“From the beginning? Heh- it seems a dream now, it was so long ago. That’s how the song goes, right?”

The man settled back into the chair, glancing about the brightly lit room. Bright at his request. He liked it that way. It was comfortable and spacious, nothing as he might have expected. It was beautiful in fact, compared to some of the other similar offices that he had visited recently; dives and holes in some of the worst areas of cities around the world. The furnishing was sparse but stylish, minimalistic in its way with a slightly Oriental theme. There were painted silk scrolls hanging on the dark paneled walls inscribed with Japanese Kanji. There were swords and shields as well as photographs; a class of police cadets obviously at a graduation ceremony, a group of four people in another enjoying some celebration. There was a framed degree of some sort, and a license endorsed by the State of New York hanging over the large white mahogany desk. There were filing cabinets lining one wall, and a small kitchenette that was remarkably clean. Even the desktop itself was neat and organized, a minimum of materials each in its proper place. In fact, the only thing that seemed out of place in the quiet, serene office was the man himself.

He was filthy he knew. His clothes were dirty and wrinkled from long, hard days of wear, and truthfully he could not even remember the last time he had changed. He had a few days growth of blonde beard shadowing his face, ragged and as unkempt as his hair now wild from the wind and rain blowing outside. He was starting to smell he imagined- probably the reason that the two women were sitting on the far side of the room, well away from him and the open window where they had placed his chair. He sighed, taking a final long drink of his coffee and pulling a cigarette from the crumpled pack hidden in his jacket pocket-

“I’d rather you didn’t…” the white woman said, her slightly slanted eyes growing steely cold as she stared at the offending cigarette. She looked good, the man had to admit, in an exotic kind of way. A bit on the thin side for him though, and he had always preferred blondes really-

“I’d rather I didn’t, too,” he said, striking a match and holding a shaky flame to the tip of the cigarette, “but old habits die hard, y’know.” He shook the match until the flame died then flicked it out the window. “Bad habits are about all I have left though.”

“Your story?”

The black woman was smirking, a calming hand hidden behind her friend, probably on the other’s back. She was handsome in her own right, muscular and fit though not overly so. She still looked feminine, but the man could see in her dark eyes and the way that she held herself that she had seen some things in her day, and traveled more than a few miles in the process.

“Yeah,” he said taking a drag off of his cigarette, trying to meet the woman halfway and blowing the smoke towards the open window. The howling wind curled the wispy blue cloud back again however and just for a moment the man shivered, a chill running down his spine as the memories came flooding back…

“It was like something out of a novel,” he began again, trying to remain calm, trying to keep his hands from shaking, his voice from cracking, “or one of those old Hammer films from the Fifties. A real dark and stormy night! I’d received word of an inheritance, a castle and estate in Europe from an ancestor that I’d only heard hushed whispers about up until then. I was a cousin it seemed, several times removed of course, but I was the last of the line so everything fell to me according to the solicitors. Back then I was all about the money, young and stupid I guess, but I saw the dollar signs and put my foot in it. I gathered up my girlfriend and my best friend and we all went to check out the estate. I wanted to sell it off, you see? I wanted the money. I was going to be married.

“Had I known what we’d find there- what horror we would unleash on the world- well, I probably would have let the lawyers handle the whole thing and maybe none of what followed would have ever happened. It’s all my fault, you see? All my fault that so many died. So much blood on my hands…”

A long trail of ash fell to the carpeting, the cigarette having spent itself. The man stared at the ashes on the floor for a moment, another memory churning up-

“There was a castle on the estate; my ancestral home.” He continued, dropping the spent butt into the last swallows of his coffee. “I was a Baron I suppose, in a round about way, a Count maybe, and I had lands and a home and even a little village to lord over. The dollar signs just got bigger and bigger in my eyes, blinding me to everything else. If greed hadn’t taken over I probably still would have seen the signs; the fear in the village and the blight on the land. Jeanie had seen it—she was my girlfriend then, my fiancée—but me and Cliff, well, all we saw was the money.

“We made our way to the castle eventually, though it seemed everything—from the villagers to the very elements had been trying to ward us away. It was a huge place, just like you’d imagine; big and stone with towers and dungeons, full of cobwebs and rats… and bats… Still, we settled in and despite our better judgment started to explore.

“It was Clifton that found the tomb. Was it just dumb luck, or fate? We’ll never know I suppose, but he fell right through the floor and landed in a near forgotten cellar far beneath the castle. Jeanie and I came across it later, but it was too late by then of course. The deed had been done. It was a dark, musty place that had been sealed away years before, decades before I guess by Abraham Van Helsing. Why he had never finished the job, I don’t know, but my friend Clifton Graves had found the evil and released it. He had found…

THE TOMB OF DRACULA!

