Disclaimer: Does it really come as any surprise that I don't own Predator? Yeah, didn't think so.
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Rai'ken couldn't believe his luck. Years and years of relentless searching had finally brought forth a potential specimen. All the characteristics were there: the aggression, the feeding habits; he'd even gotten close enough on one occasion to see the uniquely keen points of its canines. And tonight his suspicions were proved true. He had seen it feed. Sure, the creature seemed a bit crazed and feral, but it was nothing a strong sedative couldn't handle.
Rai'ken had always been fascinated with the human world, much to his peers' perturbation. But he was an Honored Warrior now and had the right to whatever obsession he desired to harbor. It was a completely plausible fascination, nonetheless. Humans and Yautja were more alike than some of his people wished to acknowledge. While most tended to ignore this, Rai'ken embraced it. Or, at least, some of it.
Humans seemed to have as many myths and legends as his kind, and it was these that pulled his interest towards the blue and green planet in the first place. Over the course of his life, he had studied the lore of the creatures of Earth that humans raved over and had found the stories to be…well, incredible was an understatement, but that was the gist of it. And everyone knew that all fables were pearls grown from a grain of truth.
The stories that had captivated him and his grandfather -the provider of the reading material- most was of the creatures referred to as "vampires."
It was a confusing subject. In all of his years, he had yet to come across any legend of the blood drinking creature that did not differ from the other. Really, the only element that remained stable in all the stories was the fact that they drank the blood of living beings. Immortality seemed to be a common theme as well, but that just seemed too far fetched; no creature could live forever. There were so many differences, so many wild tales of demons and fiends, ruthless killers. He didn't know what to believe, so he had set out for some research of his own.
That had been over five years ago, and the minimal contact he'd had with the Homeworld and other hunting parties had isolated him almost entirely. He'd never felt more alone. And more liberated. He was free to do whatever he wished without consequence administered by his people, though he never let those thoughts lead him in his excursions. He was no Bad Blood.
And finally, finally his ostensibly futile search had culminated with the find of this creature.
It had been in the middle of a fight when he had first found it a little over a month ago. A group of three…things…had been attacking the female concurrently, overpowering her. The female had appeared to be in rough shape, and Rai'ken figured it had been very near death. He had been prepared to intervene; three on one was a huge disadvantage for the girl. Then a second showed up, a stout male. Whatever the newcomer had done, it had frightened the three assailants away, their sinewy bodies dissipating into thin air, it seemed. The male had then turned on the female, forcing something inside her mouth via his wrist. Whatever it was, it hadn't been well-received. The girl had kicked and thrashed the entire time. Rai'ken didn't know what to make of the situation. The female appeared to be just fine, so he hadn't followed through on his planned assistance.
The male appeared to be a superior of the female; wherever he went, she would follow, albeit unwillingly, Rai'ken had noticed. Which didn't make any sense to him. A female under the control of a male? Unthinkable.
Rai'ken had been following the two ever since, concentrating on the male. The idea that he might have encountered the elusive vampire -it certainly didn't act like a human- had been too tempting to resist. He had been disappointed beyond belief when he found that the male did not fight or even seem to be capable of doing so. Rai'ken had had half a mind to kill him out of frustration.
Then he had focused back on the female.
That one seemed to be ruthlessness epitomized. It definitely had anger issues, and he had recently discovered, to his greatest astonishment, that it seemed to procure fire from its body. That had not been mentioned in the books. The female also seemed to favor a variety of blades when killing and often incorporated bursts of fire into the violent slashes.
The female, he had deduced, must have been an assassin of sorts among her kind, specializing in the art of executing other vampires. A poor one at times, though. Just a few nights ago, Rai'ken had witnessed her purposely botch a kill, and then literally beat herself up afterwards. Mental instability, he surmised.
Still, when she did kill, it was with incredible speed and accuracy, rarely leaving more than a handful of ashes left of the body. Her speed was unnerving. The vampire seemed to just blur from point A to point B without any strenuous effort. He wondered if this was subjective to this one alone or was a trait of vampires in general; but, as this specimen was the only one he had yet to track and study extensively, he had yet to find out.
On more than one occasion, Rai'ken had heard the female curse to a number of gods (or what he assumed were deities of some kind; he hadn't studied the numerous religions practiced by humans) after bumping someone off. Assassin or not, the female seemed reluctant to do the deed. Odd. But intriguing enough to keep his attention.
Her feeding habits were less than savory, as he'd found out earlier that night. Rai'ken still couldn't understand what would compel a creature to drain another of blood for sustenance, but that was his basis for studying vampires in the first place. He just wished it wasn't so disturbing to witness. One thing he had noticed about the female was that she didn't completely drain her victim of blood , as many of the legends had said vampires did. She left them alive. And, as strange as it sounded, she left her prey in a haze of pleasure, not unlike the bliss of mating.
That definitely wasn't mentioned.
Rai'ken wished he had come prepared for a formal hunt, but he had only come to the planet for personal research, equipped with the bare minimum of his weapons: the standard wrist blades, a pair of shuriken, a basic plasma caster, and his spear. Nevertheless, he was here, he had found a vampire, and he was going to study its every movement until his curiosity was sated.
