The smooth click of a button being depressed ticked into the blue lit underground complex. Whirs from a micro cassette tape were accompanying Katyusha as it played over an old record player. A soft, silky voice spoke into the mini audio recorder held in a leather gloved hand.

"Zero hundred hours is the time. An hour when most are asleep, most are gearing up for a hunt, most are rutting or most are getting inebriated in their embalming fluid of choice. I prefer Vodka. Brand? Matters not as long is it is strong, clear and as cold as my mother land. I digress though.

The purpose of these logs, should you be the unfortunate soul to stumble upon them is to bring to light a cancer that was introduced to Rhydin's living body. A cancer that I am wholly to blame for. That cancer is the pharmaceutical company called Hollows Bio Cell. This company has spread through many realms and has even strangled the planet Earth that I have come from.

Their goal? Cheap and affordable pharmaceuticals for all medical organizations. A pipe dream, right? All the pills you could want for very low prices. My mother, rest her ancient bones always told me that if something looks shiny, new and too good to be true you better run. Attached to that shining bobble is most likely a Mithu, a demon that likes to feed on foolish people lured by its shiny bait.

Hollows Bio Cell has the shiny bait. Low price, high quality drugs. Now what is the Mithu behind it? More drugs, oh yes, but not the ones you ever want in your world. Humans on my Earth long outgrew the kiddy stuff and delved into new drugs, exotic drugs made with chemicals and compounds you never find in every day life. Drugs so addicting and lethal in time that money poured into the coffers of Hollows Bio Cell's CEO, Sten Velsp to most, Lord Baron to the underworld cronies and the black death to the unlucky that die by his own hands.

This is an old and long established kingpin and his kingdom has spread and gone very, very deep. His men and women have influences over anyone in many ways and I was one of many, fooled, lured in and blinded by the Mithu holding the hopes of a bright future. Centuries of wisdom and talents that could offer cures to the masses and I turned them to the defilement of those masses instead. I've enslaved the minds of many, made their bodies scream and cry for chemical bliss.

My crimes are many, wrought by my own will under the banner of Hollows Bio Cell and the piercing eyes of Velsp. But no longer am I the fool. I've seen the Mithu and it is large. I can only hope I am not too late to kill this cancer and rid Rhydin of this menacing blight. Time marches on and I must not sit idle. Tonight I make my first strike. End log."

A faint click, the whirring stops and as Katyusha comes to a foreboding close, a door is opened and closed leaving the recorder to sit on the table for the night.

A record slowly turned as the phonograph played Slow, Love, Slow by an Earth band known as Nightwish. It muffled the steady treading of hard soles on the marble floor in the library. Ivy was dressed in a silk, light blue long sleeved shirt and dark gray slacks. His dress boots polished to a high shine. His hands were tucked behind his back, in one light ebony hand whirred the micro recorder.

"2 am, I am still awake. Why? Many things bite into my mind like the rabid beasts a conscience can spawn. I should be exhausted, tired, worn out with the warmth of pleasure and love. That is what she would want."

Ivy stopped talking as he looked to the open door that lead into the hall to his personal chambers. He could still hear her slumbering. His Icey that he'd grown fond of again. Fond enough to lie to her again, to keep her out of harms way as he trolled through societies grime and darkness. Sweet, soothing lies to keep her happy and content to be in his lair instead by his side.

"I can't bring her into this. She wants to help so much, but she is so young, so inexperienced in how the world has turned so wrong. Granted she's a dragon but still, she is still fragile. That fragility I will care for, wrap it in the padding and softness of getting her further educated by my endless books. By our personal sessions of dueling and the sweet, tender love she enjoys much. I have gone mad..."

Once more he stopped stalking as he looked about his library raised his arms as he beseeches the written words of men and women long dead and now dust.

"What is a man to do, much less one touched to live for an eternity with a need to drink the red essence within each of us? A man bound with scruples, oaths and the trappings of civility that now twist and snarl around my own neck like a noose? A man who wrought such vileness in a moment of blind stupidity, granted a long moment spanning decades. Now my redemption is stalking form of my extermination. Rules that I had long sought to manipulate the weak and soft willed now turn and bind my wrists from legal redemption. Now I skulk in the shadows, becoming more of what I loath. A scavenger of humanity living to plague society.

A life I've born for many centuries now, never a hesitation nor a want for something lighter, grander and more fulfilling until now. The great minds before me had it right. When a man takes a challenge alone, he is stalwart and resolute, but when he meets a woman who wants to aid him, he turns into a twitching, scrambling shadow of paranoia, seeking to keep the woman safe from harm.

Now I balance my needs. The need for warm blood. The need for compassion to sustain a starved heart. The need to fulfill my oaths of old to protect humanity. The need for justice and revenge. It is this balance now, that makes me sharper and on edge. I can never risk anyone following me home for Icey's sake. Nor can I risk many knowing it is me who is out killing. I have been lucky not many know my face, yet, besides those I slaughter."

The word slaughter drenched his mind in coldness. Tried to pry the monster that he really was out of the chained depths. A long silent heart beat of the vampire in him that beat faster with each life he took. Each mouthful of blood he drank. The face of the woman he consumed in that burning warehouse settled in his minds eye. Her face, pale and shocked with horror at this man that drained her of all life, to die in a burning building, to never see the family depending on her.

"Gaaaaa!" Ivy roared and kicked a foot stool across the room to smash into book shelves, wood, stuffing, cloth and pages flood the floor in a small deluge of debris.

