Disclaimers
Legal: All characters are (c) Joss Whedon, Fox, Mutant Enemy and probably a whole mess of other people. No infringement of copyright intended.
Archive: YGTS? and any mailing lists I send this to have permission, of course. Anyone else, go right ahead. Just let me know, please.
Spoilers: Set just after The Replacement (Buffy) and First Impressions (Angel)
Summary: Deacon Frost (of Blade) comes to Sunnydale. Comic book puritans take note: my knowledge of Blade vampire lore is limited to the Wesley Snipes' movie. Everything that happens herein is based on the details presented there, diverging from the movie's plotline when Frost tries to raise the Blood God.
Rating: R
Challenge: This is a response to YGTS? Challenges #120 and 136.
Deacon Frost raised his arms high and laughed in pleasure as he felt the force of the ritual grow. Within mere moments, the power of the Blood God would be his.
Blade stalked through the stone corridors of the ancient temple, feeling his strength surge through him, thanks to the blood of the woman he loved. Within mere moments, he would reach Frost, and there would be a reckoning.
A lot can happen in mere moments.
Something changed. A twist in reality; a ripple in time; a tear in existence.
To an observer, the event could easily have gone unnoticed; at most, there might have been a feeling that there was a brief flicker, the slightest disjunction.
But for an instant and an eternity, both were gone.
Blade stopped in mid-stride, his eyes narrowing in surprise.
The stone corridor he had been walking along had disappeared, and he found himself standing in an alley between two run-down warehouses. A dumpster, reeking of wet cardboard, was to his left, and he could hear the soft rumble of distant traffic.
"What the hell?" the burly vampire hunter frowned, shifting his grip on the sword he carried. For a second, he wondered if this were some trick of Frost's, but then he shook his head slightly. Frost was clever, but he had no way of knowing that Blade had escaped. "This is some weird shit. Nothing like anything Frost pulled before." He murmured to himself, moving slowly towards the end of the alleyway.
A woman screamed.
Instinctively, Blade ran toward the sound. By his usual standards, he was all but unarmed; just the sword clenched in his hand and a single silver stake in his boot. But in his hands, it would be enough to do the job.
He burst into the street as the woman screamed again, his boots pounding heavily on the sidewalk. His more-than-human strength propelled him at great speed, and within seconds, he reached the scene of the struggle.
Three vampires were terrorising a young couple; one had the boy down on the ground, and was tearing at his throat. The other two had the girl boxed in against a wall, but she was spiritedly swinging a length of wood to keep them at bay.
Blade leapt forward, killing the feeding vampire before it even realised he was there. His senses told him the boy was already dead, but he would risk getting blind-sided if he went after the other two first. He was already moving on by the time the vampire exploded into dust.
One of the remaining vampires turned and rushed him, but Blade dodged the blow and swept at the creature with his sword. As he did, he caught a glimpse of its face. It seemed to be deformed, and his surprise slowed the blow slightly. The creature ducked just in time, then clawed at his chest. He stepped back, swinging again, and this time the vampire was too slow. It shattered into ash as his blow cleanly removed its head.
Spinning to face the remaining vampire, Blade was surprised to find no sign of it, though the girl was still there, crouched over the body of her companion.
"What happened to the last one?" he growled, still looking around for it.
"Hello?" the girl glared up at him, "Woman with a stake here. What do you think happened?"
Blade looked at her in surprise,
"You carry a stake around with you?"
"And you carry a really big sword." The girl sighed and pulled a cell phone out of her handbag, "They're tools of the trade, right?" she pressed a quick dial button, paused for a moment, and then spoke into the phone. "It's me. Your distraction didn't work. They spotted us and got Reynolds. No, I'm okay: I had some help. Twenty minutes."
The girl turned the phone off.
"You've got good moves." She remarked, standing up and putting her bag over her shoulder, "But you're too old to be one of Gunn's usual crowd. What are you; his bigger, badder brother?"
"Name's Blade." He ignored the roll of eyes which greeted his name, "And I've never heard of this 'Gunn'. Where the hell are we, anyway?"
"You flunk American Studies or something?" the girl snorted, "This is LA, of course."
Blade reined in his temper,
"Look, I need some answers here. I was on my way to stop Frost when . . . something . . . happened and I ended up here. I need to get back there before he summons the Blood God."
"Okay." To his surprise, the girl's only response was to look thoughtful, "That all sounds like some kind of weird magic deal. We'll go see Angel. Who's Frost, anyway?"
"A bad-ass vampire." Blade grunted, surprised she hadn't heard of Deacon Frost, given that she obviously knew plenty about vampires. "I'm sorry I wasn't here in time to save your boyfriend."
