The Immortal Design (8 page)

   “Willa!” I managed to shout to her. She did not turn her gaze from the giant black wolf that stood before her. She motioned with her hand for me to stay put. She stood in a fighting stance as if she was challenging the giant beast to attack. The wolf snapped and growled at her, but she wouldn’t budge from where she stood. The wolf sniffed the air and caught the scent of my blood pouring from my wound. Shit, I thought. I’m about to be freaking dog food and Willa is going to get herself killed if she doesn’t get away from that monster.

   It dawned on me that I had witnessed this scene before. This was almost the exact same scene from my nightmare. The giant black wolf, Willa, the forest, the night sky and me. Mostly however Willa not afraid of the wolf. I managed to get myself back into the Jeep and called out for Willa to join me.

   Willa turned in my direction and saw that I was safely back in the Jeep and had the door open and waiting for her to run to safety. That’s all it took. Willa had broken eye contact with the monster wolf and it lunged in her direction. She move unbelievably fast and was out of reach from its snapping jaws. The wolf circled back around and charge her once again. This time Willa stood her ground until the last minute. As the creature rose up to knock her to the ground Willa grabbed the beast in a bear hug and tossed it into a large Cypress tree nearby. The wolf yelped in pain but it wasn’t finished with its challenger. Holy crap, I’m on a date with freaking Superwoman, I thought as I watched the scene unfolding.

   Willa had plans of her own however. She began to circle and stalk the wolf as if it was her prey. I couldn’t help but watch in panic as she fought an overly large wolf. I knew I couldn’t take it in a fight, I was wounded and I could barely see straight as it was. I had to do something though or the girl I was falling for would die right in front of my eyes. I looked around in the jeep for anything I could use as a weapon.

   In the back I found a small wooden crate. I didn’t know what was in it but I opened it to see if there was something I could use to help fight off the wolf. Inside I found exactly what I needed. A small cross bow along with a hand full of silver tipped arrows. My father must have been to one of his auctions he went to all of the time and forgot to unload this trunk from the jeep. I grabbed the weapon and two arrows.

   I stepped out from the jeep took aim and yelled “Hey over here you freak!” then let the arrow fly. It all happened in slow motion like from a movie scene. There was Willa standing off with the wolf as it made ready to attack her, my arrow slicing through the air with its target locked, I was about to get the wolf who had tried to kill my best friend and the girl of my dreams. What happened next though was the last thing I had ever expected.

10.

   “NO!” Willa screamed. The wolf had jumped and was in midair as Willa leapt at the same moment and tackled the wolf. She saved it from my arrow piercing its hide. The wolf calmed and stood next to her as they both looked at me in shock. Not that I would know what a wolf looks like in shock, but if I could imagine it, it would look just like it did now.

   “Johnathan, what are doing?” She sounded angry.

   “Willa get away from that thing. It’s vicious and was about to kill you!”

   Willa turned to the wolf and growled deeply, the wolf turned tail and ran. She calmly walked over to the jeep and stood there with her hands on her hips glaring up at me. “What were you thinking Willa? And how the hell did you manage to pick up and throw that thing into a tree? Willa you could have been killed just now” I was shouting at her, I hadn’t meant to but I had been scared to death I was going to lose her.

    “Where I come from we are taught how to handle wolves. We show them that we are the top predators and we do not back down or break eye contact. He attacked because you distracted me. I’m ready to go home now.” She was already getting into the jeep. So much for the perfect night with the perfect girl.

   I walked around to the driver’s side of the Jeep and tried to open the door to get in. The door was still jammed. “Willa the door is jammed I can’t get in from this side.” She slid out from her side and gave me room to climb through the Jeep to get behind the wheel. “Thanks.”

   Willa sat with her arms crossed in silence the rest of the way back to the Eckles house. I felt terrible. I was obviously out of my league here. The girls here would have screamed and cried if they had seen a giant black wolf coming at them in the middle of the night. There was much more to Willa then met the eye.

   “Look, I’m sorry Willa. It’s just that I’m not used to strong girls. Girls who can carry themselves in a fight and who don’t back down from a challenge. I was scared to death back there. I thought that thing was going to rip you to pieces right in front of me and there wouldn’t have been a thing I could do about it. I’m very sorry I under estimated you, and that I shouted, it won’t happen again I promise.” Willa sat quietly as I spoke. She still looked tense and had not relaxed her body.

