Nadya’s Nights: Road to Vengeance
Night One: A Hard Night’s Work
Chapter Ten: A Little Help
by Indy McDaniel
Copyright © 2009 Indy McDaniel
Slamming on the breaks, Nadya brought the battered Benz to a screeching halt in front of the address Vladimir had sent them to.
The area was desolate. She was wondering if she’d heard the address correctly when she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye and looked out onto the street to see a lone figure standing in the middle of the road.
A woman, by the looks of it.
Another assassin sent to kill her?
Or Vladimir’s back up?
She popped the door open and got out, her pistol held ready to fire at the first sign of hostility. The woman looked back at her. She was older than Nadya, maybe thirty, with straight black hair cropped even with her jaw line. She was wearing a black duster that could have hidden numerous weapons. Her eyes were just as hard as Nadya’s.
Whoever she was, she’d done some killing.
“Where’s the wolf?” the woman asked. She spoke with a British accent.
Nadya raised an eyebrow. The backup, apparently.
She was about to remark what good one lone woman would do to help kill the beast tracking her but refrained. After all, she’d killed more than her fair share of assholes for the night.
She motioned back down the street they’d come up. “Probably on its way here. Along with a van of assholes armed to the teeth.”
“They’ll be yours,” the woman stated. “I’ll deal with the beast.” She pushed her duster aside and withdrew a large handgun, raising it up and pulling the slide back to chamber a round. She’d be packing silver ammunition. That alone caused Nadya to relax.
But only slightly.
The Russian nodded. “Fair enough.” She turned back to the car, looking in at Ulbrecht, who was still sitting inside. “You might want to get out of there. You know, in case they decide to blow up the car or something.”
He got out, still carrying the extra weapons she’d scavenged off their pursuers.
Nadya looked back at the woman with the very large pistol. “Who are you, anyway?”
“Samantha Bethany Carter,” she replied, her voice as cold as it was firm. “Hunters Guild. European Branch.”
“How much does Vladimir pay you?” Nadya asked, somewhat sarcastically. She couldn’t hide the smirk on her face.
“Quite a bit,” Carter deadpanned.
Before there was time for any more small talk, Nadya heard the sound of speeding automobiles and turned to see two cars moving down the street towards them.
She looked over at Ulbrecht. “Take a gun and take cover,” she said. “You stick your head out and get it shot off, it’s your own fucking problem.”
He nodded and set the extra guns on the hood of the Benz, taking one for himself and heading into a nearby alley.
Nadya walked over and picked up another of the pistols then went to stand in the street next to Carter, slightly in front of her. The cars continued their approach.
There was no sign of the werewolf.
The cars, driving side by side, screeched to a halt about ten feet away from where the two women stood. Wasting no time, Nadya raised her guns and started firing. The shots were deflected from the armored cars easily and she stopped shooting.
“Cocksuckers…” she cursed.
The doors on the cars opened and men started pouring out, carrying a wide range of projectile weaponry. The only thing Nadya didn’t see was a crossbow. Some took cover behind the armored doors of the car they exited and began to open fire.
Both Nadya and Carter took off running, heading in opposite directions. Nadya returned fire, although she didn’t have time to aim very well and was fairly certain she wasn’t hitting anything. She ducked behind the Benz, hearing more bullets ping off the exterior of the car.
No doubt, the situation sucked total ass.
The Russian didn’t know where the monster hunter had run off to and she didn’t count on her help. She raised the pistols up over the top of the Benz and fired a few more rounds at the assholes in the armored cars. Again, she was sure she didn’t cause any significant damage to anyone.
“Fuck this…” she muttered then crouched low and ran to the other side of the Benz, popping up from the rear of the car which put her alongside one of the armored autos.
Lifting her guns, she fired at the men that she now had a clear shot at. A couple cried out and fell back as bullets struck them, but the rest adjusted their aim on her and started firing again.
Ducking down, she realized one of her guns was empty. She waited for a break in the firing then stood again and hurled it at one of the men. She saw it slam into the knuckles of his hand and make him drop his own gun. She pointed her other gun at him and fired, hitting him in the chest and bettering the odds in her favor by one more point.
The other pistol was now empty as well, so she hurled it at another man as she leapt over the dented trunk of the Benz and charged the remaining men in the first car.
The second thrown pistol smashed into the goon’s knee and made him cry out and shift the aim of his rifle enough to send his fired shot wide of the girl rushing him. She leapt up, stretching her legs outward and her upper torso back, smashing both her feet into the man’s face and knocking him back into the backseat of the car.
His rifle fell and Nadya managed to grab hold of it while still airborne. Her forward momentum sent her flying into the backseat of the car, sitting right in front of the men on the other side. She lifted the rifle and sent a burst into the one in front of her and then aimed over the front seat to shoot the driver as well.
The men from the second car were stunned at her rapid movements, but not too stunned to aim their guns at her. She hooked her foot around the door handle of the open back door and pulled it closed just in time to deflect a barrage of fire. She scooted backwards, out of the door she’d entered through and rolled over to land on her feet in a crouch.
She crept up to the front of the car then burst upwards, resting the barrel of the rifle on the hood and firing along the length of the car on the other side, taking out the row of men standing along side it.
Her odds were getting better by the moment.
Then she felt the barrel of a gun pressing into the side of her head. She glanced over to see one of the assholes had somehow snuck past and rounded the opposite side of the car. She froze, trying to see an opening to somehow move out of the way of the gun or disarm the man.
Nadya winced as she heard a gunshot.
But there was no pain. And she was fairly certain she wasn’t dead.
The man holding the gun on her stumbled to the ground, blood soaking through his shirt.
Behind him, Nadya spotted Ulbrecht, holding the pistol he’d taken. A trail of smoke was creeping out of the end of the barrel.
“Good job,” she told him then turned back to the second car.
It looked as if the rest of the men were dead. She heard a groan from beside her and looked over to see the man she’d kicked coming around. She pulled the rifle back and smashed the butt of it down into his throat. The man made a strangled sound and his eyes went wide as he tried to breathe. She smashed the butt of the rifle into his throat again – harder – and there was a cracking sound.
The man went limp.
Nadya heard clapping and snapped around, bringing the rifle to her shoulder.
Carter was emerging from the side of one of the buildings, a smirk on her face. “Fine killing,” she said. “Very well done. We could use someone with your skills at the Guild.”
The Russian rolled her eyes. “Already got a job. Thanks, though.”
“If you reconsider…” she started to say.
A low growl filled the air.
Nadya’s eyes widened as she saw the hulking beast emerge behind Carter. The British woman saw Nadya’s expression, knowing that she’d been effectively snuck up on. Her hand reached back into her duster and pulled the large pistol free. She spun to face the werewolf, lifting the gun in front of her, but she didn’t move fast enough.
Nadya watched in shock as the monster lashed out at the woman with one of his enormous clawed hands, slamming it into the side of her head. There was a nasty tearing sound and then the woman no longer had a head.
Well, she did… It just wasn’t attached to the rest of her body anymore.
Nadya watched the severed head fly through the air before slamming into the ground and rolling into the gutter. Carter’s headless body was still standing in front of the beast, as if so surprised by the sudden decapitation that she didn’t realize she was dead.
Blood spurt from the neck stump, spraying the werewolf, who opened his jaws and extended its tongue to lap at the warm fluid. Carter’s body dropped to her knees. A moment later, she fell backwards onto her back, twitching slightly as more of her blood pumped out onto the ground.
So much for the backup, Nadya thought as the werewolf turned to face her.
