her attention was then taken by the guy behind the bar. Wasn't it a woman earlier?
"Waddya want?"
"Two beers, please," she replied, taken aback by his rudeness.
He filled two glasses and pushed them towards her, calling to a customer further along the bar, "Wait a second, can't ya see I'm busy!" He grumbled as he took Naryms money, "Barmaids gone off, the gods know where. How'm I sposed to deal with this rush on my own!"

Narym retreated back to her table to see a large guy leaning over Lilyrose, hitting on her. She sat down next to her friend and put a proprietary arm across her shoulders. Fixing him with a steely eye she rasped, " Beat it !"
The man threw his arms up in defeat, " Ok, ok," he muttered. "I get it. Hey, a guys gotta try, right?"
Narym continued to stare at him until he turned and almost ran to the mens room. She grinned and turned to her friend. " Hey, what was wrong with him? Not my type exactly, but nice looking guy, loadsa muscles! Better than the old grump behind the bar!"
Lily crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue. Laughing, they drank their beers and continued to watch the world go by.

[lilyrose]

Lily chuckled to herself as she watched the guy practically run from Narym "Do you often have that effect on men?" she laughed.

"He was cute but I would have eaten him alive " she said and winked at Narym, a twinkle in her eye.

The club was busy and Lily let her eyes wander around the room taking in the mix of people , maybe Night World wasn't going to be so bad after all.

Lily's leaned over and said to Narym "I wonder who runs this place , its a great club"

Relaxing in her chair she looked over at Narym who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself although Lily guessed she wouldn't want to admit it! Lily wondered what had brought her to Night World and what her story was. Plenty of time for story swapping later she thought and picked up her beer smiling.

'I guess if I'm staying a while I'm going to have to find a way of earning some money' she thought to herself.

For the first time in ages life didn't seem that bad.

[cassandra]

Cassandra walked out of the backroom just in time to hear the bartender snarl at a customer. Swallowing back her fury, she quickly apologized to the customer and fixed the drink herself. Making her way towards the bartender she saw another new face, and the look of shock that crossed it at the bartender's attitude.

"Well, Kaden's not here, so I guess that means its up to me to handle this one, and as this would make about his 20th 'final' warning, I think its boot city time." she thought to herself.

Returning from relieving the bartender of his duties, she gave a deep sigh of resignation as she realized this meant she would have to finish the shift out. Walking over to the table where the two new women sat, she addressed the one who had been at the bar when she came out. "Hi, I'm Cassandra and I just want to apologize for the bartender's attitude earlier. I can assure you it won't happen again, and I'd like to buy you a round on the house as way of apology" she said and smiled at both women. As they both met her gaze, she felt a chill go up her spine, though for the life of her she couldn't figure out why.

[narym]

Narym gripped the arm of her chair, knuckles white, as she fought to remain calm. The air around herself, Lilyrose and the beautiful young woman standing before her was suddenly charged. The hairs on her arms lifted. She felt Lily stiffen next to her and knew she felt the same thing. What the hell? She managed to find her voice. " Ah, thank you Cassandra. That's totally unnecessary but very welcome."
She fought to regain her equilibriam. Smiling, she said "I'm Narym, this is Lilyrose." She looked over Cassandras shoulder and saw the bartender throw his apron on the counter and leave the club. She lifted an eyebrow. " I would ask you to join us, but it looks like you're going to be too busy!" Looking first at Lily, she continued, " But we'll hang around after closing if that's ok, for a chat?"

[cassandra]

"Yes, I'd.....I'd like that" Cassandra replied, not at all sure she would like it at all. But she was definitely intrigued.

She went back behind the bar and put her confusion aside as she began to serve the crowd. Business at the bar had really picked up in the last few weeks, and while she was thrilled, she realized that they were going to have to hire another bartender soon.

"Where in the heck is Kaden?" She wondered to herself as she worked, she really wanted him to be there when she met with the women.

[lilyrose]

"Whoa " said Lily turning to Narym "What the hell was that ?"

Narym shrugged and drank her beer looking confused. Lily looked around the club, the crowd was starting to thin out and Cassandra looked like she was about to disappear behind a stack of dirty glasses.

"I might give her a hand" Lily said to Narym and started making her way around the club clearing tables as she went. Lily shook off the strange feeling that she had earlier, she needed a job.

"You look like you could do with a hand" Lily said to Cassandra and smiled putting the empties on the bar "Especially as you are now a barman down, I cant promise to have the sparkling personality of your last barman but i can pull a mean pint!"

