Author's Note:
Thank you for the follows, faves, and reviews.
Well, things take a turn in this chapter.
Coriolanus sipped on his wine, watching his wife look around the dining room impatiently. She was fidgeting in her seat; it was embarrassing.
He was paying good money on a meal that they'd never eat, cause she'd be dead soon and he'd be hacking up blood. The least Livia could do was conduct herself properly in public.
The damn shrew was impossible to train. So impatient. Greedy, spoiled, rich bitch was so used to getting her way that waiting a few extra minutes for their seafood appetizer was too much to handle.
God, he's so happy that he dumped that vial of poison in their wine bottle (that he had the waiter leave on their table) after convincing his vain wife that she needed to powder her nose; that it was too shiny.
Soon, very very soon the poison will kick in and Livia will drop dead.
Not him though.
No, he won't die, but he'll get sick though since he's only partially immune to this strong, but sweet tasting poison that pairs so well with the vintage Merlot.
Truth be told, the side effects of the poison he was drinking tonight would stick with him for more than a few hours.
In fact Coriolanus would be stuck in bed recovering for a good week or so. A recovery that would consist of being weak, spitting up blood, and not being able to keep anything other than liquids down.
"Why is it taking so long for our appetizer?" Livia whined, turning to sit properly in her seat. She was giving him an impatient look.
He's sure the oysters rockefeller will be out any minute now.
Just in time for the fun to begin.
"Well, Livia, they do have to cook it." He sarcastically reminded his soon to be dead wife.
"Don't be condescending with me, Coriolanus. I'm your wife, not some whore from a black market brothel you can speak down to." The dirty blonde scolded him in an uppity tone while reaching for her wine.
Yes, drink up.
Right now Coriolanus was ecstatic that his nearly dead wife was a lush. The more wine she drank meant the quicker he's rid of her.
Oooo… a poisoning death has never made him more happy then hers.
He couldn't wait for her to start bleeding from her nose and choking on her own blood that'd clog her lungs.
Putting down his glass, he subtly motioned to the waiter making his way to their table. "The oysters rockefeller's on its way now, Livia."
"You know, husband, that most men call their wives a pet name; not use their name every time they speak to them." Livia snapped as the waiter got closer to the table, tray of oyster appetizers in his hand.
"Yes well most husbands love their wives, yet here we are just barely tolerating each other for money and social standings." Coriolanus factually states, his eyes following the waiter's every move.
Livia picked chugged down some wine as the waiter appeared at the table, placing the appetizer tray down on the white linen tablecloth. "Finally. It took you long enough." Livia rudely remarked, causing the waiter to quickly apologize and leave.
"Your manners are atrocious, Livia." Coriolanus pointed out as he served them their appetizer.
Fortunately, in a few minutes, he'll never have to deal with her atrocious manners ever again. He'll be free to be with June; he knows that since she's young he can train her Make sure that June acts properly, knows her place by his side and as the First Lady of Panem.
"And you parade around like some gentleman when we both know that you have degenerate desires and urges."
"Livia…" he hissed in a low warning. Why was she bringing this up here, in a crowded restaurant where anyone could overhear? Did she have any decency, any respect for him?
No.
She doesn't, otherwise she wouldn't be insulting his sexual preferences while they're at her last super.
Ignoring his hissed warning, Livia scooped a small piece of oyster up with her fork while telling her husband, "People are starting to talk, Coriolanus, in the social circles about us being married for so long and not having any children."
"And whose fault is that, Livia?" Coriolanus asked, taking a bite of his own seafood appetizer. "You're the one that refuses to share a bed with me. Who's shot me down anytime I attempt to bring up the subject of children." He reminded her as his nose began to burn, tingle, and twitch with the telltale signs of an upcoming nose bleed.
Yes, any second now his wife'll be dead and he'll be free of his life sentence. He'll be free to make Jume his in every sense of the word.
"I've been told that there's a clinic that specializes in reproductive matters. That the doctor at the clinic is able to collect the necessary products from us to make an embryo in a lab; that we could even have it implanted into a female avox as a surrogate so that I wouldn't have to touch you or ruin my body by getting fat."
