A/N: I own nothing
Chapter Two
"Twilight!" Madge exclaimed, picking the book off the stall and glaring at it as if she wished it would burst into flames. "What a fucking insult!" She threw the book back and marched ahead into the crowd of people. Katniss smiled apologitically at the stall owner and hurried after Madge. "I mean sparkling in the fucking sunlight, what the hell is that?! Meyer wouldn't have even had the idea for the book if she hadn't of ran into Marvel!"
Katniss nodded along, knowing it was just easier just to agree with her friend than start a fight. She didn't know the full story about Stephaine Meyer and Marvel but Madge claims it's what inspired the woman to write Twilight.
"Tigris!" Madge called, running off again and skidding to a stop in front of Tigris' stall. When they couldn't get to Cinna in the hospital, Tigris was their go to woman for some blood. "How ya doin' girl?"
"Fine," Tigris purred. The brim of her hat obscered her face, but Katniss could still see the black of her stripes across her cheeks. Tigris is a shapeshifter who perferred the body of a tiger over the body of a human. Most people think she's a circus attraction, someone who tattooed her face with stripes and got whiskers surgetically stuck into her cheeks. This, of course, is not the case. "Are you here for some more A+?"
"Nope," Madge replied, leaning against the stall counter. Katniss picked up one of the woolly tea cosies and examined the pattern on it. Tigris was also an amazing knitter.
"Then how may I help you?" Tigris asked.
"Did you see anyone roaming around here?" Madge asked. "Anyone particularly good looking? Someone who'd look like a future lover with Katniss?"
"What does a future lover of me look like?!" Katniss exclaimed.
"Let Tigris think," Madge hissed.
Tigris tilted her head and stroked her chin in deep thought. Her hand mindlessly stroked a different tea cosy. "I don't see anyone but that doesn't nessecarily mean they're not there," she said.
"I don't understand what's happening," Katniss said.
"Tigris sees millions of people pass by the stall," Madge shrugged. "I just thought she might have seen a potential 'lover'." She said the word 'lover' with a sarcastic hand gesture. "You know, someone who will make you lust for blood. Make the mighty Katniss Everdeen unravel and go nuts. You know, I wanna shake that guy's hand and say congrats."
"Pff," I scoffed. "If you have a chance."
Madge quirked an eyebrow and grinned. "Good girl, that's what I like to hear."
The blond vamp continued to chat to the shapeshifter while Katniss leant against the stall with her arms crossed. She tapped her foot impaitently, waiting for them to finish talking. Finally, they stopped and they bade their goodbyes.
"Finnick is waiting for us ontop of that building over there," Madge said, pointing up ontop of a tall building in the distance. "Get on my back."
"God, do I have to?" Katniss moaned.
"Yes, stop being so childish," Madge scolded, bending over and patting her back. Katniss sighed and clamboured onto her friend's back. Madge hooked her arms under Katniss' knees and held her tight. She then took off and ran. Running on Madge's back seems surreal. Almost like she is jogging and the world around her is what's moving fast. In no time, they were ontop of the building itself, standing beside Finnick.
"Fuck, I'm gonna barf," Katniss cursed, bending over and gagging when Madge put her back down.
"Did Tigris know anything?" Finnick asked.
"Nope," Madge sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Zelch."
Katniss cralwed to the edge of the building and swung her legs over the edge. "You guys haven't even explained to me what's going to happen to me when I see this guy," she said. Finnick sat down on her right while Madge perched on the building's edge on her left.
"What do you wanna know?" she asked.
"What will happen," Katniss answered.
"When you meet your sire you will attain the powers of a vampire to able you to catch them," Finnick explained. "You'll get it all: Speed, agility, your teeth will grow and all. You'll be overcome with the primal, animal instinct to drink, to devour this person whole."
"You might also want to cop a feel," Madge added. Finnick looked across Katniss at the blond and quirked an amused eyebrow. "What? I did. They're going to die, why does it matter?"
"Madge, I'm not going to grope them," Katniss scoffed.
"You don't know that," Madge said. "Believe me, you will. You'll feel such a rush, you'll act on your urges. I didn't think I would either but when I got that sexy guy out into that alley, my hands just wandered. And just seeing the blood pumping in his juglar-" Madge threw her head back and groaned- "Fuccckkk"
"Madge, that's disgusting," Katniss muttered.
"If it makes you feel any better I did not take advantages over my sire," Finnick said. "It happens to some but not all."
"Most but not all," Madge corrected.
"Stop it, you're worrying Katniss!" Finnick hissed.
"I'm fine," Katniss replied. "I'm not a child, I can handle it."
"You, my friend, are a child until you change," Madge said, patting Katniss' arm. "Fledglings are children." Katniss glared but her friend just shrugged. "It's a fact of life."
Katniss pushed back and stood up, pacing the length of the roof. "How hard could it possibly be to find one person?!" she yelled, her voice echoing around them. "Someone who I'm acclaimed to have fallen in love with if I'm hadn't of been turned. There's loads of people out there and yet we can't find him . . ." Katniss trailed off and paused.
