4.

It didn't occur to Katniss that wearing the same worn-off pants and threadbare long-sleeve shirt she had been wearing all day to a party was probably not the norm until Madge's car stopped next to the curb and she spotted the raspberry pink frilly dress the other girl was wearing. She had told her friend to meet her near the school because she didn't want Madge to come to the trailer park. First because Haymitch had been making her even more paranoid than she already was and then because Madge, for all her social awkwardness and lack of a clique, was the mayor's daughter and Katniss was a little ashamed to let her see just how bad her home was.

"Am I overdressed?" Madge asked as soon as Katniss climbed in her car.

The girl looked nervous. Katniss supposed she hadn't been to more parties than she had. Madge usually kept to herself at school.

"I think I'm the one who's underdressed, don't worry." she told her. "You look pretty."

"Thanks." her friend beamed. "I love your hair."

Katniss reached for the complicated braids pinned close to her skull with ambivalent feelings. It was one of those days when Aster remembered she was their mother and, upon learning she was going out, she had insisted on doing her hair. Prim had been so happy to see their mom up that Katniss hadn't protested, knowing that her sister would inevitably be crushed later when she would give in to the depression again.

"Thanks." she muttered.

It didn't matter that she wasn't dressed to impress. She was going only to make sure no vampires crashed the party and that was the only thing that counted. The pants were loose enough to conceal two stakes and, per Haymitch's instructions, she had a knife strapped to her ankle. She would have felt better if she had been able to bring her bow but, as her Watcher had pointed out, it wouldn't have been very inconspicuous.

"Here." Madge said suddenly, taking off a golden pin from her dress. "Wear this." Katniss tried to protest but her friend wouldn't hear of it. "No, take it. Keep it, even. It's my aunt's."

The round pin was shaped like a bird perched on an arrow. She wasn't much for jewelry but it was pretty and it did make her outfit a little less shabby.

"Won't she mind?" she asked.

Madge started the car, apparently not in any hurry to look at her anymore. "She died."

"Oh… Sorry." she winced. "I can't keep it, then. You should…"

"I want you to have it." Madge insisted. "For luck." The girl glanced at her with a brave smile. "A token of friendship."

Katniss smiled back.

The car drive was less awkward than she had feared it would be. She wasn't a great talker and neither was Madge usually but her friend looked both really nervous and really excited by the prospect of a party. From what she said and didn't say, Katniss concluded her parents were really strict about letting her out at night but, given what she now knew, she didn't see how it was bad. She had been very strict with Prim about the hours she kept too lately.

"Is your friend Gale coming?" Madge asked as they drove down the long narrow road that led to the hotel. The woods stretched on either side of the car and, despite herself, Katniss peered at the darkness outside in case…

Haymitch had been trying to hone her detection skills. She was very good at hunting, which helped, but this wasn't about tracks, this was about her reaching out with a sixth sense she wasn't sure really existed and determining how many vampires were around her and where. She sucked at vampire detection. She was pretty sure she didn't have that sixth sense he kept berating her about.

"No clue." Gale hadn't been in touch and she hadn't gone out of her way to contact him either. She was still a bit miffed. And the fact that he seemed to use his little brother as a source of information wasn't helping matter. She had told Prim not to talk to Rory about her but she could tell her sister had been a little confused by the unusual request.

"Can I ask…" Madge hesitated. "Are you and Gale… together?"

"No." she protested at once. "Why does everyone think that?"

Madge glanced at her and back at the road. She was going ten miles under the speed limit. She was either a careful driver or she wasn't sure she really wanted to arrive to that party. The closer they got to the Capitol, the strongest Katniss already regretted making the decision to go. The prospect of being stuck in a place packed with people she didn't know and who would only be concerned with getting drunk or getting laid wasn't a fun one.

Vampires, she reminded herself.

"He's… He's a little in love with you, Katniss." the girl offered frankly. "Haven't you noticed?"

"He's not." she scoffed. "We've been friends for years."