Was she serious right now? She expected him to be on board with having a science baby? A baby supposedly made from their collected samples and mixed up in a test tube, in a lab.
In a lab.
Coriolanus remembers his time studying and interning under Dr. Gaul, before that terrible accident she had right before he graduated University and was given her Head Gamemaker job. He remembers the experiments that took place in the labs. How creatures were created out of thin air with a few strands of DNA samples. How easily DNA could be twisted and mutated into a creature so vile, so horrible, so deadly.
No.
He wasn't going to have a mutt for a child. Especially one carried by an avox.
No, he was going to have children the old fashioned way with Jume. And he'll make sure that she enjoys making them too.
Livia's eyes went wide and she dropped her fork, causing it to loudly clatter onto the bone china plate. Blood began to trickle down her nostrils as she grabbed her neck, clawing at it in a vain attempt for air.
Oh, show time. The poison's kicked in.
Coriolanus knew what to expect in the seconds to come, he's been through it before. So, deciding that he wanted the last word, he leaned in close to Livia and simply told her, "Snow lands on top."
When he sat back, blood began to trickle from his own nose, along with rising from his stomach and filling up his mouth.
By this point, blood poured from Livia's mouth and she was choking on it.
All the while the dining room of Avelina's was full of screams and terrified cries from the elite capitolites whose meals were now ruined.
Coriolanus watches the life drain out of his wife's eyes as he began coughing up blood. It was a beautiful sight to behold.
June was in a cozy sweater, curled up on the sofa with a steaming cup of tea in her hand. She sent Tigris home hours ago because, even though she was very nice to June, the dark-haired girl couldn't handle how she looked at her.
How she treated her like she's made out of fragile glass.
Even though Coryo was a bit much with his hot-cold behavior, he didn't treat June like she's made out of fragile glass. In fact it felt like the opposite. That he wasn't afraid if he shattered her, if she broke.
Coriolanus wasn't purposely trying to break her, or at least June didn't think he was, but he didn't watch his tongue and tiptoe around her.
He was blunt with June; treated her like a person instead of a victim of the games.
Coryo had no problems treating June like a woman, that's for sure. June's status as a victor that had seen horrors in the arena did nothing to deter him from his dominant nature in bed with her.
June knows that she shouldn't seek solace with the head gamemaker, the man that designed the arena along with all the twists and turns of this July's games, but she couldn't help but feel like he was the only one that treated her like a normal human being.
Coriolanus knew, perhaps better than anyone else, the horrors June saw in the games and he didn't pity her. In fact, the way he looked at her seemed to be almost prideful.
His icy blue eyes also held a sense of lust and possession in them too, but she swore she saw pride in them.
Maybe June's overthinking everything. The way he felt about her didn't matter: he was married.
Of course he was married, he was 15 years older than the raven haired girl.
As June sipped on her tea, she couldn't help, but worry about how her brother and his girlfriend would treat her when she (eventually) went home. Would they tread lightly with June like Tigris does or would they treat her like they did before she left? Would Rein and Ashlie view June as different, would they pity her?
And then the thought of the neighbor boy, the freshly 15 year old Corbin Everdeen, popped into June's head.
Would he stop chasing June's heels like a puppy; think that she's horrible for killing 7 people in the Hunger Games, or would he still chase her around? Still pester June to listen to whatever song he was working on for his weekend performances at the hob, once she returned to 12?
June thinks being the Victor of the First Quarter Quell will make Corbin (who Rein felt was a borderline stalker with how he was always finding ways to be around his sister) leave her alone since he hated the games. He felt that the games changed people; either made them murderers or drove them mad out of their minds with paranoia. He felt that if June got reaped then she should just let herself be struck down in the bloodbath in order to preserve her identity; to keep the Capitol from stealing and corrupting her soul.
June didn't do what the neighbor boy musician told her to do.
No.
She did what her older brother told her to do. Jume fought to survive. She did whatever it took to make it out alive.
