4 years later

Katniss Everdeen's P.O.V.

After training almost our whole lives before being Reaped, Gale and I quickly rose to the title of the best Vampire Slayers in Panem. Today, we are graduating Slayer academy to become official Slayers. We will get orders from president Alma Coin, and if anything takes a wrong turn, both of us are to take care of it.

My mother worries about me... ending up like my father and all that. But I always tell her that Gale can protect me. She doesn't get why I reply the same way every time - says that he's only a human. Of course, sometimes I forget that she doesn't know Gale's secret. He hasn't told anybody because they will take him as a threat and ban him from our land.

Our graduation is held at the Slayer academy, every one of the Reaped people for this year waiting patiently for the Headmaster and Mistress. Gale and I sit in the back, watching as others' names are called and people slowly file up to the stage.

What is only a few minutes feels like hours until my name is finally called. I stand and walk towards the stage. I and Effie have gotten closer over the four years of training - hell even me and Haymitch as well. Effie hugs me and hands me a pen and paper to sign my signature, saying that I will, at all costs, protect my district and never let any vampires, mythical creatures, or any bad things hurt us. I sign my name and sit at the back of the stage waiting for Gale's name to be called.

Gale is called and he signs the paper and sits beside me, I smile at him and get a warm smile in return.

"This year's Slayers of Panem, please stand," Effie announces.

We all do. People from the stand file down and make their way to each and every student. They are giving them something. We are a bit far back, so I can't see what it is.

"These are your armbands that will let everyone in your District know who you are, and who you serve. They are all coordinated to your District's main trade. They reach me and Gale and they move to extend our arms. They tie a white armband with a black rose in the center. I assume for coal mining. What else is black in 12 besides the ash and dust?

"Remember, it is of the utmost importance to keep everyone safe."

When me and my family get home, Prim says she wants to stay outside for a little bit. My mother nods, and we walk inside the house. My mother starts working on the laundry and I make a sandwich for everyone for lunch.

Primrose's P.O.V.

I sit out on the porch with a little twig in my hand, dragging it across the sidewalk. Wind stirs my hair, even with most of it pinned to my head in neat braids. My focus was so pinned on what I was drawing, I didn't hear the first few mews of sound. I look around and see a cat; its fur is scruffy with orange and white colors, half of one of its ears missing. Interested piqued, I stand and follow after it as it slowly padded away.

"Here kitty, kitty," I say in a soft voice, so I don't scare it away. But he keeps walking away. I sigh and continue following him. He goes to the gates and walks out of them. I hesitate for a moment, considering if I should follow him.

He looks like he needs food and water. I have to get him and take him home. I chase after him, trying to herd him back into the District. Without paying attention to where I'm going, he leads me deeper into the woods.

I finally catch up to him, and I bend over to pick up the sad-looking cat before he gets away again. I pet his head and he meows, a purr rumbling through my arms. As I finally stood up and looked around, I found myself surrounded by half-dead trees and underbrush. Even as I start to carefully pick my way back to the district, a heavy snap sounds from behind me. I whip around, the cat struggling in my arms as I grip it too tight. Fear washes over me.

"What did I do," I whisper to the cat. I hear another stick crack beside me and I start to back away, stopping only when I run into a tree. Regret for following the cat threaded through me, fear making my heart jump and skin crawl. I see movement from in the trees. My knees weaken before falling beneath me, and I slowly slide down the tree, clinging to the cat tightly. I shut my eyes before I could fully see what it was.

I feel a pair of hands grip onto my shoulders and pull me up off the ground. My eyes fling open in surprise, and I see one of them. A vampire. With blonde hair and red eyes, and....fangs. My skin almost turns to ice with fear, but I beg it away because Katniss always says they can smell fear.

I hear more footsteps and a pack of vampires all surround me, staring down and watching intently. The cat struggled in my arms.

"Please don't hurt me," I say in a shaky voice. They all start laughing and walk closer.

"We don't want to hurt you," one of the vampires said. She had raven black hair, her skin a pale white. She was considerably shorter than the others, but that didn't make her any less threatening.

"Yeah, Clove's right, we don't want to hurt you just, take you somewhere," another one says. He looks like the one who had initially touched me, though several had the blonde hair and red eyes. He is very tall and muscular, making Clove look so small compared to him. They all move closer with smug grins on their faces, hands reaching. They grab me and run away.

Katniss's P.O.V.

I grab the plate that Prim's sandwich is on and open the door. "Hey Prim, I made you a..." I trail off. Where is Prim? My smile turns into a worried look as I stare down her little abandoned drawing in the dirt.

"Prim?" I call out. "Prim!" I yell with panic in my voice. I drop the plate and run off the porch. "PRIM!" I scream, voice cracking.

