"Standing behind the couch, leaning over, looking down at him, was Dracula.  The Creature's long-haired, bearded head swayed gently to and fro, like a lion looking down at its stunned prey.  Its chest, shoulders, and arms seemed massive.  Talons, long and sharp, protruded from each clawed hand that lightly rested on the top of the couch."

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This monumental science fiction/horror novel is 383 pages long.  It is set in the not-too distant future, when the world does not succeed in slipping easily past the coming population crunch.  Instead, the bottom drops out.  

In the midst of an irreversible crash in energy and food supplies, war/starvation/disease spread across the globe.  Scientists, world leaders, and military commanders are desperate for anything that has even the remotest chance of reversing the collapse of human society.  An unlikely solution is discovered: the real Dracula, detected in and extracted from deep jungle in the blockaded continent of Africa.  

This is no suave, seductive, magical nobleman.  No turning into fogs or bats.  It is, indeed, a very real monster.  But a monster whose biochemistry and genetics seem to offer unlimited energy, the cure to any disease, and even conquering death itself.  

In a desperate race against time, a team of military and civilian scientists struggle to unlock the secrets of a supposedly-comatose, totally-contained Monster.  However, the Creature has plans of its own...plans that involve civil war in the United States, even reaching to the nation's White House.  

This book is about the struggle of ordinary men and women to confront and battle the worst, most-terrible type of evil: the horror that lurks in the darkest depths of each person's own heart.   [suggested viewing restriction:  "R"--young people under 17 requiring parental approval to read this book.]

See below for SAMPLE.

“I think we should go back.”

“What??”        

“I’ve got this terrible feeling, Jim...like I’m walking to my own execution.”        

She stood rigidly, hands firmly planted on the shoulder of the man sitting before her.  She noticed that even though the interior of the attack craft was a cool 69, Colonel James Dancer was sweating profusely.  Her gaze drifted to her own hands---slender, petite, with deep black skin.  And trembling.  

He glanced back at her, tense.  “You ok, Major?” he quietly asked.        

She bent closer, whispering in his ear.  “In the name of Jesus Christ, Jim...call it off.”        

“You’ve been in plenty of battles in the past, Licentia.  This is no different.  It’s just the waiting.  It’s getting to us all.”          

“It is different,” she insisted, her grip tightening.  She saw him wince, and forced her hands to relax.  She took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm herself.  But a growing, icy-cold lump in her gut would not go away...        

“It’s like...we’re about to unleash a tremendous evil on the world...”        

“We’ve got no choice, Doctor.  You know that.  Besides, the world’s screwed up so badly, there’s no way we could make it worse.”        

“Normally I’d debate that logic, Jim.  I believe God always allows us a choice.  But in this case---what really terrifies me---is I’m afraid that you’re right. It’s the end of the world....the end of everything. ”            

"Twenty-three minutes until we have to start back, Colonel," a bald-headed, fat Major spoke from a nearby control console. "If we don't spot the monster soon..."        

"I know that, Muldoon!" Dancer snapped back.  "Then we won't have enough fuel to make it back.  What do you think I am, an idiot?"        

Licentia Luke straightened back up, pained.  She knew Colonel Dancer was only letting off some steam.  Still, Major Muldoon was only doing his job, keeping them fully informed about the operational status of the three heavy-lift Stelnook helicopters.  But to come all this way, over all this distance, just to fail to even locate their quarry...        

She took a deep breath, calming herself, forcing herself to think clinically.  “I...I don’t know what came into me there, Jim,” she gasped.  “Forget what I said.  Of course we have to complete the mission.”        

Dancer stiffened under her grip, leaning forward to peer intently into the holographic, full-wall monitor.        

“You see something?” she softly asked, leaning forwards also.        

He pointed at the lower left of the screen.  "At the edge of the jungle closest to the river. Something moved. We know that's a favorite haunt of his!"  Dancer moved his joy-stick in precise jerks. Long grasses spun past on the monitor---a glimpse of the sun...directly overhead, a fierce ball of heat.        

