This really wasn't how he had wanted to spend Vera's birthday, in the reliquary going over book after book on ancient curses and creatures. From what he could tell about the wendigo it was an ancient wendigo meaning one of the first few to bare the curse. Like a king or a queen someone could become a wendigo simply by consuming human flesh in the place it claimed as it's territory. They were so rare now they were thought to be extinct, killed off eons ago before America was even settled but clearly one had escaped. It seemed these days creatures from past eradications were cropping up more and more. The information of killing them required a long and lengthy ritual, trapping the creature and having a group of practitioners or coven banish it and releasing the original human soul trapped within the beast. At least they had the how to defeat it, now they needed the actual plan set in motion.
"How is your research going?" Vera walked into the room dropping a few more books on the desk.
"Fruitful, there is nothing that can kill this thing but the good news is we can do this banishing ritual and poof, gone." He pointed to the page as Vera took the book and read it over.
"Well, it's a start."
"What about you? Find out anything about this mystery man of yours?"
Vera stacked the books along the desk, each one flipped to a different page. "Yes actually, nobody knows his original name but the Alchemist has been talked about since the 1500's. He was a powerful practitioner, said to have created a stone that gave him immortality but aside from brief interactions or a story from a friend of a friend it's assumed he's just a myth."
"Some myth, he was pretty real to me."
Vera flipped over another book. "Another reference to the Alchemist is from France saying he was attached to the mysterious disappearance of young women during the 1700's and later." She set down an old newspaper. "1888, London England a strange 'faceless' man was seen about the streets, the same time women were being murder brutally on the streets. Organs removed. If information is to be believed he's a necromancer, a powerful one and an alchemist as his name suggests."
"You don't think it's the same guy do you?"
"I don't honestly know Hamish, magic can do a lot of things but preserve someone this long? The price on something like that is...astronomical. He'd have to have used the fors factoram and if he had he'd be long dead, either that or be bound to the vade maecom which we both know he's not. However this stone, the philosophers stone is mentioned multiple times and it was supposedly create by a man named Nicholas Flamel, French born in 1330. We do know the stone exists but it's not been seen since its creation and the only thing that is known about it is it's one of the most dangerous magical artifacts around and has never been recreated."
"You think the philosophers stone and that immortality stone are the same?"
"Maybe." Vera pulled out a scroll. "And, I found this." She pointed out the symbol, a black rose surrounded by runes, the same one that had been in her arm. "This was the thing he had on his arm and it's on mine too but hidden like a blood pact though it's not one."
"What is it?"
"It's a marker, for elitists that follow three prominently famous bloodlines of some of the most powerful practitioners in history. Long before there was a Hermedit Order of the Blue Rose there was the Obsidian Trinity. Nobody knows who the three founding families are but it originated in surprise surprise, France, they latter called themselves the Obsidian Rose and most were killed off during the French revolution because they were your typical monarchy and wealthy."
"So you and our daughter are magical elitists?" He looked her over with a little smirk. "And I am not surprised somehow. At least eh good news is that it's not one of those blood oaths."
"Hahaha, this is not good news actually. It seems the rest of the world, orders, practitioners really hate us." She paused a moment. "Them."
"Why?"
"Because they were elitist assholes who caused mass genocides towards anyone they felt wasn't worthy of being a practitioner which really meant everyone who wasn't them."
"Well." Hamish looked at her. "You always have had a bit of a mean streak in you Vera." She pushed the books and scroll away sitting down in her seat and leaning back in her chair. She just wanted one school year where nothing eventful happened. "How about." Hamish sat down on the desk and reached down resting a hand on her knee. "We go home, get a little rest since we have been at this since Halloween and go out and have a nice dinner for your birthday because you do realize it's your birthday today right?"
Vera looked up at him a little shocked that it was. "Oh, that's today?"
"Yes Vera, today you turn thirty…" He paused a moment seeing her glare at him a little. "A number of years that isn't entirely specific." He grabbed both her hands and pulled her out of her chair. "And you don't need to be sulky again this year for your birthday because once again it's nothing but stress around this time of year." Last year had really sucked for them both and actually this time last year Hamish felt like they were discussing murdering their daughter. After that was tossed to the wayside then the year started to look up. "I think you could use a nice romantic dinner for two." He leaned in to kiss her only for Vera to stop him.
"Three." She stated being very firm about it. "After Halloween I don't want to leave Theo alone with anyone but one of us."
He paused a moment looking at Vera and raising a brow. "Uhh, well, where is Theo right now?" She had to be home with someone. Vera turned partially motioning towards the vault. "Vera, you brought our baby into the temple, no, into the vault in the temple." She always got huffy at him whenever he suggested he bring Theo even just for a little while because lord only knows what a baby werewolf's energy would do to the place or if she got snot or drool on the altar or just became a distraction to the disciples.
"Well, she's sleeping first of all."
"She could still wake up and get herself hurt." Hamish had a concerned tone to his voice as he looked over her shoulder towards the secret passage. He was so precious, was he always going to have that look on his face when he worried about her? Some day Theo wouldn't appreciate it but it certainly gave Vera butterflies. Hamish walked past her heading for the vault, rolling her eyes she went after him trying to tell him to be quiet when he walked in there so he didn't wake her up. He flicked his wrist hearing the doors creak open as he stepped inside.
"Shhhh, sush." Vera kept her voice down and walked up behind him. "Don't wake her up, she's having a hard enough day already let her nap." Theo was tucked away next to the table where Vera had been racing through the archives. Laying in her carseat Theo sat there with eyes half closed like they were when she was passed out and in a deep sleep. At one point her thumb had probably been in her mouth but now it was partially hanging out more so touching her lips while her tongue stuck out of her mouth.