By Curtis Fernlund

“It all went to Hell in a hand-basket after that. Why Cliff had removed the stake that had put my ancestor in torpor for so long I have no idea. Cliff was a greedy, conniving little shit, not so different from me at the time. I guess that’s why we were best friends. Whatever his reasons though, he pulled the stake out of Dracula’s heart and set the fiend loose once again.

“The Lord of the Undead enslaved Cliff right off, just like Renfeld in Stoker’s novel—which is true, by the way, at least to a point. Dracula tossed Cliff into a pit where I found him later, little knowing that he was now the dark lord’s servant. That was after I got my first good look at my ancestor of course. He had apparently heard us—Jeanie and I moving about in the castle above, talking, and by then the blood lust was upon him. Dracula prefers women, and I guess it was Jeanie’s voice that drew him to us like a moth to a flame, sparing Clifton that hell in the end.

“He appeared before us in all his glory, swooping out of the hole in the floor as a bat and then morphing into the true ancient evil that he really was. He enslaved Jeanie with a glance, and scared the piss out of me, but somehow I managed to drive him off with a simple make-up compact. It was Jeanie’s, a family heirloom with a real silver mirror, but it was enough. Dracula ran.

“I learned later that he had gone to the nearby village to sate his unnatural thirst. He returned later, back to full strength and bloated with power. He was too much for me then. I tried to fight. Really, I did, but he easily overpowered me and went for Jeanie. He took her, raping her in his own way, making her one of his undead while I feebly tried to drive him off. In the end it was the villagers that drove him away finally by setting fire to the castle. Dracula ran, but by then Jeanie was his. Cliff was his, and I was nothing.”

The man fished about for another cigarette as the two women watched, enthralled by his story. He could see disbelief in their eyes, but he knew that they were listening intently. They would believe eventually?

“What happened to the girl?” the black one asked, pouring him another cup of coffee. He nodded his thanks, accepting the mug as lightning flared outside. He waited for the low rumble of thunder to die away before continuing.

“I killed her…”

He heard the women gasp, and a sorry smile played at the corners of his mouth. He had told the tale so many times over the past few weeks that it came as rote now. It still hurt though, even after so long…

“I’d saved Jeanie’s body from the fire. She had seemed dead at first, but I learned later that Dracula had turned her. She had become one of the undead, her pure soul tainted and forever lost.

“I felt that it was my duty then to put her to rest. No one deserves to live that undead life; forever hungering for blood, never seeing the sun again. I can’t imagine what kind of hell that would be, and I wasn’t about to let Jeanie go like that. I tracked her down- me and Cliff after I had hauled him out of the hole that my ancestor had cast him into. We tracked her down and actually captured her for all the good that did. I had some fantasy about curing her. Maybe she wasn’t totally gone by then, not yet. I was wrong about that of course, and about so many other things.

“Cliff was gone by that point too. He had always loved Jeanie, and between that love and his greed, well, it was easy for her to manipulate Clifton into setting her free. It’s one of those vampiric powers—mind control—and Cliff was a dupe. Of course about then Dracula himself returned and got into the act. There was a battle, but I was useless. Dracula tossed me around like a rag doll. They were going to kill me, but somehow I got spared. Fate stepped in, and I managed to spear Jeanie through the heart with a broken bit of table leg. It was enough though. Dawn came then, and Dracula fled, but by then it was too late.

“Jeanie was a long time dying. I can still hear her cries of agony as the rays of the morning sun turned her body to ash. Cliff by then had snapped altogether. Between Dracula and Jeanie twisting his mind he had gone insane. I had lost it all in a space of a few heartbeats; my best friend, my girl, my inheritance…”

The man settled in his chair, the weight of memory heavy on his shoulders. The two women waited, hoping that he would continue, letting him deal with his grief, eventually growing impatient-

“What happened next?” the white woman asked as she sat on the top of the desk, crossing her legs. He could see that she was having a hard time believing his tale, but he did not care. Every time that he told the story was catharsis. Eventually he would be free…

“I lost it then. Clifton disappeared, but I didn’t care. All I thought about was Dracula, and Jeanie, and what I had done. I had hit rock bottom, and in the end I had finally decided to end it all.

“I was in London by then, having left my ancestral home in Transylvania behind. I had gone out on London Bridge one foggy night with every intention of killing myself. I had nothing left to live for, you see? At least that’s what I thought. I played it all back through my mind and decided. I actually jumped, but it wasn’t my time I guess. Strong arms grabbed me in midair and pulled me back to safety. It was then that I first met Rachel Van Helsing…

“Apparently I wasn’t the only one to be a descendant of the Dracula story. Rachel was a beautiful woman, the granddaughter of Abraham Van Helsing. She had been trying to find me it seemed, and had finally caught up with me on the bridge at just the right moment. She had a strong, mute servant named Taj at the time, and it was he that plucked me out of the air and hauled me back onto the bridge. He was an Indian, and I later learned that he and his family had been plagued by the vampire curse for years. He had lost his son, and his wife, and like Rachel and myself had dedicated his own life to ending the threat of Dracula.

