6

Katniss was on edge and it didn't do much for Haymitch's nerves.

They walked in the club a minute after Peeta and he was forced to tug on the back of her jacket so she wouldn't follow the boy too close. If he had let her to her own devices, he was pretty sure her version of a stakeout would have been to sit right next to him. She scowled at him when he pointed at the stairs that led to the upper level of the club.

"I don't like this." she said again.

He couldn't really hear her over the loud music but he could read her lips well enough even in the somehow dark club thanks to the stroboscopic lights. He scowled right back and gave her a small shove toward the stairs since she didn't seem in a hurry to move.

It was easier to hear and talk upstairs and Haymitch led the way to a table that was near the railing so they would have a good view of the dance floor and the bar.

He ignored the stares they were attracting since Katniss seemed oblivious to them. Either people thought the girl was his daughter and they looked flabbergasted she would accept to be seen at a club with him or they thought he was some kind of pervert who liked dating teenage girls – and thanks to Hawthorne's meddling, those rumors were still rampant around the school despite the fact that most of the student body seemed to have correctly deduced he was actually fucking the Art teacher instead…

"He's by the bar." Katniss uselessly told him, barely stopping herself from pointing at the boy.

"I know." he grumbled, flopping down on one of the chairs and angling it in a way that wouldn't make it obvious he was watching the lower level of the club. Katniss didn't really bother with discretion. Her eyes were riveted on Peeta and only irregularly made a quick sweep of the rest of the place. "Relax, sweetheart… I promise you will get him back in one piece."

Another scowl but, this time, she squirmed a little and that made him smirk.

Teasing her was always too easy and it was always a lot of fun.

"I can't see any of the Careers." she deflected.

"That would be 'cause they're not here." he replied with a shrug, drumming his fingers on the table, wishing he could order a glass of something strong. "It might take a while. It's gonna give us a chance to talk…"

"About what?" she scoffed, burying her hand in her pocket.

He was one hundred percent certain she was clutching a weapon and he wondered if he would have to stop her from jumping over the railing directly to the lower floor to stake Enobaria if the vampire ever showed up and approached Peeta. You couldn't always trust Katniss to follow the plan.

"I don't know… House rules?" he deadpanned. "Or, specifically, how you broke them last night?"

To her credit, she didn't pretend she didn't know what he was talking about. She glanced at him and then stared back at Peeta with an irritated pout. "I didn't go into his room and he didn't come into mine."

He snorted. "Oh, come on, girl… He was sleeping in the living-room…"

"So what?" she challenged, sparing him a glare. "I'm not allowed to be in the living-room with him now?"

"Not in the middle of the night when he's half naked and you're…" he rambled, managing to stop himself before his brain jumped on conclusions it didn't want to reach. He took a deep breath, reminded himself that he had been determined to ignore the whole thing when she had woken him up by sneaking around in the middle of the night. "Look… I ain't any happier than you are to have this conversation but if you're gonna… You know… We need to get on top of it."

The look she directed at him was clueless and he suddenly regretted even broaching the subject. It had been spur of the moment, he had absolutely meant to let Effie handle this.

"On top of what?" she asked, suddenly defensive.

He swallowed hard and pretended he was searching the shadowy spots around the club with his gaze. "Contraceptive methods."

She let out a squeaky noise that might have been funny in other circumstances. "I'm not… We're not… I'm not talking about that with you."

"You don't wanna talk about that with me, that's fine." he agreed with blatant relief. "But you're talking about it with Effie as soon as we get a moment."

"But we haven't done anything." she snapped.

Her face was crimson.

He didn't relish in embarrassing her but he shot her a look anyway.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, we kissed. That's it, we kissed."

"And it was all innocent pecks and hands in the air, was it?" he mocked in a knowing tone.

She made a face and purposefully turned more toward the railing. "None of your business."

"Trust me, as your Watcher and as your guardian, it's my business." he retorted.