My mother walks out of the house, wiping her hands on her apron. "Katniss, why are you screa.....where is Prim?!" she asks, suddenly realizing what I'd been yelling. My mouth hangs open, a look of shock plastering onto my face. I look towards my mother about to say something, but my mouth only gapes like a fish on dry land. All I can manage is a shake of my head.

"Do you think someone took her?" my mother asks.

"I don't know." I don't know what I'm doing. I have to look for Gale. Maybe he saw her.

Or knows where she is.

"Gale!" I shout and run towards his house.

"Hello!" I yell walking into their home. "Gale?"

"Katniss?" he finally replies. "What are you doing here?" He now has a worried look on his face.

"It's Prim, she's gone...I don't know where," I say, eyes burning as I hold back tears.

"Do you know if she said anything about going somewhere?" I shake my head. He sighs and looks to the ground, then his face lights up,

"Katniss," he says, his whole demeanor changing. "I can find her. Remember, I'm a werewolf... I can pick up her scent."

A little kernel of hope flutters in my chest. "Thank you, Gale," I say, and hug him.

It took about a half-hour of planning, but we decided on searching through the District first, just to be sure. We would do it at night when no one roamed the streets and it would be safer for Gale to go where he needed to. After that, we would follow wherever his nose leads us.

Our hunt starts at 1:00 am. We start looking at the Hob and around Prim's friends' houses, Gale's nose quivering as he sniffs the ground. But we have no luck. We get further and further from town until we find ourselves at the gate, a dark dawn beckoning from between the trees.

I stare at the distantly shrouded horizon with horror, some rock dropping into my gut. "You don't think she went in there, do you?" I ask Gale. He shakes his large head, a soft breeze stirring the fur there. He turns questioning gray eyes to me, the pupils narrowed to lupine slits as I think.

Before my Father died, he had gathered some weapons - various bows, swords, and guns - and hid them in a couple of trees. I retrieve them silently, Gale watching me curiously. Another breeze pushed between the trees, and the wolf's nose danced, his face tilting into the wind.

His tail starts wagging furiously.

"Gale, did you find something?" I ask, trying to read his wolven face like I would his human one.

He yips a short reply before launching into the forest. "Gale! Where are you going!" I yell after him. He shifts back into his human form in a flash, eyes narrowed with worry.

"They took her," Gale says tartly, his face scrunching up into a frown. He turns angry eyes to me. "The vampires, they......they took her somewhere. If the multiple scents has anything to do with it, I would say they took her back to their lair."

All my blood drains out of my face. What are they going to do to Prim? What have they done to Prim? The thoughts eddy out of my head, all except one.

We need to find her.

"Gale, do you still have her scent?" I ask.

He gives a short nod before saying, "Get on my back." He shifts into his werewolf form, and I only hesitate a moment before clambering on.

We glide through the forest, that sunrise setting the world on fire with light as the birds began to sing. Every time we stop for Gale to catch her scent again, is another second that rakes past, worry gnawing at my heart.

I do not know how long we spent searching through the forest for the needle in a haystack, but somehow, we end up at a gate. Dead vines wreath the wrought iron fence, the posts half crumbling with age. A large sign is casually placed next to the gate, engraved with the words "Vampires' Land." Behind it, a giant castle rose from the depths of the forest, the walls cracked and threaded with dried up plants.

We hesitate a moment, and I hop off of Gales back, feet crunching into dead leaves as I landed. He shifts back to his human form. "Should we go in?" Gale asks. "I have her scent and it leads in there."

I take a deep breath and nod. "Let's get my sister back." He smiles assuredly, and leads the way into the property.

A hush falls over the land as soon as we push through the gates, the metal bitingly cold in the pale morning's light. Birds fall silent here, and it seems the only sound is the crackling of plants as a soft breeze brushes through. I shiver, eyes flickering over the wide plains that roll up to the castle.

"Prim!" I whisper-yell, my hand comfortingly brushing one of my many weapons.

"Katniss, she's most likely not outside, so be quiet. We don't know if the vampires will hear us," Gale warns, voice a feather-soft tone.

I nod and pull out my bow, the wood fitting familiarly into my palms. Without thinking, I pull one of the guns from their holster and hand it to him. He takes it with a nod, and gestures to the door as we neared it, a question in his gray eyes. Taking a deep breath, my chin dipped in confirmation, and he slowly pushed open the door. However large and however old the doors were, they didn't squeak once. As soon as light floods the wide foyer, a group of bats comes flying out and we duck. I send an odd look to Gale, which makes him huff a laugh.

All laughter drains away from us as we turn to the dark entrance, the dark marble floors layered with dust.

"Prim," Gale says in a whisper. I look around. A grand staircase dominates the entrance, an empty coat hook right beside the door and a little table similarly coated with dust between the door and the stairs. Despite the well-oiled hinges on the door, it seems as if no one lives here.

"Let's look upstairs," I say and walk up to them.

