You have known me by many names, but the one that you would be most familiar with is Dracula. However, before that, I was known as Vlad, the Impaler. What you hold now in your hands is my story, the beginning of a tale that spans countless lives and countless souls. It is a tale that is not so much a tale, but instead the complete and utter truth, if truth is what you seek, which I know that it is. That is why out of the mass of hundreds, it was you who picked this book from the shelves.

Do not be alarmed or think it strange that I know of this, for that is irrelevant to the...