This here is when stuff starts changing. If I recall somebody mentioned in a review this chapter wasn't really needed. So I'll be whacking some parts and merging others from chapter 4. From here on out, changes start happening from the original Legacy of Salem.

Enjoy.

"Where the hell is the section on sixteenth century history in North America?" Jake questioned under his breath as he perused the bookshelves of The Library. This place was huge!

The cowboy turned a corner just in time to collide with a certain Australian thief.

"Bloody hell man!" Ezekiel Jones groaned out as he got back to his feet, dusting himself off in the process. "In a hurry much?"

Jake had managed to catch himself before he hit the floor but Jones was moving so fast that the impact had quite a bit of force behind it. "You're one to talk Jones."

It was right at that moment that Cassandra came around a different bookshelf carrying a stack of books in her arms. "Oh, hey guys. What brought you here?"

Jake was about to answer when he saw the books she was carrying. They were the exact ones he was here searching for.

"Got a possible case about witches." Jones replied first. "I was looking for anything having to do with witches but keep getting turned around."

"Witches? Really?" Cassandra sounded a bit skeptical.

"Well, my book brought up Salem but hey, if it's not witches I'm a monkey's uncle." Jones shrugged.

Jake stilled for a moment before quickly getting out his small clippings book. "Jones, this the entry you got?" Jake held the book out for the thief to read.

Jones eyes scanned the page for a few moments before he froze. In an instant he had his own book out for Jake to read.

The two articles in the books were the exact same.

Both men turned as one to Cassandra. During their exchange, she'd also gotten her own out for them to see.

All three books were the same.

"That's... not possible, isn't it?" Cassandra whispered quietly. "Flynn told us these books all get different entries."

A tense silence fell over the three. If the same entry appeared in all three books when it wasn't supposed to do that...

Jake had a lot more warning flags going up now.

The three librarians decided, without actually saying it, they would be tackling this case together. Jake was all too happy to agree to that. Whatever was causing this was likely extremely dangerous. If they were teaming up, he could keep a much better eye of Jones and especially Cassandra.

"Anyone else totally weirded out by this whole deal?" Jones suddenly dropped his book with a loud thud. Cassandra had been so engrossed in her research that she practically jumped two feet in the air.

"Yeah, somethin's not right." Jake was almost completely unaffected by Jones' outburst.

"How the hell does the freaking magical and ancient library not have info on something?" Jones continued his rant. "That's crazy, even by our standards."

"From what I can tell," Cassandra began. "There was definitely some event in Salem during the late 1600's. But there are no actual records of what happened. All the accounts are secondhand and speculation."

"So, whatever happened no one wrote about it?" Jones looked over at the redhead.

"Either that or the records were destroyed." Cassandra answered with a shrug. "Nothing here is going to tell us anything."

"Whoa, maybe this might mean something." Jake pulled to the center of the table a map of the Ley Lines. He'd gotten a bad feeling all along that was only growing stronger, so he decided to check something out just in case.

Sometimes, Jake really hated being right.

"There's a huge Ley Line going right through Salem." Jones whistled softly.

Jake was liking this case less and less. Something bad was going on and they had zero information to go on. As Baird would say they were facing "a hidden enemy with zero intel".

Speaking of Baird...

"What about Flynn? Maybe he'll know something." Jones beat Jake to the punch.

That would be a good idea, perhaps Flynn could have at least a bit more they could add to their measly pile of information. He could have easily heard something in all his travels.

It was Cassandra that crushed that particular idea to dust.

"I have no idea where he is. I haven't been able to reach him for a few days and Baird is off on a personal errand." Cassandra spoke completely casually. "And Jenkins is busy working on something too."

Jake and Jones could only stare at her with raised eyebrows.

"What? I like to keep them updated how I'm doing." Cassandra blushed slightly.

Jake grinned slightly. It was common knowledge how close their resident mathematics expert was to their mentor. Jake was just glad the redhead finally found a father figure worth a damn. She certainly deserved that much.

Jake hoped he never got a chance to meet her real parents. He might not be able to resist the temptation to punch her dad's lights out.

"I don't think we're getting much more out of this guys." Jones picked up another book for a moment before setting it back down.

