The Invictus

Cor Aut Mors

The echo of the thump on that dark door of antique wood dulled itself by gloomy ricochet.

Bonnie swallowed and waited, but she also knew that waiting was futile. He would never answer. Not because he didn't hear or he didn't care to. If anything, he was saving her life by not opening the door. This was suicidal. He was dangerous when displeased and she knew it. Bonnie's own eccentric intuition too sensed a dark sort of coerce begging her to walk away from there right then and for all she knew, she had been branded a witch for a reason.

For three days in row, Bonnie had avoided even saying his name for the omens it might bring in case he eavesdropped his name in the air.

But today, his little sister_ Claude had come to the kitchen down in basement, seeking Bonnie out and delivering the most dreaded request.

"Please, Bonnie." Claude had beseeched. "You are the only one who he will not hurt in that state. Everyone else is frightened of him. He nearly killed one of the boys down the stable when he....but he is my brother. Oh, Bon. Only you can."

So all the servants had been sent on a day off for they were terrified undeniably and then, the storm had come. Clouds rumbled over Martindale the third evening after Alexis Draven's return to the manor, echoing through its hallways and overlaying shadows upon shadows with cold, wet breezes in wake of it.

No answer was brought upon to her by passing seconds.

And dismayed, Bonnie twisted the lock of the chamber and entered the room.

Truth was, Bonnie had foreseen this day. Not for what it was and neither with the clarity of realism but she had an idea of the catastrophe this heartbreak would bring. She had tried to caution Delilah. She had presaged Alexis too_ that perhaps being the reason why Alexis had not instead went to search Delilah.

They both had been blind.

Alexis hadn't realized how ardently in love he was with Delilah and Delilah had mistaken her partiality for Alexis as acquiescence to go ahead with their wedding plans. Bonnie herself had inconclusively believed that perhaps it would be different this time, for her séances had not always been without inaccuracies.

That had been a mistake. Now, she was too late.

And Bonnie knew that she would step out of this chamber alive, but she had her fears.

Alive was not always in one piece.

The room had a numbing stench of old blood and damp. It was so dark and so unbelievably cold; she nearly reeled back for the conviction that she had entered a hellhole. But the upturned table and broken chairs stopped her. Every book had been ripped out of the shelf; pages lay scattered and trampled on the carpet. The curtains torn, artifacts shattered. The room seemed an abyss but bare of him.

Then, the door behind her fell shut on its own and darkness deluged all sights.

Bonnie tried to breathe as cold tendrils of terror started to crawl up her spine. She sensed a presence behind her and she knew it was him. The reek of flesh and blood pronounced itself as she felt him near her, with gait of a serpent and intention of a predator.

But just prior to its being too late, Bonnie clenched her gut and turned around.

Cold fingers touched the ravine of her neck, one after another_ until a harsh grip was established there and suddenly, Bonnie's back was slammed into the wall with a force that brought out tears in her eyes.

"Master." She breathed out in pain. "-Spare me."

"Oh but you had a death wish, did you not?" Dangerous and deadly, his voice spokes carried an unaccountable elegance. "You inadvertently took your life in your hands the moment you decided to venture in here."

He waived her throat but kept her pinned to the wall by her shoulders.

His proximity assaulted her with overpowering effluvium of gore and clotted wounds and Bonnie turned her face away, sickened. "Blacksmith's wife was found mutilated and disemboweled by the well in the forest." She accused in a shaky voice. "Folks have gone astray overnight and are still unfound. There are children missing. This has to end."

Alexis chuckled. Brief and deathful, his voice made Bonnie's eyes overflow with tears. "Why do you care Bonnie? You unblest witch!"

"You are mislaying your wrath, sir!" Bonnie cried. "You do not mean to harm them."

"No, that is true." Her captor smiled mockingly. "I am merely hungry. I meant them no harm_ although, I did wish some harm to that woman by the well, in the forest. She reminded me of....Ah! But she served a glorious hunt and made a relishable dinner."

Troubled mind often seeks to blame and Bonnie wondered whom she could blame for this circumstance. Claude? Alexis? Herself?

Delilah, perhaps?

His exotic green eyes were rimmed of red and they sharply turned denser as though he had read through her thoughts.

"Tell me." His voice suggested revulsion. "Where is she now?"

"Home." Bonnie answered too quickly, as though by trading Delilah, she would trade in her own neck. In truth, it was quite the other way around. She was safeguarding Delilah and putting her own life in the line. "Yorkshire...I had a peek in the pail of water this morning. It was just a...merely a passing glimpse."

"And who else was there?"

"Master. My lord." Bonnie's toe curled. "I did not see."

His perusal turned redder, as though blood infused the jadeite of his pupil and Bonnie knew he had heard the lies right through her words. "Double-crossing would only give you a harder death."

Bonnie grew angstier, blinking away quickly. "It was merely a shadow."

When Alexis backed away from her, Bonnie tried to feel safe and breathe. But distance somehow diminished the confidence of what he might do next. Bonnie withered inward, feeling like a pile of despair.

"So he has come back, hm?"

Yes.

Bonnie inhaled as deeply as her aching ribs allowed.

Yes.

The God of loss had come back.

No passing shadow. No mere glimpse. In the wooden pail filled with water that morning, Bonnie had seen the plain, resplendent countenance of a man so regal_ there was no mistaking it. Delilah still didn't believe it but Bonnie did.

Years ago, Alexis had personally looked after his assassination.

Back then, when Delilah hadn't even been aware of Alexis's identity, Alexis had made sure to wipe Richard out of existence.

And now...

Well, Bonnie feared for the worst. And not for herself but for the two men_ both reborn. One a man. One a mythology.

It was heart or death.

"Leave." Bonnie heard Alexis say. Growl. She scuttled up and pushed herself off the cold hard wall that now had bruised the shoulder blades at her back. She progressed further and reached for the door.

But only so far.

Fingers grabbed her scarlet mane and Bonnie was dragged back into the obscure recess of the chamber and fangs, sharp like stylets ripped apart the side of her throat.