June trained in those 2 weeks given to her in the tribute center, she listened to the Academy student that was assigned as her mentor (since District 12 didn't have a living victor to mentor June), and she dazzled the audience in her interview.
The gorgeous dresses that Tigris made for June helped sell her as the Capitol Darling too.
It all came in handy when June received a training score of 8 (her mentor thought that she deserved at least a 10 and was livid that the gamemakers only gave her an 8) and received a few sponsors from it.
June took her brother's advice to heart and did what she had to do to survive. But now she's here, sitting in the head gamemaker's penthouse while pondering whether or not she'll ever have people treat her normally ever again.
Some reward for winning, huh?
And to think that they tell every once they win they'll go home; will be able to like their life in peace.
Like fucking hell.
That's not what's happening to June right now.
Nope…
So, since she had no control over anything in her life right now, all June could do was sip on her hot tea and watch some rom-com on Capitol TV.
It was amazing how Coriolanus' TV had more than 3 channels. It also amazes June how the thing took up most of his wall in the main room too.
As June watched the couple on TV do the classic coworkers fake dating for the winter holidays to make the girl's ex jealous trope, she couldn't help, but miss her cat. She used to curl up in June's lap when she watched tv.
Suddenly, right as the couple on TV was fumbling thru their fake meet story, a breaking news report interrupted the movie.
June couldn't help, but sigh as you listened to the reporter at the news desk say, "We here at Capitol News 6 are so sorry to be interrupting your programs, but we have just gotten some horrible and heartbreaking, well, breaking news." The reporter took a moment to put on a sad face and take a silent pause before announcing, "Socialite Livia Cardew-Snow, wife of Head Gamemaker Coriolanus Snow, died of sudden food poisoning merely an hour ago in the Capitol restaurant Avelina's. Our beloved head gamemaker himself is currently being treated at Capitol General and is expected to make a full recovery."
What?
June's wheels were turning. She knew that botulism took 48 hours to kill and salmonella had different levels of severity, but wouldn't just cause somebody to drop dead in the middle of a restaurant.
There was only one reason for Livia's sudden death and Coriolanus' sudden near death experience that he'd recover from.
He poisoned his wife and himself, but with not as high of a dose that he gave his wife, and made it look like food poisoning because they were at a restaurant.
What the hell?! How could he be so reckless? What if he accidently gave himself a fatal dose, then where would that leave June?
That damn snake…
"Let's go live to our favorite weatherman and reporter for all things game related, Lucretius 'Lucky' Flickerman, who's with our beloved Head Gamemaker Coriolanus Snow in his hospital room." The news desk reporter said before the screen cut to live footage of Lucky Flickerman standing next to Coriolanus, who was sitting up in a hospital bed.
June took one look at Coriolanus and knew what kind of poison he used. He used a toxic metal based poison made from either cadmium, selenium, or arsenic. It's the only kind of poison that would've killed Livia Cardew-Snow so quickly; would leave Coryo coughing up blood and looking so pale and weak in his hospital bed.
The raven haired girl knew about the dangers ofmetals such as cadmium, selenium, and arsenic leaching into water and turning it into poison from her brother's career as a coal miner. It's the reason why he won't use the water at the mines; why he brings his own in a large glass jug with him to work.
Rein told June that when new shafts were carved into the mines or when new mines were blown into the side of the mountains that the leftover rubble gets dumped to the side where it leeches and runs off into water, creating poison for anyone who drinks it.
June's seen the effects of the poisoned mine water too when she started her short lived internship at the apothecary right before getting reaped.
It wasn't pretty.
But the few men that survived, mostly young men that were still in their teens or early 20s, spat up blood, had mouth sores, ulcers, and could barely eat for weeks while they recovered and fought the poison.
They had the same weak, pale, sunk in look that Coriolanus had right now as he laid in his hospital bed telling some bullshit story to the media about the food poisoning that killed Livia and nearly killed him.
Oh, June swears she's giving him a piece of her mind when he shows up at the penthouse.
And June knew he'd show up since he killed his wife to be able to have her in his bed.
God, now she's sharing a bed with a snake.
