NOTE: This is the story that was originally titled Predator: Prey of Death. It was to be abandoned and scrapped as I had lost interest. However since others did not, and I've gotten some new ideas, I've decided to take it up again. To that end I've updated the properties (as they didn't have a crossover section back when I started) gave it a new (and hopefully better) title and started writing. New fans welcome, old ones please take the time and re-read the prologue and first chapter as they have been modified somewhat according to my new direction. In other words:

This story has been modified from its original version. It has be reformatted to kick more ass.

Like before, this is NOT a Blade vs. Predator fic. And obviously none of this crap, except the plot itself belongs to me. The Predator and the Blade characters belong to Fox and Marvel respectively (or whoever they sold it to). Thinking otherwise may cause impotence. And also, review like hell!! (please?)


Predator: Come The Reapers

Prologue

Five Years Ago

The night was humid. The man followed his quarry through the darkest alleys of the city. Things had been unusual lately. The overbearing heat for one. They were saying it was one of the most brutal heat waves of the decade. But the heat bothered him no more than it bothered the things he was hunting. What did bother him were the rumors he began to hear. Rumors of people being killed by an unseen force then disappearing into ash. He had also heard a story of a man being woken up just before sunrise by piercing screams from the roof of his one-bedroom apartment. Screams that when investigated yielded nothing but embers blowing in the morning air. There was a new player killing vampires in town. And he was not human.

---

The familiar stopped, sensing something behind him. He turned and looked carefully, even stopping his breathing to hear any sound. There was none. He began walking again but could not shake the feeling that he was being watched. Finally unable to stand it, he turned on his heels just as a dark shadow knocked him to the ground. He tried to get up but found he was being held fast, something sharp and silver pressed against his throat, by a man dressed all in black. Something, maybe a sword seemed to protrude from his back.

"Talk," the man said. "Where are the safe houses in this city?"

"I don't know what you're talking about man," the guy answered shakily.

The man just shook his head then took the guy's left hand and ripped the sleeve. Clearly imprinted above the wrist was a strange marking that looked like a letter of some ancient language. "You're one of them," he hissed. "Just a wannabe though. I got no objections to killing you if you don't tell me what I need to know."

"I swear I don't…" the familiar's denial was interrupted by a loud scream from the adjacent alley. The man looked up in annoyance. Grabbing the familiar by the neck, he slammed his head on the concrete just enough to stun him. "Don't move," the man said then ran in the direction of the scream.

He reached the alley and was met with a dead end. The air was heavy with sulfur and ash. A vampire had died here. He looked around in confusion before something heavy thudded down in front of him. He only needed a glance to know what it was. It was a corpse, a man probably street trash by the looks of his clothes. His clothes were splattered with blood. Blood which flowed from the stump that had been his neck. A neck that had no head joined to it. He crouched down. The smell of the blood was electrifying, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself to examine the body as a whole. The guy had screamed… then what? Silenced by removing the head. So where was the head? And where was the killer? And what had killed a vampire and a human without alerting him of his presence? He was considering these questions when he felt something splatter on his coat. He touched the drop and knew instantly what it was. Blood. Dripping from above. He looked up in amazement at another corpse suspended from a fire escape. A corpse dripping with blood and apparently possessing no skin. Getting up, the man removed a small handheld device from inside his coat and spoke a single word into it.

"Whistler,"

"Did you find the hideout?" came a raspy voice from the other end.

"No. I found another corpse. Skinned and left to dry."

"What the hell?"

"Looks to me like the boy offed a vampire and his wannabe. The he killed some street trash and took his head. There something you're not telling me, old man?"

"Look Blade, there's no one hunting suckheads in this city but us. Now whatever's out there is something else. Hell as long as the son of a bitch stays out of our way and sticks to killing vampires and familiars, he might as well be doing our job for us. Now find that damn safe house so we can call it a night."

Blade only grunted and turned off the radio. Then he went back and dragged the waking familiar to the corpses. The familiar took one look at the bodies and recoiled in fear but Blade held him fast.