“We all shared that goal, and through Rachel I met others as well. I’ll admit that I was fairly useless at that point. Dracula had taken everything from me. I was bankrupt, my inheritance pretty much worthless. My girlfriend was dead and my best friend was a raving lunatic, and a slave to the vampire lord to boot. I suppose it was Rachel that turned me around. She was beautiful, but cold, and I knew from the start that her only concern was slaying Dracula. She was nothing like Jeanie, but I was drawn to her, and just as Clifton was enslaved by my ancestor, I was a servant to Rachel Van Helsing’s every whim. I agreed to join her in her mad crusade- it was what I thought I wanted at the time. She gave my life meaning again, and it was through her that I eventually met the others.

“Quincy Harker was the first, another name out of the legends. He was the son of the original Harker that had faced the lord of the undead, and he had had more than his share of misery. Dracula had slain his wife and crippled him, and when I finally met him he was an obsessed old man driving around in a motorized wheel chair that fired poisoned darts and wooden stakes from a hidden arsenal. He had a daughter at the time too, Edith, and she was young and naïve but just as committed to the crusade as the rest of us. We had a few adventures and actually ‘killed’ Dracula a time or two, but he was a lucky bastard and just kept coming back.

“I met Blade early on. A good man, though with a bit of attitude. We were always at odds it seemed, and he was on his own crusade; to slay the white-haired vampire that had killed his mother. He eventually did, I hear, but in the interim he joined our little group, setting aside his own vendetta to hunt Dracula with us, seeing my estranged cousin as the threat that he was.

“Harker’s daughter was the first to fall, and I think that was really the beginning of the end. Dracula had kidnapped the girl and took her too a mansion to lure us all in. We went through some hell that night, and not a one of us came out unscathed. It was a deathtrap, filled with rats and bats and spiders; all the vermin at Dracula’s command. Rachel was scarred for life, her beauty marred as her face was scratched beyond repair by a swarm of bats. Taj was beaten down within an inch of his life, and I would have died if not for Blade. It was Edith Harker who suffered the most, however, her and her old man. Dracula had turned her you see. My ancestor knew that that was the most heinous crime he could commit. It was something that would cut Quincy to the bone and devastate the old man. Dracula made poor Edith one of his undead legions, probably hoping that she would kill her father, or that he would be forced to kill her. Edith was a good soul however, and in the end rather than attack us chose to take her own life- or at least tried to. She tried to spare her father, but the headlong plunge that she took didn’t quite finish the job, merely knocking her senseless.

“Harker had to kill her in the end…”

The man lit another cigarette as the wind howled, whipping through the window. The scrolls and hangings on the wall fluttered, and the papers on the big desk blew about in the gust. The white woman cursed, trying to stay the chaos as both women scrambled to gather their notes.

“Things just seemed to fall apart after that. Our little group followed Dracula around the world for months. We were all done. Harker became cold and determined, and Rachel just kept on being Rachel, but more so. We became an item for awhile. Not really lovers- I really don’t think that either of us could love anymore- but we shared intimacy. We had adventures, but for every step we gained it seemed we lost two. Blade helped us out on occasion, and we met up with the likes of Hannibal King who was a vampire of a different sort, and even Harold H. Harold, the horror writer. He was a good man, but compared to Dracula…”

The man shrugged, pausing to gather his thoughts. He saw the two women exchange a glance but he could not determine their reaction. He did not know if they were believing his story or not. Not that it mattered really. They would or they wouldn’t at the end. He pressed on…

“Shit happened. Dracula’s original goal was to create a world of the undead. He realized early on however that that would never work. A world of vampires would eventually run out of food, and there would be too many pretenders wanting his throne. He settled eventually on ruling a little piece of the world instead. He even had a kid somehow. As it was explained to me, vampires still work- bodily- they can eat and breathe, they still pump blood and their hearts still beat, but they’re dead. It’s confusing, but apparently they can even sire children. Dracula, being who and what he was begot a son that was some next step in evolution. He bore a mutant I guess, a golden child that was above us all. His kid became some kind of demi-god- not exactly what Dracula was hoping for. There was some big battle between light and dark, and the Silver Surfer became involved. The way I heard it, Dracula’s son simply moved on…

“Harker was the next to go. He had faced down my ancestor, ironically in Castle Dracula where it had all started years before, thanks to me. Harker had skewered Dracula after a long battle, and in the end blew up my ancestral home, bringing it all down around Dracula’s ears. Harker died of course, but so did Dracula, at least for a time. He came back though…