“It’s not a ‘he,’” she contradicted him.  “It’s an ‘it.’”        

"Whatever.  This is one of ‘its’ favorite feeding places.”          

The river---really only a shallow stream---flowed placidly through a thick carpet of tall grass.  A wide, savanna plain around the stream stretched for several miles, walled in on three sides by high, tangled jungle.  A herd of antelopes was cautiously approaching the water.  As they bunched up to drink, bent-over to the stream, they looked wary---obviously fearful that predators would be watching, eager to attack...        

"There!  Do you see that, Colonel?" a young, black Sergeant next to them eagerly commented.        

"Just some big cats, Charlie," Dancer growled. A pride of lions crouched, hidden at the jungle edge, obviously ready to oblige the premonitions of the graceful antelopes.  A mother cat---shimmering gold in the bright, baking sunlight, pushing cubs gently to the side---her big cat-eyes intently-locked on the herd---quivered beneath a bush, poised to explode in the chase...        

"If only the other ‘bugs’ we'd had on him had kept functioning tell we arrived..." Luke shook her head, watching precious minutes ticking away on the screen clock.  They couldn't hover long above the jungle canopy in quiet-mode.  It was taking too much energy.  But they didn't dare land in some clearing.  That would send a warning rippling out through all the jungle community.  Their quarry, the abominable skittish Creature, would be long gone, slipped back into the deep, impenetrable jungle...        

"Jesus, ain't modern science wonderful?" Charlie Turner laughed, apparently trying to lighten the tension.  "Via satellite we fire down the damndest most sophisticated microcircuitry known to man into the jungle disguised as local insects---and wouldn't you know it the local birds and lizards eat them!"        

"And the monkeys swat them!" Luke snorted, grinning in spite of her inward unease.        

Muldoon's deep base chimed in as well: "And the other bugs mate with them..."        

"Can the chatter, folks," Dancer ordered. "If the Creature's here, its dinner is about to be served."        

One antelope dipped its head to the water, sucking in the precious liquid.  Another followed suit, then another.  Soon half the herd was belly-up to the stream, youngsters snorting and frolicking at the shallow edge.  Sentries scattered around the herd seemed to catch no scent of lurking predators on the steady hot breeze (which unfortunately for the antelopes was blowing from the opposite direction from where the big cats crouched)---and they began to relax, their flared nostrils closing down...

"Oh no!" Turner exclaimed.  "One of the lions is moving!  It may spook the Creature!"        

Like a yellow blur the mother cat charged, pounding through the high grasses..."Whinnying" and snorting, the herd jerked up from the stream, wheeling-about...        

"No!  There it is!" Luke exclaimed, pointing.        

...as behind the charge of the lion a white human appeared---rising up like an apparition from where it had been secreted under a large log---easily pacing the cat, naked except for an animal hide bound about its waist and under the crouch.  He held no weapon in his hands.  A mane of long, straight silvery hair swirled about his head.  A thick white beard covered most of his lower face and upper chest.  His skin was glaringly pale.  Although she’d seen surveillance vids before, involuntarily Licentia gasped.  This was no “Tarzan.”  It was an obscene slug, risen up from some slime-covered pit.    

"Arm all weapons!" Dancer snapped, speaking softly into a command microphone.        

---as the lion sprang and latched onto the back of a slower, older antelope, sinking sharp fangs into the throbbing meat below it, jerking out a hunk of meat and bone...the antelope crumpled to the ground as if it had been shot dead.        

---as the white human leaped over the fallen antelope/growling lion in its path to land square on the back of a large male.... And in one fluid motion reached down with both arms to encircle the neck and with a vice-like jerk snapped it.        

"Jesus!” Charlie Turner gasped.          

Thundering off into the distance, the rest of the herd was safe.        

