Anno Dracula

ALSO BY KIM NEWMAN AND AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS

ANNO DRACULA

THE BLOODY RED BARON

DRACULA CHA CHA CHA

PROFESSOR MORIARTY

THE HOUND OF THE D’URBERVILLES

JAGO

THE QUORUM

LIFE’S LOTTERY
(
APRIL
2014)

KIM NEWMAN

TITAN BOOKS

ANNO DRACULA: JOHNNY ALUCARD

Print edition ISBN: 9780857680860

E-book edition ISBN: 9780857685360

Published by Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP

First edition: September 2013

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons. living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Kim Newman asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Copyright © 2013 Kim Newman

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

Did you enjoy this book? We love to hear from our readers.

Please email us at
[email protected]
or write to us at Reader Feedback at the above address.

To receive advance information, news, competitions, and exclusive offers online, please sign up for the Titan newsletter on our website

www.titanbooks.com

For F. Paul Wilson

Epigraph

Prologue: Promises to Keep (Anno Dracula 1944)

Part One: Coppola’s Dracula (Anno Dracula 1976-77)

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

Interlude: Castle in the Desert (Anno Dracula 1977)

Part Two: Andy Warhol’s Dracula (Anno Dracula 1978-79)

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

Interlude: Who Dares Wins (Anno Dracula 1980)

Part Three: The Other Side of Midnight (Anno Dracula 1981)

1

2: Count Dracula (A Screenplay)

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23: The Other Side of Midnight

24

25

26

27

Interlude: You Are the Wind Beneath My Wings (Anno Dracula 1986)

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Part Four: ‘You’ll Never Drink Blood in this Town Again’ (Anno Dracula 1990)

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

Interlude: Miss Baltimore Crabs (Anno Dracula 1990)

1

2

3

4

5

Part Five: A Concert For Transylvania (Anno Dracula 1990)

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

Interlude: Dr Pretorius and Mr Hyde (Anno Dracula 1991)

Part Six: Charles’s Angels (Anno Dracula 1991)

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Appendix One: ‘Destroying Drella’

Appendix Two: ‘Welles’s Lost Draculas’

Author’s Note and Acknowledgements

About the Author

‘As the Count saw us, a horrible sort of snarl passed over his face, showing the eye-teeth long and pointed. But the evil smile as quickly passed into a cold stare of lion-like disdain. His expression again changed, as, with a single impulse, we all advanced on him. It was a pity that we had not some better organised plan of attack, for even at the moment I wondered what we were to do. I did not myself know whether our lethal weapons would avail us anything. Harker evidently meant to try the matter, for he had ready his great Kukri knife, and made a fierce and sudden cut at him. The blow was a powerful one; only the diabolical quickness of the Count’s leap back saved him. A second less and the trenchant blade had shorn through his heart. As it was, the point just cut the cloth of his coat, making a wide gap whence a bundle of bank-notes and a stream of gold fell out. The expression of the Count’s face was so hellish that, for a moment I feared for Harker, though I saw him throw the terrible knife aloft again for another stroke... It would be impossible to describe the expression of hate and baffled malignity - of anger and hellish rage - which came over the Count’s face. His waxen hue became greenish-yellow by the contrast of his burning eyes, and the red scar on his forehead showed on the pallid skin like a palpitating wound. The next instant, with a sinuous dive he swept under Harker’s arm, ere his blow could fall, and, grasping a handful of the money from the floor, dashed across the room, threw himself at the window. Amid the crash and glitter of falling glass, he tumbled into the flagged area below. Through the sound of shivering glass I could hear the “ting” of the gold, as some of the sovereigns fell on the flagging.

‘We ran over and saw him spring unhurt from the ground. He, rushing up the steps, crossed the flagged yard, and pushed open the stable door. There he turned and spoke to us: -

‘“You think to baffle me, you - with your pale faces all in a row, like sheep in a butcher’s. You shall be sorry yet, each one of you! You think you have left me without a place to rest; but I have more. My revenge is just begun! I spread it over centuries, and time is on my side. Your girls that you love are mine already and through them you and others yet shall be mine - my creatures, to do my bidding and to be my jackals when I want to feed. Bah!”’

Bram Stoker (attributed to Dr John Seward),
Dracula

* * *

‘That Count Dracula’s no good for anybody, and he never was!’

Mario Belato (Joe Dallesandro),
Blood for Dracula