Jake sighed. As much as Jake hated to admit it, their fellow librarian was right. There wasn't anything else they could get out of the library. Nothing of any use at any rate.

Great, so that meant they were going to have to go in, against a possible threat that sucks blood from its victims, with no information. Wait... sucks blood...

Vampires maybe? Flynn did say they were real.

Jake groaned as he let his head drop to the table. That was another unpleasant possibility to add to the ever-growing pile.

Jones clapped his hands together. "So, mystery trip to Salem? I'll fire up the back door."

If they did the math right, which meant they of course did thanks to Cassandra, they had to wait a bit so that they would get to Salem late morning. It certainly was better than arriving in the middle of the night. One common factor was the victims being attacked in the dark.

Jake had ran back to his apartment for a heavier coat, he assumed the other two would do something similar.

When Jake arrived at the Annex, he had to stifle a laugh.

Cassandra had opted for one of her normal short dresses and tights again. Except this time she chose a plain deep purple former and black latter. If she had a pointed hat and maybe black lipstick or fingernail polish, she would look just like a Halloween witch.

Unfortunately, Jake could not contain his laughter for very long.

"What?" Cassandra glanced down seeming to realize what was drawing Jake attention. "Oh... I didn't realize. Maybe I should run home and change again..."

"No no, you look great darlin'." Jake smiled to reassure her. A gesture the redhead immediately reciprocated with a bit of a blush and a soft-spoken thanks.

If Jake was completely honest with himself, which he would only be within the safety of his own mind, Cassandra looked way better than just great. She always looked gorgeous no matter what she wore.

Jake instantly hit the brakes on that train of thought before his imagination got carried away in how good the redhead looked in short skirts and...

"Damn it!" Jake mumbled under his breath a bit louder than he intended.

The look he got from Cassandra told him that she heard what he said and was about to comment on it any second. Jake's salvation came in the form of, of all things, Ezekiel Jones walking into the room.

"Ready to go Jones?" Jake said suddenly as he did his best to ignore the looks of Cassandra while he set the coordinates on the globe.

"Yup," was Jones' only response while he took up a position beside the door with Cassandra. The woman's eyes were not on him, but Jake could tell she wanted to say something.

Jake pushed it out of his mind while the trio stepped through the doorway.

They timed their arrival about right, it was late morning in Salem. Certainly, better than showing up in the middle of the night.

First order of business was to figure out where to start their investigation.

The librarians would split up to cover more ground. Jake would search around some of the local museums and see if there were any urban legends that matched their mysterious attacker. Ezekiel was going to check out the sites of the attacks for any other clues then ask around town for anything strange happening recently. Once the three were done they would meet back up at the Annex to compare notes.

It was a unanimous decision for Cassandra to try and talk to some of the families of the people who were attacked. They couldn't just go up to them and ask "hello sir or madam but can you tell me about your loved one who recently died?". The redhead felt like that would not go over very well. She had a more... approachable personality than Jake or Ezekiel.

Jake was more than a little hesitant for any of them to split up. From what they were able to tell, the people were only ever attacked at night. Never in broad daylight. They should be safe until sundown at least.

Cassandra couldn't contain her smile. Jake was always so protective over each of them. It reminded her of when they encountered the Libris Fabula. He became The Huntsman while she became Prince Charming, in her opinion it should have been the other way around. Jake was the one always looking out for and protecting everyone.

Especially her, but at the same time he did not treat her like a glass doll ready to break any moment. She was a valued member and partner of their group. She hated being made to feel useless, that was what everyone did before she joined the Library.

Now who to start with?

The redhead was oblivious to the man in the long black coat watching her.

Talking to people the victims knew had been useless.

Cassandra came to them under the pretenses of doing research on the history of the town, a half truth actually. When they got upset, the redhead would ask what was wrong and offer to listen. It worked surprisingly well.

Unfortunately, the only thing she learned was that all three victims were unrelated. None knew each other, they were different kinds of people, worked and lived in different places in town. The only thing in common was that they were all fairly young and healthy.

Their killer was definitely taking measures to not establish a pattern, or maybe there wasn't a pattern to establish. Targeting random people would make it harder to predict, harder to catch.

"Ugh..." Cassandra groaned under her breath as she massaged her temples. Another headache was coming on. At least she hadn't had any episodes yet today.