[cassandra]

Cassandra gave the woman a measuring look, and decided that it might not be such a bad idea to have her close by at all. "Kaden normally does the hiring for the bar, but as he's not here, and I am....AND the bar looks like a train wreck, I can only say.....welcome aboard!"

Seeing Kaden walk in at that moment Cassandra excused herself and went to inform him of the schedule change....and to tell him to come and talk to the girl and see what he thought.

[lilyrose]

Lily walked over to Narym who was sitting in the corner finishing her beer "Well I got myself a job " she smiled "I'm guessing she needs me to start now judging by the state of it in here !"

Lily was confused about the strange atmosphere that there seemed to be between them but shrugged it off. 'A job is a job' she thought to herself and started to clean down tables.

[Kaden]

The wizard actually had a reason for being late this time, and it was more than just his perpetual rivalry with time. He'd woken up with a splitting headache, which wasn't in itself that serious. Except this time he knew what caused it. Still angry with himself for allowing this to interfere with his work, and for the fact that he hadn't even told Cassandra about this, he finally got to the Myth. Entering through the back door so he could prepare himself for the loud music which would no doubt start his head back up, Kaden took a few deep breaths. "Here we go..." He said to himself, pushing the door open to the main room of the club.

And was immediately greeted with the sight of Cassandra behind the bar again with someone helping her. Someone he didnt know. Wondering if he was going crazy now too, he waited as he saw her come over to him and tell him about what had happened earlier. "Oh well, I warned him. Probably warned him a bit too much, but he had to keep pushing it." Kaden mused aloud. Glancing behind her at the girl that seemed to admittedly be really good at the job there was now an opening for, he nodded and walked over to the table she was now cleaning and sat down at it, in front of her.

Aware that she probably didn't know who he was, he decided to introduce himself first. "I'm Kaden, the recent owner of this club. Nice to meet you, and I'd like to personally apologize as well for the uh...personality issues of my last bartender. As you know, that's been dealt with. It's been a long time coming actually. Anyway, it seems like you've already been hired, is that right?"

[narym]

Narym was pleased that Lily had gained employment so quickly. Now all she had to do was find a job for herself. She watched Lily as she expertly gathered up so many glasses that she thought she'd surely drop them, and sighed with relief as she placed them safely on the bar. She looked over to where Cassandra and a young man were talking seriously together. By the gestures she guessed they were talking about Lily and herself. She thought again about the strange feeling she'd had when she first met Cassandra, and sent to Fallow.
' Did you feel that earlier?'
' Very strange,' he commented thoughtfully. ' This one bears watching.'
' Agreed,' she sent. 'Don't go far!'

The young man sat down opposite Lily and started to chat. Narym smiled and shook her head. Didn't take her long to fit in! Can I do the same she wondered? And raised her glass in salute to her friend.

[lilyrose]

Lily extended her hand "Its good to meet you Kaden , great club you have here. I'm Lilyrose"

'Good start' she thought to herself no strange atmosphere , maybe she had imagined it before , thats what comes from being suspicious of everyone you meet.

"Cassandra looked like she needed a hand as much as I needed a job" she smiled.

"I have some experience and I would like to think I'm a better people person than your last barman!"

Lily sat back as Kaden studied her and crossed her fingers behind her back.

[Kaden]

Shaking her hand, Kaden laughed. "Well I'd say you'd have to really try to be worse than he was. He's had a difficult life and I wanted to help him out, but this is just the wrong occupation for him, I guess. But yes, you look like you'd be pretty good with people." He eventually agreed. "There's only one other bartender working here, so you'd be working three days out of the week. You can have four if you want the extra hours, I'm sure the other girl won't mind getting an extra day off."

[lilyrose]

"Three days sounds great to me , thank you, I haven't been here long and working here seems like a great way to meet people"

Smiling she said " Speaking of meeting people I would like you to meet my friend Narym"

Lily motioned for Narym to join them "Narym this is Kaden , my new boss" she said and grinned.

As Narym and Kaden introduced themselves Lily sat back and studied Kaden, it was hard not to form instant impressions of people when you lived as Lily had so she decided to reserve judgment but he seemed nice and Lily couldn't help but look forward to her first shift .

[cassandra]

Cassandra finished counting down the till and setting up the start up cash for the next day and fixed herself a vodka, it had been a long day, after all. Looking over to where Kaden and the new girls sat, she noticed that all appeared to be calm and relaxed. "Maybe I was just imagining it," she told herself. Deciding to go over and join them she walked over to the table and said to her new hire, "I"m sorry, things were so hectic before I'm not sure I even told you my name! I know I didn't get yours......" Her voice trailed off as she felt it again, even stronger this time....whatever 'it' was.