"I'm not stupid." she hissed. "I wouldn't…"

"My mother wasn't stupid either. That didn't stop her from getting knocked up before she was sixteen." he cut her off. "Look… He's a good boy, I know whatever is happening between you is new but… I've been young once, believe it or not, and I've been in enough life and death situations with my own girl to know things get heated very fast sometimes…" He shut the door on those memories before they could become overwhelming, licked his lips and cleared his throat, hoping he didn't look as awkward as he felt. "I ain't telling you not to have fun, sweetheart. I'm just saying, you've got to be clever about it."

It was a long time before she managed to look at him again and, when she did, she glared. "You're not telling me not to have fun but you don't want me and Peeta alone in a room."

He rubbed his face and chose to focus on watching the dancefloor, looking for an ancient vampire. Fuck, but he would rather be getting his ass kicked than having this conversation…

Unfortunately, Enobaria didn't arrive to save him from it.

"Cause I don't wanna know what you're up to." he grumbled. "You've got to do this, do it at Effie's. I ain't sure she minds as much as I do." Katniss snorted, not particularly convinced by that statement, and he had to wince. "Don't tell her I said that."

"You get it's unfair, yeah?" she retorted. "You say I'm not allowed to be with Peeta alone upstairs but Effie's staying the night or you're going to her place…"

"We're adults." he countered. "And it's our business."

"Are you dating?" she insisted.

"None of your business." he snapped.

"Neither is what I do with Peeta." she hissed, pointing her finger at him in triumph as if she had just made the winning point.

"It's my business cause you're my kid and maybe I don't wanna think about what my kid is up to behind closed doors!" he retorted, raising his voice a little. It attracted looks from other tables and he took a deep breath before looking back at the dancefloor. "We should focus on the mission."

But Katniss was distracted now.

There was an intensity in her grey eyes that hadn't been there before. She looked a little torn.

"You're not my father, Haymitch." she said quietly. It wasn't mean or cruel but it hurt anyway.

"I'm your Watcher. Same thing." he muttered. But it wasn't supposed to be and they both knew it.

She was staring at him but he refused to look at her. He was watching Peeta who was trying to blend in by dancing with some other kids from school…

"I'll talk to Effie about getting on the pill." she eventually relented, still sounding awkward. "But it's Prim who really needs a dad, not me."

"Ain't father material." he grumbled.

She replied so softly, he almost didn't hear it over the music. "Yeah, you are."

He chose to ignore that.

It annoyed him how worked up he could get over the thought of the kids getting it on. He never used to involve himself so much in his other Slayers' love life. What he didn't know, he didn't bother to find out.

He had cared for every of his Slayer deeply but Katniss was the first he looked at like a kid of his own. Was it because of his age? Because she could easily have been his if he had bothered to ever have children? Was it because she reminded him so much of himself? Was it because she was living with him, under his care?

He knew whatever it was, it was a soppy path.

It would hurt that much more when…

He shut down that avenue of thoughts and forced himself to focus on the job at hand.

Still no Enobaria.

They had been there more than an hour now and Peeta was showing signs of impatience. The boy glanced up at them a few times but kept going…

The club was slowly emptying…

Haymitch studied every face he could, every sweaty body that escaped the dancefloor…

"Anything feels weird to you?" he asked after a while.

Katniss glanced at him and narrowed her eyes. "I can't feel any vampire."

"Yeah." he agreed.

He couldn't spot a single one either and that… Well, that was weird. The Cornucopia had always been a good place for vampires to hunt, that there wasn't even one – and he was pretty sure there hadn't been any all night – was troubling.

°O°O°O°O°

'Effie? We've got a problem.' Peeta's voice echoed in her mind.

Effie immediately sat straighter. 'Is it Enobaria? Is she here?'

"Is it time?" Cinna asked, sounding almost eager. She didn't think Enobaria would escape the encounter with the warlock.

'No. That's the problem.' Peeta answered.

She was about to ask for more clarifications because it was late but not late enough that the club would close yet when her phone pinged with a new message from Haymitch.