   “Where did you get the silver tipped arrow Johnathan?” Willa hadn’t asked nicely, it was more of a suspicious accusation.

   “I found it in the back of the jeep. It was in a trunk with some others. My dad goes to a lot of auctions and buys antique stuff all the time. He must have forgot to unload it before he let me borrow the Jeep. Why?”

   “No reason. I just thought it was a strange choice in weapons. Do not most Americans use guns?” She was still being very snide with me.

  I shrugged my shoulders “I suppose they do. But like I said, my dad collects this stuff all the time. You should see his study. It’s decked out in all sorts of silver weapons and torture devices, he’s into some strange stuff. I hate going in there it’s creepy. Plus that’s where my dad typically is so I avoid it as much as possible.”

   Willa began to relax slightly. “You do not get along with your father I take it?”

   “I wouldn’t say that. It’s more like he has these expectations of me, and I have no idea what they are. He smothers me constantly. I’m not allowed to do this or do that, I can’t be friends with this person or that person. It’s like he’s keeping me on a leash at all times. I probably shouldn’t even mention this, but he flat out told me not to be your friend. He’s plain crazy. You know how parents can be.”

   Willa let her guard down. “No I do not. My parents died a long time ago when I was a baby.” This night just keeps getting worse. First I undermine her capabilities as a young woman, second I tell her my dad doesn’t want me around her, and now I brought up a subject that obviously hurt her deeply. If she never wants to see me again I wouldn’t blame her. “I’m so sorry Willa, I had no idea. This is not how I had planned this night to go. I just wanted to get to know you better. I mean I hardly know anything about you at all except that every time I look at you my heart feels like it could jump right out of my chest.”

   “Really?” She asked.

   I looked her in the eyes and said “Can you believe that I have never even had a girlfriend? There’s never been anyone like you. No one has ever made me feel anything that mattered.” I had managed to tell her all of this as we had arrived at the Eckles house and I parked the jeep.

   “I’m from Transylvania. I have an older brother that you unfortunately have met. He is very much like your father. He wants me to not be here or apart of your world. I was raised by Mihial in the Carpathian Mountains. I was home schooled for many years. When I became of age, I ran from home and enrolled as a foreign exchange student here. Your Mountains here remind me a bit of home so I thought it would not be as lonely if I came here. So far I have not been lonely, mostly thanks to you.” She smiled.

   “What happened to your parents? If you don’t mind me asking?” I was desperately hoping I wasn’t pushing her too far with my questions. Willa looked up to the night sky and was looking at the Dragon constellation as she began to speak.

   “My mother died after my younger brother had been born. I was only a year older then he, so I do not remember him. My father was murdered, by a group of men who are ruthless and spread fear among my people. They are called The Order of The Dragon.” I sat up straight, and my mouth dropped open in shock. I knew that name. I knew it all too well, and for the first time in my life I could say I knew it, unfortunately. I had to get out of here quickly. I was becoming very uncomfortable with this conversation quickly. I needed to get home and confront my father or at least sneak into his study and look through those creepy old books of his. There was no way that this could be true.

   Willa and I had much more in common than she was aware of. I on the other hand was becoming more aware of our fates as she told me of her parents. I just wasn’t sure if she knew as much as I did.

   “Willa, I’m really sorry about your family. It sounds terrible. I wish I could somehow take it all back and make things right for you, but I wouldn’t know what that would be or even where to begin.” But I did know where to begin and I needed to get home to start looking for the clues that I needed to help Willa find some sort of peace.

   “I know where you can begin” she said as she leaned over and took my face gently in her hands and pulled me close to her. She kissed me and all thoughts of avenging her family left my mind. All I was aware of now was of her and her perfect rose pink lips brushing gently against mine. I pulled her into my arms and held her tightly to me as we kissed. I was lost in time and love until the lights to the Eckles front porch flicked on and there stood Stephanie glaring at us as we very publicly made out in front of her house. We laughed and released each other. “I will call you later Johnathan. And despite all that went wrong this evening I had a wonderful time.”

   “You can definitely say it was not a dull date by any dating standards out there.” I had to admit Willa was right, even though so many things had gone wrong the night ended on a great high. One which kept me hoping the entire way home that I could eventually fully have Willa as my own.

