by Garnet Hart
Right after she nodded, he fled out of the door. As he ordered, she locked it closed.
She was shaking in fear.
She heard more explosions. What was happening?
For a few minutes, she waited there in agony. Then she heard something from outside the door. It sounded like a painful moan of a man.
She stuck her ear on the door to listen carefully. There was silence.
Thinking she was only imagining, she turned away.
The door suddenly crashed open.
She gasped loudly. A very tall man stood at the doorway. Her eyes widened.
She knew this man!
Book III
WARRIOR
of the
MOON
(The Rise of the Alpha)
GARNET HART
Chapter 23
Las Vegas
Lior, with Lysander following close behind him, wrenched the door open, startling all the people inside the room. The movie director stood up to confront them but shut up when he recognized him.
They walked past the director.
There was Bran, in bed with a red-haired woman, shooting a love scene.
The Vampire was almost naked save for his boxers. He was about to kiss the bare-breasted woman lying under him when Lior and Lysander grabbed him on each arm and pulled him away.
“Hey!” yelled Bran as he struggled to get free, but they held him.
“Hey, what’s happening, man?” the director asked.
They dragged him all the way out of the woodhouse, and then threw him inside the waiting van.
“You fucking pair of nitwits!” Bran furiously yelled when Gustavo drove the van away. Lior was seated next to Bran while Lysander was beside his butler. “Didn’t you see? I was about to dip my sausage in her wet hole.”
“You canna,” Lior said. “The director will cut before you can even begin.”
“The chit was willing. She was aroused she forgot we’re on camera.”
“That red head has nice tits,” Lysander said.
“So you noticed. I was about to create the best love scene ever seen on film, and you ruined it.” Bran glanced down his crotch. Lior followed and saw his erection protruding through his boxers. “Now how am I supposed to appease this dick?”
“You have your hands,” Lior said.
Lysander laughed. “I can lend you mine.”
“And I’ve got some toilet paper for you to wipe with afterwards,” Gustavo added.
“Shut up, all of you! Let me out and I’ll go finish that woman. My poor dick’s gonna blow in here.”
“I heard that actress had an issue with a contagious disease,” Lysander said.
“Who cares? I’m a Vampire. I’m not prone to infection even if she has AIDS. What do you want from me? Why’d you drag me out of my love scene?”
“You’ll have to take a short break now,” Lior said.
Bran’s eyes widened. “You crazy? The shooting will be over in a few weeks. We have a deadline to meet.”
“We will meet that deadline. We need you for now.”
“What? To find the Elf again? That Elf is smarter than both of you. She can take care of herself. Perhaps she ran away to another country.”
“She did no’ run away,” Lior quickly answered. “This time I am sure and I could no’ see any reason why she should run away. Someone abducted her.”
“Who? The rebels?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
When Lior could not say the name, Lysander answered. “Raith.”
Bran looked at Lysander in disbelief. “You dare blame the Demon? He’s a loyal member of the forces if I recall, and he does not even know about the Elf.”
“He does,” Lior said. “Just after you left Skye, he came and asked about the woman I was keeping. He may be half-human, but he’s still a prince of Nifel, and he’s the only one capable of tracking the Elf’s whereabouts.”
“And from the rumors I’ve heard, Raith was stripped of his princehood because he failed to follow the orders of the Demon King, his father.” Gustavo supplied. “That’s why he was sent here in Midgar to send wandering spirits back to Nifel. As a prince, it was a humiliating job for him to do. He’d been looking for a way to gain back his honor and his father’s respect. Now, he’s seen an opportunity. If he brings the Elf to Nifel… viola. He’ll be a hero.”
Lior did not need to add more. He’d seen that possibility eversince the beginning, that’s why he had kept any information about Asra from Raith.
Raith’s silence the past weeks was suspicious when the Demon used to call him every week. And the way his two Lycan guards, who were guarding Asra at the tower were knocked down was something that only a creature with incredible strength could do.
