21
Tonks felt a vein twitch in her brow as she glanced down at baby Teddy in her arms and craned her neck up to look at Remus.
Sirius and Renee were back at Headquarters for now with Professor Dumbledore, giving the man an update on what they had witnessed, at least knowing the Morning Killer's name and face now would surely alert the Aurors and putting the Ministry one step closer to getting Everett off the streets and behind jail bars.
Her gaze was stricken with horror as she tilted her chin to meet her husband's eyes, but nevertheless held intense resolve.
"I—I can't believe it," Tonks croaked hoarsely, collapsing into the rocking chair that nestled in the living room of their small cottage.
Tonks blearily lifted her chin and gazed around their simple but homely environment, feeling a sense of relief at being home, a place she wasn't sure if she would see again, wash over her, though quickly intermingled with it was a sense of unease.
The fact that Moody, who relatively unscathed, though visibly shaken, had paid the pair of them a visit less than an hour ago to inform them he had failed to apprehend their target and the Morning Killer was once again at large, was cause for concern, and the man seemed hellbent on finding Renee.
"That we know who he is and what he wants, sweetheart?" Remus finished his wife's thought for her, waving his wand, and conjuring up a second chair as he pulled it closer to join his wife and newborn son and sit with them.
Tonks nodded, feeling a lump gathering in her throat. "What about Renee, Remus?" she asked, glancing at Lupin out of the corner of her eye, though she quickly became distracted as baby Teddy started cooing, squirming in his swaddling for attention. "She—she's in danger," she moaned. "It's my fault."
Remus looked at his wife with compassion and shook his head. "Sirius and Professor Dumbledore will ensure Miss Barreau's safety, Dora, and we'll do what we can, of course…"
Though as he lifted his chin and met Tonks's gaze, his pained face revealed the realization of what had very nearly happened to the woman that he loved. His wife could have been killed by that man.
Lupin felt a lump in his throat start to form, and he did not bother to try to hide the fearful tears that brimmed at the edges of his lids as he looked at his wife.
"He could have killed you…" Lupin started to say.
"And you would surely have been if we would have stayed," Tonks answered immediately without any hesitation her part, though she sounded equally frightened by how close they had come to orphaning poor baby Teddy if Remus had not Disapparated with them when he had, getting a good look at the Morning Killer's piercing eyes of listless green, fathomless, emotionless pits.
Tonks reached over, shifting Teddy in her arms and allowing the baby's head to nestle in the crook of her elbow, so that her free hand to clutch tightly onto Remus's hand with her own, and gave it a gentle but firm, reassuring squeeze.
"I'd rather have died with you than face an entire world without you, Rem. I need my husband and Teddy needs his father," she whispered, smiling as Lupin reached across and carefully gathered Tonks in his arms as they stood.
Lupin's joy matched Tonks's at the fact that his wife was now safely released from Azkaban Prison and back home with him in their simple home where she rightfully belonged, and drawing Dora closer to him still, careful to mind the baby in her arms, Remus did not hesitate to tilt Tonks's face towards his as he cupped her chin firmly in his hand, pulling her closer.
Their lips parted and met at last, tasting the sweet, gentle passion that was denied them for the better part of two brutally long and agonizing days, not knowing if Dumbledore and Renee would succeed in getting Tonks released from jail.
Lupin reluctantly pulled himself from her and stared deeply into his wife's eyes, reaching up and brushing away a stray tear that escaped from Tonks's eyelids with a tender caress.
"I love you, Dora," he murmured, whispering it into the shell of her ear as he leaned forward to take Teddy from her.
"I love you too, Rem," she murmured, getting a familiar twinkling glint in her pale gray orbs that Lupin had come to know and recognize over the years as he strode across their bedroom floor to lay Teddy down in his crib so he could sleep.
Tonks waited patiently until the baby was settled and Remus moved to stand next to his wife in the middle of their bedroom, though Tonks did not miss the almost longing glance as he looked over his shoulder and towards their bed.
Sensing he wanted more, Tonks spoke up quietly, standing until she was practically pressed up against his chest, her hands splayed across his chest, her left near Lupin's heart.
"It's been two days, Remus," she whispered, the beginnings of a slightly lascivious smile forming on her face. "Let's not waste it…."