"You should be asleep, darling." Coriolanus chastised June, walking into the main room of the penthouse in the wee hours of the morning.
He looked like shit. Had blood dripping from the side of his mouth.
God, June's so pissed at him. Before she could think better of it, June chucked her teacup at his head, but it just went over his shoulder and shattered against the wall. "You want to off your wife with poison, fine, but don't drink the damn shit yourself, Coriolanus!" June angrily screamed.
"I don't know what you're talking about, June. I got food poisoning from bad seafood; unfortunately it killed my wife." Coriolanus smoothly lied, his face an unwavering mask.
"I interned at the apothecary in District 12 before I got reaped, Coriolanus. I've seen the signs of cadmium, selenium, and arsenic poisoning since the water from the mines is tainted from it." The raven haired girl bluntly told the platinum blonde while standing to her feet. Walking up to him, June said, "You have the signs. You're coughing up blood, your pale and your face looks sunk in." His icy blue eyes narrowed at her. "Bet you got a sore in your mouth, if not then it'll pop up soon." Pointing to his stomach, June warned, "Watch yourself, metal based poisons are notorious for causing bleeding ulcers."
Coryo's jaw twitched as he looked down at June. "I see you're well educated for a girl from District 12. Let me ask you, how do you feel about what I did tonight?" A dark smirk twisted on his lips as he asked, "Are you going to be a loose end for me, my darling rose?"
"Honestly, I'm not upset that you killed your wife. What I'm upset about is that you drank that poison too. You drank it without even worrying about what would happen to me if something went wrong and you dropped dead too."
"Darling," Coriolanus reached out with his hand, attempting to pull June into him and comfort her, but she pushed him away.
He weakly stumbled, but balanced himself by grabbing the nearby sitting chair.
"Did you even stop and think about what happens to me if you died or are incapacitated? Huh?!" June asked, on the verge of angry tears. She didn't even give him the chance to answer her. No, June just barreled on with, "Would I get sent back to 12 even though Victor's Village hasn't been built yet or would I be passed onto your successor, whoever would take your place as head gamemaker?"
"Nobody will ever get their hands on you, my darling rose." Coryo swore as he weakly collapsed in the sitting chair. "I'll kill anyone that tries to take you from me." He darkly vowed while coughing up blood.
"You're going to be laid up in bed for a week, maybe 2." June told him, watching as he took his handkerchief from his breast pocket; coughing into it. The blood spurts from his coughing stained the white cloth red, as if little rain drops had drizzled on it.
She felt bad for him, watching him struggling to breath as his chest rattled with every bloody cough he let out.
June went over to his chair and knelt by his side. She knew he wouldn't stop poisoning people. Not with the outburst that he just had. But June knew that she couldn't let him keep using dangerous metal based poisons.
Whether she wanted to admit it or not, her red string of fate was tied to the head gamemaker. June needed him for her survival.
Taking one of his hands on her, June revealed, "Coryo, I have an apothecary book back in my room in District 12. It has recipes for herbal remedies, medicines, poisons, and antidotes in it."
God, Juney going straight to hell for what she's going to say next.
"If you can somehow get me that book I'll help you make poisons that won't hurt you. That you can take an antidote for ahead of time; that won't make you sick."
Coriolanus let out a rumbling cough, soaking his handkerchief, only to look at June with a mix of astonishment and admiration in his baby blues. "You'd do that for me? Make me poisons to use on my enemies?"
June remembered what he told her in the hospital, that the Capitol was a dangerous place. Was a chess game of life; that he'd teach her how to play and master it.when the time was right.
Well, no time like the present.
"You're enemies are my enemies too, aren't they? Maybe moreso since I'm district."
Coryo's calloused thum ran over June's knuckles and he gave her a crimson stained smile, "You're not district, my darling rose. You're a victor, like me."
If only June knew how damning those words truly were. Would June had tried to get away or would she'd still let the white snake wrap himself around her.
But June's a snake as well, wasn't she? For only a snake could truly feel safe with another snake.
Was June always a snake or did she just choose to become one because she was drawn to the dark beauty of a beautiful devil?