Detective Van Ness was asleep when he got the phone call to report to the scene of a homicide. By the time he got to the pier where the murder had taken place, his partner, Detective Pierce, was already deep into the investigation.
"Whatta we got?" Van Ness asked.
"It's a weird one," Pierce said. "The body was found on the pier early this morning by a dockworker. His throat was tore open."
"Yuck," Van Ness said. "A messy one."
"Not really," Pierce said.
"What's that mean?"
"I was just talking to the M.E., after he checked out the body. He said that the throat wasn't slit. It was ripped open. Possible by a fanged creature."
"Fanged, Huh?" Van Ness said. "So it was an animal? What did you mean by it not being messy?"
"There's no blood."
"Huh?"
"No blood," Pierce said. "Only a few drops spilled here and there. Most of it's gone."
"You're right. It's a weird one."
"Wanna see something else weird? C'Mere," Pierce said.
Pierce lead Van Ness to a gun and a jacket crumbled up on the floor. "We found the gun near the victim. It's been discharged, and I found six bullet holes in that wall over there."
"So the victim fired at the animal and missed?"
"Take a look at the coat," Pierce said, holding it up. There were six holes in it, close together. They look like bullet holes, don't they?"
"Can't be!" Van Ness countered. "Bullet holes wouldn't group like that if the coat was hanging. It would swing around too much. For that kind of grouping, someone would have to be wearing it. And that can't be because if someone was wearing it when the bullets hit, they would have gone through him."
"Right," Pierce said. "And if that's the case, we come to the same question . . . Where's the blood?"
Gregg was still tasting the intoxicating flavor of human blood. He entered the lair of his master, just before sunrise. The "nest" as they called it, was located underground. As Gregg arrived just as many of his nest-brothers were settling in for the day's sleep. Many of them were sleeping off a good feed, as Gregg was about to do. The guy on the pier had been soooo tasty! What vampire wouldn't love such a treat. He actually felt very clever for abandoning his coat. After the prey shot at him, it would have been a bit conspicuous walking around with bullet holes in his clothes.
Just as he was about to lay down to sleep, he heard the silent, telepathic summoning of his master. he wanted to sleep but he dare not disobey the Master.
Gregg walked to the deepest part of the subterranean lair, and was allowed passed the two huge men who the Master had picked as his body guard. Gregg felt a shudder being in the presence of the Master. The lord of the vampires stood up. Tall, proud, intimidating, powerful. Dracula!
"You were the last to return to the nest, young Gregg," Dracula said in a powerful voice, with a Transylvanian accent. "What were you doing, child?"
"I had trouble finding a meal, master. But I finally managed to find one."
"And where did you find this meal, child?"
"Near here. At the docks," Gregg said.
"You fed near our nest?" Dracula asked with restrained anger. "Did I not instruct everyone that they should never feed near the nest?"
Gregg recoiled with fear at his master's wrath. "But, Master, I couldn't find . . . "
"Silence!" Dracula yelled, striking Gregg. As Gregg fell, Dracula grabbed a jeweled dagger which he had owned for centuries. With a quick, powerful slash, Dracula cut Gregg's head off. "Foolish boy," Dracula addressed his two bodyguards. "Remove this mess. Put it into the sun where the body will disintegrate! It's better than the young fool deserves. If he causes the nest to be found, everything I've worked for could be ruined! It's almost the time. It's so close! I won't be denied now!"
"It's very strange," Lamont Cranston said to Margo Lane, as they were having lunch together in the backyard lawn of his manor. "I've been following this rash of disappearances lately. Twenty-three souls have vanished at night over the last two weeks."
"That is strange," she said. "That's more than a person per night."
"But that's not the strangest part," he said.
"What is?" she asked.
"Blood."
"Sorry I asked. Why blood?"
"Some of my operatives have passed a rumor to me that someone is buying a lot of blood off the black market," Lamont said. "And then I read this strange story this morning. A body is found with it's throat torn open, and no blood was found. And strangely, the black market is having trouble meeting their blood orders because they're having a shortage due to the fact that the blood banks they usually rob have been robbed already."
"So somebody out there really wants blood, huh?"
"Evidently. And I've been doing some research. There have been rashes of these mass disappearances all over Europe. And each one was accompanied by these blood thefts."
"So it looks like the Shadow will be doing some investigating tonight, huh?" she said with a smile.
"Most certainly."
"And where will you start?"
That night, the Shadow arrived at the morgue. He was there to examine the body of the last victim. He pulled open the drawer of the slab to inspect the corpse. It was gone!