Two hours later, Tonks awoke in the same place she had fallen asleep. On her side of the bed, in her own home, with her body pressed against Lupin's searing-hot, scarred flesh, with her head resting in the crook of Remus's right shoulder.
She had been so exhausted from earlier' s narrow escape of the failed arresting of Azkaban Prison's former counselor, and from the sensual passions she and Remus had allowed themselves to succumb to once baby Teddy was fast asleep that Tonks had quickly fallen asleep, safe in Remus's arms.
Lupin laid awake that night, reveling in watching his sleep on her side, thinking the pale, perfect celestial-like witch was the most beautiful thing ever to happen to a creature like him, feeling the pleasure of her body entangled around his, her right leg wrapped tightly around his upper thigh, squeezing.
His wife's chin-length dark pink wavy bob cascaded over his cheek in wisps and stray strands, tickling the stubble along Lupin's jawline, and the melody of his Dora's deep, rhythmic breathing soothed his troubled soul and made him feel young and new again.
Remus shifted slightly to better support his wife's weight on top of him, causing Tonks to become coaxed from her deep sleep by the feeling of Lupin's body almost shaking in the darkness. Confused, she woke with a start.
It wasn't the full moon, and even if it were, she would have ensured her husband would have taken his Wolfsbane Potion…
Was he crying? What on earth was bothering him? Her confusion and mounting panic over her husband's wellbeing increasing, Tonks grunted with the effort to raise herself up on one elbow, turning her concerned face to meet his.
"Remus? What's wrong?" she murmured, raising a hand to his forehead to feel for any signs of fever. "Are you sick?"
She trailed off when she realized Lupin was not crying. He was laughing and trying to be quiet about it. It was the kind of genuine happiness with which Tonks was sure that, until she had literally fallen into his life outside of Sirius's parents home the first night she had been inducted in the Order.
"I'm sorry, Dora," he apologized, shooting his wife a pained look, but he made no effort to quell the smile that crept onto his face as Remus lifted his chin to look Tonks in the eye.
Her husband's mirth was positively contagious. Tonks quirked a brow Remus's way and allowed a snort to pass her lips through her utmost confusion as she stared at Lupin.
"What's so funny, Rem?" she questioned, her gaze darting from her husband and to Teddy's crib, to Lupin's left.
She smiled at him, feeling somewhat bewildered. Remus was a man who was always so solemn and serious, it was good to see him smiling.
He did it more often ever since she had come into his life, he hadn't stopped smiling the night they married, and when baby Teddy had entered into the world.
"Oh, I was just thinking about the night you and I met. How if I wouldn't have caught you, you'd have fallen and…" his voice turned solemn and his gaze intense and serious once more as his laughter died as he pulled Tonks to lay on top of him once more, her knee grazing against his inner thigh. "And instead, it was I who fell," he murmured, whispering it into the shell of her ear in a low, husky voice heavy with desire for her.
He pressed his lips to hers, his hands drifting to the back of her hair, pressing in softly, his kiss joyful, intense, and deep.
When they reluctantly had to break the kiss for air, he removed Dora's hand from his scarred chest and brought it softly to his lips and kissed her white-boned knuckles tenderly.
Her bright white smile and loving gaze wiped away so many years of his melancholic loneliness. He found himself looking forward to their future together as Teddy's parents.
Lupin reached out and wrapped his arms around Dora's slender waist, resting his face in her lap as she sat upright, though Tonks was quick to bend down and enfold her husband in her arms. She rested her cheek atop his head and held him.
After what felt like a blissful eternity in silence, with the two of them just basking in the warmth the other gave off, relishing in the heat, Remus lifted his head from Tonks's lap, softly taking Dora's hands in his tight grasp, cradling them, staring at a new scar along her thumb, tracing it as though it were the most interesting thing in the world, before he stared, enraptured in her pale gray orbs once again and held her stare.
"I know that, even now, I can't offer you much, Dora. I know you deserve so much more than what I can give you and Teddy. All I have is my heart, which has always been yours, sweetheart," he declared. "I've lost you before, twice. I nearly lost you for good earlier if we hadn't Disapparated when we had. I'm not going to take that chance again," he promised her.
