IMMORTAL BLOOD

By Youko Rayah

Warning: Violence and death

type: crossover

sceries: Anita Blake (book) and Highlander the sceries (TV)

Disclaimer: Highlander and Anita Blake don't belong to me. *Wishes they did. Ooh the fun I could have with Methos, Duncan, Jean Claud, Richard, and Asher! Slash HEAVEN! *

Iria is my own twisted little idea, as are Sasha and Shaylen. If you want to barrow them, ask first. And yes please archive this! All I ask is that those of you who put this up at your personal pages let me know so I know where to visit!

This is still a draft version of my fic, all I've done is send it to be spell checked, but there were a few things we weren't sure on... Let me know about any errors you find.

The phone rang, disturbing my sleep at an ungodly hour of the morning. Yes morning. When you work in a bar, you don't sleep at night. Reaching blindly for the offensive device with one hand, and slapping on the lights with the other, I came grudgingly awake.

"McDuggen" I growled sleepily into the receiver, using one of my many aliases. Ah the joys of morning voice. When you wake up, and you sound like you've been dead for a while. Very funny, all laugh.

"Iria? It's me."

I felt my blood freeze. There were only ten people ever to know me by that name. Only two of them were alive today.

"Kevin? What is it?"

"How soon can you come to St. Louis?"

I paused for a moment. Kevin had never been much for small talk. But there was something in his voice...

"I can be there tomorrow... make that today. You do relies it's 7:00 am here, and I've only been asleep for three hours."

"Get here fast. The Council may be trying it again." Then he hung up the phone.

I sat for several minutes looking at the receiver in my hand, thinking about what Kevin had said. We had met in London over two hundred years ago, when the Council had decided it would be a good idea to hunt all of us "human" Immortals.

They had taken two of the newly Immortal, those who had recently experienced "first death" and didn't know the rules to the Game. Then they had targeted the man on the other end of the line, and all hell had broken loose.

Kevin and I had a mutual friend, a man known as Methos, the oldest of all Immortals. He's over five thousand, and is a legend among us. I had met him a very long time ago in what is now Greece. We had been lovers for a time, and then he had screwed up and hooked up with Kronos (not that he'd had a choice) and spent the next couple of thousand years as one of the Four Horsemen. It hadn't been one of his brighter moments.

Kevin knew him, because Methos had taught the other Immortal the rules to the Game. He was Methos' protege, of sorts, and the ancient had been very... upset when a vampire had tried to kill the younger man. We had spent the next five years killing every vampire we could find. It had been a lot of fun.

My old friend Shaylen had gotten in on it when they had sent "human slaves" to kill her. Gods but she had been pissed. Methos and I may be the two oldest of our kind, but Shaylen could well be the meanest.

As I went through these memories, I walked to the shower. Turning on the hot water, I sighed. Between the four of us, we had put the fear of the Quickening into the vampires, and they now went out of their way not to piss us off.

All this considered, I had to wonder; what could rattle a thousand year old Immortal, who had been trained by the oldest and most powerful of all of us, so bad that he would call me up? Surely not just a bunch of vampires, it had to be something more.

*********************

I stepped out of the airport after a boring flight and gazed around the carport. Any Immortal will tell you the key to survival is being aware of your surroundings at all times. After the invention of guns, well, let's just say some of the darker ones will shoot first and be-head second.

I located my rental car, and left to where I knew I could find Kevin. There was a bar in the District where we could talk. I didn't feel safe going there, especially if vampires are hunting us again, so I packed my Browning. I've found I have an affinity for that sidearm in particular.

I reached the bar, a place called Guilty Pleasures, and went inside. I knew the place was owned by a vamp, most places in the District were, so I knew to be alert. There were still hard feelings among the undead about the beating we had given them those years ago.

My eyes swept the crowd, and I spotted Kevin sitting with a dark haired woman. She had pail skin, but not to the degree that would indicate a vampire. I walked to their table, and Kevin said, "Glad you could make it. This is Anita Blake, she's the local Vampire Hunter."

The woman nodded to me, and extended her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you..." She trailed off, waiting for one of us to supplement a name.

"Isabel. Isabel Langquest," I said falling back on a new identity. If all hell broke loose, I didn't want it connected with my life as Heather McDuggen. "May I ask how you and this antisocial jerk met?" I kept my tone light, Kevin was a good friend, and the gods knew I had all to few of them, but he could be a royal pain. Also I didn't know what name he was using at the moment, and I didn't want to give any secrets away.

"Edward and I met on a vampire hunt. He saved my life."

"That's Eddy for you. He's a pain, but a useful one none the less."

"Edward" twitched at the nickname I'd given him. He hates it when I tease him. He cleared his throat, drawing my attention to the file on the table.

"The local City Master claims no knowledge of the rouge vamps," he said handing me the files.

I took them and looked over the photos. Beheading and dismemberment. Not a pleasant way to die. One photo was of the face of a victim. I recognized him as an Immortal I had encountered in the Napolianic War.

He had attempted to rape me and had planned on beheading me later. I had shot him in the gut, but hadn't had time to take his head due to the intervention of the local authorities. It was no great loss, but the other victims... I knew two of them. They had been good people.

"Would it be possible to speak with the local City Master?" I asked as I looked up. "I'm afraid vampires are not one of my specialties, and I would like more information if it's possible."

Mrs. Blake looked at me for a while. I could tell, from the glance she shot Kevin, that she didn't want either of us to speak to the City Master. I had to wonder about that. Was she afraid for us, or of what we'd do?