The Shadow considered the ramifications of this. The blood gone, and now the body. Missing like the twenty-three other bodies. What did this all add up to?
Something moved! The Shadow snapped to alert. Someone was stalking him. He used his power to cloud the mind of anyone present. They shouldn't be able to see him now.
But suddenly, someone attacked him from behind. Someone could see him. His power didn't work on the attacker. And whoever it was, he was very strong. He held the Shadow in a super human grip. The Shadow got a look at his attacker. The face he saw was the face from the newspaper . . . The dead man!
"Blood!" the attacker yelled. The man opened his mouth wide and revealed his fangs. He tried to bite the Shadow on the neck. The Shadow managed to flip the attacker over his shoulder. The fanged attacker crashed to the ground hard but got right back up again.
"Blood!" he yelled, as he lunged at the Shadow again. The Shadow knew his folklore. He knew what he was facing. It was a vampire! The Shadow took two surgical tools and made a cross with them. The vampire recoiled as if in pain. When his eyes were diverted, the Shadow grabbed a chair and broke it over the vampire's head. Then he picked up a broken piece of wood from the chair, and rammed it into the vampire's chest. The vampire screamed, and fell to the ground. The vampire's body turned to dust.
The Shadow looked at the pile of ashes. "We have a problem."
At Cranston Manor, the Shadow was arming himself with the implements he needed to battle vampires. Margo watched.
"Are you sure about this?" she asked.
The Shadow nodded. "It must be done! I can't ask anyone else to share this danger with me! I understand the darkness better than anyone else! I must do this!"
The Shadow searched the pier area. He knew that the vampire nest must be around here somewhere. The last attack was done early in the morning. The dead man didn't have a chance to rise as a vampire until the next night. It was probably done by a vampire who hadn't found a meal. At that time in the morning, he would have been heading back to his nest. Out of desperation, he grabbed a victim close to home. So the nest was near the docks. But where? What was the best hiding place? Well, there was an easy way to find out. Let the vampires show him.
The Shadow climbed to a spot high up on the dock building. It would be daylight soon and the night creatures would be heading home. He could see for blocks. There were very few people in the area. A few prostitutes and drunks. But he noticed that several men and woman passed through, heading into the subway. Strangely, none of them came back up even though that train line didn't run at this time of night. The Shadow had found his nest!
The Shadow crept through the dark subway. He looked around for the hiding place that the nest would be in. Climbing down onto the tracks, he walked down the tunnels. He found an opening in the wall, which lead to a service tunnel. Due to the war, with rationing and manpower shortages, the service tunnel would most likely not be used. A perfect place for a nest!
The Shadow went inside. He had only gone a few steps when he met his first obstacle. A tall vampire attacked. The Shadow drew a sword he had brought with him. He decapitated the vampire. This attack was followed by a shorter vampire, who the Shadow speared with a wooden stake. A female vampire came next. The Shadow burned her with holy water - which he had picked up from a church on the way - and drove her off. More vampires came. Over a dozen more. The Shadow pulled out a cross, but even though it was obviously painful to them, they didn't retreat. They waiting until they had an opening. They came at the Shadow from behind.
The vampires were all super-human in their speed and strength. And they were desperate to protect their nest, and their master. The Shadow realized that he had made a mistake. He was well armed and put up a good fight but he was at too much of a disadvantage. He couldn't win this. He just had to try and get out alive. He tried to fight his way back to the entrance to the tunnel.
Suddenly, a volley of arrows came from the tunnel opening. A group of men in white entered. The were all armed with crosses, stakes, etc . . . All the equipment for fighting vampires. They were all very good at their jobs. They helped the Shadow turn the tide. They wiped out most of the nest, although a few escaped into the tunnel.
"Who are you?" the Shadow asked.
"We'll tell you later," one of them, named Koe said. "Right now, let's get the master!"
They all moved to the back of the tunnel lair and found the makeshift chamber where Dracula had recently made his home. But Dracula was gone!
"Damn it!" Koe said. "The bat flew the coup! The boss isn't gonna like this!"
"I'd like to meet your boss!" the Shadow said.
The Shadow was brought to a nice townhouse on the upper east side. Entering, the Shadow noted that the whole place was like an armory. The weapons were not modern. They were the type of traditional weapons that could be used to slay a vampire. And all the men were in intense training. This was not a fly-by-night group of adventure seekers. This was a well-trained, well-prepared, well-financed group of professional monster hunters.
Finally, the Shadow was brought to the boss. To his surprise, the boss was an elderly woman, about seventy years old. But she had an intensity and intelligence to her. Koe was explaining to her how the master had slipped through the net. The woman nodded.