"Now talk!" Blade commanded.

"Hey man, fuck you! I told you I don't know shit!" the familiar yelled but the panic in his voice was thick.

"You know, I could never figure out what the hell is wrong with you," Blade said. "Look at this!" He pointed at the dangling corpse's wrist then made the familiar look. A mark just like the one on the familiar's wrist was barely visible on the side of the neck. "That how you want to end up?

"Look, they'll kill me! They're everywhere man! You can't stop them! They have no weaknesses!" the familiar sputtered.

"Wrong. You hear of silver? Garlic?" Blade took out a silver stake and dangled it in front of his face. "They're not invincible. They're a disease. And this, is the cure. Now, where is the safe house?"

Blade listened as the familiar talked. Then he turned the guy loose who quickly made himself scarce. The he called Whistler and told him the location of the safe house.

"Goddamn, that's a public club. These shitkickers get worse and worse every day. We'll hit it tomorrow night." Whistler said.

Blade agreed then shut off the radio and left the alley. And high above the scene, perched on the rooftop, a new hunter had recorded the information.

---

Three Years Ago

Damien de la Sange was indisputably the master of his city. A pureblood, he for years fought the various gangs and factions of turned vampires to assume dominance after his father's death. Both cruel and sadistic, he had nearly wiped out all of them out before the rest surrendered. Those who immediately swore loyalty to him were left relatively unscarred. Those who did not were brutally tortured, both physically and mentally. The tortures often depended on rank. Enemy familiars were imprisoned and beaten within an inch of their lives daily. Retainers and lieutenants were chained outside to burn at sunrise. The heads of the gangs got it the worst. Systematically starved until they went insane, they were often fed their own defenseless familiars, who already were weakened beyond recovery, so their blood was almost useless and full of infections. Active torture included grinding fresh garlic over their bodies, or spraying them with diluted silver nitrate. Not enough to kill them, just enough to feel. In the beginnings of his rule he had some uprisings by siblings or lovers of the old heads. All he had to do was allow some rumors of what occurred in his private chambers to dissipate and the uprisings abruptly stopped. Yes, his dominance over this city was complete. The ignorant humans that were his food didn't even know of his existence, let alone challenge his position. Other vampires steered clear of his city, which suited him just fine. The only vampires in his city should be his. As far as greater powers went, the Old One, Damaskinos, mostly ignored him and the House of Erebus in America had fallen silent some months before. Rumors were that an uprising by one of their minions correlated with an attack by Blade had decimated them. That was just fine. He ruled unopposed, undismayed and free of challengers for years.

Now it seemed storms were stirring again. He had heard the reports. He had seen some bodies. That coupled with the stories that the infamous Daywalker was in town seemed to confirm his need to fight once again. However, thinking back to the events that have been taking place, he was sure it was not the Daywalker who was skinning his familiars. A few nights earlier, he had spotted something in the sky. He would've dismissed it as a meteor but something was wrong. Though his eyes sensed the motion, there was nothing there. The sky had been completely empty. He tried to focus in on it again, but it had disappeared. Something had fallen. Something he could not see. He didn't believe in premonitions but something about it gave him pause. Something deadly had been thrown into the mix. He put the thought aside and brought back to the present. He glanced outside at the city sprawled below him. His superior vision allowed him to clearly see the humans scurrying around on the ground below. How tiny and insignificant they all were. Like the one lying on his office couch now. Though he could bleed his numerous familiars anytime, he sometimes enjoyed playing the human and luring unsuspecting victims to his club office.

"What're you staring at?" the girl asked. She could not have been more than 25.

"People. Look at them down there. Scurrying like rodents. They kill each other off by the hundreds each day and yet those who know of our true nature condemn us. We don't do what we do for money, or for pride. We do it to survive," Damien's voice lowered to a whisper. If the girl were to look into his eyes now, she would surely be paralyzed with fear. They burned with an inhuman fire, and looked like they could see the bottom of the soul.