Further musings were put out of my mind as I felt a tingling arc up my spine. There were a lot of vampires in the room, but only a strong master had such an effect on me. Truth be told master vamps had that effect on all Immortals. It was what kept the four of us alive during that whole mess a hundred years ago.

I looked up and saw two of the most gorgeous men I had ever laid eyes upon walking towards us. No 'walking' wasn't the word for it. Gliding was much more accurate. Both were masters, and effectively hiding their powers, but I could still feel it. And I knew Kevin could too.

*******************

As they drew near, I had to fight to keep the grin off of my face. I knew them. We had crossed paths in Paris three hundred years ago, and they knew what I was. More importantly, they knew what an unpleasant person I could be. I knew they could blow my cover, so to speak, so I decided to lay down the law.

I was privately glad that Kevin had told me the local Vampire hunter didn't understand the language well when I had called him to set up a meeting place. As the three of us stood, I spoke in flawless French, "Master Vampire, if you give my immortality away to this human, I will be… upset."

Jean Claud was startled to say the least. We hadn't crossed paths in some time, but he knew I would, and more importantly could, kill him at the drop of a hat. I was not known for my sparkling personality.

After introductions, I heard Anita ask Jean Claud what I had said to him. He told her that it had been merely a greeting between us, as we had once been business acquaintances, and hadn't seen each other in some time. She looked surprised and turned to me, "You two know each other?"

"We preformed most of our business transactions through a third party, and only met in person once, but yes, we know each other." There see, no lies. Only half-truths, omitted information, and misleading facts. That is basically what happened. I just didn't say where this deal went down, or how long ago. Or, for that matter that Jean Claud had been the third party, and there had only been the one meeting. Methos would be so proud of me.

"So ma petite, what would you have me tell you," Jean Claud asked. I could feel the swell of power between them and had to hold very still to keep from reacting. I hadn't felt that level of power in a VERY long time. They were connected some how. I made a mental note to myself to ask Kevin about it later.

As we sat discussing the available information, I realized what was bothering me. St. Louis may be a big town, but even with the Gathering drawing near, this many Immortals, five killed in two weeks? Not very damn likely. Maybe their Watchers had seen something, if they were still alive. I made another note to my self to get in touch with Methos. Maybe he had info on these Immortals, or if he could get information for me.

******************

We poured over the files for a good hour, and I brushed up on my vampire lore. Seems I wasn't as rusty as I'd feared. But for all our combined knowledge, we were still drawing a blank. I would have to see the murder scenes before I could help. Anita agreed to talk to the local police, and in the mean time, I was going to patrol the city.

All the victims had been Immortals, and all of them had been younger than 2,000. I knew this because there weren't very many ancients left, and I knew them all on sight. Even if they didn't know me. I left them, stating that I would be going to my hotel room and get some sleep. Anita might have believed me, she might not have. She didn't call me on it.

I had the cabby drop me off on the other side of the district. After paying and tipping him, I flipped up my collar and set off. The night was cool, and the sky was clear, people milled about and I quickly blended into the crowd.

I walked aimlessly for a few hours, then I felt the familiar buzz of a near by Immortal. My eyes swept my surroundings, and I saw that I was near the riverside docks. My eyes locked onto a near bye warehouse, and I walked cautiously towards it. After I slipped inside, I heard the familiar clash of swords. I frowned in confusion.

I only sensed one Immortal. Who was he fighting?

************************

I edged closer, trying to see who the non-Immortal was. Something was VERY not right here. I watched in horrified fascination as the Immortal was beheaded and his Quickening arced out of his body. I split in half, some of it ripping into the closest Immortal, namely me, and some of it pouring into the killer.

It hurt, but not so bad that I screamed. Then the echo hit me. A second wave of pain that I realized was not mine. I looked up, and met the eyes of the one who had killed the Immortal and froze.

It was a vampire. The one who had killed the others. The one who, if given a chance, would kill me too.

I felt it then. The evil of this creature. The blackness of it's soul and mind. I also knew, somehow, that it thought it could gain true Immortality by feeding on the power and blood of my kind.

Jerking to my feet, I turned and ran. I had no intention of allowing it to have the blood of the second oldest Immortal in existence, namely me. I felt it behind me, drawing closer as I pulled the Browning high power out of the harness under my arm. Inches ahead of the vamp, I dove into a forward roll. At the end of it, I jerked to the side, twisting around and firing behind me.

I heard the hiss the vamp let loose when the bullets impacted, and I felt them as well. Sweet Mother of all Life! The Quickening had joined us! Father Night only knew what would happen if I killed him!

I staggered to my feet and ran. The advantage of being over 4,000 years old and having been killed in almost every imaginable way possible is an extraordinarily high threshold for pain. Between that and the fact that the silver bullets would make the wound slow healing bought me the time to reach the street and hail a cab. I never looked back as we sped away, leaving the vampire behind. END PART 1 Note 1: sorry if I got the time frame around Methos' time with the Horsemen wrong. I never saw those episodes of Highlander the Series. And I know next to zip about him (just what I read in fics)

END PART 1

Note 1: Sorry if I got the time frame around Methos' time with the Horsemen wrong. I never saw those episodes of Highlander the Series. And I know next to zip about him (just what I read in fics).

Note 2: I made up the tingling in the spine thing. Vampires don't exist in the Highlander universe to my knowledge. But is an Immortal can feel other Immortals, than in my fics, they can feel Vampires too.

Note 3: The Watchers are a secret organization that follows Immortals around recording their history. Methos fooled them into accepting him into their ranks, when he was using the name Adam Persion (not sure on the last name)

Note 4: In case I haven't mentioned it yet, Iria is around 4,500 years old. Possibly older. Methos trained her, and she's a dangerous little thing.