"He must had made the same conclusion that we did," she said in an English accent. "That the carelessness of the vampire who killed that man near the nest would bring us to investigate. He cleared out in advance, and left his 'children' as a distraction. He can always sire more vamps."
The Shadow had reached the same conclusion. This woman was no dummy. She looked at him. "Hello," she said. "You must be the Shadow. I've heard a lot about you."
"And who might you be?"
"My name is Mina Harker. And these are my agents, the Crusaders."
"Monster hunters?"
"These people are all trained to fight monsters," she said. "But our focus is the master of the nest you helped us destroy tonight. His name is Dracula!"
The Shadow was surprised. The name was so legendary that the Shadow believed he truly was merely a legend. "He exists?"
"Oh yes," she said, with clear emotional pain. "He does indeed."
The Shadow could tell that this was personal for Mina Harker. "What did he do to you?"
"It's a long unpleasant story," she said. "I was saved from him by a brilliant man named Dr. Van Helsing. We thought Dracula was dead, but Dr. Van Helsing suspected that he would return. He began recruiting and training these Crusaders as a special unit to kill Dracula. Dr. Van Helsing was old, so he trained me and my husband Jonathan to take his place. In the years since, Dr. Van Helsing died and Dracula killed my husband. I've been running the Crusaders for years, always recruiting new, young agents. I've been chasing Dracula for forty years. We've almost caught him on many occasions, but he always manages to slip through the cracks somehow. He has more lives than a cat. I'm getting old. I want to stop him before I die! I'll rest in my grave better knowing I've rid the world of this menace, and also avenged my husband. And myself!"
"What can I do to help you?"
"We need to find out what Dracula is after here in New York," she said. "He rarely ever leaves Europe. He wouldn't come here without a good reason. He wants something. I need to find out what so I can stop him!"
"So WE can stop him!" the Shadow said. "You just got yourself a partner!"
Over the next few days, the Shadow used his formidable resources to try and find out what Dracula could possibly be looking for in the New York. Nothing jumped out at him as unusual until he heard about the murder of millionaire collector Lionel Praise. Lamont Cranston had met Praise a few times and all he talked about was his collections of rare and unusual antiquities. He bragged about being able to get his hands on strange and valuable items. A red flag went up for Lamont when he heard about Lionel's death. His instincts told him to check this out.
Lamont arrived at Lionel Praise's home, and met with Praise's cousin Lee, who served as his private secretary and aide. "I'm very sorry for your loss, Lee," Lamont said.
"Thank you, Mr. Cranston," Lee said. "It's a horrible thing. I found him, you know. He was just laying there. Someone had broken his neck."
"Terrible," Lamont replied. "That must have been very hard for you. Why would anyone want to kill poor Lionel? Was anything stolen?"
"Actually, yes," Lee said. "I've been going through his things. I only just realized that the crate he got in yesterday is empty. The police think that the murderer stole it."
"What was in the crate?"
"His latest acquisition," Lee said. "The body of the Frankenstein monster!"
That night, the Shadow returned to the townhouse and met with Mina.
"Is the Frankenstein monster real?" the Shadow asked.
"Yes, he's quite real," Mina said. "He was originally buried in the Arctic after murdering his creator, Dr. Victor Von Frankenstein. In the 1800's, he was found and revived by a scientist named Gustov Neimen. Soon, the monster fell under the thrall of Dracula. They created a reign of terror around the world for years, until the monster was apparently destroyed in China during the Boxer rebellion by the original Crusaders. It was a group of legendary heroes from the previous century, including some Western heroes, along with Dr. Van Helsing, Sherlock Holmes and others. Dracula escaped. The monster's charred remains were buried at an undisclosed location and no one has heard from it since. But it's rumored that the creature has the ability to regenerate itself and could have healed over the years, where it was hidden. People have been searching for it for years. Apparently, Lionel Praise found it."
"And it seems that Dracula found about his acquisition. He snapped Praise's neck."
"Why not drink his blood?" Koe asked.
"That would advertise that he was the culprit," Mina said. "And he's trying not to attract our attention."
"What does he want with the monster?" the Shadow asked. "With the weaponry and the super-heroes who exist today, the two of them could no longer cut a path of terror across the world alone. So why does he need the Frankenstein monster?"
"I've been considering that," Mina said. "And I have a theory. The monster is the ultimate bodyguard!"
"Bodyguard?"
