As far a Pietro was concerned his son was making good progress. Al had always been a troublesome child to deal with and soon he wouldn't be around to disturb his peaceful life any longer.

  His son's infatuation with the witch was quite strange in his mind. Al had never shown an interest in romantic pursuits during his seventeen years of life, so why had the switch flipped now of all times?

  Through the shadows he could listen in on their every conversation, but their private conversations only left him with more questions than answers. Something Jane had done had changed Al on a deeper level, yet what she had actually done to his son still eluded him.

  There were signs of some kind of spiritual alteration akin to a familiar bond, which shouldn't have been possible. That ritual only worked on spirits and even then it required both parties to consent. If the girl had figured out how to place other humans under the bond it would have all sorts of long term implications that he didn't want to think about. It was too much of a headache really.

  He leaned back in the armchair and let out a long drawn out sigh as dawn broke on the horizon. The mundane life he had created for himself was falling apart quicker than he would have liked. He had made peace with the fact he would outlive his wife, but there were some things he had hoped to avoid.

  Al had always shown signs that he would emerge one day, so his recent emergence had been entirely predictable. What worried him was that Jennifer and her friend were showing those signs as well. Annie showing those signs was expected since severe emotional trauma was usually what ended up lighting the match, but the unconscious magical phenomena surrounding Jennifer concerned him.

  People who were likely to emerge would often drawn to each other like flies to shit, and children of the emerged were far more likely to emerge than others. Nonhumans always emerged without fail in early childhood, but humans were a different story. It was far more difficult to predict if a human would emerge or not unless there was some sort of outside intervention.

  Jennifer's early signs had been as standard as they could be when it came to young girls. The struggling power within her was unconsciously changing her body to better fit the appearance that she desired for herself. It was something all emerged did and was the source of their longevity, but it still concerned him.

  While Jennifer had gotten most of her personality from her mother, there were still some traits she shared with himself and her brother. She was obsessive and jealous by nature, which was clearly steering her growing power in an insidious direction. She wouldn't become a warlock like him or Al, but she would be no less troublesome to deal with.

  "Dad, can we talk?" Jennifer asked him quietly as she stepped into the living room.

  He hadn't even noticed her sneaking up on him. The electric tingling sensation on his skin told him that she was on the threshold. Knowing she would emerge within the coming years or even months if he was unlucky filled him with a muted sorrow, but she was his daughter and he would love her all the same.

  "Yet we never felt that way about, Al, now did we?" the serpent shadow hissed from underneath the chair.

  His struggling relationship with his son had been unfortunate. Al had been three years old when he first showed signs of being of the same nature as himself. It had made it excruciatingly difficult to love him despite the fact he was his son. Jennifer had thankfully taken after her mother in most ways other than the physical.

  Al had been born a monster like himself. Pets had been a no go because there had always been a chance they would end up being victimized by him. They were both been to violence by nature, which made it incredibly difficult to cover for his child considering how impulsive the little psycho had been.

  The list of kids that had ended up hospitalized because of him was many pages long and he had always had to cover for him with both ordinary manipulation as well as magic. The one thing Al had gotten from his mother other than the prodigious height was her protective nature. The kid would blindly hunt down those that hurt his loved ones, but like himself Al had been unable to express his feelings for the people he did care about outside of punishing those that harmed them.

  "Dad, you're being really quiet..."

  "Sorry, I was lost in thought," he said with a deep sigh.

  Jennifer moved closer and then sat down on his lap and leaned her head against his chest. He gently stroked her hair as he studied the power unconsciously flowing through her. It was something insidious and dark, but far less so than his own or Al's. Her magic would surely end up as something far kinder than his own if he gave her the right guidance during the coming years.

  "I've been hearing things," she said shakily as he put an arm around her.

  Her emergence was closer than he had hoped. By the time someone started hearing whispers from the soul it meant emerging was inevitable. The soul suppression was on the verge of failing and it wouldn't reassert itself because of simple rejection. The mundane life would end soon, and his inability to prevent it was tearing him apart.

  "You're not crazy, Jen, you're just going through something I once did," he stammered.

  It was so unbearably painful, but he had to accept it. An ordinary life had been no more than a delusion and now he had to do what he could to accept that fact. He couldn't make the same mistake that he had with Al by trying to prevent it. That had been his greatest mistake.

  "Your mother won't wake up for quite a while so there's plenty of time for me to explain it all."

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  The easiest way to help someone during the emergence was to show them that they weren't going crazy. Al had most likely experienced a psychotic break during his own emergence since Jane would have most likely let the later stages play out on their own, but he wouldn't do something that cruel to his own daughter.

  "Jen, you're going through something that both me and your big brother once did and I'm going to need you to trust me when I say you're not crazy."

  He wouldn't let her slip into the training programs. Separating her from her friends could easily make her just as deranged as himself and Al. She had the benefit of a functioning social life and losing that would make her no different than the two of them in the end. If she and Annie ended up as ordinary magic users they could have something almost as good as a boring normal life.

  "Al went through this too?" she said on the verge of tears.

  "Yes, and if my assumptions are correct it probably drove him up the wall."

  "Is it something hereditary? Are we sick in the head?"

  "No, but I'm going to show you something and I need you to be prepared for it."

  He couldn't show her the magic that came naturally to him. That insidious darkness could end up scarring her beyond repair, so he had to settle for one of the countless other magics he had learned during his long life.

