I do not own Rise of the Guardians.

Chapter 3: Beware of the bloody slushies

"Trees, trees, everywhere TREES!" Claire screamed into the night.

She was sick of all this walking. She tried hard to not linger on how she got herself in this situation: stranded far from civilization somewhere in the cold damp Canadian wilderness. No. She wasn't going to waste any more of her tears. She would not think about it.

Her fangs throbbed and she moaned. She hadn't had a decent feed in days. Why was she so unlucky to pick a route that all humans avoided? Where were they hiding? No hikers, no hunters and definitely no towns. If she had at least encountered a road, she could follow it until finding some establishments. A road would make for a much easier hike anyway.

After hours of struggling with her clothes getting stuck in thorny bushes and getting her shoes stuck in the mud for the n-th time, she came to a sudden stop. A heartbeat. Yes! She stilled and smelled the air to identify her prey. All she smelled was cold crisp air, a sign that winter was coming. Maybe the prey was downwind. She stalked silently following the sound of the heart. What could it be? Another buck? Ooooh. Maybe a bear? That would be a great catch.

She finally saw the source of the heartbeat and couldn't believe her luck. A human! A human was sleeping in a halfway-fallen tree. Completely unguarded. Left there like a tasty treat just for her.

Her fangs pulsed with anticipation but she was going to do it right. She hated the messiness of feeding on humans. They screamed, thrashed, begged. It was major drama on top of a guilt-trip. Oriol always said that their blood tastes better when they're scared but she never bought it. Claire preferred to feed on them when they were asleep. Then, the toxin she released from her fangs simply made them sleep deeper so they were completely unaware of her bite. It was quick, clean, humane and remorseless.

She stalked silently to not wake the human. Once she was close enough she pounced in one quick move. She moaned with pleasure as her sensitive fangs penetrated the soft skin and she started to drink. Finally. A human.

Only seconds into the feeding she suddenly felt an immense pain in her temple. She unlatched herself off of her pray and crouched on the ground with both hands to her head. What was this sudden pain? Right after that unpleasantry, she felt a sensation spreading from her stomach throughout her whole body. It was cold. Bone-chilling cold penetrating her each cell. She shivered involuntarily. Shivered? She had never felt cold before. Vampires don't mind cold. Why were her teeth suddenly chattering?

She finally raised herself to look at her prey realizing the problem.

"There's something wrong with this blood."

Claire looked closer to see what exactly she had just fed on. To her amazement, there was something going on on the skin she had just bitten.

Her fang marks were covered by a thin layer of frost. She watched with a fascination as the frost covering the small wounds was absorbed revealing completely healed skin.

"What the…?"

She looked at the face of the human. It was a young man with pale skin illuminated in the moonlight. Her toxin was working on him. He was now in an even deeper sleep. His mouth slightly opened and he lightly snored.

Now that she was sure he wouldn't wake up just yet, she could examine him more to figure out what exactly she was looking at. He could have been mistaken for a vampire. He was pale enough, his body did not emit any heat, he healed as fast as her own kind and now that she was close, she realized he lacked the human scent. That's the little detail she failed to notice when she was so excited earlier thinking she had found a human to feed on.

But he wasn't a vampire. First of all, she could still hear his heartbeat. Second of all, she'd tasted vampire blood before and it was definitely not this cold.

A few years ago, in a moment of desperation (and curiosity) she broke into a human blood bank. She drank a few of those bags of blood that came straight from a refrigerator. It was nasty, drinking old cold blood like that. But his blood wasn't like that old blood though. It was colder, much colder. In fact, she still shivered a bit not completely recovered from it. But despite the coldness, it actually wasn't nasty at all. Now that she thought about it, she felt satisfied. She wouldn't have thought it possible. She had been starving. It should have taken her few proper feedings before she tamed the thirst. And here, she only fed for a few seconds. She licked her lips.

"What are you, pale cold being?"

Claire got back to examining him closer. His skin caught her eye again. It was beautifully pale, nearly translucent with very faint freckles on the cheeks. Her heightened vampire sight allowed her to see more than what humans would have noticed. His skin not only glowed in the moonlight, it gently shimmered as if sprinkled with the finest diamond dust. It reminded her of something she couldn't just place.

She looked closer at his face and was surprised to see white hair peeking out from under his blue hood. She gently lowered the hood careful to not wake him to see it closer and gasped. She'd never seen hair like this before. It was purely white, straight, slightly overgrown as it was falling into his eyes. She was a bit jealous. It was the type of hair that looked good even when it was never combed. And, yeah. He obviously did not comb it. She dared to touch it. It was very soft and cool to the touch. It shimmered just like his skin reflecting the light of the moon.

Looking at his striking white hair she finally understood what this diamond dust shimmer reminded her of. It reminded her of perfect untouched snow glittering peacefully at night reflecting even the faintest light. She got lost in warm memories of the past, of beautiful winter sceneries worthy of a postcard. A cottage surrounded by trees. Snow gently falling down glittering all around her. She could hear the laughs of children playing in the snow, chasing each other, having fun.

She shook herself from the nostalgia and looked back at the pale young man. He was definitely not dressed warmly enough for this cool weather. In fact, he didn't even have shoes on. Just tight old deerskin pants and a blue hoodie. But since he wasn't human, maybe the cold didn't bother him, just like it didn't bother her.

Claire would have been content staring at him some more but she noticed that he stirred. It looked as if he was about to wake up. No. She didn't feed long enough to release enough toxin to keep him asleep longer. She felt a sting of panic. She should run but something kept her fixed on the spot - his blood. As unpleasant the coldness of it was (she still didn't know what to think about the headache it gave her), she wanted to know what kind of blood she just drank. She wanted to know what type of creature he was and where they could be found. This blood was obviously potent if it could satisfy her in such a short feeding. It could be a once in a lifetime opportunity and so she decided that she couldn't just walk away. So, she stayed put waiting for him to wake up.

Next up, Jack wakes up. What do you think will happen? Leave your theories in the reviews.