Nadya’s Nights: Road to Vengeance
Night Two: Race for the Cure
Chapter Twelve: Waking Up
by Indy McDaniel
Copyright © 2009 Indy McDaniel
Nadezhda Valentina’s eyes fluttered open.
She found herself looking up at a white ceiling. Her brain was foggy with a drug-induced haze and it made it hard for her to remember where she was. She started to push herself up and felt her left arm throb. She looked over and saw clean bandages wrapping around her shoulder.
Self-consciousness and suspicion crept into her as she realized she was only wearing her underwear. It started to clear as ever so slowly her mind allowed her to remember the events that had occurred the night before.
From the bar brawl to the Summoner she’d eliminated and her blobby bodyguard. Then there were the next wave of assholes that’d come for her and the werewolf who’d been such a persistent pain in the ass.
She also remembered the young doctor-in-training who had saved her life more than once. The thought of him brought a brief smirk to her lips.
She looked around the room and recognition and safety flooded into her.
She was home.
Vladimir Belikov’s estate where she’d lived from the age of thirteen until just recently.
They’d come to the estate after Nadya had taken out the werewolf. Her and Ulbrecht, the doctor.
Well, medical student for sure. He was too young to be a full doctor.
They had been battered, bruised, and exhausted by the time they’d arrived. They’d been split up to receive medical attention and that had been the last time she’d seen him.
After getting patched up and having a short chat with Vladimir, she’d come back to her room to find it just as she’d left it. The only sign that anyone had been in there since was the total lack of dust. Vlad had apparently been keeping the room tidy in case she stopped in for the night.
She’d stripped down, got under the covers and allowed the pain medication to take over and surrendered to slumber. Now she was awake again and looking over at the clock on the nightstand.
The sun would just be setting.
Definitely time to get up.
She shoved the covers away and sat up on the edge of the bed, looking down at her body. She’d acquired more then a few wounds over the course of the previous night and the various bandages she wore were evidence of it. There was the thick bandage over her shoulder.
That wound she remembered well. It was the first time she’d taken a bullet. She’d been grazed a few times, but never had anyone put a round through her body. She absently rubbed at the bandage where the exit wound was, above and to the left of her breast. Any lower and it would’ve crippled her lung.
Lucky.
On the other arm, about midway down, was a smaller bandage covering where another bullet had grazed her. That one was nowhere near as bad. She couldn’t even feel it. Nor could she remember exactly how she’d gotten it. At some point during her raid on the safehouse, but that was all she could remember.
Her jaw felt stiff and a little swollen and she remembered the hard knock she’d received from the werewolf. Again, luck was on her side. The Hunter who’d tried to assist her in killing the beast had received a similar blow and had lost her head. Nadya didn’t think her jaw was even broken, just mightily bruised.
More bandages were wrapped tightly around her ribs. The reason was evident as she drew in a deep breath and felt the bones shift slightly, causing her pain.
She attempted to stand and almost fell face first onto the carpeted floor. Instead, she dropped to a kneeling stance, letting out a yelp of pain. She placed a hand over her bruised right knee. The ribs and the knee were yet more wounds from her encounter with the werewolf.
Crashing an armored car into a creature that was nearly three hundred pounds of muscle was bound to put a few dents into a person. Clenching her teeth, she managed to stand and limp towards a small vanity set up next to the bed.
Sitting in the chair in front of the vanity, Nadya looked into the mirror and saw the side of her jaw bruised and swollen. She wouldn’t have to worry about drunken assholes trying to get into her pants for a little while it seemed. Noticing some smaller wounds along the left side of her face, she leaned forward and examined herself more closely.
They looked like burns.
Confusion crossed her face and she looked down to her left arm to see more of the wounds on her hand. Then the memory came back to her. The narrow escape down the alley in Ulbrecht’s Benz. The sparks had scorched her. The burns didn’t look too bad though. If they scarred at all, they’d hardly be noticeable.
She spotted a bottle of painkillers on the vanity with a glass of water next to it. She took three and chugged down all the water.
Pushing herself back up, she hobbled over to the nearby dresser. She leaned heavily against it as she pulled open drawers and got some clean clothes. She was a little surprised to find more then what she remembered leaving behind when she moved out.