Raith was a good friend, however, he had some deep secrets of his own. Raith was a Demon, while he was a god. There was a reason why the gods and the Demons had been on each other’s throats for ages.
“Have you spoken with Raith?” Bran asked.
“No,” Lysander answered. “And it looks like he’d been away from his harem for a while now. Nobody knows where he is now. We supposed you might know.”
“How the hell would I know? Is that why you dragged me here? Sorry prick ‘eads, can’t ‘elp ‘ya.”
“We know where he’s taken the Elf,” Lior said. “But we dunna know the way. Lysander believes you do.”
Bran looked at each one of them with his mouth agape as he probably realized what they wanted from him. “You’d be out of your pathetic minds if you want to follow him to Nifel.”
“Exactly.”
Bran sighed. “I won’t go there. That’s a very ugly place.”
“You dunna have to,” Lior said. “Just show us the way.”
“Why don’t you just go back to your cows and let Odin worry about the Elf?”
“I’m no longer with Odin,” Lior said.
Bran’s eyes widened?” “What do you mean?”
“It means he has again disobeyed his lord and is no longer bringing the Elf to Alfheim, which means he’s on his own and he needs us to back him up if Odin descends his wrath on his bloody ass,” Lysander said to Bran.
Bran’s eyes brightened. “That is great! Finally, you saw what a bloody asshole Odin is. I never liked him. I’d rather see Raith ruling the nine realms than Odin.”
“But he will no’ be the king. He has a brother who is more entitled to his father’s throne,” Lior said.
Bran slowly turned to the window. For the first time, it looked like he was thinking. “You don’t intend to kill Raith just to get that lassie, do you?”
Lior could not answer. He was too occupied of taking back Asra that it never occurred to him that he might have to kill Raith on the process.
They were all silent as the van sped up. Lior knew they were all thinking of the same thing.
“Alright,” Bran said after a long silence. “But I don’t know where the Demon portals are located, so we’ll have to get through the tree of Yggdrasil.”
Lior knew that legendary tree very well. It was a giant tree with a door to different paths going to the nine worlds. However, very few had gotten through the tree yet, for the paths were not only mazes but filled with lurking savage creatures. To make things worse, the tree could only be found randomly from one forest to another, and no ordinary humans could see it. It was called the tree of wisdom, and it only chose whom it wanted to see it. According to Lysander, Bran was among the very few who had made it in and out of the tree many times before.
“Where’s the tree? Take us to it,” Lior said.
Bran shook his head. “I’m not sure where it is now. The last I remembered, it was in Venezuela. Does that place still exist today?”
“Very much so,” Gustavo answered.
“How’d you know the tree’s there?”
Bran shrugged. “I found a pattern of its movement before I went to sleep four hundred years ago. But I don’t know if it has changed. I
t’s been centuries. I never had any use of that tree for a long time now.”
“Venezuela’s quite far from here,” Gustavo said. “It could take us nine hours or so. It will be dark when we arrive, which is a good thing for us Vampires.”
Venezuela
“I should be in that party they’re throwing for me at the Luxor having a fucking good time if you didn’t drag me out of Vegas in my fucking boxers.”
Bran kept complaining as they ventured deep into the forest.
“You’ll be back there in no time. Just find the fucking tree first,” Lysander returned.
Bran glanced at his shirt and tugged at the mark of the jeans Lior lent him. “Is this Levi’s? I can’t even see the mark. It’s too old and faded. I don’t wear any other jeans but Levi’s.”
“You’ve been complaining about that since we took off”, Lior, who was ahead of the two, was using MacLeod’s sword to hack the tall shrubs out of their way. “Pay attention and look for the tree.”
“I don’t have to,” Bran replied. “It will show up to me if it’s here. We’re kind of close buddies.”
“Is that so? I thought Yggdrasil’s wisdom is legendary? Why’d he choose a dickhead like you?”