Madge and Finnick watched her carefully as she turned slowly on her heel to face them and look out into the distance. "Katniss?" Finnick asked cautiously. Katniss took a giant sniff of the air her eyes flushed deep red.
"Fuck," Madge cursed, a grin spreading across her face. "She's got him."
Katniss could smell it. Smell him. It enticed her to find him, almost begged her. She walked so that her toes were inches away from the edge of the building. Both of her friends watched her as she scanned the area for him. For the person who smelt so good.
"Where are you," she sang to herself, a joyful smirk forming on her face.
"Find him Katniss," Madge urged, tugging on her trouser leg. "Oh god find him!"
It's the blond head that catches her eye. Pushing through the crowd of people to get to the other side of the Hob. It stands out like a sore thumb among all the dark members of the seam. She listlessly lifts her hand and points at it. "It's him," she says, almost inaudbliy. "The blond."
"We'll get him," Finnick says, pulling an excited Madge to her feet. "Follow us."
As Finnick and Madge jumped off the building, landing on their feet at the bottom and running off in such a blurr that she could barely see them, Katniss felt it. The hunger. It was an odd feeling. Her body was suddenly screaming for it. For the blood of whoever that blond man is. She never thought she'd ever want to drink like the other Vampires in the clan of 12 but now she did. How could one person's blood manage to do that?
She was worried about jumping off the building. Finnick had said that she'd obtain all Vampire powers once she had spotted her sire but she didn't feel any different. Apart from the obvious desperate urge to discover who is the owner of the enticing blood. In the end though, her desperation wins out and she takes a leap of faith.
It doesn't even feel like falling. In a matter of seconds, her feet have hit the ground. She landed on her feet? How did she manage to do that? Vampires are vampires, not cats like Tigris.
Katniss could just make out Madge and Finnick disappearing into an alleyway. She started to jog over to the alley but found herself moving faster than she was used to. When she stopped, she almost ran right into the wall, she had to brace herself agains the bricks before she did.
"Katniss! Over here!" Madge called. Katniss followed Madge's voice down the alley until she reached at the dead end in one of the darkest parts of the Hob. Madge stood with a giant grin on her face with the blond man at her feet, asleep. Finnick was pacing infront of them, reading a wallet.
"Peeta Mellark, seventeen-like you Katniss, lucky-works at Mellark Bakery, organ donor, etc. etc. Doesn't seem like someone you'd have ended up with Katniss," he says. "Seems too good."
"Shut up," Katniss replied, flipping him off.
"He's certainly a keeper," Madge said. "Not many blonds around here." She flipped her golden hair and smiled proudly. "Now get on with it. I'm surprised you're not freaking out yet . . . you should have started by now. Are you sure this is the guy?"
Katniss took a step toward the unconcious man and bent over. Taking one, long sniff, the smell returned. The delicious aroma that was driving her senses crazy. But there was something else. She couldn't help wondering how this would have panned out if she hadn't of been turned. How would they have met? How long would they have dated? What made him so special that she'd give him her heart?
"Katniss, hurry up," Madge urged, pushing her forward. She stumbled and fell to her knees infront of the body. The smell of blood was even more strong now that she was right beside him. Something was stopping her from doing it though. From biting into the soft skin of his neck and sucking him dry. A curiousity.
"Katniss, he'll wake up soon," Finnick warned.
"Give me a minute," Katniss hissed.
"God, she's having stage fright," Madge sighed. She leapt over the body and crouched on the other side. Carefully, she used her razor sharp fingernail to cut a small incision along the man's forearm. Katniss' eyes immediately homed in on the blood that began to seep out. It looked so tempting, so tasty, and it smelt glorious. "Drink Katniss, and become one of us." Katniss paused. She couldn't do it.
Finnick grabbed this Peeta's wrist and held it out to her. "It's okay Katniss. You'll be alright, just do it."
"It'll kill him," Katniss said. Her worrying seemed faux as her eyes focused on the vein she could see bulging out. She took the wrist into her hands and took a sniff, like a picky eater examinging their meal, before she couldn't handle it anymore and stuck her teeth in.
Within the first suck, everything rushed forward. As if the blood was the key to the secrets of her human future. They'd meet at the park. He'd be sketching on a bench beside the pond she was fishing at. She'd have walked past on her way home and notice that he'd been drawing her. They'd chat for hours before exchanging numbers. They'd date for a year and a half before he'd propose to her and she'd say yes. Her wedding dress was beautiful, better than what she could have dreamt of. They'd grow old together and he'd die before her but she would soon follow a year later.
It was perfect. It was amazing. It was what she wanted.
Katniss ripped her teeth out and gasped, jumping backwards, and crawled away into the corner. "I can't do it," she said. "I can't, I can't, I can't."
"Why the hell not!" Madge demanded. "You were doing just bloody fine!"
Katniss looked at her hands, which were covered in blood, and shuddered. "This man has a life! I can't just take it from him!"