As if fate had to dash her hopes, she was swept up in a sudden wave of dizziness. The redhead would have fallen if she hadn't put a hand up on a nearby wall to steady herself.

It was to both her misfortune, and good fortune, that no one on the street seemed to notice. The whole thing was embarrassing. She wished Jake was here to steady her like he always was.

But he wasn't, she was by herself. Cassandra could only rely on herself right now, no matter how bad she wished a certain man was there.

Just when she thought it had passed, Cassandra's legs suddenly buckled from beneath her. She was about to fall on her face when a strong arm wrapped around her waist and caught her.

At first Cassandra thought it was Jake having caught up to her, but the voice told her otherwise. "Easy there miss."

The stranger did not hold her for long. The world soon stopped spinning and he let go the instant it did.

Cassandra turned to thank the man but her voice caught when she saw him. He was fairly tall, perhaps a bit above six foot. A long black leather coat covered most of his body from view but two things in particular caught her attention.

The first was the strange marks on his neck. They appeared to be scars but were in some kind of pattern that seemed to go further down his body beneath his clothes. The second thing is what really caught her gaze.

His eyes.

The iris of both were silver, like polished jewelry. To the best of Cassandra's scientific knowledge, such a thing wasn't just rare, it didn't exist. Then again, she lived in a world of magic and wonder. Silver eyes really shouldn't be that much a surprise.

Something that set off alarm bells within Cassandra's brain. Silver eyes probably meant magic, much like their killer.

The man's chuckle is what snapped her brain back into focus. "Silver eyes are not a regular occurrence around here. Good to know."

Cassandra blushed, and tried not to sound as terrified as she felt. "Sorry for starring, they're just so..."

"Unique." The stranger finished before she could get the last word out.

"Yeah, anyway thanks for the help. I really need to go meet up with my friends." Cassandra spoke quickly as she backed away from the silver-eyed man.

He gave Cassandra a small smile along with a small bow. "It was no trouble, you should hurry home miss. These streets are not safe after nightfall." There was something in the way he said that. Like he knew something, but was trying to say it without spelling it out.

The redhead acknowledged the words with a nod but was in such a hurry to leave, she'd forgotten something.

"I didn't get your name..." Cassandra's words trailed off when she turned back and saw the man nowhere in sight. Oh, not good, she just had a suspect and forget to ask his name!

At least she could remember what he looked like, Cassandra would have to tell Jake and Ezekiel about him later.

Jake was extremely annoyed.

This whole town was witch this and witch that. Granted it was a genius way of bringing in tourists and travelers by playing on urban legend and history, but come on!

He had done a quick go over of the exhibits. While doing so, he asked for any local interesting local history. They were quick to regale him with fanciful tales of guess what? Witches. Jake instantly knew most of them were total bull within moments. These people were used to dealing with and entertaining tourists.

Jake sighed to himself. At least he learned one potentially good thing. There was an abandoned house outside town. Local legend said that it was the home of a witch back in the late 1600's. Most people avoided it, some teens would occasionally go inside on a dare but no one could ever get past the first room. Not even the bravest jock or thrill seeker could do it and that was during the towns entire recent history.

Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly close to town. They'd have to rent a car to get most of the way there and hike the rest.

It was a lead, albeit a poor one but worth checking out at the very least. Maybe Jones or Cassandra were having better luck.

As Jake left the current museum, he was oblivious to the man in the long black coat.

Jake made his way back to the Annex in a brisk walk. The sun was starting to set, night was open season for whatever the hell this thing was.

As hard as he tried to avoid it, his thoughts continually drifted to a certain woman with flame colored curls. Jake hoped she was already back at the Annex safe and sound. He knew that she could handle herself for the most part but her visions sometimes got the better of her.

She had been getting better at drawing herself out of them. Eventually she would not need Jake at all to help pull herself free. He found the thought more upsetting than he would have thought.

Jake was about to turn the corner leading to the alley that held the Annex door when he heard it.

A scream. Jake instantly broke into a dead sprint, knowing the voice's owner.

Cassandra.

Finally! I can start implementing changes that I wanted to do. Review please and let me know how I'm doing. And to those interested I currently have at least three chapters planned out for Library of Wonders. But suggestions are always welcome.