Marriage is Murder

"Abbey," Robert said quietly to her. "Do you want to go outside with Mama?" She nodded. "Alright," he said. "Then take your sunglasses with you when you go out." She scrambled off of his lap and ran to her room. She stopped short, seeing the mess. She took a moment and spotted her glasses on the floor. She brought the back to Robert, showing him they were broken. "Don't you worry about that for one moment," Robert smiled. He flicked his wand at the little pair of glasses and repaired them for her. "Khaat, take her sunscreen if you take her out."

"I wil. Not to worry. Its in my beach bag. I'll get it."

"I'll get it for you," Brian said. "Dakota and I will go on out and you can catch up later." He kissed Khaat and got Dakota out of her high chair. "Let's go, Shorty." She babbled something at Brian that Khaat didn't catch, and Brian just looked down at Dakota and said, "Not now. Later. Sand now." He picked up the beach bag and took it an Dakota outside. Abbey followed her father. She looked at Andrew, and copying what she' jus heard Brian say, she said to Andrew, "Sand. Now." She followed Brian and Dakota outside.

"You have a tagalong," Robert called to Brian.

"I know," Brian laughed as he stepped outside, heading for the beach.

Khaat put her towel on the sand and sat down near Abbey and made sure the kids all had sunscreen. Dakota sat with them playing in the wet sand. Brian picked up his board and brought it outside. "You need anything, Babe?" he asked Khaat.

"Nope. We're good. Go ahead," she said, settling back with her sunglasses and her book--Remus's journal. Khaat watched Brian head for the beach to go surf. She hand't been alone with the kids very long when she heard a voice.

"How would any man leave a beautiful creature like you alone on a tropical beach?" the smooth deep voice asked. She looked up to see one of the most handsome dark haired men she'd ever seen standing over her. He was in swim trunks and he was very muscular and tanned.

"I am not alone," Khaat smiled politely. She watched Abbey look up from her sand.

"Go," she told Andrew. "We go." She got up and tugged at Dakota and headed quickly for the house, wanting Andrew to come along.

"Cute kids," the stranger said. "Surely they can't be yours. That is not the figure of any woman who has had a child." Khaat laughed out loud.

"And what exactly does that look like?" she said. "Flabby and stretched out of shape?"

"You do look like you're in marvelous shape," he said, obviously flirting with her. Robert was just opening his paper when he saw the three kids come back in, clearly at Abbey's doing.

"Abbey?" he frowned. "You just went out."

"Bad," she said to him strongly, looking defiant at him. "No go out."

"Hey," the man said, raising his arms in surrender, "I come in peace. I don't exactly have a place to hide a gun in these trunks. I didn't realize she was married."

"I'm alright," she said to Jack and Steven and Cassidy as Brian walked up on the scene, seeing that clearly they had it in hand. Inside, Kate had positioned the kids behind her while Robert had made his way, out of sight to a position in the house where he could see the man on the beach.

"You're absolutely right, Abbey and Andrew," Robert said. "He is not a nice man. Kate, I want you to do an aura reading on him, please."

"You haven't asked me to do that for years, Robert," Kate frowned. Angus moved to the kids while Kate made her way to Robert.

"Oh, that just isn't good at all," Kate said. "I haven't seen one of those since....well, its been a long time." Robert knew she had deliberately not finished her sentence. He understood.

"Fortunately it looks like they're on it. I would like to not have to go out," Robert replied. "Guard the kids. Just to be safe."

"I know," Robert said. "Stay in the house. Stay with Grandma Kate and Uncle Angus. Don't leave them for any reason."

The man on the beach showed little sign of upset when a whole battalion of protectors showed up around the stunning blonde. He turned his attentions back to her now, ignoring the others. He took her hand and bent down and was kissing her hand in a very formal, gentlemanly gesture when Khaat's necklace burst into a brilliant green light and fired directly into the man. It struck him in the chest and threw him back almost 20 feet into a tree. Khaat grasped her hand around the stone immediately as if she were trying, in vain, to hush it. She looked at Brian, wide eyed.

Brian looked beyond her and saw the figure apparate out in a puff of black smoke. Very black. More black than he'd seen in a long while. "Keep him away from my kids," Brian ordered them all, knowing already that they would. He seemed to just need to say it to satisfy himself. "Khaat, you stop being nice to him. Leave him alone. Your necklace doesn't like him, and thats' all the proof I need. Its never wrong."

