Doctor Strange is
concerned that he cannot find his servant Wong; he conjures up a vision of Wong
and he appears dead. Enlarging the image shows two fang marks on the man’s
neck; Strange swears vengeance against the vampire who killed him. Using the
Eye of Agamotto to put the dying Wong into a stasis to hold off his dying,
Strange puts himself into Wong’s mind, seeing his memories and discovers that
Wong interrupted Dracula feasting and was killed by the Lord of the Undead.
Strange sets out to find him….
Harold H. Harold
arrives at his publishers office to discover that brainless secretary Aurora Rabinowitz
has sold them her story of a romance with Dracula, which frustrates
him. Aurora refusing his requests for a date also upsets him….
Dracula returns to the
Boston lair of Dr. Sun, unaware he is being watched by the still unnamed
Deacon Frost. There he gloats over his defeat of Sun (issue #42) but is yet
unsatisfied….
Dr. Strange uses the
Eye of Agamotto to trace Dracula’s life essence to Sun’s mansion where the
vampire lies in his coffin; Strange crashes through the walls and attacks
Dracula, encircling him with the Rings of Raggador and the Crimson Bands of
Cyttorak together—but Dracula escapes by turning into mist. Strange wants
Dracula alive so he can probe his secrets but the vampire fights back more
fiercely. Strange attacks through Dracula’s fears; Dracula’s memory goes back
to his lifetime as a warrior, armed and mounted on a steed. His enemy Turac
takes on Dr. Strange’s form to assault and overcome him; Turac takes Dracula to
the old witch Lianda, who bites him and turns him into a vampire—but Dracula
realizes it is but a nightmare. Strange demands to know from Dracula how to
resurrect Wong; Dracula is astounded that anyone would care that much about the
life of a servant. Dracula pushes his way through Strange’s protective magicks
and hypnotizes the sorcerer, then bites him on the neck and drinks his blood,
leaving him to become a vampire himself in three days’ time….
Blade, seeking the
vampire who killed his mother, traces Deacon Frost to a darkened apartment
where he finds a vampire but it isn’t his quarry, it is vampire private
detective Hannibal King….
Story continues in
DOCTOR STRANGE (1974 series) #14.