Cutting into the body's abdomen he pulled out the intestines, his face covered with a black faceless mask . His body clad in black robes and hands covered in black gloves he threw the intestines out almost frantically.

"You called?" A familiar female voice spoke up behind him.

Turning his black mask reflected like that of an obsidian mirror. "Ms Regine Marand, I was saddened at the news of your sisters death."

"She brought it upon herself by trusting the order."

He chucked, his voice sounding deep and raspy, almost metallic behind the mask. "Your hate for the Order could almost match my own."

"Cut the crap, what do you want Alchemist?"

He pointed to the organs of the body. "Tell me Ms. Marand, what do you see?"

She walked over to the organs splayed out on the ground before whispering a word. The sound of screams and snarls. A future full of darkness and fear cut short by fire. Pure rage induced fire. Marand could see a wolf, pelt golden and burning like flames, like sunlight. Her eyes burned a frosted blue as she opened her maw and raised her claws. The wolf wore a collar around it's throat embroidered by the silhouette of blue roses and a shield like a howling wolf. She struck down on a dark figure dropping him to the ground, a black rose falling from his hand and covering it in a pool of blood. Marand looked back at the mask seeing the reflection of her own face. "I know what you are afraid of." She stood up spinning her knife in her hands. "You've lived all this time, gathered all this power and for what? For one wolf to bring you down? All that time and energy wasted becoming the best of them and that welp it born with it all and then some."

"I want it taken care of." He turned his head away from Marand and reached a hand out at an approaching figure. Large antlers came up from the darkness, a face like that of deer with flesh tearing fangs jutting out in crooked formations. It's emaciated body was covered in a fine dusted brown pelt with twisted front claws and hooved back legs. It crawled up behind the masked man, almost menacing before halting under his hand and pressing the top of it's skull into his palm. "And my friend will help you. They say to fight monsters with monsters." He brushed his hand down the ancient wendigo's spine making the unearthly creature purr. "Fail me Marand and you suffer and fate far worse than your sisters."

Theo woke up from her nap, eyes opening wide as they flashed over blue before returning back to their newborn grey. Almost instantly the baby broke out crying making Vera sit up on the bed still partially asleep. "It's okay Theo." She turned to the side of the bed looking into the bassinet at the baby and rubbing her chest to settle her down a little. "I'm here." Theo still didn't stop crying prompting Vera to pick the baby up and hold her in her arms. "Did you have a bad dream?" Beside Hamish's side of the bed their lamp turned on, a slight humming coming from the bulb. Well, that was a bit weird. Still holding Theo Vera tried to turn it back off but even tapping the stand didn't make it shut off.

"Alright." Vera reached in through the top to unscrew the bulb figuring maybe the lamp had short circuited but instead she ended up just unscrewing the bulb and leaving it still bright with light. "Well, that's not an electrical malfunction." As soon as Theo finally stopped crying the light in the bulb finally fizzled out going off again. Vera set the bulb down and looked at Theo a little alarmed. "Did you…"

"Vera?" She could hear Hamish calling for her as she looked towards the bedroom door.

"In the bedroom Hamish." She glanced back at Theo who was looking up at her again flailing her arm wildly. "This is going to have to be a very serious discussion Theo. Just hope the Gnostic Council doesn't figure it out first."

Walking into the bedroom Hamish got on the bed with her, "Hello, talking to the baby?" Hamish leaned close to Theo and smiled as she gave him a wide eyed gaze and kicked her legs a little, almost getting him in the chin. "Hey, I am your dad little girl. No trying to hit me. You are far too sweet for that." He smiled, grabbing her feet and making Theo look over at him trying to figure out why she couldn't move them anymore. "Vera, I have great news by the way. Before you kiss me and say I'm the most remarkable man on earth just know I did this a little selfishly for myself because it takes a lot of stress off my shoulders." He gave her a moment to pause and wonder what he was talking about before clarifying. "Alyssa has agreed to give your magic back, tonight in fact."

Her eyes lit up, it had almost been a full year living without them, even if that year was broken up by a large gap of controlling their babies powers but it had never been the same because as Vera said, babies abilities were a bit 'wild'. "She agreed? That easily?"

Hamish shrugged his shoulders with a little smirk. "I think she came around to see the truth about you Vera, you aren't a bad person. You just make bad choices sometimes." Vera shot him a warning glare, even without her powers she could still take him down. Not really but she could try. "I think that calls for a celebration."