"Careful!" Dancer barked, his hand still held high in the air.  "No one do anything tell I give the order!"        

Lying not a dozen yards from each other, the two dead or dying antelope were humps in the grass.  Atop one of them the lion roared, its head thrust high and its sharp teeth exposed.  Atop the other, the taunt muscles of the human began to relax...the encircling, ivory-white arms loosening their steel-like grip.  He stuck his head up, black eyes peering intently about in all directions.  Apparently sensing no danger, his head lowered...  

---and in one quick slash, razor-sharp claws on the man’s hand laid open the neck of the animal.  A big jugular vein, as thick as a hose, lay exposed, throbbing.  Teeth delicately nicked the upper surface of the vein, followed immediately by the man’s whole mouth clamping-down, fully encircling the wound.  

"That's just disgusting..." Muldoon grunted.        

As the lion ripped choice hunks of meat from its prey, the man lay prone on top of his own helpless victim, totally motionless.  The only movement was a rhythmic sucking of the Creature’s clamped-down jaws...        

Once again the savanna plain was peaceful.  The only movement was the rest of the pride of lions leisurely walking towards the kill...and swarms of mosquitoes, disturbed by the trampling herd, settling back down...        

"Damn!" the Sergeant spat, leaning back from his computer counsel.  "Did you see how fast he moved?"        

"We've all seen the surveillance cubes before, Turner,” Dancer’s voice was steady, in control.  “Keep your mind on your work!  Get ready to release the Swarm.  It'll take approximately five minutes for our target to reach full feeding rhapsody.  We've got a ten minute window after that before it starts to wind down.  Everything's got to be sharp!  We've got to hit him while he's still feeding or we may never get another chance!"        

"Yes Sir!"  Turner replied, checking the controls and activating the final programming sequences of the Swarm.  "The birds are ready, Colonel!...but damn it, Sir...nothing human could move that fast..." he muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.        

"Get set with the missiles.  We're just over the horizon from the target,” the Colonel continued.  “You on mark, Muldoon?"

In the darkened interior of the big control chopper, the intense, overweight older officer brooded.  Green radar images made his big, bald head seem unreal, a glowing balloon.  "Locked and loaded, Colonel," he growled, wiping his mouth with the back of a meaty hand.        

“How about you, Licentia?  Your medical team ready?”        

“Standing by.”        

"I'm sending one of the 'eyes' in for close-ups.  As soon as the target is in full feeding mode we'll move."        

"All systems are go."         

Colonel Dancer's fingers moved lightly over the control panel.  Licentia watched the view on the screen shift.  The camera seemed to float closer to the figure sucking at the neck of the antelope.  The lion, leisurely tearing chunks of bloody meat out of its prey, moved behind the field of view.  Now the camera was close enough that the human on top of the dying antelope filled the screen.  Luke could see the sweat bathing the wrinkled, pale skin of the human.  In a few minutes that skin could be under her fingers, be severed by her scalpel!  She shuddered...        

Now the view was so close Luke could see individual mosquitoes settling down on the human's ivory-white back...        

"Get ready..." Dancer ordered---        

Despite her revulsion, Licentia was fascinated.  The long-clawed hands of the man were now relaxing, almost caressing the hide of the animal beneath it instead of being sunk deep into the flesh...        

I wish we could see its eyes.  When they get glazed over its a dead giveaway it’s deep in its feeding rapture.  They looks like it's in ecstasy when it's sucking its blood.  What a monster... Could use a haircut, though.  That white bush is laying the wrong way, right over its face...        

"Fire!" Dancer exclaimed.

The interior of the 'copter shuddered as two missiles were launched.  Little sound penetrated.  The noise-baffles had worked well.  Almost silently the mini cruise missiles were away, flashing just feet off the top of the highest trees of the jungle mat below.   

"You think he'll hear them?" Major Muldoon said, leaning back and absently rubbing his double chin.

"We'll know in a moment," Dancer replied...

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