There are lots of dusty pictures hanging on the wall and the stairs creak while we walk up to them. I hear a little girl's high-pitched scream echo from up the stairs, and instantly break into a sprint.

"Katniss! wait!" Gale calls after me, dashing up the stairs in smooth strides.

"I hear Prim!!" I yell back down at him and run down a long hallway that has another flight of stairs at the end.

This time, these stairs are narrow and made of rock, the staircase spiraling into the next floor. Little alcoves in the walls hold stubs of candles, the wicker lit and flickering in my mad dash. The farther up I go, the colder and darker it seems to get, all heat flooding down the stairs. A shiver spider-crawls down my spine, but I push it away as we come to a long hallway, the end of it distant enough that it falls away into darkness.

Iron bars outline cells, tiny windows sending shafts of pale light into the stone hall. Soft sobs reach my ears, and I start pacing towards the source, heart thundering. I look into every one until I find a little girl in one, her knees pulled up to her chest. She perks up as she hears Gale and I arrive, her dirty face streaked with tears.

"Prim," I say in a happy voice, running over to the cell bars. We meet halfway, our hands clasping together around the bars, her tiny face peering up into mine. "I'm so happy you're ok," I breathe, withdrawing and frowning at the lock on her door. Her and Gale have a small reunion as I break off the lock with the butt of my gun, the door swinging free as I do.

I squat down as she runs towards me, arms wide as we collide together. Gale comes behind her and clasps her into a sandwich, the little girl warming into our embrace.

"Let's go, hurry," I say, pulling away from Prim. Behind her, a cat hisses, all three of us turning to look at the matted white and orange cat still within the cell. It's back is arched, little feline eyes staring daggers behind us.

I hear someone clearing their throat. "Where do you think you are going?" a males voice says.

I whip around, a hand already going to the knife at my hip, the gun I'd used on the lock still in hand. There, a vampire steps out of the shadows - I get a flash of blond hair and sparkling blue eyes before I freeze. Peeta.

My mouth falls open in surprise, Gale and Prim coming up behind me. Gale protectively grips my arm, ready to pull me away should he need too. But I am too stunned by the vampire before me, both because of fear and... how hot he is.

Peeta's lips pull away from his teeth in a smile, his fangs baring at us as he lunges with inhuman speed. Before I knew it, Prim - who had stood behind me - was now in his grasp, the little girl's eyes wide with fear. Her mouth quivers.

"What are you doing to her?! Give her back! She's my sister!" I yell. I sheath my knife and grip onto the handle of my gun, aiming it square at his head. He grins knowingly at me.

"She's my prisoner," he says simply, as if that was all he needed to say. Yet, he continues, "From now until she becomes of no use to me and then I'll take every last drop of blood in those rosy cheeks of hers."

Fear drowns out all sound in my head, and all I can see is my little sister, in the hands of death itself. "Please! I'll do anything, just let her go!" I beg, gun lowering as my voice turns reed thin with terror.

He simply scoffs at my useless pleas, tugging Prim into a different cell, locking it smoothly before pocketing the keys with a jangle. Both Gale and I do nothing as he turns to us, staring down our Slayer weapons.

His head tilted, nothing human in his face as he did so. "Like you would do anything for her," he taunts. "You're a vampire slayer. You'd take her, then kill me and everyone else in this castle."

Truth. And yet - for Prim, I would do just about anything. "I wouldn't," I counter, slipping the gun back into its holster smoothly for emphasis. Gale hisses behind me.

Peeta's nose curls, the blue in his eyes sparking. "Prove it," he says snidely, turning his lethal gaze onto Gale, whose weapon was still aimed at him. Prim whimpered from her cell, that little cat somehow slipping through the bars to comfort her.

I watch her and the cat, something settling in my head. She won't last here, even with her comfort buddy. But I would.

"I'll take her place," I say without thinking, eyes pinned on my little sister. "You can keep me here until you have nothing left out of me and kill me. I don't care what you do. Just let my sister go. Please. She... doesn't deserve that. She's never even killed a fly." I say. Another truth, yet my voice grew quieter and quieter as I spoke. "If anything... it's me who deserves to perish at the hands of a vampire."

"Katniss no!" Prim cries, launching for the cell bars and reaching a hand through it, the cat falling smoothly from her lap. "Don't do it! I'll be okay! I promise! Just go find help! I'll be okay!" New tears spilled over her already reddened eyes.

I ignore her protests and look at Peeta. He's studying me. His blue eyes are cold but underneath I can sense some kind of... interest. I didn't care to look into any further as he began to speak.

"You'd have to stay here forever. There is no return. No seeing your sister ever again," he says, almost as if he were clarifying something. Testing to see if I would still go through with it.

Resolve grips me tightly. "I know that. Just as long as she's safe," I say, just about ready to get to my knees and beg for it. But Peeta only stares, eyes flashing.

"I'll give you three minutes to say your goodbyes. Then you will remain here, while she is free."