"Hamish I still can't have a drink."

"I mean, technically you can have one." Vera shot a look at him that said don't push it. "Well then we could go on a family walk together. Get Theo out of the apartment because let's face it, the kid's got to be getting tired of the same view day in and day out. I think she's old enough that she should be fine right?"

Fine was all perspective though when it came to Vera and her overprotective motherly instincts over their baby. She could be a real mother bear when it came to that baby, even against him if she felt like he was pushing his luck with her by trying to expose her to things too quickly. "Actually I think we could all benefit from a little walk in the park. Just make sure to put a healthy supply of sunblock on Theo and I'll get changed into something better."

Hamish took Theo from Vera and got off the bed to go change her as well since he wanted her to at least go out in public with a cute outfit. "Careful Theo, your mommy is going to go get super hot." He glanced up at Vera as she grabbed a change of clothes and walked out of the room to change in the bathroom. "She'd still got a really great butt too." To be fair Vera had a great number of great things which made her a bit of a bombshell. Putting on a good coat of her baby sunblock Hamish put on her wolf hat to keep her head from getting burned up. She looked pretty cute with the little sleeping wolf cub face on her head, after all that was more or less her right now. Sleepy little werewolf cub.

Once Theo was all changed Hamish picked her back up and looked at Vera coming into the room suddenly no longer looking like a tired mom. For the most part after Theo was born Vera had sort of developed a 'screw it' mentality. She was more than alright with wearing sweatpants and baggy t-shirts or if it was a particularly good day leggings and his shirts which was pretty cute to see but also slightly frustrating when he realized she was wearing the shirt he wanted to wear. Now she came in wearing one of those black dresses he had missed so much and blew his mind by the fact that she'd actually slimmed down quite a bit and was getting her typical 'Vera' figure back. "Whoa." Though to be fair Vera hadn't had a long way to go either.

"What? Should I change?"

"Absolutely not, you look amazing, did you change your hair?" He joked at her.

"No, I've been trying to work out a little between her naps so I can get back to work faster and not have to buy a whole new wardrobe for after summer when university starts up again."

"Damn Vera, you are one very determined woman." Hamish didn't have that kind of strength, actually he'd tried to hide the fact that he'd put on weight during her pregnancy but most of it was him stress eating. Now that he was stress not eating as Temple Magus he could understand why getting Vera to sit down and have a snack was so difficult. "Too bad you aren't allowed in the temple or I'd have a bring you to work day so you could see how cool it is there."

"Absolutely not." Vera corrected him. "I don't want to give her any unfair advantages."

Hamish had to stop her there a moment, he understood where Vera was coming from, down the line in the future she was going to have to run that stupid test to get into the order regardless of her parentage but unfair advantages? "Vera, she's the daughter of the Grand Magus and Temple Magus and oh, yes, she's a werewolf. What other unfair advantages is she going to need to really push the balance of power?" Because she was a wolf alone pretty much guaranteed she was a member of the Order at birth. It was unfortunate considering it was a forced fate and perhaps on some level Vera wanted Theo to make her own choices for the future, even if it didn't involve the Order. Unfortunately for Theo that was the part of life that would be forever impossible. She didn't get a say in that much.

Taking Theo back Vera hugged her tight, "I just...it's dangerous for a baby there anyways." She started walking towards the door where Theo's stroller was. Setting the baby down inside and pulled the cover over so the sunlight wouldn't get in her eyes. "You have to agree with me Hamish that you don't want her to be overwhelmed with everything in the world all at once. I don't want Theo to become some puppet or pawn for the Order and I want her to get to understand what having a normal upbringing can be like. Please don't make her fall in love with magic, let her fall in love with it because then at least when the time comes she gets to be the one to decide if it's what she wants."

That pretty much confirmed his suspicions. Buckling Theo in he looked down at his daughter, she'd never be a puppet of the Order or a pawn, she didn't even have to be a knight if she didn't want to be. As serious as he'd been about killing Jack if he didn't say the oath Hamish wasn't about to harm his only child for turning down that same oath. "Vera, she is magic, she's a miracle. It's apart of her life already but at the same time Jack said werewolves can change their own destiny so think of it this way. No matter what happens to her growing up her destiny will be created by her own hand and nothing and no one can change that."