“Heh, a cocksucker will no’…” Bran was interrupted when he noticed something at a distance.
Lior followed Bran’s direction of sight and saw an empty place. This forest was dense of trees, but that place had only grasses on it.
“There it is!” Bran’s eyes dilated in glee. “I knew it. It’d be here.”
Clueless, Lior exchanged glances with Lysander as they followed Bran into the empty spot. He thought they’d have to go farther, but Bran stopped right at the middle.
“Here it is,” Bran said.
Lior looked down on Bran’s feet. His eyebrows crooked. “Is that it?” His eyebrows crooked. “That old, tiny geezer is Yggdrasil?” he asked.
“Stop this bullshit, Bran,” Lysander warned. “I did not travel for nine hours to look for a bonsai.”
Indeed, the tree Bran was talking about was a bonsai, only three feet tall.
“Of course it’s a bonsai,” Bran replied. “Yggdrasil’s existed for thousands of years.”
“How the hell do we enter that tree?” Lior asked as he looked around it. “I dunna even see a damn door.”
“It has a door, but you can’t see it because it’s teeny-weeny.”
“Then I should probably chop you into itty-bitty bits so I can stuff you inside that teeny-weeny door,” Lysander said, sounding exasperated.
“Bah, you both are a pair of chumps,” Bran grumbled. “D’ya think Yggdrasil will show up as a giant tree whose length surpasses the clouds? He’s not called wise for nothing.”
“So this is a trick?” Lysander asked.
“Of course it is. Step aside and I’ll show you what a pair of ignorant dimwits you are.”
Lior stepped back and watched as Bran punctured his wrist with his fang and let his blood drip on the small tree. Bran also took three steps backward and looked up as if awaiting something to appear right before him. But for the next half a minute, nothing happened.
“Now what?”Lior asked.
“Hush.”
They waited again for another minute, until Lysander lost his patience. “How many more centuries do we have to wait?”
“I don’t know,” Bran replied. “It’s random. Sometimes, it takes a minute. Sometimes, it can take a day.”
Lior’s eyebrows met. “A day? If Raith succeeds in bringing the Elf to Nifel, we’re all doomed.”
“Yggdrasil is wiser than you both. It knows what it’s doing. If it’s urgent, it’ll show up right away. If it’s not, then we can wait for a year.”
Lior threw his hands in the air. “We dunna have a year. We—”
Lior felt rumbling underneath the ground. Before he could warn his companions, they both looked at him as if they knew it too. Then the tree shot upward right before their eyes.
“Hang onto a branch!” Bran shouted and grabbed a branch. Lysander did the same.
Lior caught a branch just before the tree grew pass them. Lysander and Bran yelled like crazy as they swiftly passed through the trees within the forest, shooting higher and higher.
The trunk had widened drastically and the twigs grew into huge branches. Lior stepped onto a branch and watched the world below until the clouds hindered his sight.
If he was not thinking of Asra, he would be having fun like Bran and Lysander who were enjoying the ride.
“Wooohooo! This is one hell of a ride!”
Lior turned to see Bran but he realized he could not see his companions anymore underneath the dense swarm of leaves.
“Is it done growing?!” Lysander asked aloud.
“Yes, this is as far as we can go,” Bran replied.
“And I thought this is going all the way to Asgard?”
“Nah, the way to Asgard is down the roots.”
“So, do we have to climb down?” Lior asked.
“Of course. The door’s down there.”
“Then why the hell did you ask us to hang onto a branch, you bloody dickwit!” Lior scolded. “It will take forever to come down from here.”
“It’s worth the ride,” Bran answered. “Quit complaining and start climbing down if you want to catch up with the Demon, cowfucker.”
Lior cursed and jumped down from branch to branch. Shit, this was too high. Even with his enhanced speed, it would take a while before they’d reach the ground.
Several minutes later, he finally landed down the ground. Lysander followed next. They waited for a minute but Bran had still not come.