"Boyfriend? Please. I have much higher standards than that." The girl gestured at the body, "He was a sleazebag, but he had some information for us on a new vampire cult. We were trying to sneak him out to somewhere safe, but it didn't work."
Blade grunted,
"I'm gonna have to cut off his head to make sure he doesn't rise." He noted, readying the sword, "You may want to look away."
"Let me say this just once: Yuck. Anyway, he won't rise. He didn't feed on the vampire."
Maybe the girl didn't know as much as she thought. He decided to humour her.
"I'm still going to do it. Just to be safe."
The girl sighed,
"Okay. But don't get blood everywhere. This dress costs a fortune to dry clean."
Fifteen minutes later they arrived at a gloomy looking hotel. Blade followed the girl into the foyer of the building, surprised at the size of what she had off-handedly referred to as 'the office'.
"Cordelia." A young black man looked up from a chair where he was reading a sports magazine, "I see your taste in men is improving."
The girl glowered.
"I stick to my own generation, thank you. He just helped me out against some vamps, and it sounds like he's caught up in some sort of mumbo jumbo, so I brought him here. Blade, this is Gunn. Gunn, this is Blade . . . and I can't believe I just had to say that."
"Charles Gunn." The younger man stood and offered Blade his hand, "Thanks for looking out for my girl, Cordelia."
"Just Blade." He shook the offered hand, both of them ignoring Cordelia's outraged squawk. His stomach rumbled as he spoke, the sensation reminding him of his other hunger. He had no idea if he could get the serum, here. If not, how long would it be before he needed to feed, again? "You in charge around here?"
Gunn shook his head,
"No -"
"I am." The voice was soft, and to his left. Blade turned, a cold shiver running down his spine as he looked at the black-clad man who had just entered. All his senses screamed at him.
Vampire.
Acting on instinct, he snatched the stake from his boot and hurled it straight into the creature's heart.
The vampire grunted, staggering, its hand flying to its chest. Without waiting for it to dust, Blade spun back to the other two, guessing now that he'd been lured into a trap, his own hand going to his sword.
Then cold fingers clamped around his wrist, and he found himself face to face with the vampire; who should be ash.
"Ow." The dark-haired vamp remarked quietly, as Blade stared at it in shock. "That hurt."
It pulled the stake out of its chest with a soft, slightly wet sound.
"Silver. Expensive. And useless except against Werewolves." It threw the stake aside. "You should research more carefully. Though I'm kind of glad you didn't."
"You should be dead." Blade yanked his hand free and stepped back, grasping his sword as he did so. "Silver's never failed before."
"Not on vampires." The newcomer insisted. Blade would have argued, but he was looking at living proof. Or undead proof, anyway. "Stakes. Sunlight. Fire. Crosses -"
"Crosses don't do jack -"
"I think I ought to know."
That much was true. Blade scowled. Something very strange was going on.
Cordelia screamed.
As Blade stared in shock, the girl reeled back, as if suddenly in intense pain.
"What the -"
"It's a vision!" the vampire snapped, as Gunn grabbed Cordelia to prevent her from falling. Catching Blade's confused look, he frowned, "Cordelia has visions whenever there's a serious threat coming our way."
Cordelia sagged in Gunn's arms. Blade saw tenderness in the way the young man held the girl. He wondered if she saw it, too.
"I saw Sunnydale." She gasped at last, "A vampire fighting Buffy. But not a normal vampire. He was from . . . another world. She couldn't kill him."
"Another world?" Blade frowned. These people seemed to talk about impossible things like they happened all the time, "This vampire . . . what did he look like?"
"He was kinda like that actor, Stephen Dorff." Cordelia accepted a glass of water and some pills from Gunn, who had quietly fetched them as the others talked.
"Never heard of him." Blade grunted, "But if he was a smug-lookin' yuppie-slacker cross, that's Deacon Frost. How do I get to this Sunnydale place?"
"I'll take you." the vampire grunted, then scowled at the arch look Cordelia sent him, "If Buffy's in danger -"
"Then Blade is the best person to help her." Cordelia snapped, "This Frost guy wasn't one of our vampires, Angel. He was something from Blade's world. It's up to him to help her. Besides," she added sternly, "We have a vampire cult to deal with, remember?"
The vampire sighed in defeat,
"Fine. Book him some tickets to Sunnydale. I'll call Giles and let him know what's coming."
Deacon Frost stumbled and fell, surprised to find himself suddenly standing in the middle of a wide lawn. On either side of him there were large buildings, unfamiliar in the darkness.
"Not exactly what I expected." He admitted softly, as he stood to survey his surrounds. It looked like a college of some sort, though he had no idea where. There was something about the place that appealed to him, though. A soft susurration of darkness under the pleasant veneer. It tugged at him, calling in a silent voice. Frost smiled.
"I think I'm going to like it, here."