“I got a nice letter from the Xavier Institute one day. They expressed their condolences at my loss. It seemed that Dracula had turned Rachel Van Helsing finally, after I don’t know how long. Dracula had made Rachel a vampire as a sideline to turning one of Xavier’s people into his queen. It all seemed pretty useless and silly in the end, but they had saved the day somehow, changing their member back but losing Rachel. It was a joke…

“There was some bit with a book after that. The Darkhold I think it was called. Dracula had learned a few years earlier of a spell in that book that would wipe vampires off the face of the earth and had tried his best to get rid of the book. Turns out there was also a spell that would make him invincible. There was some big to do, and the Avengers got involved—the Scarlet Witch mainly, and Doctor Strange. They being heroes, they won of course, and for awhile vampirism was eliminated. Hannibal King and Blade were cured. All that evil just went away…

“Of course Dracula came back. I don’t know all the details but somehow the spell was made null and void. Dracula returned, along with Varnae and all the others. We kept on struggling of course, but my little team took some heavy losses in the interim.

“Harker was dead…

“Rachel was dead…

“I’ve heard too that most of my friends are gone. I told you that Blade eventually got his vengeance. He killed the white-haired vampire he had been searching for for so long. He’s dead now though, killed by Varnae I think. I don’t know for sure.

“Taj is dead too.

“King is dead…

“As far as I know I’m the last. Maybe Harold’s still alive, but if he is it doesn’t really matter. He’s a good man, but an idiot. I don’t know…

The man seemed to sag, the weight of his tale dragging him down into despair. The two women watched him as he sucked on the tip of his cigarette. His eyes were red and puffy, and they knew that he was trying his best not to cry, to hold his emotions at bay. They exchanged a quick glance, a simple look that expressed volumes. The white woman frowned, and the black shrugged before returning her attention to the man.

“So what’s he planning now, this Dracula? Why come to us with this?”

The man smiled, shrugging himself. “I won’t lie. You’re not my first choice. I keep my ear to the rail so to speak, and when I heard the first rumblings that my ancestor had resurfaced I knew that I had to stop him before he got started.

“I went to see Strange, but some Chinaman at the door turned me away. The doctor was out, apparently.

“I went to the Avengers, hoping to catch the Scarlet Witch in house, but they were out saving the world, and their pompous butler gave me the bum’s rush.

“The Fantastic Four’s secretary took my name and phone number. Said they’d be in touch…

“I tried to get in touch with Jack Russell, but couldn’t find him or his girlfriend Topaz…

“Even Jennifer Kale told me to take a hike. I was pretty much at odds after that. I didn’t know where to turn. I’d heard about Heroes for Hire, but they turned me down too. They suggested you. I figured, what the hell… As far as I know, Dracula’s back to his world domination schemes. Word is he’s expanding his army of undead, but I don’t know why. He has a plan, I’m sure, but what it is I have no idea. I just know that he has to be stopped.”

The man dropped another butt into his cold coffee, a sizzling sound rising up with a final gasp of smoke. He set the mug aside and watched the two women. The white seemed skeptical, looking to the black for her response. She in turn glanced at the white and passed her feelings along somehow. They shared a rapport these two, and the man knew that they were interested. It was the black that finally spoke—

“I won’t lie to you either. It sounds like a fairy tale, but Colleen and I have seen some things over the years that make your little story seem like a Doctor Seuss book. Dracula…vampires…It seems too weird, but we’ll look into it. You started your story with a song, and I’ll finish it the same way—“if you got the money, honey, we got the time…”

Frank Drake smirked. It seemed appropriate somehow, and almost ironic. The black woman- Misty Knight was right. To hear it, it did sound like a fairy tale. But it was all true. All of it! He sighed, thankful that someone had finally listened.

“We’ll need all you have.” Colleen Wing said, sliding off of the desk and standing over him. She looked impressive in her short kimono, black tights and boots. Drake looked her up and down, nodding to her demands. “Notes, addresses, personal effects; whatever you have. It’ll be hard I know, but we need what you have if we’re going to do this right.”

“Of course…” He had no problem with that. They had to know. The whole sordid tale…

“I’ll do what I can. I’ll help, whatever…”

“We have a deal then.” Misty Knight stood from behind the desk, leaning forward as Frank Drake stepped closer, past Colleen Wing. She extended her hand and he took it, shook it. It was cold…

“Congratulations, Mister Drake. You’ve hired Nightwing Restorations. You won’t be sorry.”

Frank Drake nodded and smiled.

He hoped that she was right…

NEXT: Frank Drake and the Daughters of the Dragon begin their search for Dracula. What will they encounter? Who will they find? Be here next time and find out…