"Yes. We've been hunting Dracula for years. And we've gotten very close on several occasions. Last night was a good example. We came within inches of him but he slipped away. Very often, we try to corner him during the daylight, when he's asleep, or at least trapped. I imagine that the idea of us finding him that way has been a chilling thought for Dracula."
"I notice that his vampire bodyguards are getting larger lately," Koe said.
"Exactly," Mina said. "He's getting nervous about being caught when he's at his most defenseless. We've been able to get through all his defenses before. If we found him during the day, he knows we'd kill him."
"So he needs someone with incredible strength to protect him during the day."
"Precisely," Mina said, "A powerful protector who would be loyal to him. The monster is lonely and bitter about the way it's been treated. It sees Dracula as it's only friend. it will defend the vampire until death. The perfect bodyguard!"
"So what now?" Koe asked.
"They'll probably leave the country now. Go to ground. Hide," Mina said. "Then they'll turn up months from now with a new scheme of destruction."
"No!" the Shadow stated. "This goes no further! The terror stops! We draw the line here! We'll find them and stop them by tonight! The Shadow swears!"
Dracula lay a large sack down on the ground. Opening it, he looked upon the large hulk of the Frankenstein monster. His old companion. His once and future protector. The vampire smiled. "It has been so long!"
Dracula raised his hands to the sky. His ring glowed. He recited and incantation and then cried, "Let the power come to me now! I command it!"
The sky became cloudy and it started to drizzle. Thunder clapped and finally a lightening blot came down. The bolt hit the ring and the lord of vampires absorbed the power into it. Lowering his arm, he touched the ring to the creature. The massive electrical charge filled the monster's body. It shuttered and jerked. Dracula watched and waited.
The monster opened it's eyes. It looked up at a face it had known decades in the past. "Drac-u-la," it muttered.
"Yes, my old friend," Dracula said, "We are together again."
"So where are they hiding?" Koe asked, back at the townhouse.
"I have an idea," the Shadow said.
"Tell," Mina responded.
"Praise's cousin said that Praise's personal papers were thrown all over the bedroom floor. Nothing was taken but I found it strange that they were the only things touched besides the crate where the monster was kept. There must have been a reason Dracula was interested in them. I think I know what that reason is. Lionel Praise's real estate papers were in there. The records of all the properties he owns."
"I think I know where you're going with this," Mina said. "It will take a day or so for Dracula to arrange a transportation out of town where he can travel unnoticed. It's not easy to slip a monster and a coffin out of the country. So he'll need to hide out somewhere. And since Lionel Praise certainly won't be using any of his other homes now, they will make a perfect place for Dracula and the monster to hide."
"I had some of my contacts looked into Praise's holdings. He owns two other homes. One is in Europe, which may be where Dracula eventually intends to go. The other is a house in upstate New York, only an hour from here by car. It's in a wooded, secluded area. If Dracula wants to hide, that's where he'll be! And that's where we'll kill him!"
Only forty-nine minutes later . . . Sundown
The Shadow and the Crusaders - led by Koe - reached the country home of Lionel Praise. The members of the Crusaders leaped out of the back of the van, armed and ready.
"Let's split up!" Koe said. "Half in the front door, and half in the basement entrance in the rear."
"No," the Shadow said. "You and your Crusaders go in through the front. Create a distraction. I'll take the basement."
The Crusaders burst in the front door, armed with crossbows and other simple weapons. They looked around the dark room. The lights didn't work. Koe gestured for the team to follow him. They started to head toward the back of the house but stopped when the huge silhouette appeared in the doorway. The Crusaders braced for combat. The figure moved closer. A flashlight beam illuminated it.
It was seven foot two, and frightening in it's appearance. It's face was scarred and malformed. It's skin was sickly gray. It's old style European clothes look like they had been through war and hell. It was the Frankenstein monster.
"Go!" it said, pointing at the door. "Go away! I will not let you hurt Dracula! He is my only friend! Go, or I will kill you!"
"Sorry, Frankie!" Koe said. "No deals. You move aside or we take you down too!"
The monster roared and charged the Crusaders. They shot arrows at him, but the shafts did not stop him. The monster grabbed the men and through them around like rag dolls. They him the monster with clubs, fists and wooden stakes, but they only made the creature angrier. They couldn't stop him.
The Shadow waited until the fight was in full swing before he moved. He wanted the attention of everyone inside to be focused on the Crusaders. He waited long enough so that the enemy would think that if a second team was around, it would have struck already. He had a good chance to take those inside off guard.
The Shadow crept into the basement. As he suspected, the first thing he saw was a large coffin. The Shadow had guessed that Dracula would hide in the basement. The sun was only just going down. The Shadow hoped he could catch Dracula while still in his coffin.