   On my way back to my house, I kept replaying the night over and over in my head. So many things went wrong and a lot more went right.

   I was fully prepared to confront my father about this Order of the Dragon, as soon as I had enough information about it. I knew that name because it had been the name of the Order that my Great- Great-Great, Grandfather had wrote about in his famous book Dracula. Supposedly Dracula was the term used for that specific Order. The Order of the Dragon. The name Dracula and that order go hand in hand, and I wanted to know why Willa’s Father had been murdered by this Order and what it had to do with Dracula, and some fictional book my ancestor had wrote.

11.

   It was late by the time I had arrived back to my house. I pulled the Jeep into the garage and went to get out, I had forgot that the driver’s side door was jammed shut. Damn it, two accidents in one day was going to really piss my dad off. This time I was going to have to come up with a better story. I did not need him finding out that I had went on a date with the very girl he specifically forbid me to be friends with. I climbed through the jeep and exited from the passenger side. I walked around to the driver side of the Jeep to inspect the damage. The door had been pushed in by an inch, no wonder it was jammed. Its hinges were bent as well. I couldn’t even remember how it could have happened. The whole scene with the wolf attack had been a blur in the beginning.

   “Johnathan you’re home son. Come on in the house I wanted to talk to you about something.” My dad scared the living hell out of me, I hadn’t seen him standing in the shadows of the garage. He walked over and looked at the door of the Jeep then looked at me. He crossed his arms and waited for my explanation. I couldn’t think fast enough for him. “I suppose this was another deer that wrecked your car?” He said sarcastically. I hung my head and put my hands in my pockets.

    “No. It was a giant black wolf. I was driving up the mountain and it ran into the side of the Jeep. I had to wait till it left before I could come back down and bring it home.” I took the chance and looked him in the eye to see if he bought my story.

   “A giant black wolf? Like the one that had attacked Pete after the bonfire?”

   “Yes sir.”

   He turned and entered the house. I followed slowly behind. I knew if I ignored him and just went straight to my room he would be furious with me. He went straight to his study and unlocked the door, which was strange because that door was never locked. He took a seat behind his desk and waited for me to take my usual chair. Once seated he took a long deep breath and let it out slowly. He studied me closely before he spoke, that must have been when he finally noticed that I had blood on my face. He stood up so fast that his chair went sailing across the polished wooden floor.

   “How did this happen? Were you bit? Tell me NOW!” He was practically shaking as his voice rose higher and higher with rage. He was scaring me now, I hated it when he got like this. Only a handful of times has my father ever laid a hand on me and those few times were enough for me to remember to never piss him off again.

   “No, dad I promise I wasn’t bit. I got hit in the head after school by Kelly VonHolten. She had some rocks in her back pack or something. I went to the Urgent Care Docs they stitched it up, and it must have reopened when I hit my head off the Jeep when that wolf ran into me.” He started to calm down a bit.

   “Kelly did this to you, WHY?” There it was again his voice raising ten times its normal tone. I hadn’t planned an explanation for why Kelly would be hitting me, but then all of the sudden it hit me perfectly.

   “She’s declared war on me this year because I finally told her in front of the entire senior class that I want nothing to do with her not now not ever. I guess you could say this is retribution for publically humiliating her.” There it was the perfect alibi. My father could ask anyone about that and everyone would confirm that I had in fact done what I said, unless he asked Kelly herself that is. He went over and picked up his chair from where it had fallen and replaced it where it belonged then took his seat.

   “The wolf that you hit, you said you had to wait for it to leave before you could come back home. I assume then it isn’t dead. I’ll need to call the sheriff and see if we can put this beast down before anyone else gets hurt.” He paused and began to look through some papers, something caught his attention and he must have forgot that I was still in the room because he had stopped speaking to me all together. I cleared my throat to get his attention. He looked up at me to see what it was that I wanted.

   “You said you needed to talk to me?” I asked.

   “It can wait for another day. You may go. Make sure you clean that wound up before you go to bed.”

I got up to leave but then a thought had occurred to me, “Hey dad why is there a trunk in the Jeep that has a bow and silver tipped arrows?” He eyed me suspiciously.

   “I found them at an auction, they’re actually family heirlooms. They belonged to your ancestor Bram Stoker. Why?”