'It's a bust. Meet us out front.' the text said.

She showed the screen to Cinna who, if possible, seemed to grow even angrier. His frustration made his magic flare and that, in turn, made the car seem even smaller. It was over in a second. He regained control.

"I apologize." he offered.

'Never mind.' Peeta said in her head. 'Katniss is with me. She says the mission's off.'

She waited until she had driven the car to the parking lot in front of the club and she had her sight on the three familiar figures emerging from the club to cancel the telepathic spell.

"What happened?" Cinna asked, getting out of the car before she had even turned the engine off.

Haymitch shook his head. "No vampires. Either they knew we'd be coming or there's something else going on…"

Katniss was sticking very close to Peeta's side but she still looked nervous. "I want to go home now. Prim's alone."

"They cannot get inside the Village." Effie reminded her in a calming tone.

"Doesn't matter." Haymitch replied. "I want to check on the girl too. I've got a bad feeling about this…"

Effie could feel Cinna's impatience and frustration from where she stood. His magic was… His control was impressive but he was so powerful that it was no wonder every time his control slipped it felt like a thunderstorm, even if it only lasted a second.

"I want to try and find Portia." the warlock growled.

"How?" Haymitch challenged. "This was our best lead." He didn't look happy either. "Look, I'm sorry but it seems to me like the easiest way to get your girlfriend back is to figure out this Reaping thing."

Cinna wasn't pleased but he gave him a reluctant nod. "I'll ride with the children. Effie needs a break from me."

She hurried in offering a polite denial but didn't outright protest the arrangement.

She didn't protest when Haymitch slid in the passenger seat either.

It wasn't long before she lost the rearlights of Peeta's truck ahead of her on the road. The boy was driving too fast and she clucked her tongue but sped up a little too. The general feeling of foreboding was getting to her. There was something in the air…

"You need to get Katniss to a doctor so she can be on birth control." Haymitch said after five minutes of silence. It was almost an afterthought. She could tell he was distracted.

"Alright." she agreed, although she wasn't sure when she was supposed to do that: between two monsters? Before or after they tackled the Careers?

He remained silent until they were in sight of the metallic gates that closed in the suburb area.

"I'm pretty sure they're in the Capitol." he told her. "That's Snow's old haunt, it's close to the Hellmouth… It makes sense."

She glanced at him as she turned in their street. Peeta's truck was in her driveway, the lights were on at Haymitch's and there were no signs of struggle so she supposed nobody had attacked the house after all. The children and Cinna weren't in sight so she parked behind the boy but didn't make a move to get out of the car. Haymitch didn't either.

"It does." She had had the same thought. "Why haven't you told Cinna?"

He sighed. "Cause he's gonna go in all hell blazing and if I'm right… It's not only the Careers in there. It's the Careers and an army of vampires."

"He is wiser than you make him out to be." she pointed out. "He might not…"

"He loves her." he cut her off, slowly turning his head to look at her. "He'd go to hell for her… Fuck, I can't say I don't get it… Lose enough people and you're desperate to keep alive the ones you've got left…"

She met his eyes and the intensity in them took her breath away for a second.

Would you go to hell for me?

She swallowed the question back before she could embarrass herself. She was pretty sure the answer was probably not anyway. "If the witch is really being kept there against her will…"

"I know." he sighed. "I was thinking maybe you should set the building on fire in the morning but that still leaves us with the rescuing part… It means going in… Four of us against an army… I don't like our chances."

Four meant he wasn't including Peeta.

She couldn't fault him for that.

"At least it would be on our terms." she pointed out.

"We could lure them out somehow…" he suggested and then shook his head. "I need a better plan. Don't tell Cinna. Let me sleep on it. I'll figure out something by tomorrow."

"Of course." she hummed. She trusted him blindly. A little too blindly perhaps. "I think I will head to bed. I won't be of any use since I cannot touch that book and Cinna's presence…" She sighed. "I did not realize I had claimed this place as my territory."

