After the fight, Peter met with Carmen and me. I earned a good bit of money fighting and beating Vlad which had me guessing the house’s real confidence in me. The meeting with Peter went smoothly. He even paid me double for beating Vlad like I did.

Now for the information Peter had it was mainly about some of the Vampyre activity in Iscariot city. For the past three years, there were some attacks, but they were quickly handled. But recently the attacks have become bloodier than usual. One particular instance was a few days ago when Peter happened to be a witness. I heard about this one, but I'd been on a business venture with Yasuo, so I couldn't investigate it myself. Vampyres normally just drain their victims of their blood and leave them there. There are some cases where the victim fights back but usually, it's not bloodier than some mild dismemberment or a puddle of blood. No, this time the victims had their skin peeled off and portions of their entrails devoured. The Vampyres were still vampiric so they only should drink blood. But this time even flesh was devoured which gave an entirely different vibe.

Now I would've normally dismissed this information since it had nothing to do with Armando himself. But then Peter mentioned that this wasn't the first time he had heard of something like this happening. Peter had just come from France the night he encountered the earlier scene, and he heard some nasty rumors in another Hive City there. Their limbs were ripped off and some people had their brains eaten. Considering Armando was the one who was leading the operation to plague our city with Vampyres, it was safe to assume he had something to do with this. After all, something happening once was a coincidence but twice was a pattern. I thanked Carmen for letting me meet with Peter and even kicked up a small percentage of my earnings tonight to her to further show my thanks. Then I departed the fight club to head back home.

Now home wasn't the Murcielago Estate or even the Isorashi Compound. For the past three years, my two older brothers have been helping me find the rebuilding of Dogland. After the attack, Father tried to get a requisition to get the place rebuilt. Julius and Yasuo took over and within the next year, the place was up and running. The easiest part was getting the deed to the place since technically Mr. Martinez passed it down to Iggy, who by the way is doing good. He followed my advice and found himself a nice girl named Juanita down in the Morelia Hive City in Mexico. They've been thinking of having a couple of pups soon.

Originally Dogland was going to be a hotel, but with the increase in Vampyre, victims followed the rise of orphans in our city, both Mythic and Human. So I decided to take the kids in, even going as far as to hire people to work there. Now like with Mr. Martinez, I never paid with dirty money. Like usual, Julius helped me clean the money I earned conducting business for this thing of ours using his various businesses and a bit from Pandora Cigarettes as well. I also made it a habit only to hire people who didn't ask questions, but that wasn't very rare in a city like Iscariot.

As I pulled up to the street corner where Dogland stood I took a gander at the large building. Unlike years ago the sign for Dogland read exactly as such. What's more the building had been cleaned thoroughly, and the place didn't have too many broken windows. Absorbing my bike back into the Crimson haze I wrapped up my arms and headed inside.

As I stepped through the door I was bombarded by a crowd of kids who all wanted to hug me. They were shouting, "Welcome home Mr. Alex," as they tried pushing each other out of the way to hug me. "Woah there kids, slow your horses. Thanks for the warm welcome."

"Yo boss you're back," said someone beyond the crowd of kids. When I looked up I saw a young blond man who was about my height. He'd been wearing a dark green suit without a tie, and like him, he was a paradigm. "Sorry about the gang of brats, Ella let them get past her."

"It's fine Tony," I said as I patted one of the kid's heads. "I don't mind seeing the kids." Tony, or Anthony Procenzo was one of the new hotshot Capos in the Murcielago family. Julius ended up recruiting some more made guys after our numbers dwindled a bit. Out of all of them who became made, Tony was our brightest star. I took Tony on as a protégé when he was a soldier, and now he'd been working closely with me since his promotion three months ago. "Alright kids, Mr. Tony and I have to discuss some business. Be good boys and girls and go back to Ms. Ella."

As if I'd summoned her, a raven-haired woman came around the corner nearly losing her balance since she'd been running so fast. It was Ella or Gabriella Mendoza, another I hired for the orphanage. She's a Shaman who'd just arrived in the city a couple of years ago looking for work, and we happened to cross paths. I hired her since I had a soft spot for Shamans. "I'm so sorry Alex, I tried to catch up to them, but these kids gave me the slip on the second floor." She turned her attention to one of the kids, a little brown-haired boy named Donny. "Now listen ya little runt. You can't keep the other kids up all night. Some of them aren't like you."

"But Ms. Ella we don't wanna go to bed yet," whined one of the other kids. "Yeah I'm just making sure they don't get into anything," Donny said. Ella looked unconvinced, and I knew she wouldn't budge on the matter. But I felt sorry for the kids, so I decided to help them out. Kneeling to Donny's side I placed a hand on his head. "Listen little guy. The day walker kids need to get some sleep. Focus on the nightwalkers and make sure they don't get into trouble alright?" Donny looked a little saddened by this. He was fairly popular among the kids. Reaching into my jacket pocket, I carefully pulled out a piece of candy and slipped it into his pocket. "Listen to Ms. Ella and there's more in it for you." He felt his pocket then looked at me and smiled. Turning to the other kids he said, "Alright Day walkers we've been beat. Come on."

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The other kids groaned and complained but ultimately followed him. Ella crossed her arms, her annoyance now directed at me. "I saw that Alex," she said with a disapproving look. "Sorry Gabriella, I just can't help myself," I said. "I've been feeling a bit fatherly as of late." Her disapproval turned into curiosity. "Oh? Is Yayoi expecting?"