They walked out onto street level enjoying the warm spring breeze though it hadn't gotten too hot outside yet. Pushing Theo along under the trees he looked down at her wide eyed gaze. It was one thing to hear the birds outside from the apartment when the windows were open but now they were visible flitting between the trees and making his newborn look like she was tripping hard on something. He could almost hear her internal monolog of 'what the hell are those things.' "I just realized." Hamish spoke out loud sounding a bit excited. "Tomorrow is Theo's actual due date." It was hard to remember that Theo was born early when she'd caught up so quickly she just seemed like a normal baby now. "How about it Theo, you excited you are going to be born tomorrow?"

His daughter didn't even respond to his voice, just sat there with wide eyes seeing other people, cars, even a dog walking by as they crossed the street to get to the big park not far from the apartment building. It was funny how everything taken for granted was still so amazing and new for Theo. So much like first becoming a werewolf or the first time learning to practice magic. Hearing a dog bark at the park Theo finally found her tipping point and broke down crying. It had been a big dog too, not something he was too surprised would finally frighten Theo with that big empty hollow sound. Hamish picked her up wondering if there would ever be a point soon where Theo didn't want to be in someone's arms because she was honestly getting a bit heavy. "It's okay Theo, you have a bigger badder dog in you, nothing to be afraid of."

Vera was forever trapped in that constant concern that something would frighten Theo and something would hurt Theo and her worried look wasn't helping. "Vera. Anyone ever tell you how cute you look when you are worried." Nothing broke that face in a heartbeat like saying that and almost as quickly as she put on that look of concern it vanished.

"Hamish…" She was about to get after him but Hamish was good at calming down the situation.

"Sorry, Theo really picks up on you, if you look concerned then she thinks there is a reason to cry." It was pretty evident by the fact Theo wasn't crying now and went right back to the usual gurgly baby sounds she made. "What's up with the worry over her crying anyways?"

Vera looked around a moment looking a bit tense and being certain nothing odd had happened. "It's nothing."

"That look doesn't look like nothing Vera."

She let out a sigh and had to get up on her toes to keep her voice quiet but still be heard since Hamish was a lot taller than her without her heels on. "Theo used magic."

"What?" He was a little loud making Theo whimper again and forcing Vera to calm her down by rubbing her back just in case another cry set her off again. "Vera she can't even try to suck her fingers without punching herself in the face." Okay, he hadn't meant for her to sound that pathetic but she kind of was with that unpredictable motor control. "Maybe it was something else?"

"It's like Fooley said before he died, using words are just a means of bringing our focus into our intentions but really in the end the words don't matter so much as just your pure power of will."

"And how many people untrained can do something like that? I men, just not use words and use the power of their own wills to make...make things happen?"

"To date? Without training? None. With decades upon decades of training and who knows what else a handful of people have been able to use it without the aid of speaking out their intentions."

"So there is no way that it was her, maybe it was you."

"I can't use my powers Hamish." Vera looked around making sure nobody was around to hear her. "And even with them, I can't do that. For some things yes but I'm not that strong." She stopped rubbing Theo's back noticing the baby was actually looking pretty sleepy now. "Hamish, Alejandro said that a baby born from one of your kind was powerful. What if the hide only made it worse? She's a glorified murder spell after all, it's what all you wolves are."

"It could have been a fluke or a hiccup or anything but not her. You are just worried and you don't sleep much. You need a break, how about this weekend I watch her and you go out and do something, go to the spa."

"Salvador Hamish, she was a natural, she was capable of some things that even…" Vera didn't want to argue with him. He'd only say that she'd been well trained and maybe she was overreacting because it was their daughter. She just didn't want to give Alejandro a reason to take her away. "Just, maybe think about it a little. It could be nothing but why risk it?"

"I'll see what Alejandro thinks then, but not mention Theo. I'll ask him about Salvador and what he thinks of that. You aren't the only one who wants to keep her safe Vera. Stop feeling like you have to be in this alone because I'm not running from you or Theo no matter how rough or messy this gets." If he had to fight the world and the Order to keep them both safe then he would do it in a heartbeat. He'd known from the moment Alejandro told them about the children of wolves that nothing would be easy and it hadn't frightened him. He knew what he was willing to sacrifice for Vera and Theo and the price was worth it to him. They were his everything, in the end any price was so small in comparison to them.