Madge laughed but she didn't think the girl was making fun of her. "And I thought I was bad with people… Peeta is in love with you too, for the record."

"Peeta isn't in love with me. He's just… weird." she corrected.

Madge's smile was knowing but she shrugged. "Whatever you say."

The huge imposing hotel appeared around a corner of the road. Every window was lit, they could hear the music over the sound of the engine, the air seemed to pulse with its beat… The building shone like a beacon in the darkness.

There would be vampires alright.

"Listen." she urged as Madge looked for a parking spot. "Be careful tonight, okay? Don't follow anyone you don't know and don't let anyone take you to the woods."

"Don't worry about me." Her friend flashed her a smile. "I'm always careful. You should be careful too."

Katniss nodded her agreement and squeezed her hand with a feeling of foreboding far too strong to be dismissed. She had felt the same thing when she had left Haymitch's house earlier. He had walked her all the way to the end of the driveway. He had reached for her, then, but had aborted the gesture at the last second. She had wondered if he had wanted to hug her and had given up on it just because it felt too much like a goodbye.

But she would be fine, she told herself firmly as she got off the car. She couldn't die tonight because she had promised Prim she would take her out to the mall in the morning. Her clothes were becoming too small and she had a little extra-cash because slaying vampires, at least, paid well – or Haymitch paid her well but she had decided she didn't want to look at that too closely or she would have been forced to refuse, somehow he always seemed to know when she needed money.

It seemed like the whole school and then some was there.

A few people were scattered in the meadow that stretched around the hotel, laughing and joking together, clutching red cups.

The music, the sound of voices, the number of people… It aggressed her. It was like slamming against an invisible wall. Repeatedly.

It was worse inside. The hotel was huge but people remained packed together, crowding the large rooms and making it impossible to turn without bumping into someone. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to find vampires in the middle of this. She tried the sixth sense thing but her other five senses were already overloaded so…

There was a dancefloor in one of the rooms and it was even more crowded than the rest of the place.

Never before had she asked herself what she was doing there so many times in such a short amount of time.

"I don't think I like parties after all." Madge told her – shouted to be heard over the music, really.

She could relate.

They awkwardly hung out with their backs to one of the walls, watching the other teenagers with no idea of what they should have been doing. That was how Katniss noticed the girl flirting with one of the guys from the football team.

Something was off with her.

She looked too old to be there and there was something to the way she moved…

Katniss frowned and watched her. When the girl gestured she wanted to go outside, the guy immediately nodded with an eager smile. Katniss mumbled a hurried excuse to Madge about how she needed to go to the bathroom and followed at a distance. This, she knew how to do. It wasn't too different from hunting.

The vampire didn't bother dragging her prey too far into the surrounding woods, which made it easier for Katniss. The girl had pushed the boy against a trunk and they were kissing. Neither of them noticed her when she slipped behind them, regretting the absence of her bow. She could have taken her from afar and without breaking a sweat.

The vampire did notice when she tapped on her shoulder though. She looked behind her in reflex and Katniss punched her before the vampire realized what was going on.

"Hey!" the guy protested.

"Get out of here." Katniss ordered.

He grabbed her arm. "Who do you think…"

The growl coming from the forest ground got his attention and, when he caught a glimpse of the demonic face in the darkness, he let her go and ran away without even looking back.

"You're going to regret this…" the vampire warned.

"Yeah, that's what they always say…" Katniss sighed.

It didn't take her long to dispatch her but, on her way back, she found another vampire. A guy, this time, steering a clueless cheerleader toward the back of the hotel where there weren't any people who would interrupt them. That one didn't give her much trouble either but she was covered in dust when she found her way back to Madge, against the very same wall she had left her.

"What happened?" her friend asked.

"I fell." she lied.

"On your way to the bathroom?" Madge's eyebrows lifted up and Katniss reluctantly admitted Haymitch had a point when he claimed she was a bad liar. Fortunately, she didn't seem too interested to know what Katniss had really been up to. "I saw Peeta, he was looking for you. He's over there with Cato…"

A chill ran down her spine.

