Dracula Lives (UK) Vol 1 67

Dracula has begun targeting members of the British Parliament, first by killing Mary-Beth Singleton, the 19 year old daughter of Lord Arthur Singleton, leaving a warning to him to do Dracula's bidding or face the consequences. With a police investigation into her murder, the case is turned over to Inspector Chelm, who believes that Dracula or at least some kind of vampire is responsible. Getting in touch with Quincy Harker and giving the old vampire hunter a list of recent vampire related killings Quincy is convinced that Dracula is still alive and functioning in England once more.

While in far off India, Taj Nital struggles with the responsibility of killing his son Adri, who has been kept alive as a vampire by his wife. Taking a stake and getting ready to strike, Taj cannot bring himself to kill his own son much to the relief of his wife who cannot bare killing her only child. However, before they can consider the situation a group of towns people arrive, demanding that Taj let them do away with the vampire themselves.

Farther still in Brazil, Frank Drake is taken to a government funded dig site by his friend Danny Summers to oversee the workers who, according to Danny, have become lazy. Frank thanks Danny for the opportunity to work for him. As Danny leaves him to oversee the workers, Frank's thoughts drift towards Rachel van Helsing. Back in London, Rachel herself relaxes at home, she becomes aware of a strange draft in her room but she will never have time to address it.

While atop Big Ben, Dracula lands on sight and decides that after two warnings to Lord Singleton to heed his words, decides to teach the government official what it means to disobey Dracula. With Singleton the ten members of Parliament under his control, Dracula sends them to confront Singleton on his behalf. However, Inspector Chelm and the Scotland Yard have been waiting for an attack on Singleton and sprint a trap, arresting the enslaved politicians and taking them into police custody. Dracula knows that the police will have nothing on the politicians to incarcerate them, and waits for the police to leave before going to attack Singleton directly.

When Dracula faces Singleton, the politician isn't scared and tells the lord of the vampires that although he might die, he knows that Dracula's end is at hand. Arthur hands Dracula a folder which has material that proves to be a threat to Dracula. When the vampire lord tears up the paperwork, Singleton tells Dracula that there are many other copies. When Dracula attempts to hypnotize Arthur to get the answers, he finds -- much to his frustration -- that Singleton has been trained by Quincy Harker to resist his hypnosis. Deciding the only other way is to make Arthur a vampire, he is about to bite him when Inspector Chelm and the Yard arrive to stop him. Wounding Dracula with a silver bullet, Chelm and his men close in on him. Before anything else can be done, Quincy Harker speaks over a radio announcing that he has the files that can lead to Dracula's death and that he's been listening in the whole time and order Chelm to kill Dracula.

Finding it amusing that his old foe has the means to kill him, Dracula then smashes out the window, changing into bat form he flies off into the night with the intent on paying his old foe a visit.

This story is continued next issue...

On the night of Lissa's 18th birthday, she, Jack, Buck, and Topaz spend it mostly worried about the chance of her becoming a werewolf. On top of that, Glitternight attacks, demanding Topaz tell him where to find Taboo, not believing her that Taboo is already dead. He gives her a two week ultimatum before he attacks again, a deadline that comes on the heels of the first full moon since Lissa's birthday. On the morning before that full moon, Topaz has a dream of seeing Taboo alive in Russoff Manor. Going off that premonition, everyone heads to the Manor and finds Taboo, but not quite alive. "Taboo" explains that after he died, Glitternight harvested his soul and created a spectre from it similar to how he had done with Topaz later. Glitternight wanted Taboo's help in a scheme to do the same to every soul on Earth, but the soul of Taboo refused, earning Glitternight's emnity. Now he's hiding and preparing to fight against Glitternight and wants Topaz's help. Glitternight chooses that moment to strike, just as the full moon appears, turning Jack into the Werewolf and beginning the change in Lissa. While Jack fights Glitternight, Topaz and Taboo focus their powers on suppressing Lissa's transformation. When Glitternight catches up to them, the corrupting effect of his magic makes it so Lissa's first transformation into a werewolf is even more monstrous and dangerous.

When Jennifer Kale's grandfather and his cult prepare to defend the Earth with the help of the Tome of Zhered-Na, and the Man-Thing, they discover the book is missing, leading the other cult members to believe that the elder Kale stole the book. Nobody is wise to the fact that Jennifer, in her previous encounter with the Man-Thing was forced to burn the book. When she relates to the story to her ex-boyfriend Jaxon, he scoffs at the story and decides to explore the swamp, in spite of her best warnings. Jaxon is then possessed by a demon that appears in the swamp. Jaxon is then sent to capture the Kale family, and succeeds in doing so, however the Man-Thing follows Jaxon and the Kale's in to Thog's realm. There Man-Thing is changed back into Ted Sallis and tempted with various pleasures. Ted refuses and is reverted back into the Man-Thing. The creature then seemingly slays Thog, and Jaxon, and frees the Kale's before returning to the swamp where it lives.