Tonks searched Lupin's face with a longing, needful gaze. "You've done everything right by me, Remus," she murmured. "You're a kind man, darling. With a good, good heart. Your heart is pure, and you love me more than I could ever hope for. You accepted me for who I am, not who everybody wanted me to be because of my abilities. That is enough for me, and it's all I could ever ask for. I love you, Remus," Tonks whispered, and leaned in to kiss Lupin, slowly this time, but passionate.
They broke apart, fulfilled and spent from their time underneath the sheets earlier, but before Lupin could collapse back against his pillow, Tonks shot out an arm and latched her hand around his wrist, and held his left hand to her heart.
She shifted at the waist and looked at him dreamily. Lupin had to roll onto his elbow and drape his other arm protectively against Tonks's bare waist, finding his wife to be the most beautiful woman on Merlin's entire green earth.
"I love you, Rem. I hope you never forget it," Tonks whispered softly, reaching up to kiss his nose, then his forehead before finally pressing her lips to his in a gentle kiss.
Remus responded in kind by caressing his wife's face with his hand, running his fingers through her short wavy pink hair.
She had offered him so much more than he ever dreamed would be his. A normal life. A wife whom he loved more than anything, a beautiful baby boy in Teddy Remus Lupin, a great wizard in the making. Nymphadora Tonks Lupin had brought him back to life, whether his wife was aware she had or not.
"Dora," he affirmed, wanting his soulmate to hear his words. "I don't know whether or not you know this, but you've made me the luckiest and happiest man in all of Great Britain. With all that I am, though it is not much, I love you, darling."
She smiled at him, that brilliant white smile that was like his beacon in the darkness, and settled her head against his shoulder.
Remus and Tonks lay together entwined in their bed in the darkness of the bedroom, both of them feeling complete.
Remus reached for Dora, his heart was so full that the werewolf thought it might burst, though his mind was clear.
Tonks met him with clarity and certainty. Their lips claimed each other softly with just a hint of possessiveness, and in the moment, promised a happy future together, no thoughts of the Morning Killer engulfing their consciences.
The kiss they shared was just the beginning, Tonks and Lupin knew, of the lifetime and joy that would follow, once the Morning Killer was off the streets of London and behind bars.
The two of them fell asleep in one another's arms and for the first time in several months, fell into a dreamless sleep.
Everett wound his slightly calloused fingers around the door that led to Remus and Tonks's bedroom, well aware the hour was late, but he did not care.
He wanted to look upon the pink-haired bitch one last time before he went after the blonde Muggle lass, the final killing blow that would surely destroy the Auror that had a hand in murdering his own son.
He did not know what to make of this.
His long black robes swishing and billowing with his movements as he walked towards the bed, not intent on harming them. Just to watch.
The edges of his short, dark beard twitched without prompting as he looked at the most unusual, but not unpleasant sight before him, his moss-like, forest green eyes twinkling at the very sight.
There before him lay Auror Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin perched silently on pillows piled high on the side of the bed, her face pale and drained of colors, giving the pink-haired Auror an almost ethereal, angelic appearance.
This illusion was only emphasized by the silk and lace white nightgown she wore. Her eyes were closed, her lips having regained some color.
Everett did not bother to conceal the beginnings of his truly wicked smile as his inquisitive gaze briefly wandered the length of the girl's body in an appreciative way, though his smile faltered a little as he looked at the bitch, his blood burning hotter than any dragon fire could flame, oh, yes….
Everett's bright green eyes drifted slightly to Tonks's right, seeing the most peculiar image in the entire world, something he had never set foot on before.
And something, the Morning Killer knew, he'd never see again in another thousand lifetimes. Nestled comfortably in the arms of Tonks lay a head of light brown flecked with bits here and there of gray.
Remus John Lupin, werewolf, and an incredibly selfless and kind man with a good, good heart, or so he had overheard when he was listening in outside their bedroom window, was practically a wolf cub curled up in the young witch's lap as the pair slept.
His face seemed to bask in the warmth of his beautiful wife's soft stomach. His arms, whether the man was aware of it or not in his sleep, were encircled around the pink-haired woman's waist, breathing hushed, the poor man's scarred shoulders softly rising and falling.
Remus was clinging to Nymphadora as a boy would to his mother, selfishly fencing her in his strong arms, absorbing the young witch's radiance and her heat solely for himself. Her purple-painted fingernails weaved in between his mats of thick brown hair.
Together, Everett thought, they almost looked too perfect, which was an obscure thought if ever there was one at all.