    “I was just curious, I happened see the box in the back of the jeep and opened it. I hope you don’t mind but I used one for target practice, I just wanted to see what it would be like to shoot a bow and arrow.” My father smiled. That’s strange, because I was sure he would have been super mad that I basically lost one of his arrows.

   “How’d you do? With the shot I mean?” he asked.

   “I was on course with it, but something got in my way.”

   “Really? That’s great news! Tomorrow we’ll start you training with it. I bet in daylight you will do much better.” He couldn’t have been happier. Things were definitely turning strange in the house of Stokes.

   I left him in his office and went directly up to my room. I went into the private bath and washed the blood out of my hair and face. I went back to my room and took the chance and sent Pete a message. ‘Need to talk a.s.a.p. things are weird here.’

   Pete hadn’t replied back. I was too wired for sleep but it was getting late and I needed to try to get some rest. My dad had made it clear we were training tomorrow, and who knew how long that would last. Just great, let’s add one more thing to my training for life list my father saw fit to assign me.

   I just wish he would one day explain to me what all this training was for. It’s not like I was planning on sticking around here after this year. I wasn’t even sure where I was going to go to college or if I even wanted to.

   A year. That’s all I really had. When you think about it, it wasn’t even really a full year. It was more like nine to ten months before you had to be ready to make the biggest decisions of your life. So far the way my father had me training I could have sworn he was going to throw me into the military. I could fight pretty decent, he made sure of that, by enrolling me in all types of self-defense classes that were held privately here at home. He had friends who would come and teach me all sorts of fighting techniques, not that I was ever really interested in it though. Then came the weapons training. I could handle pretty much any fire arm there was. Once again all privately taught. He even had me learn to throw knives one summer. I actually did enjoy those lessons.

   I was on a regime my father had created. Running five miles every day then weight training right after. I didn’t mind any of that either, like I said it helped with the sports I was in, Football, Baseball, Track, and of course skiing.

   My cell buzzed, notifying me I had a new message. I was hoping that it was Pete. It was Pete’s number but the message was not from Pete. It was from Pete’s mother.

‘John, Pete has taken a turn for the worse. Don’t come tonight, come first thing in the morning. The doctors are trying to get the fever under control. They may need to put him in an induced coma. I don’t understand it! He was supposed to come home later today. I’ll keep you posted if things get worse. Please pray for my boy.

Love ya mom2.’

   I couldn’t believe what I had read. I re-read the message several times before it sank in. I took the phone and ran down the stairs. I didn’t care what Pete’s mom had said I was going up there to be with her and Pete. I found my dad still in his study.

   “Dad I need you to drive me to hospital right now!” I shouted. I was frantic. I had to get to Pete. My father looked up at me startled. I have never yelled at my father.

  “What’s this? What’s going on, are you hurt worse than you thought, do you need more stitches?” He was asking a million and one questions and he was wasting my time.

   “No! Pete, he’s not doing well, he’s dying!” I was shouting more now. My father got up from his desk and came around to where I was standing. I shoved the phone at him to show him what Pete’s mother had sent me. His eyes flickered a brief glimpse of panic, but then he returned to the natural calm that only he could pull off in life or death situations.

   “John she clearly states that you are to stay here. There is nothing that you can do for him, you are not a doctor, and you will most likely just be in their way. I will go up and sit with Pete’s mother, but you need to get some rest yourself. You’ve taken two hard knocks to the head and I think you might be a little overwhelmed right now. I don’t want you getting sick yourself. I’m sure Pete would say the same thing. Now go on and go upstairs get some rest. I will tell your mother where I am going, and I will call you if something else happens. As soon as you are up in the morning, you come on up to the hospital.”

   There was no fighting him on this. I shook my head in agreement and stormed off to my room taking my phone with me. Just before closing the door to my room I heard my father speaking to someone on his phone.

  “Yes, I’m certain. It has started again. The boys’ mother sent my son a message, I read it for myself. Yes the fever has set in… Me too, I had hoped this just a typical wolf attack, but now we know for sure one of them is here amongst us. I’m on my way up to the hospital now to verify it. I will send word as soon as I see it for myself… you too, stay safe.” He ended the call and left the house.

Too many things weren’t adding up. A lot of strange things were going on and my gut was telling me my father was linked to all of it.