"What your fur industry or whatever it is?" the girl asked. "Listen, who gives a shit what they say? They're just a bunch of jobless nuts who don't seem to get that the damn things are animals. Animals are below us. Now are we gonna go again or what?"

Damien smiled. He did not put in much effort in the lie, but the girl swallowed it just as much as she had swallowed…other things. "Ahh, if you only knew the truth of what you speak. For it is the truth. But not in the way you're thinking of."

"What are you talking about?" the girl asked. She sensed that her client had taken on a different tone and not one she particularly liked. It was a dangerous tone.

Damien turned and walked towards her and when he neared the couch, she could finally see his eyes. She recoiled back, a frightened expression on her face.

"What the hell?"

"Come. I will show you the truth of your words," Damien whispered.

The girl panicked and tried for the door. It had finally happened. She had been warned that one of these days she would hook up with a psycho, and it was happening. But what the hell was with his eyes? They… burned. She screamed as she felt him grab her by the hair and drag her back.

Damien held her in place with a hand on her neck. Her eyes were wide with fright and her pulse was racing. He loved the feel of it. He reached with his other hand and closed on her breast, searching for her heartbeat. It felt like drums beneath his palm. He moved his hand and bend down to feel the pulse with his face. The girl was whimpering now. She had expected pain but since it had not come yet, she clung to some hope that she'd make it out of this. He had seen this pattern so many times before. She had expected pain. Why disappoint her? Still, he held back and licked her neck, the sensation of the pulse on his tongue exciting him. His head came up briefly and his mouth opened.

"You know what I am," It was not a question. The girl looked at him shocked.

"It's not possible…"

He simply smiled. "Just keep telling yourself that." And with those words he bent down and bit her. Her screams filled the room and echoed as they could not escape the soundproofed walls. He felt the blood flow into him, rejuvenating him. But more than that, he felt her life, flowing into him and that was the true pleasure. The pulse slowed, the heartbeats came weakly and less frequent. He sucked and he held her as the heartbeats disappeared and the pulse faded. Once he was sated, he sat back satisfied. He would call someone to dispose of the corpse but for now, he wiped the blood from his mouth and walked back to the window. He started to watch the scene below again. Suddenly he whirled and stared at the dark skylight above, mouth drawn back in a snarl, face wild. Eyes that could see far more than humans in nearly any condition searched the darkness. They found nothing. Just now, he had felt watched. The feeling had begun as he was toying with the girl but in his rush to feed, he had not paid much attention. He searched the skylight again looking for anything, recording devices, movement, the slightest betrayal of another presence. But there was nothing. Uneasy, he strode to a phone in the corner of the room to call security and have them do a sweep of the building.

Suddenly there was an explosion somewhere below him and the lights went out. He whipped his head around scanning the room for immediate threats. The emergency lights came on a moment later and the room was partly lit by their bright but limited beams. He could here screams and gunshots from below. Who dared invade his sanctuary? Heads will roll. The door burst open and five vampire bodyguards entered the room followed by a few slightly shaken familiars.

"What's the meaning of this?" Damien demanded. "Why are you running, cowards?"

"It's the Daywalker!" one of them said.

"So, the famous Blade finally decides to visit my humble abode," Damien mused. "Stay here. We will give him a worthy greeting."

---

Blade's further inquiries had led him to believe that this safehouse was the greatest in this city and could possibly contain their master. He had heard the stories. Another suckhead the world could do without. One whose reputation had been enough to halt his search for Whistler. He was sure this de la Sange did not have his mentor. He was too removed from the rest of the vampire nation. He didn't play ball and therefore would not be in their plans. But Blade's quest had taken him close enough and from what he'd heard he could not miss the opportunity to take him out. Now after all that reconnaissance he was more than ready for some action. Making sure all the exits were safely barred from the outside, he set the detonation packs in the upper corners of the doorways. He knew most of the vampires would try to flee. His "surprise" would take care of those. C-4 core, surrounded by silver ball bearings and other anti-vampire shrapnel. Very messy but very effective. The few that stood their ground… he had enough toys for them as well. Specially designed semi-automatic pistols shot silver hollow points with or without a garlic extract coating. His glaive, a curved spinning weapon of death could take down a number of enemies simultaneously when thrown and return to his hand ready for more carnage. And of course, there was always his sword. A titanium-silver alloy, he could use it to cut up vampires all night. Failing that he still had a number of silver stakes and razor wire that could be used in deadly hand-to-hand combat.