“Mister Future President of the United States of America!” Lysander called out. “You coming?!”
“Almost there,” Bran replied. It sounded like he was still far above the ground.
Lior walked around the tree while they waited. “So where’s the door here?”
Lysander came to him. “I can’t find it. There’s nothing here but wrinkled barks. Hey Bran!” Lysander shouted up the tree. “Get your ass down here and show us the door! We can’t find it!”
Something heavy fell on the ground. Lior and Lysander quickly searched around the tree and they found Bran sprawled over the grass.
“Shit!” Lysander quickly hunkered down and shook Bran’s shoulders. “What the hell happened to you?”
Bran opened his mouth to speak but his tongue could not form any words.
Lior smirked as he stood beside them. He knew Bran would be fine. A simple fall could not possibly kill this ancient Vampire.
He saw a small red fruit lying beside Bran. For a moment, he thought it was an apple, but when he picked it up, the skin texture was not smooth but felt more like soft leather.
“Is this what kept you up there?” he asked as he took a bite.
A big hand suddenly grabbed the fruit from his grip. Surprisingly, Bran was on his feet and was glaring at him sharply. “I crushed my bones to get this fruit,” Bran said. “This is the fruit of Yggdrasil. It’s so rare that only lucky bastards like me find one.”
“So?” Lior said as he chewed the fruit. It was delicious, incomparable to any other fruits he’d ever tasted. “What’s so special about that fruit?”
“It invigorates the body, and you can go on for days without eating anything else.”
“Oh really? Let me try it.” Lysander snatched the fruit from Bran’s hand and quickly took a big bite.
Bran quickly grabbed it back and shoved all of what remained inside his mouth.
“You ate the seeds,” Lior said.
Bran swallowed before he replied. “It’s all that’s left, you dimwits.”
“Well.” Lysander nodded. “Indeed, it tastes good.”
“So where’s the door?” Lior asked.
“My blood’s in there, so only I can see the door,” Bran answered.
“Then start looking.”
Bran threw his machine pistol on the ground.
>
“Why did you do that? We need weapons.”
“You won’t be able to get Midgar weapons past this tree.”
Lior wrinkled his forehead. “Why no’?”
“Any weapon forged in Midgar is not allowed by Yggdrasil. Call this thing a security system.”
Lior was skeptical. He had been through portals entering Midgar centuries ago but he had no interest in Midgar affairs as this realm was considered backward in civilization by the Aesirs. Human weapons had no value to the gods. Gods cannot be killed by such inventions. And as far as he knew, nothing from Midgar could ever enter Asgard.
“What about my sword?” asked Lysander.
“Any weapon that has been forged by the Demons, Dwarves and Elves can enter.” Bran eyed the MacLeod sword sheathed in a scabbard attached to Lior’s hips. “If it’s true that it’s been forged by the Elves, then it won’t disappear inside. You’ll see.” Bran added.
Lior was holding a sub-machine gun, as well. He brought along some artillery just in case Odin’s mortal minions ambushed them here in Midgar.
Bran walked around the tree trunk that was too wide a dozen matured oak trees could probably fit inside it.
Bran disappeared out of Lior’s sight. “Where the hell are you?”
“In Hell, where else?” Bran answered.
Lior thought he heard Bran’s voice inside the tree.
“Is he inside?” Lysander asked. Lior was about to ask the same thing.
“You two stop chatting and get in!”
“How?” Lior asked.
“Touch the tree. You’ll find an invisible door.”
Lior and Lysander looked at each other. Suddenly, Bran’s head popped out of the tree trunk. “This is the door. Come on in.”
Lior tried to enter the tree but felt like he slammed on a concrete wall. He cursed.
“I said leave the fucking gun! “ Bran yelled.
Lior hid their guns and ammunitions in the bushes. They might need them when they got back. He tried to enter the tree again and his body finally went through the trunk.
“I told you,” Bran greeted him inside with a smirk.