Vladimir must have had one of the maids go shopping for her to give her more of a choice of outfits. She took out a few things that appealed to her then turned and headed for the adjoining bathroom.
If anything, the bathroom was even cleaner then she’d left it. The tile was practically sparkling. She set her clean clothes down on the lid of the toilet and grabbed a towel from the stack, setting it on top of the clothes. There was a laundry hamper waiting for any dirty clothes to be deposited into it. At the moment it was empty.
Nadya reached behind herself with her right arm and worked the clasp of her bra, getting it undone and letting it slide down her arms. She tossed the bra into the hamper then reached down, hooking her thumbs into the waistband of her panties and sliding them down her legs about halfway before letting them fall the rest of the way. She stepped out of them then bent forward and picked them up, tossing them into the hamper as well.
She glanced behind her and noticed the bathroom door was still open. She pushed it closed and flipped the deadbolt to the locked position. Then she turned back to the large, marble tub and pulled the shower curtain back. She reached and twisted the knobs to get the water running. She held her hand under the running water until it warmed up to her satisfaction then flicked the shower on.
She moved back to the sink and took a small pair of grooming scissors from a glass sitting beside the sink. She used the small tool to snip through her bandages, tossing them into a nearby wastebasket. Once they were gone, she surveyed her damage more closely. The wound near her left shoulder was a small round hole, a bit inflamed. Her midsection was also badly bruised where she’d cracked her ribs. The graze on her right arm was just as she’d suspected, barely noticeable.
Stepping into the tub, the Russian girl felt the warm spray of water start to collide with her body and let out a soft moan of relief. She tilted her head forward into the water and let it run through her blonde hair, washing through it and plastering it to her forehead.
For a few minutes, she just let the water flow over her. It washed the grime and sweat of the previous night off of her and down the drain. Then she reached over and grabbed a brand new bar of soap and started to wash herself more thoroughly. After she finished with that, she washed her hair then shut the shower off.
Getting out of the tub, she grabbed the towel and dried herself off. She started to put the clean clothes on, sliding into a fresh pair of panties before putting a new bra on and clasping it. Doing it one-handed was a bit tricky, but she managed. Then she grabbed a pair of cargo shorts and sat down on the toilet to put them on, minding her bruised knee. She grabbed her shirt last, a long-sleeved button up shirt. Slipping it on, she buttoned it up all the way then went to the sink to brush her teeth and comb her hair.
When Nadya exited the bathroom, she was limping a bit less and she looked a lot more refreshed.
As she came back into her bedroom, she heard a knock at the door and went over. She opened the door and found one of the maids there. She was a young woman, about Nadya’s age, with straight red hair pulled into a bun. She was wearing a bright smile.
“Mr. Belikov asked me to come see if you felt up to having dinner.”
Nadya nodded, feeling sudden hunger flair up inside her.
When was the last time she’d eaten?
She couldn’t immediately recall, so it had to have been a while. “I’ll be down in a couple minutes.”
The maid nodded and started to turn away.
“What about Ulbrecht?” Nadya asked.
The maid turned back to her, a blank look on her face. “Who?”
“The guy I came here with,” she said. “The doctor.”
“Oh!” Confusion left the maid’s face. “He’s in quarantine.”
“Why?”
“He was infected by that werewolf you killed last night,” the maid explained. “He had several scratches along his back.”
Dread filled Nadya.
Quarantine was just a friendly way of saying he was locked up until the virus took full effect. And then he’d either be broken to serve Vladimir or, if that didn’t work, executed. Werewolves were notoriously hard to train, especially young ones.
Ulbrecht didn’t deserve either fate, as far as Nadya was concerned.
But what to do?
There’d be no convincing Vladimir of doing anything different. If it didn’t work for him, he didn’t want to take a chance of it working against him. That left only one other option, as far as she could tell.
Break Ulbrecht out of quarantine and leave the only place she truly felt safe, most likely forever. Betraying Vlad in such a way would most likely end badly for her. It was uncharacteristically stupid of her to even consider doing such a thing, but it was the only solution she could think of.
She’d heard rumors about a cure. A werewolf cure.
If she could find it and give it to Ulbrecht then maybe Vladimir wouldn’t care so much about what she was planning on doing.
At least, that’s how she was hoping it would play out.