"Cato?" she repeated.

Madge nodded. "He's back, apparently. Weird, right? After more than two weeks…"

Weird didn't cover it.

She searched the crowd until she spotted them next to one of the bay windows, both of them clutching a red cup. Peeta was nodding at whatever Cato was telling him, a serious expression on his face.

She took a step toward them, not sure how she was going to attract Cato out of there but certain she needed to do something now, when someone grabbed her arm. She spun around and it was a good thing Gale had reflexes because he avoided her punch but stared at her like she had grown a second head.

"What is it with you and wanting to hit me lately?" he grumbled.

"Maybe if you were less of an ass…" she retorted. "What are you doing here?"

Gale's face closed off. "It's an open invite party. I thought I'd check it out."

"You hate parties." she pointed out.

"So do you. Or so I thought." he snapped. "But what do I know, I'm not captain of the wrestling team…"

He was captain of the archery team – a spot that should have been hers because she was better than he was – and she didn't see how it was relevant. The mention of Peeta reminded her that she had a mission that wasn't arguing with Gale though. She turned back toward the windows but the spot where Peeta and Cato had been standing was empty. She looked around frantically but she couldn't see them everywhere.

"Where's Peeta?" she asked.

"Are you serious?" Gale scoffed but she ignored him.

"He went outside with Cato." Madge offered. Her blue eyes darted between Katniss and Gale and then she cleared her throat. "Do you want to dance?"

It seemed to have taken all her courage to ask.

Gale was still staring at Katniss with an intensity she couldn't explain to herself. In the end, an hurt expression on his face, he grabbed Madge's hand and tugged her toward the dancefloor. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I do."

"Stay inside!" she shouted to them.

She wasn't sure if they heard but she didn't have time to make sure. She dashed outside but there was no trace of Peeta or Cato anywhere. She asked the people who were smoking and drinking in the meadow but it took her at least five minutes to find someone coherent enough to point her in the right direction.

Cato already had ten minutes on her.

She tried not to dwell on the fact that ten minutes was all a vampire needed to bleed someone dry.

She tore through the woods at a jog without bothering with discretion. She liked Peeta, she was annoyed to realize. Sure, he was wealthier than her and there was the whole charity thing but… Peeta had always been nice to her, even when she hadn't been, and she liked him. She wouldn't have said they were friends but she wouldn't have called Madge a friend either until she had said it first so what did she know?

Well, she did know she really didn't like the idea of her friends becoming vampire snacks.

Somewhere up ahead, a boy screamed.

It was good, she told herself, if Peeta could scream then he was still alive.

When she found them, Cato was wearing his game face, yellow eyes and fangs all accounted for, and Peeta was trying to keep him at a distance by waving a big branch. His neck was bleeding but so was Cato's nose.

"Katniss, get away!" Peeta panicked when he saw her. "He's… He's some kind of monster!"

"You always were a little prick." Cato spat. "I can't believe I was going to turn you."

That made Katniss' blood run cold.

She liked the thought of Peeta turning into a vampire even less than she liked the idea of him becoming a snack.

"Run!" Peeta screamed again, waving his branch like a club. "I'll buy you time!"

Cato grabbed the branch with a sigh, as if it was a huge inconvenience, and tore it out of Peeta's hands, making him lose his balance. Katniss jumped in between them and hurled the vampire against a tree with a flying kick, pulling her stake from the small of her back at the same time.

"Now, you're making me angry…" Cato growled.

He had rolled from his fall into a crouch and he pounced on her without giving her time to regroup or think. He was on the wrestling team with Peeta and it showed. Instinct and her relentless training with Haymitch gave her a small edge but he had years of practice she didn't have. It only took her two minutes to figure out it would be a difficult fight and it wasn't helped at all by the knowledge that Peeta was hovering nearby, waiting for an opening to enter the fray.

She didn't need him to get hurt on top of everything.

