CHAPTER TWO: BLADE II
At the Parizska Blood Bank in Prague, Czech Republic, Jared Nomak has come to donate blood.
As he is being led into the donation room, he is informed that his blood is of a rare phenotype.
Bad news for Jared; good news for the blood bank, the phlebotomist says and bares his vampire fangs. Jared laughs hysterically.
Suddenly, his chin cracks open revealing a gaping maw with a barbed tongue. He pounces on the phlebotomist's neck, and blood flies everywhere.
Two years have passed since Blade's mentor, Abraham Whistler, shot himself, after being brutally beaten and bitten by vampires. When Blade learned that the vampires were keeping Whistler alive, he followed their trail through Eastern Europe--first to Moscow, then to Romania, and now to the Czech Republic.
When Blade discovers that the vampires are keeping Whistler in stasis in a halfway house, he breaks into the house and rescues him, after killing a number of vampires with silver stakes and bullets made of silver nitrate and garlic extract. One accelerated retrovirus detox shot later, and Whistler is back among the living.
Much has happened in the last two years. Blade has taken on a new assistant named Scud who doesn't get along very well with Whistler, now that he's returned. The High Council of Vampires has created a group of six warriors, referred to as the Bloodpack, who are being trained to fight against Blade.
However, a vampire virus called the Reaper Strain has mutated in Jared Nomak who passes the virus to everyone he bites. Since the Reaper virus makes carriers extremely voracious, Nomak (and each of his victims) need to feed daily, and they feed on both humans and vampires.
The numbers of Reapers, noticeable because they resemble nosferatu with their bald, blue-veined heads and pointy ears, are increasing exponentially, and the vampires fear the Reapers will first wipe them out then start on humans. Soon... you do the math.
Now that the Reapers are presenting an even bigger threat to the vampires than Blade ever did, Vampire Overlord Eli Damaskinos has sent a message to Blade, requesting a truce and asking him to join with the vampires and actually lead the Bloodpack against the Reapers.
Blade agrees, but the Bloodpack--Lighthammer, Verlaine, Priest, Snowman, Chupa, and Reinhardt--are not happy being led by the Daywalker they were training to kill. To assure their cooperation, Blade plants a silver nitrate bomb, courtesy of Scud, on the back of Reinhardt's head. Blade holds the detonator, and it is set to explode should anyone tamper with it.
Accompanied by the vampires Asad and Nyssa, daughter of Overlord Damaskinos, Blade and his Bloodpack begin their search for Nomak by staking out places where vampires congregate, such as blood banks and safe houses, figuring these places will also be attractive to the Reapers.
First on the list is the House of Pain, an old hotel converted into a safehouse sheltering some 200-300 "suckheads," all dancing and feeding. As the Bloodpack searches the building, Reapers begin emerging from the subbasement. About 1/2 hour before dawn, the Reapers attack.
The Bloodpack manages to take out several Reapers with ultraviolet guns, but Nomak gets away, even after being injected with the anticoagulant EDTA, and a Reaper bites Priest, requiring that Priest be destroyed in the rising sun. Lighthammer also gets bitten, but he hides it.
In this first battle with the Reapers, Blade learns that Reapers are impervious to silver, EDTA, and garlic, and they rapidly bounce back from almost any wound, including silver stakes thrust into their chests. How in the world can these creatures be stopped, and whose side should Blade be on anyway, considering that both Blade and Nomak are enemies of the vampires?
Meanwhile, back at the High Council, Damaskinos' lawyer, Karel Kounen, has informed Damaskinos of Priest's death and warns the Overlord that he is playing a dangerous game, one that could result in his daughter's death. Damaskinos informs Kounen that his "friend inside" says that everything is going as planned.
Outside the House of Pain, Scud and Whistler, who have been working surveillance from the van and on the roof, have managed to capture a Reaper who was trying to escape down a culvert but got stuck. For some odd reason, this Reaper is dying. Blade surmises that the Reaper's body, having gone several hours without feeding, is beginning to feed on itself.
Since he is dying anyway, this provides Nyssa with an opportunity to perform an autopsy and learn more about the Reapers. She learns that the barbed tongue contains a nerve toxin to paralyze the victim while the Reaper feeds. Their hearts are encased in bone, making it virtually impossible to shove a stake through them.
The only thing that seems to affect them is exposure to sun and to ultraviolet light. Unfortunately, these are also deadly to vampires, which is going to make it difficult for Blade to destroy the Reapers without harming his vampire allies. Scud spends the rest of the night working to build UV grenades out of phosphor rods.
The next morning, meaning to use daytime, the only advantage they have over the Reapers, Blade, Whistler, Nyssa, Asad, and the Bloodpack, armed with UV guns, UV grenades, and large-scale UV bombs go down into the sewers. They split into three units. Whistler goes with Chupa and Reinhardt down the east tunnel.
Lighthammer, Verlaine, and Snowman go in the opposite direction, and Blade goes with Asad and Nyssa. Unfortunately, treachery abounds. When Chupa and Reinhardt get Whistler alone, Chupa beats him up. We lose a partner and Blade loses one, Chupa threatens.
Lighthammer completes his evolution into a Reaper and feasts on Snowman, then goes after Verlaine, who has no recourse other than to open a manhole cover, killing both herself and Lighthammer in the sunlight. Then the Reapers start arriving, crawling on the sewer floor, walls, and ceiling. Asam is attacked by a half dozen Reapers crawling underwater.
Blade sets off a UV grenade, killing all the Reapers, but it is too late for Asad. Chupa falls prey to Reapers. Reinhardt is being followed by Reapers, so he sets a UV bomb, but the detonator sticks. Blade radios orders to everyone to regroup, but the only ones left standing are Nyssa, Reinhardt, and Blade, so Blade goes back to get the UV bomb that Reinhardt left behind.
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