A wolf and a she-lion tangled in the bedsheets in the most eccentric splendor Everett could possibly imagine for them.
And he hated it. Everett ducked out of their bedroom, down the hallway, though not in a hurried pace, but rather, a leisurely stroll, taking his time, not Disapparating until he reached the edge of the woods that bordered their backyard.
As he walked, he could not help his thoughts as they drifted towards that of the young Muggle girl, his favorite waitress and the manager of the little Broken Spoon Café out by the Muggle train station, back to that moment in the lobby.
Everett had been all logic and feigned cold detachment until their fingers had touched when he'd accepted that glass of water from Renee Elizabeth Barreau, though it had taken all of his willpower not to clamp his teeth down on her fingers, to taste her blood.
Though that time would come, he needed to be patient. Everett drew in a sharp breath of cold air that pained his lungs as he looked at the fair-haired maiden that he would marry very shortly.
When he had touched her hand earlier, something foreign and unfamiliar stirred not only within him, but it overtook Everett's thinking.
The rest of his world became an unimportant blur that was banished into the far corners of his mind. The only thing that mattered anymore was finding an excuse to keep the Muggle girl by his side before killing her.
To touch her more, to taste her honey-sweet sin with his own tongue. Everett felt his entire body stiffen as the young woman began to walk back towards the estate, leaving the downtown streets of London and making to head back towards his safe house.
It was then that he began to have highly inappropriate thoughts of the luscious beauty.
He wanted the girl on her back, he wanted her on top, Everett wanted her any way that he could take the girl for himself, really.
To claim her fully as his victim, and she would be his. As Everett continued having these wild thoughts of the Muggle Barreau girl, he knew it was the inner beast that lay caged within the confines of his chest, threatening to come loose.
Everett felt his jaw lock and tighten, and he ground his teeth in anger, his green eyes flashing indignantly as they stayed locked on the front door of his safe house, having Disapparated to the location, though he could swear he saw the girl in front of him.
She really did have a petite, curvaceous figure. No girl was she, not anymore. Her large liquid blue eyes held such an intelligence and serenity that Everett felt like it had been impossible for him not to be held prisoner by them.
Which would explain his momentarily lapse of inability to form a cohesive sentence around the Barreau girl.
Her cheekbones weren't especially high, and her nose was a little too long to be perfect, but there was an undeniable symmetry to Renee Barreau's delicate features, like that of a pretty red rose, just waiting to bloom, to fully become…a woman.
Perhaps that was what had Everett so captivated.
The young blonde woman's smooth dry skin despite the harsh currents of the ferocious autumnal breeze was dotted with a light smattering of freckles about her nose.
Her delicate eyebrows curved in swooping arcs over those bewitching eyes and her small button nose complemented her wide forehead and rather blunt chin.
These features would not turn heads, or make anyone look twice, they were quite normal among the women in the Barreau family.
No…it was the girl's eyes that were her true prize, what held Everett so captivated, wanting to know her secrets.
What secrets would he uncover, as he looked behind them? He couldn't wait to find out.
Her eyes were like the stars in the night sky, the way they drew unsuspecting men like Everett in to explore the swirling depths of emotions held in her depths.
The black of Renee Elizabeth Barreau's pupil was surrounded by a ring of jagged silver fire swallowed by sapphire blue.
At one glance, the girl's eyes merely shone, but if you dared to look closer like he had done so earlier, and just like he was doing now, shrouded in the shadow of the bush behind which he had taken refuge, Everett could see the sadness of heartbreak, the joy of love (at that he scoffed again), the hope of a better future for herself, the pain of sorrow at losing not only her home but her family as well, and the fire of a spirit that even Everett knew the girl would not give up.
At least…not willingly.
It had been all he could do not to ravage himself at her when he'd first laid eyes upon the fair-skinned beauty with the locks of hair that looked as though they had been kissed by the sun itself.
Renee was a beautiful young girl. And after he was finished with the bitch, she would be a woman. It was rumored that the girl was still a virgin, though he wondered if it were true.
He couldn't help how he was. It was far too late for a man like him to change. Not now.
Growing up, Everett had given his father everything a son could possibly give his parent, and only wished he could do more to please. Now he had to know that the person he idolized never truly existed.
That their life of the endless political meetings, talk of siring heirs to keep the family lineage going was never what it appeared to be, that his father lived with festering anger in his heart like a wound.