  "Look at this and remember that you're not going crazy," he said as he showed her his open palm.

  "Fiamma."

  A small flame burst into life and hovered lazily above his outstretched hand. He always used his native italian when he invoked his spells. Al was probably using a pidgin mix of latin and english since he had studied the language as an elective at one point. Pietro could only imagine how proud their nonna would have been if she had been alive to see her grandson studying latin.

  "Is that real?" Jennifer asked him cautiously as she stared at the flame dancing in the palm of his hand.

  With a flick of his wrist he made the flame bob up and down for a bit before settling on making it spin around his index finger. Then with one final motion he snuffed it out as he drew his power back. Fire magic was the most easily digestible magic available to him so it had been the natural choice.

  "Neat trick."

  Pietro turned his head as he heard the voice and saw Al leaning against the doorway. He really should have expected that his son's sense for magic would be as acute as his own if not more so. But why hadn't he been able to sense Al approaching the living room?

  "You were using your magic to hide your presence then?" he said as Al seated himself in the couch next to them.

  "I thought I sensed something and came down to check it out," Al muttered as he leaned back in the couch.

  He had most likely primed his combative spells before realizing it had been him that was using magic in the house. His son just leaned his head against the armrest of the couch and stared at the ceiling as Jennifer piped up.

  "Is that what's happening to me? Am I gonna start making fires with my mind and stuff?"

  "Probably not, the first magic you learn how to wield is usually tied to who you are as a person if Jane is to be believed," Al said as he gazed at the ceiling.

  "Jennifer, like your brother you will develop the ability to use the magic that has been taking form inside of you since the day you were born," Pietro said as he went back to stroking her hair.

  Al's magic was a weapon, but if he was lucky Jennifer's would be something less destructive in nature. She would hopefully develop something like his own, and if he was lucky she might even gain something that held some positive aspects.

  "So what can you do then, Al? Because dad can make fire by speaking italian," she chuckled.

  "Absolutely nothing," Al muttered.

  "Really, but dad said you..."

  "He was speaking in jest, Jen, what he means is that his magic is nothingness itself."

  "So if magic is real, then what else is out there?" she asked them.

  "I met a ghoul yesterday, and apparently vampires are a thing too," Al stated matter of factly.

  So he had encountered nonhumans already? He thought it would have taken a bit longer before Al ended up running into one of them, but considering his current activities it wasn't all that surprising that he had encountered one.

  "Vampires? Really?"

  "They're a nasty breed, but they know to stay out of our business," he said calmly.

  If there was something that nonhumans and mage alike could agree on it, then it was the fact that the bloodsuckers were a menace. They were more akin to a parasitic infection or a magical affliction despite their status as a true nonhuman species. All nonhumans were problematic to deal with by nature but the vampires really found a way to get on everyone's nerves. Their constant infighting made them an ever present security risk.

  "So I'm like a wizard or something?"

  Al coughed violently before turning his head to look at Jennifer, "If Jane heard you say that she would have slapped you!"

  "What you are about to become is a magic user, Jennifer, and we don't talk about people that powerful enough to call themselves things like that," he said as he leaned back in the armchair.

  "So are you going to teach me about all this stuff then, dad?"

  "Of course dear, but Al won't be much help to you unfortunately."

  "But isn't he also like us?"

  "It would probably reflect poorly on dad if he let a warlock tutor you..."

  "But you're my brother! Shouldn't you be helping me through this?"

  Pietro sighed deeply. There was no easy way to say it, but it had to be said. Better to rip the bandage off early before she ended up coming to all sorts of strange conclusions.

  "Jennifer, your brother is a criminal and the only reason he can walk freely is because of an old agreement that protects him from punishment."

  "What did he even do?" she asked him cautiously.

  "A lot of things, but very little that I actually regret," Al said morosely as he got out of the couch and headed towards the stairs.

  "I know you look up to him, Jennifer, but he wouldn't want you become like him."

  "But I don't even know what he is or what he has done!" she cried out.

  "If he wanted you to know, he would tell you," he sighed.

  "Does mom know? Is she like us?"

  "No your mother is as ordinary as they come, and I like it that way."

  Jennifer would have to learn with time that this was how life was for people like them. She was fortunate to have such good friends and a loving mother, but she could never handle the world he and Al dwelled in. They dwelled in a dark jungle where any mistake could end up being your last, but she could live in the light like the common ordinaire even if she was emerged like them.

  "Is Al the reason your coworkers started coming to our house?"

  She had picked up on it. He thought she had been focused on her own world, but just like them she picked up on all the things happening around her. It wasn't his place to tell her so there wasn't much he could do really.

  "You'd have to ask him yourself, but I doubt he'd tell you the whole truth."

  Breakfast was approaching and soon the rest would be awake. He hugged Jennifer one last time before he got up. There was still hope she might end up living a normal life, but only time would tell.

  "Remember, we only talk about these things when no one else is around."

  "Okay, dad."

  He walked to the kitchen and quickly turned the stove on. This was certainly the occasion for a lavish breakfast. It would hopefully help keep Jennifer's spirit up if anything. Maybe losing his mundane life wasn't as bad as it seemed. Now there was a very real chance he could prevent the otherwise inevitable turn of events that would take her brother from her.

  Things were changing in his life for the first time in almost two decades, but for once he felt okay with that.