The Shadow yanked open the coffin . . . But Dracula was not inside!
The Shadow looked around cautiously. His instincts told him that Dracula was still here. "Come out, vampire! Face the darkness! Face the Shadow!"
Something flew over his head. A bat! The Shadow tried to shoot it but missed. The bat suddenly started to change. It turned into a man-like form. But not a human. It was a vampire. The lord of the vampires. Dracula!
The Shadow pumped bullets into the vampire but to not good effect. The vampire laughed. "You speak of darkness, mortal. You know nothing of darkness. I am the embodiment of all that is dark. I have known the secrets of the night for many centuries. I am what humans fear in the darkness. I am the Lord of Vampires! I am Dracula!"
"In that case," the Shadow said. "Tonight, I am a vampire slayer!"
Dracula laughed confidently. He moved slowly toward the Shadow. The Shadow pulled out a sword and swung it at the vampire, who moved with amazing speed and evaded the blow. Dracula leaped around the room, laughing at Dracula's attempts to cut him. In frustration, the Shadow threw his sword. It almost hit Dracula in the throat but missed. Dracula grinned a confident grin, satisfied that the Shadow was now defenseless. He struck the Shadow, knocking him across the room with his incredible vampire strength. The Shadow was stunned but managed to struggle to his feet. As Dracula got closer to him, the Shadow pulled out a flask of Holy Water and splashed it on the vampire. Dracula let out an animal-like howl as the water burned his flesh. He staggered backwards.
The Shadow noticed that a trickle of light was visible in the corner of the covered window. He realized that the sun had just begun to go down but wasn't gone yet. There was still considerable sun coming from the west. The Shadow yanked the covering off of the window. Dracula screamed. Although the red sun of sundown was not strong enough to kill the vampire lord, it hurt him, especially since he was already hurt by the Holy Water.
Furious, Dracula tried to rush the Shadow, but the Shadow held him off with a cross. Dracula stepped back, again into the reddish light, which burned him. The Shadow pulled out a wooden stake and charged forward. Dracula was averting his gaze to keep from seeing the cross. And so the Shadow was able to reach him without resistance. The Shadow rammed the wooden stake through the vampires heart. Dracula screamed and collapsed to the floor.
"Curse you!" Dracula said. "You have not heard the last of me. I will rise again. Dracula will make you suffer for this!"
Dracula suddenly turned into dust. He was dead. Again. The Shadow poured what was left of the Holy Water on the ashes, and laid the cross on top of it. The menace was over. For now.
A heavy footstep made the Shadow turn. He saw the Frankenstein monster coming down the steps. the monster's face as a mask of shock and dismay when it saw the remains of Dracula. "Noo!" it roared.
It charged the Shadow with surprising speed. The Shadow evaded the creature's blow. The creature punched through the wall. He Shadow continued to dodge but he knew he couldn't do it forever. And if the creature struck him, it would kill him. He fired some bullets at the creature but they didn't hurt it. The Shadow heard a hissing sound. He realized that the monster had broken a gas line. The monster swung again. The Shadow again evaded the blow. But this time, the monster broke the supporting poles that held up the stairs and ceiling. The entire stairway and part of the ceiling collapsed onto the monster. The monster was temporarily pinned.
As he dug his way out, the Shadow climbed up to the first floor and found the Crusaders scattered around the room. Some were just coming too but some were still unconscious. The Shadow found Koe.
"What's your condition, Koe?"
"My leg is broken," Koe said.
The Shadow ordered one of the recovered men to help Koe outside. The Shadow dragged the surviving members of the Crusaders out of the house. Just as he was rescuing the last one, a fist came up through the floor. The monster rose from the floor, growling, like a demon from Hell! The Shadow could smell the gas by now. the house was full of it! The Shadow pulled the last man outside. "A match!" he shouted. "Who has matches?"
One of the Crusaders had some. The Shadow used the match to light an arrow on fire. The Shadow shot it into the house. Just as the monster's silhouette was spotted in the doorway, the house exploded in flames. The men watched as the house burned and collapsed onto the monster.
Epilogue:
The Crusaders got medical attention. Mina thanked the Shadow for his help. Police found the remains of the Frankenstein monster and sent it to a laboratory to be studied. Mina's Crusaders stole it and hid it somewhere, hoping that this time it wouldn't be found. The remains of Dracula were mixed in with the ashes of the house. Mina was upset that she couldn't keep them safe somewhere. She just hoped that her work was dome and that Dracula would never again menace the world.
Next: Weapon X!