"Get out of here!" she shouted at him and the second of distraction cost her dearly.

Cato's backhand slap sent her flying in the air and she hit a tree with a huff. She was pretty sure it would have broken a normal person's back. She was just a little stiff and sore when she got back to her feet.

"What are you?" Cato hissed, watching her a little more warily.

Preys who wouldn't stay down weren't common, she supposed.

"She's the one who has been killing my minions after I went to a lot of troubles to find pretty ones."

The woman came out of the trees on their right with two other vampires in tow. She was strikingly beautiful. Blond hair held away from her face with multiples tiny braids, blue eyes, fair skin and a pretty black dress that must have been very expensive.

Katniss suddenly understood what Haymitch meant by vampire senses because that one triggered them all. The thingling at the base of her nape was driving her crazy. And she was certain, without knowing how, that the woman was powerful and old and probably much more than she could take.

Cato had fallen back with an odd sort of deference at the vampire's entrance and Peeta immediately rushed to Katniss' side, the makeshift club back in his hands as if it really could be useful against any of the four vampires.

"What the hell?" he whispered.

"Vampires." she supplied, fishing her spare stake out of her pocket and handing it out to him.

He stared at it, then back at her. "You're joking."

"I wish." She tried to add some bravado to her voice but the truth was that she was terrified. When the woman moved, everything seemed to flow. A little like Haymitch when he really bothered to fight but also a lot more graceful than anything her mentor could ever hope to achieve. That vampire was a warrior. Katniss tilted her chin up stubbornly and adjusted her grip on her stake. "Who are you?"

She would have told Peeta to run if she had thought it would help but, while she was pretty sure the woman wouldn't go after him, Cato and the two other vampires probably would.

"Your death. Slayer." the woman mocked.

A tilt of her head and the two vampires at her side rushed to Katniss. Those didn't have Cato's skills and were probably still pretty new. She dispatched the first one with a few kicks and one good hit to the chest. The second one used that time to attack Peeta but his branch and his clumsy attempts at stabbing him in the heart had slowed the vampire down enough that Katniss could hit him from behind while he was distracted.

Then, of course, Cato jumped on her from the side and she was back to trying to contain him and keep an eye on the woman at the same time.

"You are a pretty one. And strong too." the old vampire purred at Peeta. "I might keep you…"

Irritation gave Katniss the boost she needed and she used a turning kick to send Cato flying straight into the woman.

"Run!" she screamed to Peeta while the two vampires were still busy trying to untangle themselves and get up. She didn't leave him a choice, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him along. There were crashing noises behind them and she just knew Cato and the strange vampire were hot on their heels. They emerged out of the woods panting but Katniss didn't slow down, not until they had reached the lights flooding out of the hotel's windows.

The music was still loud and deafening, people were still laughing and dancing inside… Here, in the meadow, nothing had changed.

She came to an abrupt stop and whirled around, forcing Peeta to turn with her because she still had a deadly grip on his wrist. She half expected to see the blonde vampire stroll out of the woods and straight to them but nobody walked out from between the trees. Everything was calm. As if nothing at all had happened.

They remained there, frozen, for several minutes, and then the stake Peeta was still clutching with his free hand fell to the ground in a dull sound. "I guess it's really not like Twilight…"

"Katniss!" Gale called out.

She turned her head in time to see her best friend striding toward her, Madge right behind him. They were both looking at them with wide frightened eyes but Madge started running before Gale because the boy's eyes had locked on the fingers coiled around Peeta's wrist.

"You're hurt!" Madge gasped, reaching for her cheek. And now that she said it and that the adrenaline was coming down, Katniss' cheekbone started throbbing. So did her shoulder for that matter. She had landed badly on it.

"What did you do to her?" Gale hissed with a fury Katniss had never heard coming from him.

Before she could react, Peeta's arm had been torn from her grip. Gale had grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and had slammed him against the outer wall of the hotel. The commotion attracted attention and a few boys started shouting "Fight! Fight! Fight!" like it was some sort of game.