"You didn't put a sleeping spell on her did you?" Man she was out so cold right now he almost worried she was dead. Vera smacked him in the chest making him double over a little and put a hand over where her ring had gotten him. "Ouch, I was joking." Theo startled awake hearing the commotion and looked around with those big blue alarmed eyes. It took a second of her huffing and furrowing her brow blinking her eyes a few times before she decided waking up from her nice nap sucked enough it was worth crying over. "Sorry." It was hard having a teething baby, she was constantly angry, and Theo wasn't in a great mood either.
Hamish rushed forward sliding over the table and past Vera so he could fix the mistake, after all it was Vera's birthday. Unbuckling Theo he picked her up looking at the sad crying little mess with her trembling jaw like she was freezing. It was just Theo being loud and dramatic, kind of like her mother, she was a bit of a drama queen. Right now Theo was just having another full blown crisis, the worst moment of her short life since six hours ago the last time she'd melted down because Vera had to go to the bathroom that morning and shut the door and Theo screamed because she couldn't go with. Or yesterday when she'd screamed because Hamish took away Maddox's comic book she was trying to course Hamish had finally found a secret weapon against her now. As she continued to scream he put a hand over her mouth and moved it quickly over her lips distorting the sound of her voice like the old school childish Indian calls.
For a moment Theo stopped crying looking at Hamish like he'd just done the most amazing magic trick in the history of humanity. Once the novelty wore off however Theo went right back to crying and Hamish went right back to tapping his hand quickly against her lips and making the funny sounds again. Theo stopped this time working those gears in her little head before she started crying again but this time it didn't sound like a real cry, rather a fake cry to get him to do it again. After this round Theo slapped her own hand against her mouth trying to recreate what he had done and throwing her head back to scream when it didn't sound the same as his version. Hamish tapped her lips again making Theo laugh and scream at him putting her own hand over her lips. "It's freaky how smart you are." So maybe she hadn't figured out how to crawl yet but Theo was brilliant. She picked everything up quickly, too quickly. Without warning Theo slapped him in the face trying to make him do the sound too but he was broken.
Vera put a hand over her mouth trying to hide a little snicker at seeing Theo straight up nearly slap him with all her might so he could do the funny voice. "Theo, I think it would be in our best interest to take your mommy out for lunch for her birthday, don't you agree?" Theo looked at Hamish not really certain what was going on but as soon as he started nodding his head yes Theo copied him. "See Vera, it's two against one and you can't say no to that face."
"It's really unfair when you use our daughter against me like that." Vera crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. "Because you I can say no to very easily." When Theo smiled Vera couldn't help but smile back at her. "But I can't say no to you can I."
"Theo, is this why you are such a monster? Because she doesn't know how to say no to you?" Hamish laughed a little, he wasn't going to say she was spoiled thanks to Vera but she was spoiled thanks to Vera, and he helped a lot with that too. "I know where I am taking you." He snapped his fingers. "The place we had our first date."
"Ummm, refresh my memory because I don't remember going on any dates with you before…" She looked at Theo.
"Vera, that is not true I took you out on a real date that wasn't your house or my apartment." Those were not really dates, it was more come to my place to drink and have sex. "That little Indian place, remember? You really didn't eat anything though because you got sick and passed out on the ride home."
"Oh yes, I remember that now." More so she remembered a short conversation with Hamish and then running to the bathroom because all the thousands of smells had gotten overwhelming. She also recalled being sick as hell in the morning and kicking Hamish out of her house so she could peacefully take a short rest and then go take a pregnancy test which surprise surprise had come back very positive. Vera walked up to Hamish and Theo grabbing Theo's shirt and giving it a little tug "You ruined that dinner date too, care to try two years in a row?" She kissed Theo on the check thinking about how quickly time had gone by.
"Are you going to eat some Indian food too?" He smirked, it had been exciting showing Theo a bunch of foods though she mostly liked her fruits and said to hell with veggies. If he had to have all his food turned into a smoothie he wouldn't want to eat vegetables either.
"I'm actually feeling more like sushi." she shrugged her shoulders at him. "And we haven't gone out for sushi since…"
"Since last week." Hamish raised a brow. "Alright, it's your birthday." He bounced Theo in his arms a little. "Sorry, you can't have sushi. First off you are too little and second off we haven't gotten the shellfish allergy testing done yet." At least she didn't have any nut allergies which helped Vera sleep a lot at night now. Also Theo loved peanut butter like it was baby meth. She'd eat a jar alone and make funny faces from her tongue clicking in her mouth trying to make the stickiness go away. It was like watching a dog eat peanut butter, only a judgmental dog who could look at you like 'help, my mouth is broken'.
"We still have a wendigo and a strange clocked man to find though Hamish." Vera reminded him, it was hard for her to not throw everything into hunting and tracking down her enemies or threats and for damn good reason.
"Vera, a few hours for your birthday won't end the world."
"I don't know, I went to a spa once for a me day."
"And what happened?"
"You and your friends turned Kyle into a werewolf and Ms Dupres killed him."
"Oh, well." Hamish was quiet for a moment. "I'll update Jack and Randal on the situation and what we have found out and I'll get them on wendigo tracking duty." He smirked at her. "It's good to be Temple Magus sometimes you know, be the one giving the orders." He looked her up and down a moment. "Now Grand Magus if you would be so kind, sushi?" He offered her his arm and a wink still holding Theo with his free arm.
Vera pointed back to the table then, "Car Seat."
"Oh, yeah." They wouldn't get far without the infant werewolf restrains.