After he made sure the charges were all in place, Blade pulled out his semi-autos and briefly went over the plan. Go in, shoot a bunch of suckheads, bait them to his traps, then clean up the refuge. With a final crack of the neck he turned and walked right in. No one noticed at first, due to the loud techno music and partying. Blade took aim and shot the nearest vampire in the face. The crowd recoiled. He shot a few more in the head then gave up on accuracy and started spraying. He got about a dozen more before the entire crowd got the picture. They stampeded past him in a panicked frenzy, eager to get out to the doors. A few tried to swipe at him, but he shot them down before they even got close. Making sure the panic was complete, Blade ducked in the crowd and hid behind a pillar. He watched the scared vampires vainly try to break down the barricade. He had reinforced it with iron bars from a nearby construction site and dumpsters but yet they were beginning to make progress. It would have to be soon. He took out the detonator, counted to three silently and pressed the button. The explosion was deafening. The bombs tore through and Blade had to stay firmly pressed to the pillar as it was pelted with shrapnel from the other side. He could hear screams and smell the familiar sulfur as vampires became ash. Finally content that there were no more flying objects he emerged from his hiding spot to face several vampires. The club bouncers and a few of the tougher ones stood before him, some armed with chains and knives. Movement, to his right! Two vampires came at him shooting their own weapons. Blade threw himself to the ground and shot out their kneecaps. Both fell down screaming. Putting a bullet in the head apiece, Blade sprang to his feet. Dropping his pistols, he assumed a combat stance. The rest of them attacked now. One swung a length of chain at him, which he caught and gripped in his left hand. He yanked the surprised vampire into a waiting stake. The vampire crumbled into ash almost instantly. Another stabbed at him and soon found his arm broken. Blade kicked him away and shoved a stake into a vampire who'd been sneaking up on him with a crowbar. One by one they fell to Blade's highly effective martial arts until he was standing alone, surrounded by ash. He looked up the stairs to see a fresh batch coming.

"I don't think so," he hissed. Whipping out his glaive, he threw it at the approaching vampires. It whistled as it sailed through the air and threw vampire necks. The last one managed to duck and the glaive flew past him.

"Missed me, cockfag!" the vampire shouted triumphantly.

The glaive arched and swung around, coming again. The vampire was aware of movement at his back but was unable to help himself as the glaive sliced cleanly through his face. The glaive then returned to its owner.

"Surprise, cockfag," Blade said dryly. He replaced his glaive inside his coat when sounds of gunshots came down, followed by piercing screams. Words that sounded like "no, nooo" and "what the fuck" could be made out. Someone else was having fun up there. Blade moved quickly across the floor and up the stairs. Vampires met him at each level and dealing with them delayed him further. One thing he noticed though, even in the midst of battle was the higher he went the more terrified his opponents were. And it was not him they were scared of.

---

Damien had heard the gunshots and some sounds of fighting despite the reinforced walls. Soon the Daywalker would be up here and he would finally meet him in person. He quivered at the thought, though it was more sheer excitement than fear. He tensed himself for battle. He held an assault rifle in his hands and had also strapped his father's ceremonial sword to his back. His bodyguards had their own weapons and even the familiars had gotten themselves guns. This night would mark the end of Blade. And he, Damien de la Sange would be instrumental to his destruction.

There was sudden movement in the doorway. Damien nearly screamed as his panicky guards nearly shot more of their own. More vampires poured into the room. He noticed few of them were carrying good weapons or indeed any weapons at all. The terror on their face was evident.

"Cowards! You flee from Blade? Do you really think the quick death he gives you a worse fate than what I will do to you if you fail me?"

