This court ordered sobriety program she had been forced into wasn't all it was cracked up to be as far as Jezzy was concerned and right now she really needed something to get her mind off the fact that she hadn't had a drink in thirty days. So, she had packed up her lap top and hopped on the bus, as her license had been suspended, and headed down to the bookstore. She had picked up a cup of espresso at the coffee counter and paid the modest Internet fee before setting up her laptop on one of the several tables and powering it on. Her editor had asked her to take a sabbatical for a few months but that didn't mean she had to listen to him – he wasn't her boss. She was freelance and that meant that she was the one who decided when she ought to take a vacation. The doctor had surmised that the fact that she never took a vacation may be why she drank so much – the observation was of course wrong.

As soon as the machine was on she clicked on the shortcut to her wi-fi card and then on the connection at A Novel Idea. She entered in the code she had been given and clicked 'connect' then waited until a window popped up telling her the connection was successful. That done she minimized it and double clicked on the Firefox icon. Today was surfing day for her. Sometimes, if they weren't convinced that the Internet was an evil entity sent by the devil to destroy the world and if they learned how to do it killers would post information on their exploits on line. It was a way that they could brag about what they had done without fear of being caught – or so they thought. Moving her cursor up to the search bar she typed in the word Murder and thousands of result came up. Fortunately the newer results came first so she was able to quickly scan through and find one that looked promising. It was called 'I Killer' and was touted in the description as I video and picture blog.

As it pulled up she saw before her a page full of flash windows and a link listed as 'Picture boards'. Not wanting to disturb the other patrons she plugged her earphones in the computer and put them on before, with a mixture of fear, excitement and expectation she hit the play button on the first flash video and was greeted with a face entirely covered with a black mesh like material – so much for identifying the freak from site.

“Hello, my name is Ishmael” proclaimed the video, it probably wasn't his real name but she jotted it down on a piece of paper anyway, ”I'm two hundred and fourty seven years old and I've been killing humans for two hundred and thirty two years. My first kill was at fifteen when my pack mate brought his human bitch to see the caverns where my family lived. I still remember how warm her blood felt all over my hands and how sweat her fear smelled as the life slowly faded from her.”[i] Okay so the man was obviously insane. He thought he was a werewolf and seemed to be using that as an excuse for the things that he had done. [i]”of course they kicked me out then, said I was a monster and sent hunters after me. After all that I had done for them. I had saved the pack from being invaded by a human and they were all fools for thinking that just because she'd fucked him a few times she was going to be his life mate and let him change her. They betrayed me so I paid them back by killing the alpha's sister.” Either the man had a very good imagination or he had just confessed to two murders and most likely they were recent rather than two hundred thirty two years ago.

Not wanting to hear another word out of the bastards mouth she stopped the video player and clicked on the pictures link. Here she found a list of fairytale princesses – The Bog King's Daughter, Tumbelina, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Beauty, Rose Red. The Rose Red link caught her eye and she clicked on it. What came up on the screen next shocked her. There was no mistake who the girl in those pictures was – bound helpless and being shown tortured as she suffered through her last few days and moments of life. It sickened and infuriated her to see her sister being treated like that and with an enraged scream she slammed the laptop shut. All those years of training and searching to find the monster who had taken Darcee from her and all she could think of was grinding her spiked heels through his cock – but she had to get her hands on him before she could even do that. Of course she wouldn't because the families of the other girls he'd killed deserved justice too.

In the days following Harumi’s tampering with the audio file that Julian gave her, she had been agitated and unable to focus. She hadn’t heard it used in the Metro at all, and any inquiries she made to those around him were met with silence. Or threats of violence if she continued to pry into her Master’s business. It annoyed her that some of the Humans that worked at the Club seemed to think themselves better than her. Didn’t they care about Julian as well? Didn’t they worry about just what he was getting involved with? Harumi was tired of the same old response from them; that Julian was their Master and he knew what he was doing and if she were smart, which supposedly she was a genius, then she would butt her ass out of his affairs and go offer up her neck like a good little girl.

Scowling, Harumi stared at the tea in her hands and the unread technology magazine on her small table. Would it kill people to be just a little bit more helpful? It wasn’t like she was planning on getting in between Julian and whatever scheme he had going on. Harumi’s scowl slipped a bit in that moment. The truth was, she would if she thought he was putting himself in danger. That was what was so frustrating about this entire thing. She just had this feeling that he was getting involved in something that wasn’t going to end well and that scared her. She’d trade all her gadgets and skills, even turn herself in to the Feds, if it meant that he would be safe. The problem was, she just didn’t know and no one was telling her anything.

With tension mounting, the sudden outburst from the woman near her caused Harumi to jump and spill her tea all over the magazine. Swearing softly, Harumi tried to mop up the mess as best she could and watched as the woman slammed her laptop shut. She simply blinked dark eyes at the woman’s action, a little O of surprise seen. Most people didn’t slam expensive technology around like that unless something truly unexpected happened. Harumi felt badly for the laptop, who seemed to take the brunt of the woman’s ire.

“I don’t mean to intrude,” she said, containing the spill as best she could, “But you really shouldn’t do that.” Harumi gestured with long fingers to the laptop. “Slam it, I mean. The connection between the screen and base is delicate. And really, unless you have a system designed for, say, the rigors of warfare, the system itself is probably not going to benefit from the abuse.” Harumi tried to smile a bit to soften the fact that she had just stepped into the woman’s personal zone of a tirade. “If it’s glitchy, I can take a look at it. I sort of have a knack for them.”