"I can only do so much. Control so much. I never meant to kill that woman, but I could not afford to die in that building. I would not have arisen undead in time to escape the flames. Even if I had, what would remain would not be the Ivan Vel Yoven some may know but the true monster trapped under my living flesh. I digress though, this recording is meant for your ears to glean where I may have succeeded or failed in my crusade against Brimstone.

Brimstone was not of the Earth realm. By far it was an alchemical marvel only found if one were to travel into the Ever After, a polite term for treading in the realm of demons and magic on Earth. Brimstone is a bi-product of magic in that realm feeding off of the enchanted creatures within. A glowing, orange substance that is like opening Pandora's box to those foolish enough to use it. Many may think they can spot it like any other drug. I was clever in introducing it to the realm of Rhydin.

Laced bottles of water labeled Agua Dios. Hard candies steeped in the drug. Bottles of perfume with varying labels promising enhance attraction of either gender. Gum to reduce your craving for food and drink as Brimstone would eventually seal your bodies receptors to the signals of hunger and dehydration. Magnifies the deepest desires every being houses, deep within the mind. Strips the barriers keeping them from acting out the desires, or unlocks the bodies potential to achieve what that being desires. Nothing is held back once Brimstone is introduced to a non-human. Even humans with a bit of something extra fall prey to it. Human drugs mixed with Brimstone become potent, needing little to near nothing of that mix to be effective, making over dosing as easy as breathing.

Some on Earth called Brimstone the joy of the gods. To feel the wonder and desires it awoke. Many called the drug what it really was. The plague to remove sentient life from Earth, to allow a restart of all existence. Like any plague it travels either on it's own or by carriers."

Ivy moved to the smashed book shelf and shattered foot stool. He began picking up the pieces that bore witness to his loss of anger.

"I have given legal authorities a hint. A few stepping stones to start a legal vengeance upon the sellers of this drug. I am not sure if they can do much or hold enough sway in Rhydin to champion a cause. I most hope they can, and while I hope and wait, I must continue my crusade in the darkness. The streets will run red every day I am alive until either I am undead or the drug is eradicated. This is a promise I make. A promise that may mean I leave a love, the first love in my life to a sentence of loneliness and grief.

I end for the night with a name. Reginald Haliford. An often behind the scenes proprietor in gun running, arms trade and gambling. He is my next target. Should I fail, may you learn from my folly and stay clear of him. If a man were to ever by possessed of a spirit of pure cruelty and anger, Reginald would be that man. End recording."

Once more the click of the micro recorder was heard in the study. Before any voice spoke, the sound of a gasp breathed life into the quiet study. Gentle scrapes of chair legs against stone floor and the odd soft footed thump of a limping person receded down a hallway perhaps. The grandfather clock in the study chimed 12 midnight with it's throaty reverberating bass. Just beyond the sentry of times reach was the soft, silk words of Ivy consoling an upset Icey at how injured he was.

The faint sighs of a exasperated sighs, promised tenderness to come and the final closing of a distant door broke the fading chime of time. Another scrape of chair on floor and a woof of air leaving lungs pained were recorded for posterity's sake.

"Midnight. What is it about this hour, many call the witching time, that draws out the lunatics in society. After two weeks of stalking and watching Brian Ravenlock for an opportune meeting has come to fruition and near disaster. I should have known Dimitri Haliford would not stay idle once the news of his brothers death was brought to him by the personal guard that failed to keep Reginald alive. Tonight many were truly lucky that the attack was fast paced, opportune and without tactic or planning.

Reginald was always the master tactician of the two from house Haliford. Dimitri lacks his brothers cool, callous ruthlessness to bide the time and lure someone into a trap. Speaking of traps, from this point on I will acquiring bomb sniffing tools to augment any further sewer forays. Reginald about had me in those sewers. Tracking back to the topic of midnight, it has taken me five hours since the attack on the Marketplace to finally reach my hold. Two bottles of blood lay testament to how grievous my wounds were. It wounds Icey to know she can offer no nourishment for my body without poisoning me at the same time.

There is not much more I can tell to any listening about Brimstone without losing the audience to scientific verbage and compounding principles spanning centuries. I will instead enlighten upon those I had given into the charge of spreading this cancerous drug. You have heard mention but a few of the players in this shadowy act. Tony Manisty, Reginald Haliford and the notorious Baron Sten Velsp of ancient Earth. Many still dance to Velsp's tune and script, then again many would be sorely out of their minds to rail against the only undead vampire to trace his lineage directly back to Lord Dracuul of Transylvania.

Yet, the cast was not of Velsp's choosing but mine when I was Director of Hollow's Bio Cell, Rhydin. Who is this cast? The departed Tony Manisty was selected for the ghouls rather unique approaches for dispersing all manner of vices in this city as well as his rather tenacious grip on life by the throat. Reginald Haliford was chosen as the poster boy for humanitarian aide and government care offering concerns and support while slitting throats in the night with illicit shipments. His playing of the many wars in Rhydin by double dealing arms to any side wanting them secured a large profit the Hollow's Bio Cell cut into and used for better refinement of Brimstone.

What of his brother Dimitri? Dimitri is inseparable from Reginald in any dealing. The two I suspect are twins as Dimitri is a striking image of Reginald. However, madness gnaws on that mans mind. Never one to be subtle, Dimitri attacks with instinct and the primal senses any ancient predator would be proud of. I named him the Attack Dog of Hollows Bio Cell. The citizens of Rhydin should count themselves fortunate that the forces that attacked were the last retinue of Reginald. Most likely spurred to act in revenge by the Attack Dog."

The sound of the chair creaking and a pained grunt was still heard in the smooth words of Ivy.

"Crazy as Dimitri is, when the dog attacks, you are not suspecting nor are you left unscathed. What he lacks in patience is doubly made up for in precision. End log."