"No nothing like that," I said, "Although Yasuo keeps hounding me about it. Our jobs leave us a little too busy for children at the moment."

"It's not like you couldn't," Tony chimed in, "This place is so well guarded, the president could live here." He wasn't wrong, after the attack three years ago I upped the security of this place considerably. It took a decent portion of my earnings every month to make sure the personnel were paid throughout the clock. "We're both pretty busy nowadays," I repeated, "Besides, I'd rather not have any children of mine in a world where Armando and his boss are still breathing." The atmosphere changed at the mention of Armando's name. Both Tony and Ella had their grudges against the Paradigm.

"Speaking of which, have you found anything out, boss?" Tony asked. "Yeah, but let's talk in my office. Can't let the kids hear any of this." The two of them nodded and followed me upstairs. The third-floor meeting room was completely redone to be my office and bedroom. When we arrived at the floor we found Becca heading for the stairs. "Oh hey soul brother, how's tricks?"

"Pretty well actually," I said, "You busy?"

"I was about to go meet Penny," Becca answered, "But I see you three are on your way for something important so she can wait." I hoped my Sister would forgive me for dragging her woman away for a second. Anyway, Becca now joined us as we made our way to my office. Outside the door, there was a maid standing guard. It was the same maid that Beatrix had control of when she revealed herself to me. I asked Julius to allow me to hire her as a personal maidservant. I didn't want anyone controlled by Beatrix to remain in the estate. Yes, it was probably a bad idea bringing her here, but it was better than potentially another boss. For the first few months, I had Pandora watch the girl even though Pandora assured me I had nothing to worry about. Her name was Eliza, and she was pretty nifty to have around.

After she saw me approaching she went ahead and unlocked the door to my office. "Welcome back Master Murcielago," she greeted. "Will you and your companions need a drink tonight?" Looking at the girl made me hungry. I wanted to resist given we had business to discuss, but it was too risky given how much energy I used earlier. "Yes, that'd be lovely. I'll heal you up after that." As the five of us entered my office, I took a seat at my desk. The others except Eliza sat on a couch I had placed in front of the desk, I wanted any guests of mine to be comfortable. I tried to model the place to look like my old man's office, something I was often teased by Julius about.

Eliza pulled a switchblade from her pocket and slit her wrist. I reached into the bottom drawer and pulled out three glasses. Placing them on the desk, Eliza allowed her blood to fill each cup. Taking her wrist I drew the rune for "heal" on her and the wound began to seal up. "Go on Eliza, take the night off to rest, make sure you eat something." Eliza bowed and then excused herself.

"So boss, what'd you find out?" Asked Tony as he took one of the glasses. "Did you guys know of the Vampyre attack the other night?" I asked as I took my glass. Tony and Becca knew, but Ella didn't.

"The victims weren't like the others," I explained, "We all know what Vamp victims look like, so it's understood that peeled skin and devoured entrails isn't normal." Ella covered her mouth as her mind conjured an image of what that all must've looked like. "Are you serious?" Becca asked, "There's no way that was a Vamp."

"Unfortunately, no other Mythic can do that kind of damage," I said. "The same thing happened in France recently. There may be more victims in the future. Armando is the cause of this outbreak of Vamps, so the fact that they are growing more deranged can only mean someone has been busy."

"So, you want us to go out and crack some more heads?" Becca said as she cracked her knuckles, though I shook my head. "I'm meeting with Yasuo and Julius tomorrow night. We can't act too wildly without the High Table's approval. I may be the Crimson Death, but I have my limits." My investigation into Armando's whereabouts hasn't yielded any results in the last six months. I've tracked him to different places in the US but, whenever I went to look for him, I got nothing. The fact that Carmen had a lead was the best news I've had in a while. "We'll have to play by the rules for a bit. I'm already in hot water with my two elder brothers for how I've been handling things so far." Not to mention Yayoi has crossed paths with me too.

"Alright, we'll sit tight," Tony said as he stood up. "Take care boss, come on Ella." Ella followed Tony out of my office leaving Becca and me alone. "I'm guessing your brothers are still hounding you about Beatrix?" I just sighed, electing to let silence answer Becca's question and let myself slump against the desk. "Well that's what you get for acting weird about it," Becca said.

"I don't have anything to say about it," I groaned. "Plus no one has considered if Armando was the reason for her disappearance." Beatrix wasn't my Mother and the two of us never got along. My siblings on the other hand wanted to move hell and earth to find her, but I wasn't too enthusiastic. In truth, I couldn't be. She was Armando's boss, and she told me I could only trust one person with her identity. Given how she controlled Eliza when we last met, there was no telling who else she had under her spell. "Look, whatever your reasons, you could at least be nicer about it," said Becca as she took her glass. "Or even at least offer your help."

"Technically I am helping," Is what I wanted to say. But I opted for, "I've been keeping my ears open during my investigation into Armando. Not a word of her being around has reached my ear."

"If you say so bro," Becca said as she stood from the couch. "Alright, I'm going to go snuggle up with your sister. I'm sure you'll be aware of that."

"Piss off already," I chuckled, then let Becca go. As she left I started thinking back to that night. How Beatrix manipulated everything behind the scenes. Looking for her now I'd more than likely lose more than I gained. For my siblings that was their Mother. The woman who raised them.