Presently he was standing stock still in the female's living quarters, a bold move on his part, studying the environment she had subjected herself to. It was an interesting find, he supposed. Rai'ken had assumed that because of her constant travels to fulfill an assignment, the female would be too busy to manage a permanent home. Upon following her, he had discovered that he was, yet again, wrong. Not only did the structure reek of aged wood and stone, but it also smelled strongly of the vampire herself, proving that she did indeed spend a lot of time in the vicinity.
The smell caught Rai'ken off guard. The female had always smelled smoky, courtesy of her use of fire, no doubt, but there was also an underlay of musky sweetness that was definitively feminine. While tracking her in the outside world, the smell had been faint, barely distinguishable amongst the throngs of other Earth dwellers. Now, face to face with the creature of many a human's nightmare, the scent was almost overwhelming. Almost. It was only with his superior force of will that he reined his hungers in. Involuntarily, he drew in a deeper breath, inhaling as much of the scent as possible; he could literally feel his pupils dilate.
The female herself seemed to blaze brighter in the infrared view of his visor, a heat he could feel his own body mirroring. He was barely able to choke back a growl threatening to rumble out of his throat, instead silently darting into a low lit corner of the room while the vampire was still on her knees, wrapping her arms around herself.
She is affected too? Rai'ken thought in disbelief.
The female had seemed to recover and, faster than Rai'ken's eyes could follow, snatched a weapon of some kind from a wall of blades. The metal of the pointed, cylindrical implement glowed a faint blue in his heat-sensing vision, with trace amounts of slightly warmer patches on it. The weapon she had used to eliminate this night's target. He choked on a breath, his muscles tensing for a fight, though unwilling to make a move in offense. Turned out that he didn't have to.
She spoke. Poorly controlled anxiety and some other emotion that Rai'ken couldn't place in his reeling mind rolled off her in waves, her softly spoken words trembling slightly. Rai'ken smothered a bark of outrage at her commanding tone. She wanted him to expose himself? Fat change at that. This thing had abilities he had only ever dreamed of; Rai'ken was devoid of any form of defense besides the armor on his body. The one night I don't bring my weapons…C'jit! He was no coward, but he knew when to avoid an unfair confrontation. The damn heat roiling through his body was enough to hinder his mental capacities and weaken him.
The female, still crouched with flames sizzling in one hand and strange blade poised in the other, studied the room with eyes flickering erratically. Had he unnerved her that much? Rai'ken would have chattered to himself in amusement, but the vampire would undoubtedly have heard him, and he could tell from watching her that she wasn't about to cease an attack just because he was unarmed. The female fought dirty. Dishonorably.
After what seemed like eons of listening to her ragged breathing and thundering pulse, she straightened from her crouch and purposely eased the strange weapon back onto the wall, addressing him again. It seemed she was doubting herself of his presence.
"Alright, fine. Be a damn coward." Coward? Him? He was a respectable Yautja warrior, a fierce hunter who roared in fear's face! This female was the one who fought from the shadows, lurking like a spineless whelp. He barely had time to finish his mental rant before she continued. "You're still here. Next time you feel like spying on me, douse the pheromones a little. They're driving me insane."
With that, she briskly backed out of the room, her fists still crackling with red and amber flames. They seemed to flare with her uneven intakes of breath, Rai'ken noted. He didn't move from his position until he was certain the female had completely exited her living quarters.
So, his scent really did have an affect on the little female. A strong one, too. He made a mental note to keep track of this tidbit. Humans certainly weren't capable of catching a Yautja's bodily odor. This female, this vampire, must have had a keener sense of smell.
With this thought in mind, he turned his attention to the expansive wall of weaponry. It was a great offense to peruse a warrior's personal weapons without permission, but Rai'ken had to make some exceptions if he was ever going to learn from this creature. Clicking to himself, he reached a clawed hand out to run a talon along the edge of a particularly wicked looking dagger about the length of his forearm. That would certainly cause some damage…
Next, he turned to a small selection of throwing stars similar to his own. Smaller, but equally lethal, he noted with a quiet hiss as a ginger stroke of the edge made a clean slice on his forefinger. Am I completely senseless tonight? Rai'ken growled to himself as drops of neon green liquid dribbled and pooled onto his scaled palm, careful to keep it from dripping on the floor -evidence of his presence.
Scandalously, he wondered what his blood would taste like to the nighttime creature. If its bite would induce the same pleasurable reaction in his body as a human's. An angry shake of his head sent his waist length, cord-like hair jiggling and his flagrant thoughts through a mental window. Thinking such things of an animal, of all things, was just wrong.
Rai'ken took another quick cursory glance at the rest of the vampire's numerous armaments. He perceived that she worked with a wide range of blade sizes, something that took awhile to master. Each blade's size and attributes was unique in itself, and it took some time to learn the proper techniques for each one. Some swords were large enough that he had to question the female's ability to handle them. She seemed too slight to handle this…oh, what did the humans call it? A claymore? Yes, it was something like that.
Something akin to admiration lit up inside him when he noticed that the female owned no guns, a cowardly weapon in his mind. She was a purely short-range fighter, and that showed that she had courage. Or that she was stupid. He preferred to think of his specimen as having exceptional intelligence, but one could never know. He still had a lot to learn about this one.
He delved further into the vampire's room.
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A/N: So…any better? I know I only have one review (THANK YOU Demonic Chaos! =D) but I couldn't really expect much feedback until I brought in the starring Predator. Now that I have, I'd really, really appreciate some more opinions!