Dracula: Lord of the Undead #3

Issue Details

Synopsis

Dracula and Dr. Charles Seward leave the quarantined town of Littlepool, where the entire populace has died, victims of an artificial virus that originated from Seward's anti-vampiric serum. Dracula, also suffering from the effect of the serum, compels Seward to lead him to the doctor's employer, upon whom he intends to exact his revenge. On the way to the employer's facility, Seward thinks about his family and how, despite the fact he took on the serum project in hopes of protecting them from vampires, it has instead hurt his chances of reconciling with his wife, Jane. At the same time, Jane ponders recent events, fearing her husband may have had something to do with the deadly plague. Upon reaching the facility, Dracula kills the bodyguard and comes face-to-face with the employer: his own daughter and eternal adversary, Lilith. She recounts to her father the events of recent years: When Dr. Strange eradicated all vampires from Earth, Lilith found her eternal rest. But when Dracula was resurrected, so, too, was she, doomed to resume their conflict. She then went on a rampage at Castle Dracula, destroying or stealing his most prized possessions. Selling the items to Audra Pennington, a London auctioneer, she became able to finance the development of Seward's anti-vampiric-serum, all ignored to destroy her father. Enraged, Seward finally breaks the mental control Lilith had him under, and he lunges in an attempt to inject her with the serum. She lashes out, killing the doctor. Now with no one to correct the serum, Dracula flies into a rage, attacking Lilith. But in his weakened state, he struggles to gain the upper hand. Finally, he pins Lilith to the wall with a shard of broken wood. Remembering that Seward theorized that his own blood immunized him from the virus, Dracula sucks the blood from the doctor's corpse, an act that is taboo amongst vampires. Lilith mocks him accordingly. As Dracula had hoped, Seward's blood counteracts the effects of the serum, and he begins to recuperate. Using chemicals he finds, Dracula sets off an explosion that destroys the facility. He then proceeds to Littlepool and calls down a massive lightning storm to wipe the town from the face of the earth, effectively removing all traces of the virus. Lilith, having survived the explosion, arrives with parting words for her father. Neither can ever directly kill the other; they are cursed to enmity forever. Two nights later, Dracula sits on a hall in his restored castle. With him is Audra Pennington, who sits entranced. He muses aloud with irony that he had just saved the world.