"What?" he teased, placing his hand on her thigh. "You didn't realize you claimed my fucking house as yours? The rate you're raiding my kitchen…" He winked at her. "And my bedroom…"

Her lips twitched and she leaned her skull against the headrest, not minding the slow strokes his thumb was leaving on her thigh in the slightest.

"Perhaps I will claim you next." she warned.

"Kinky." He snorted. "What's the ritual for that?"

"Pagan." she deadpanned, making it up on the spot. "A lot of nakedness."

His smirk widened, his grey eyes twinkled. "Why, sweetheart, you know me…Always up for naked magic."

She couldn't keep a straight face anymore and she gave up, shaking her head as she chuckled. He was still smirking when he grabbed her chin and tilted it up toward him so he could kiss her. It wasn't a deep kiss but it made something coil in her belly all the same.

"Night, sweetheart." he whispered against her lips.

"Goodnight." She grinned. "Send Peeta back home, will you?"

"Will do." He nodded and got out of her car.

She waited and watched him cross the street to his house in the rearview mirror. It was only when he was safely inside that she made the short trek to her own front door.

°O°O°O°O°

The sky was a sick red and orange color like the sun had burst and left a festered wound behind .

Katniss didn't know where she was.

She remembered coming back from the club. She remembered checking on Prim who had already been in bed fast asleep. She remembered slipping in that same bed next to her sister because Haymitch had insisted they all needed rest.

She remembered…

But it was all blurry.

Like something you could see from behind a window on a rainy day.

The sky was a sick red and orange color and suddenly she was standing in front of an old dead tree stump and there was a huge hole in the ground.

No…

Not a hole.

The earth had been dug up in a wild slightly irregular circle but there was some sort of metal glinting deep inside. An ornate thing with runes and weird curved lines, the like of which she had seen in the books in Haymitch's library.

A seal.

The seal.

Fingers entwined with hers and she glanced to her right. She wasn't scared, not really. There was nothing scary about the blond girl standing next to her.

She frowned. "Madge?"

But it wasn't Madge.

The girl's blond hair was loose and wavy and she looked like Madge and yet didn't.

"Maysilee." she corrected herself in a breath.

The other Slayer flashed her a small sad smile.

"It's awake." Maysilee said, nodding at the Hellmouth.

She thought she could smell its stench from where she was. Rot and decay and… But the seal was closed. The Hellmouth was safe.

Someone took her other hand and she quickly turned her head to find another girl standing there. She was pretty. Long dark hair twisted in a ponytail, grey eyes that shone with intelligence… The girl was wearing a punk outfit that had long gone out of fashion. She was all leather, that one, leather pants ripped at the thighs and held together with safety pins, leather jacket… She looked fierce and yet she smiled and her smile was kind if a little sad.

Sister, her instinct whispered, Slayer.

With the certainty of dreams, and despite the fact she had never seen a picture of her before, she knew this was Mabel. Haymitch's dead girl.

"He knows." Mabel whispered.

Katniss didn't need to ask who knew because it all made sense in a twisted way.

Snow.

They meant Snow.

"He's waiting." another voice announced and Katniss looked up to see a third girl standing next to the dead tree, on the other side of the Hellmouth.

She was slightly older than the others. She wasn't beautiful in the traditional sense but she had such charisma…

Like Mabel, Katniss knew who she was without ever having seen a picture.

Iris.

Iris Abernathy.

Haymitch's mother.

She was older than the others but she was still so young… Too young to be dead. Too young to have left two children behind.

"He's coming." the three dead Slayers said as one and the words echoed like the rustle of leaves in the winds, it echoed through the mouths of the hundreds of ghosts that were suddenly standing all around them…

All Slayers.

All dead.

The Hellmouth rumbled…

And then Katniss screamed for the pain was unbearable.

Well... That stakeout was anticlimactic... Who thought Prim was in danger? Who likes that Haymitch is absolutely dumping all the teenage problems on Effie? Who has a plan to take the Capitol? And who thinks that Slayer dream at the end means trouuuuuubles?