"It's not Blade my lord," one of the vampires stammered. "It's something else!"

"It came out of nowhere!" another sobbed.

"Some sort of invisible force-" a wounded familiar cried.

"A devil." One of his enforces said with all the tone of a defeated man who already accepted death. "We've forsaken God, we've broken His Laws, we drink the blood of the innocents and now the devil has come to collect his dues."

Damien's rage boiled over. He grabbed the enforcer and made him face the full fury of his eyes.

"I am your law! I AM your God!" He fully expected the hapless minion to cringe and remember his true allegiance.

But the enforcer merely glanced at him with dead eyes. "Judgment has come."

Despite his shock and his fury, for some reason, Damien looked up at the skylight. The stars seemed peaceful. But there was also something else… He never finished that thought, because a loud crash knocked him to the floor. Damien stared as some sort of… shape swung a blade, or perhaps an axe and decapitated the enforcer who never even moved in one clean stroke. He quickly scurried away from the broken glass and stared wide eyed at the scene unfolding. The room was chaos. His bodyguards were firing everywhere and hitting nothing. Then one by one they were struck down by an unseen force. One was impaled on what seemed to be a floating spear then tossed away as his body degenerated. Another simply had his head swiped off. A blue ball of plasma appeared out of nowhere and blew a gaping hole in a vampire. Some sort of spinning thing flew by his face and dug in the heart of another vampire. Within seconds, the entire room was killed and Damien had no idea what had caused it. He focused and could see a shimmering in front of him. He raised his assault rifle and fired at it. The shape dodged impossibly fast. It swiped the gun away from him and threw him away. Then electricity began to crackle where it was standing and suddenly it appeared. Damien could do nothing but gape. The thing was huge! A wide assortment of weapons and who knew what else were attached seemingly at random to its net clothing. Its face was covered by a helmet of some sort. The thing clenched his fist and twin three foot blades popped out of its gauntlet. In its left hand it carried what Damien identified as a syringe. It looked more like a hunting knife. Not even in his wildest torture rooms could he find something like that. What was this creature? Was there truly a devil? Was this thing his ferryman to hell? Then slowly it dawned on him to. An alien. But that was absurd. He pulled out his sword and slashed at the thing. The creature raised its own blades and simply met the attack. The wristblades sliced cleanly through the vampire's sword and Damien was left holding a useless stump. His father's sword, which he had assured himself several times, was unbreakable stood broken before him.

"Impossible," he breathed. Then to finalize his shock the creature spoke. But it was not in its voice, nor in its language. It seemed to come from a microphone and what was most shocking was that it was his own voice, played back at him.

"Just keep telling yourself that"

Damien de la Sange began to scream.

---

Blade burst into the private room a little before sunrise. Weapons at the ready he had expected a fight. But what he saw was nothing. There were the bodies of some familiars skinned and left hanging. The absence of the rest of the other former inhabitants was quickly explained by the glowing ash on the floor and the smell of sulfur. He recounted the time it took to fight the vampires on the club floor, to the time he had killed the last one, to the scream and how long it took for him to get up there. A few minutes, 20 at most. But from what he could tell someone had killed at least 15 vampires and some familiars, skinned and hanged the humans then disappeared? He saw the broken skylight and knew where the attacker had come from. But it was a ten foot leap to the top. No human could possibly make that. Even he was hard-pressed to do a stunt like that, leaping straight up. And why skinning? What was the significance of the skinning? He walked around inspecting the bodies. What could do that in less than 20 minutes? He spotted something in the corner. It was a body, without a head. Judging by the ring on its finger, it was undoubtedly the master. But that didn't make sense. Why had he not turned to ash if his head was removed? Blade bent down to examine the body. Some sort of green fluid seemed to dripping out of the neck stump. Before he could take a closer look the first rays of sunlight hit the room, lighting the body like a torch. Blade stepped back and sensed something behind him. Turning with a stake at the ready, he saw nothing. Then looking up he saw a shimmering thing stand. He blinked. The thing stood there for a second then disappeared.