Conversations were just talking to Everett, competitions to him.
Nothing more, and nothing less. Gregory saw his bastard son suffering, his mental health in decline as young lad and he had made goddamn sure that Everett had fallen into that pit, the only decorations in the pit his own godforsaken claw markings from his nails on the walls he could not scale.
Now Father had the gall—the audacity—to claim that his methods growing up didn't drive his bastard son mad, that it was just 'how he was,' and there could be nothing in all Great Britain that would cure of him of this so-called horrible affliction, this unquenchable bloodlust.
Gregory liked to think of himself as Everett's savior, but his son knew the truth.
How Father cycled from abuse to reconciliation and then back to abuse, to build him up just enough for the next stress-relieving power trip take down that usually involved beating his own son growing up.
But Everett had news for his father. His heart had long since been hardened, and the beating corded muscle within his chest had walls. He had walls against Father and any other human and there was no way to break down that wall.
Knowledge can indeed be power if you so let it, and Everett had, in fact, let that be so.
Everett furrowed his brow into a frown at that rumor, wondering if it was in fact, true.
He knew she had once been dating John Newall, that lawyer that he had killed and stuffed into an old wine barrel.
John Newall won't be found for a while, Everett thought and released a low growl from the back of his throat at the thought of that creature who was less than half a man taking this woman, this celestial-like being who had for reasons unknown somehow managed to snare him in a net of intrigue like one of those mystical sirens of the sea he had heard as a child growing up.
He would just have to make it quite plain and perfectly clear to any man that Renee was not available for the taking.
That she was his.
And anyone who would dare try to take the dog's prized bone from him would find themselves without their tongues on the morrow, their own hearts carved from his chest with his own two bare hands.
"Get a hold of yourself," he whisper-hissed through clenched teeth as he stalked his way up to the door.
His mind felt as if stone were coursing through his veins instead of blood. He moved to open the door, but before he could, he caught sight of his reflection in a puddle of rainwater, and blanched, looking caught off guard at the man he saw staring back at him.
The shadow of the caged beast within his eyes. He felt his stomach lurch and he thought he might vomit.
There was the smallest fraction of Everett's mind that knew what he was and hated it. Disgust.
Yes, that's what he felt for himself. Disgust. Total disgust with himself, at who he really was, what he represented.
Everett felt his shoulders slump and his blue eyes cast downward in a mournful gaze, his handsome face held a forlorn, worn expression now.
His mouth was set in a semi-pout as he remained alone.
It would be easy enough to claim her for himself. A few sweet words whispered into the ear of his little latest plaything, his new victim—well, soon to be, that is, but…and this was the part he was struggling to accept the most, that he had seen something in the Barreau's woman's eyes that could only be described as hatred.
A look that he had not seen in a woman before. At least, not directed towards him. Most of the witches in Azkaban Prison were absolutely terrified of the now-former licensed counselor of Azkaban, and it showed in their eyes, their movements, how they averted their gazes whenever they were forced to be in the same room as Everett.
But not this little dove, his conscience offered unhelpfully. There had been that look in the lobby earlier this afternoon when she arrived.
Renee Barreau had been rumored to be quite the beautiful girl but seeing her up close and personal as he had earlier only reinforced that truth in Everett's mind. The woman was of fair complexion, her blonde hair cut short. A cute oval face. She had the kindest pair of brilliant blue eyes, trimmed by long gorgeous lashes. Lovely eyes, innocent and pure, yet somehow gentle, that always held a tiny warmth within them, of which Everett knew he wanted it for himself.
If it could be made possible to bottle that warmth and hoard it within a glass vial that he could keep in his pocket, then he would do it. Florid cheeks and flawlessly sculpted pink, luscious lips, as if crafted by angels and the gods themselves.
Standing this close to her as he had been only hours ago, he could see Renee's lips clearly, glistening attractively with a light salve coating that added a further sheen to her already healthy lips. Everett imagined biting her mouth until he drew blood and then sucking it from the wound.
All these features sat together on a delicate almost angelic face.
Her disappearance from her safe house once he took care of Sirius Black would surely be the final knife, the killing blow to Nymphadora Tonks Lupin's heart.
And Renee Barreau would be all his.
Oh, such sweet, sweet bliss…