"Your worst nightmare, Kid," the man grinned, unphased. "You can try to tear me limb from limb but you won't get far." His brown eyes began to shift color to bright emerald green, the power beginning to start coursing through his veins. "I learned from the best, Boy. You won't win. Give me the girl and I'll let the children live." He saw the small reaction in Jack's eyes. He'd hit an emotional vein with Jack. Either some of those kids on the beach had been his, or he had kids in the Lupin compound. He laughed, truly amused. "You don't win when you play poker, do you? Don't give up your dayjob, little werewolf. Gambling is not your strongsuit."

"No, but it is mine," Brian said fiercely, his great love for the people he loved pushing any fears far behind him. He stood now between the stranger and Khaat, and now clutching tight to Khaat's hand. He hauled Khaat to her feet and Khaat reached ther hand toward the sand for her white sarong. It snapped up around her waist and tied itself loosely so that it hung gracefully off her hips.

"She is a luscious creature, isn't she?" the stranger looked at Khaat, his tone a bit lusty now towards her. "She will be my greatest posession, my finest trophy." Khaat bristled. She wasn't anybody's posession or trophy. He looked at her. "If you want your children to live, you'll come with me now. I shall call you Lillith."

"I am NOT Lillith!" Khaat was furious.

"Not yet. Not legally," he said. "But you will be my wife. My Lillith."

"I don't think so," Brian replied for her before she could think. Her brain was beginning to want to shut down on her. Then she felt like her energies were suddenly being divided. She looked behind her and she could see Remus standing to this man's left and slightly behind him. He held up in his hand the bag Brian had found behind the waterfalls at the farm and gestured the bag towards her. It seemed clear to her. She had to go check those stones. But her father had given them to Lee for analysis. And then suddenly, in her mind, Remus had stepped directly in front of her, thrusting some part of her backwards out of his way.

"Robert," Kate said softly, inside the house. "Khaat's aura has changed color. It's faded to half its strength. I can see the others but hers has faded to half."

"Yes, and she's looking at nothing," Robert said, concerned. "Like she's in a trance."

"She's seeing something, but I dont' know what," Kate said. "I'm blocked by that damned tree."

"She won't go," Khaat's voice said, but it was an empty monotone that replied. "I will take her from you before she ever goes with you." Khaat felt like Remus was standing even closer with her, so close he almost could breathe the same air she breathed. She heard his words, but it sounded like it was her voice saying them. Brian's head snapped around looking at her, completely confused. He looked in her eyes. Something had changed. Khaat's hand snatched up the old battered wand from the sand. Remus's wand. She aimed it, but it wasn't her stance. He'd seen that dueling position before, but not from her. Not at all. And she fired, wordlessly. The old wand hadn't had so much power since Remus had wielded it himself. Now it seemed to roar with power. So much so that Brian was blindsided by seeing so much power erupt from his wife, from a wand not matched originally to her. Now the power that almost exploded from the tip of the wood slammed the man into the tree with so much force that Brian clearly heard bones breaking in the body of the large hulking man that wanted Khaat for his own. As he slid down the tree, he apparated out, and away in wispy curls of black smoke, so black that they were completely opaque. Brian had seen evil signatures before, but nothing like this. That just wasnt' good. Khaat's knees seemed to buckle under her and she started to simply fall.

"Remus!" she desperately called automatically for him, feeling him distancing from her again and in her confusion, she was afraid. She felt Brian's strong arms catch her and lay her back down on the sand.

"Khaat," he called, kneeling on the sand, tapping her face. "Khaat, can you hear me?"

"Did you see him?" she asked Brian weakly, trying to rally, trying to pull herself up.

"See who?" he asked, confused. "I don't see anybody. You only had an energy drain."

"Remus. He was right here."

"I don't know why but for some reason I believe that," Brian said slowly. He laid his hand on her forehead. "It looks like you just fainted."

"Don't you see him? Did he go?"

"Honey, I don't see him. I believe you, but I don't see him." He looked up at Jack, Steven, and Cassidy. "Thank you for being on this so fast. I'm taking her inside. I'll be right back. Do you mind keeping watch just a few more minutes til I get back?" He picked her up and took her in the house, where Robert took her from Brian quickly as Brian reported more indepth for him.

"She'll be fine," Robert said. "By the time you finish your surfing competition, I'll wager she'll be much better."

"You expect me to go surfing?" Brian was almost indignant about it. "This giant wants my wife!"

"What good will it do you to sit here? I can handle the first aid she needs. Go out. Go soak your head. Literally. You can keep watch on a board as well as in the house, maybe better." Brian glared at him and went back out to the others.

"Robert says we surf," he shrugged. "He says he's got it under control for the moment." He looked at him. "Who the hell was he? How'd he just walk past our protection spells? And...what the devil happened to Khaat just now? It makes no sense," Brian sighed.