"He won't have a life Katniss," Finnick said. "That changed the moment you were turned."
"I-I just can't," Katniss replied. "I will not be responsible for killing him."
"God damnit Katniss!" Madge shrieked. "We were so close!"
"Let him go and live his life!" Katniss yelled. "He won't do any harm! If the council want to kill someone for it then they can kill me! I cannot take a life!" The blood coating her hands was still calling to her but she did her best to ignore it.
"You're impossible!" Madge yelled. "I can't believe I turned you thinking you'd be an amazing vampire! You're really just a coward!" She spun around and marched down the alley, screaming and shrieking her head off.
"She'll be okay," Finnick says, looking at Katniss with pityful eyes. "We'll keep tabs on the guy. Just tell us when you're ready and we'll try again, okay?" Katniss nodded numbly, her eyes still drawn to the blood that was still leaking out of the teeth marks in Mr. Mellark's wrist.
Finnick followed Madge, probably hurrying to calm her down before she goes on a feeding rampage. Katniss slumped against the wall and stared at the body lying on the ground.
This was him. This was her soul mate. Her sire. The love of her life. She never thought she would ever see such beauty in the life she had lived, and yet here it is. It strikes her as almost sad because, in the end, this boy must die. And that is her job. She is Katniss Everdeen, and she must kill Peeta Mellark.
So, instead of waiting until the blond woke up so she could explain his fate to him, she did the one thing she had done her whole life.
She ran.
~xXx~
Katniss sat at the pond, skipping stones. Her thoughts were full of last night. Could she really kill someone? Someone she would have someday loved? She had always thought it was easy. Get overcome with the bloodlust and suck him dry. But the moment she laid eyes on Peeta she knew something was off. She couldn't go through with it. She couldn't end someone else's life.
It made it more difficult when she saw their futures together. She saw happiness, marriage, children, grandchildren, everything. She saw it all and it made her sad. It seemed so perfect. Everything she could have ever wanted all bundled into one. And now she couldn't have it. And she couldn't let Peeta have it either. Because he had to die.
She groaned and threw her head into her hands. This was going to more difficult than she'd anticipated. Madge had always went on like it was the easiest thing in the world. She never said that she'd see her future in the man's blood.
A page turning. Katniss sat up. Yes, that was the sound of a page turning. The soft sound of paper rubbing against each other while being turned. She discreetly looked over her shouldrer and almost fell into the pond in shock.
There he sat, sketchbook on his lap, pencil moving as he worked. Peeta Mellark. He sits the same way he did in the future prediction. Legs crossed, hand constantly moving hair out of his eyes, shoulders hunched . . . blue eyes occasionly flicking up to look at her as he worked. He was sketching her. Her.
Her.
"What are you doing?" she asked before she could stop herself. His head jerked up in shock, his hair falling back into his eyes again. "What are you drawing?"
"N-nothing," he replied, quickly closing his book and sitting on it. Katniss smiled to herself as he stuttered. How sweet.
"It obviously wasn't nothing," she said, standing up and walking over to the bench. She was being reckless. Stupid even. She had sworn to herself that the next time she saw him, she'd kill him, not strike up a friendly chat with him. There was something about him that drew her towards him though that had nothing to do with his blood. "You looked like you were really concentrating."
"I look like that sometimes," Peeta answered, nervously sticking his pencil behind his ear. Katniss stared at him for a moment. Is it possible for eyes to be so blue? It can't be surely. While he's distracted staring back at her, she uses her newly found speed to snatch the book out from underneath him.
He'd captured her perfectly. Every stroke of the pencil, every shaded area, every single outline was so perfect it was hard to be believe that someone could capture her so beautifully. He made her look like she wasn't of this earth. Too beautiful to be human. Even if she wasn't human it was amazing to think that someone seen her like this.
"This is . . . breathtaking," Katniss said quietly. She looked up at her sire and he blushed, looking down at the ground. "I don't look like this surely."
"You do to me," he replied under his breath. A normal person wouldn't have heard it, but she did. It made her heart flutter.
"Thank you," she said. "I'm Katniss." What? What was she doing?
"Peeta," he answered. Katniss held out her hand and he shook it. She silently cursed when he gasped softly and looked down at her hand. Shit, she forgot. Her skin was cold and felt like marble to the touch. "Are you okay?" Peeta asked.
"Uh, yeah," Katniss said quickly, whipping her hand away and shoving it into her pocket.
"I guess I'll see you around then," Peeta said, standing up. He fumbled in his jeans pockets for a moment and Katniss eyes locked on two round cuts in his wrist. They're so deep . . . how did he not bleed out? "Here." He produced a small yellow post it note pad and scribbled something down on it. He then took her book back and flashed her a smile before walking off. The smile made her heart skip a beat.
Katniss looked at the post it. On it was a number with: Give me a call sometime? scribbled across the bottom with a small heart drew in the top right hand corner.
Shit. What had she done?
A/N: So guys, they've met. What's going to happen between them? Will Katniss be able to control her bloodlust? Or not?
Please R&R! :D