Count Dracula
pursues a female victim down a village street, finally catching up with her;
her screams attract some men who try to rescue her from Dracula. He easily
fights them off and feasts on the woman but he is not satisfied, desiring
instead to drink the blood of the traitorous Shiela Whittier (see last issue).
He takes off and returns to Castle Dunwick, his mind in turmoil over his
feelings for Shiela, also anger at himself for having those feelings as he
determines her death….
Shiela Whittier and
David Eshcol are together but they know that the differences in their faiths
would prevent them from marrying but David also knows that there will be no
peace for them so long as Dracula lives, so he sets out to kill the fiend….
In India flashbacks
reveal what happened to Taj Nital and huis wife Jyota that their son Adri has become a vampire.
The family was returning home from the market when they were attacked by
Dracula and a pair of henchmen; Rachel van Helsing arrived on the scene. In the
end, Adri was mortally wounded, Jyota’s legs were crushed when a wagon fell on
her, Taj’s vocal cords were torn out by Dracula, and the two henchmen were
killed by Rachel. Dracula escaped, leaving the parents to their recriminations
and Taj joining Rachel’s cause….
David goes to Castle
Dunwick where he tries to stake Dracula but he waited too long and the sun has
gone down. Dracula rises from the coffin and kills him. Later that evening,
Shiela answers a knock at the door and opens it to see David’s corpse, held up
by the vampire lord. Dracula tries to reclaim her as his property but she
denounces him as a fiend. When he insists he cares for her, she jumps out of a
window to her death; Dracula tries to catch her but he is too late and flies
off. We see a tear fall from her sightless eye….