"Let me go." Peeta demanded.

"Let him go." Katniss seconded in a tone that broke no argument.

Gale tossed her an incredulous look. "Are you kidding me? Did you see yourself? I swear if he touched you I…"

"Peeta didn't hurt me." she snapped. She wedged herself in between them and shoved Gale back. "Stop being an idiot."

Gale stared at her, ran his hand in his hair and then scoffed. "Yeah. I guess I'm the idiot for coming to this stupid party in the first place."

He stormed away before she could even try to answer that.

"That's the second time you save me tonight. I feel like a damsel in distress." Peeta commented behind her. And then he was laughing and there was a hysterical tinge to it that made Katniss wince.

"You need to go to the hospital." Madge said quietly. "Both of you."

"No, I'm fine." she denied. "I need to…" Find Haymitch and tell him about the blond vampire. But what was she going to do with Peeta? The boy was still laughing. She was pretty sure Cato hadn't drunk enough from him to make the blood loss dangerous but there were scrapes on his face and she didn't trust him not to spill everything to the first person he saw – namely Madge. She needed to make him swear that he would keep silent. "Peeta, do you have a car? I'll drive you home."

He nodded, still laughing, and Katniss rolled his eyes at him. She hadn't been that hysterical when she had found herself face to face with vampires.

"You should go home too." she told Madge.

She didn't want to leave her friend alone when vampires were around. Hell, she didn't want to leave anyone when vampires were around but she needed to regroup. Playing it clever had always been the plan. Survive was rule number one. She was certain she wouldn't survive a fight against the blond vampire.

Madge, fortunately, didn't even discuss it. They all headed to the parking lot. Peeta had stopped laughing but he still occasionally chuckled to himself like a mad person. He handed her the keys of his SUV and she faltered for a moment because the car looked brand new and far too big. But she wasn't going to let that stop her. She sat behind the wheel, fumbled around with the seat because Peeta was too tall and she could barely reach the pedals as it was, and waited until he had strapped himself in before turning the ignition on.

The car moved two feet and then stalled.

She started the engine again without looking at Peeta.

After three attempts, the car kept on stalling and they weren't even out of the parking lot but at least Peeta had stopped chuckling.

"Do you know how to drive?" he asked.

There was no judgment but there was some fondness as if she was currently doing something particularly cute. She had no clue what could be going through his head and she wasn't going to admit she had never learned how to drive.

"How hard can it be?" she retorted.

He smiled a soft smile and shook his head. "Let's switch seats. I'm good to drive now."

She eyed the wound on his neck dubiously but he looked calmer and alert so she shrugged her acceptance.

"Can you drop me at Haymitch's?" she asked once they were driving down the road that led back into town.

"Haymitch?" he frowned.

"Mr Abernathy." she clarified.

That gave him more pause than the vampire thing had earlier and, for a second, she was scared he would start laughing again. "The History teacher? Why do you want to go to our History teacher's house in the middle of the night?"

"Because he's my Watcher." she sighed.

He was silent for a few minutes and then winced and shrugged. "Yeah, no… I can turn that sentence around in my head, the only way it's making sense is creepy."

She rolled her eyes. "Look, it's complicated. He's helping me with the…"

She let her sentence trail off, not sure she wanted to set him off again. And maybe he wanted to pretend none of this had happened. She would understand. People developed incredible powers of persuasion in that sort of situations.

"Vampires." he finished. "Who are real." She remained silent and he must have taken that for a confirmation that he wasn't crazy because he continued. "She called you slayer… And you took down those vampires… And when did you learn to fight like that? And how long has this been going on?"

Katniss sighed and slid down her seat a little.

So much for secrecy.

So they did survive! But now Peeta knows... How do you think he will deal with that? Does Madge know more than she lets on? Will Haymitch kill Katniss when he learns she failed to keep her cover? Who is the blond vampire? So many questions! Did you have fun? Let me know all your thoughts!