Colossus and Logan are in a darkened room looking for a vampire. Logan bets Piotr a beer that he finds him first but, as Piotr replies, the hulking vampire appears behind him and roars. Piotr wastes no time in smashing the vampire in the jaw, sending it flying through a brick wall. Once outside, it tries to make a break for it which surprises the two X-Men. "Shouldn't he be bursting into flames?" asks Piotr. Logan reckons he's right. He asks Piotr if they shouldn't change things up and he throws Piotr this time around. Colossus thinks not. He prefers the classic approach. He launches Wolverine in a fastball special straight towards the flying vampire but he misses, instead causing a rooftop water tower to collapse under Logan's weight. Piotr wonders how something so big can move so fast.
Piotr rushes to Logan's aid and helps him up. He thinks they might be losing their touch. "Speak for yourself Russkie!" replies Logan. The winged vampire manages to evade Wolverine, but it isn't so lucky when it comes to Storm. She zaps it with a burst of forked lightning. "How about I speak for you both, she remarks." Logan looks at the manhole cover below Storm and reckons they should retrieve the Vampire or she'll gloat for days. They'd been asked to bring back a live specimen. Logan would rather be tracking down Dracula, not playing 'fetch the vamp.' Piotr asks him to remember Jubilee. This might help the X-Club cure her.
Logan points out another thing. What's their bloodsucker doing running around in the daylight? He expected to track its scent to a closed coffin. That was the point of hunting in the daylight. Colossus replies that it's all the more reason Dr. Nemesis needs his specimen. There are too many questions.
Logan's tired of wasting time on the creature. How hard can it be to bag one lousy vamp? he wonders. The two X-Men open a large wooden door and get their answer. The vampire looks right at them, backed up by at least five others. The X-Men attack, with Logan relishing the fact that they don't need to take the others in alive. "Noted," replies Colossus as he breaks the neck of an unfortunate vampire. From nowhere, a bola made of two skulls connected by rope swishes through the air. It twists around one of the vampire's legs and brings it to the ground. Colossus wonders where that came from, but Logan knows full well. It came from someone who knows what to bring on a vampire hunt. They see Blade standing there, and he wastes no time slicing the vampire's neck with his sword. He asks the X-Men to pay attention. This is how it's done. He avoids a swipe from the vampire's clawed hand and slices again, dropping the creature.
Blade reckons they're following the same trail. He asks them to stake them all to be sure. The nasty critters have a habit of rising up again. Logan informs him that they need one alive. Piotr adds that it's their whole reason for descending into this dank smelly place. As he places the live one into a bag, Blade tells them that vampires make lousy house pets. Logan tells him that Dracula's in town and infecting citizens. The labcoats want to take a look a fang face under the microscope.
Blade comments that it looks like somebody didn't get the memo. Wolverine says if he knows something then he should spill. First thing... how come the vamp didn't get crispy in daylight? Blade replies that they use light-bending technology. He holds up one of the necklaces that they were wearing and informs the X-Men that it bends the harmful rays out of the way better than SPF ten-billion sunblock. Piotr says that Dracula is getting fancy, but Blade replies that Dracula is dead, and there's a world of bad about to fall on San Francisco.
(Utopia, island home of the X-Men off the coast of San Francisco)
Jubilee is in the lab with Dr. Nemesis, who is carrying out tests on her. The needle hurts, but Nemesis reminds her that they need to monitor the progress of her contamination. Surely she wouldn't refuse their help? Jubes replies that it's three times today. At this rate their won't be any blood left. Nemesis asks how she feels. Jubilee tells him that she's not so woozy now that the sun is down. But, she feels... she doesn't know how to describe it. Nemesis tells her he doesn't want a report on her physical condition. He wants to know how she feels. He asks her to open her mouth and let the words tumble out.
Jubilee says she can feel it calling her. "It?" asks Nemesis. Jubilee says it's something she needs. Something she wants. It's like pure desire coursing through her veins. She admits that she's afraid... afraid to touch the darkness, but she can't stop herself. Nemesis replies that she's got to fight it. She should remember who she is and fight it. Jubilee tells him it's like she doesn't know who she is anymore. What's more, she doesn't want to fight it.
(later)
Dr. Rao asks how his interrogation of Jubilee went. Bradley objects to the word ‘interrogation,’ but tells her that it didn't go well. As she knows, he is a man of science, and he suspects that science will only take them so far. Rao asks for an explanation. Bradley informs her that he would explain if he had Blade's little trinket, for example. The bola is made of vampire skulls and various hocus pocus. He can't explain how it works, but it does. They never covered this in med school. Rao replies that there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in his philosophy. Nemesis agrees, and he's worried that their classical educations may not be enough.
They arrive at a doorway where they are met by Cyclops. Dr. Rao tells them she'll join them later. She’s going to look in on Jubilee. Nemesis enters the room to find several X-Men in attendance as well as Blade and Madison Jeffries. Nemesis asks if Scott is about to reveal his brilliant scheme for foiling Dracula's evil plan, whatever that might be. Scott replies that he's wrong. Dracula is dead! Ororo is shocked. So who exactly are they up against?
