Tomb of Dracula (1972 series) #44

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.