(elsewhere)
Lord Xarus sits on his throne, with vampire guards in attendance and a beautiful blonde at his side. A man named Dominic appears, with a half-naked redhead on a lead close behind him. He tells Xarus that she is a gift. The delivery of the manufactured virus exceeded expectations. Xarus stands and takes the lead, holding the woman gently by the chin. He finds it amazing that they come of their own accord. He will make lazy vampires of them all if their prey seek them out so willingly. He asks about their prime target. Dominic informs him that she's stronger than they thought. She's fighting the infection, but, it will happen. It will progress until she can't stand it anymore and then she'll come looking... searching and needing. Nobody can resist. Their scientists have done a really top notch job. Xarus sits back down and replies that once they have Jubilee, they know who they'll send to rescue her. Once he is turned then they will fall, one by one.
Xarus adds that they will be turned or they will be destroyed. The mutant race will swell the vampire ranks and they will become an unstoppable force. Their people will no longer hide in darkness. The world will quake before them. Dominic holds up his phone and replies that Xarus will be happy to know that the sects have been reporting in all day. Krieger sect's Legate has been bellyaching logistics but he'll whip him into shape. "Excellent," replies Xarus, holding the woman who now has a tear forming around her eye. "In the meantime, it would be rude to ignore your gift. The blonde asks Xarus not to fill up on appetizers. Soon he will feast on mutant blood.
(Utopia)
Dr. Kavita Rao lies unconscious. Jubilee is on the run and regretting taking her out. Why did she do that? She makes her way outside, unable to stop herself. She finds it hard to breathe. She can't take anymore needles or tests. They aren't going to give her what she needs. It's out there. She can feel it. She makes her way to where a jet-ski resides and powers it up. She then takes off across the bay by the light of a full moon. Whatever it is, whatever she needs, it's out there, and she wants it.
Back inside, Ororo realizes that she should have known it wasn't Dracula. If he was in San Francisco she thinks she would have felt it somehow. Blade reckons that's understandable. It's not unusual for a prior vampiric relationship to leave behind some residual connection, and Dracula was the most powerful vampire in history. "Was?" asks Ororo. Blade informs her that Xarus achieved something his father never did. He's united all the vampire sects under a single flag. The Claw sect, The Krieger sect and the Nosferatu. The petty infighting that divided them is a thing of the past. They're united now. They're together... a single vampire nation with Xarus at the top of the heap.
Cyclops needs a better idea of what they're up against. Madison replies that he might be able to help with that. He's recalibrated Cerero to detect vampire DNA. As with mutants, there's enough of a difference to distinguish them from humans. Scott asks him to put his findings up on the big screen. Madison presses a button and a huge display appears. Scott looks at it and asks how bad it is. "Pretty bad," replies Jeffries. On screen is a map of the bay area. There are red dots everywhere!
Meanwhile, Jubilee arrives at her destination - a large building with no lights on. She wonders how she knows this is the right place. Instinct? Some kind of spell? She opens the door and enters, knowing full well that this has to be the number one stupid thing she's done in her life, and yet, she can't stop herself. A voice comes from the darkness and Xarus steps into the moonlight. He tells Jubilee that he's been waiting for her; waiting to answer all her questions. She warns Xarus to stay back and then asks who he is. Xarus informs her that they've never met, but he wants to help. He knows the emptiness that drives her, the desperation to fill that emptiness. She felt it even before the day at the park. It's been worse for her, hasn't it, he asks, rhetorically. She's an outsider, even among outsiders. She should let him help her. "Let me release you." Jubilee can't resist but to extend her hand to join his.
(Utopia)
Angel likens their situation to being like on a boat surrounded by sharks. "And the boats sinking," adds Wolverine. Emma tells them to keep their chins up. After all, at least Mussolini made the trains run on time. Cyclops asks what she means by that. "Meaning, sometimes it's better the devil you know." Scott understands but Warren is in the dark. Scott then mentions that Blade said Dracula's head had been taken by Atlantean vampires and his body is still entombed on that Greek Isle. Wolverine catches on to what Scott is thinking. Are they actually talking about what he thinks they're talking about? Blade too catches on. "Hell no!" he exclaims. "You don't dig up Hitler to get rid of Saddam Hussein!" Scott lays out their situation. Xarus is going to throw an endless wave of troops at them until they drown. They have to put up a breaker.
Blade points out that, saying for one second that they actually pull this off, they battle their way through hordes of bloodsuckers to resurrect the Lord of the Vampires... does Scott think he'll actually be grateful? Ororo reckons Blade is right. Dracula can't be controlled and they can't predict how he'll behave. Scott replies that they can't control him, but they can predict one thing. A resurrected Dracula is going to be pretty darn P.O.'d at the guy who took his throne. Payback will be his number one priority. Emma adds that Dracula is their bomb. They light the fuse and stand back. Blade thinks it's still too risky, but Wolverine's come around to Scott's way of thinking. Blade saw the screen? There's no other plan. Sometimes a Hail Mary play is the only play you've got.
Cyclops is intent on doing this. They're going to fetch the head and the body, and they're going to resurrect Dracula! Emma congratulates him on a rousing speech. He sounded like he thought it might actually work. Scott says it has to, because he has a feeling things are about to get much worse.
(meanwhile)
A tear trickles down Jubilee's cheek. She tells Xarus that she feels an emptiness inside of her, clawing her guts. She asks him to make it stop. Xarus asks her to give herself to him. He will take away the pain. He moves in, teeth bared against her neck and bites. "Oh," sighs Jubilee. "Oh... thank you."
