Nadya’s Nights: Road to Vengeance
Night Two: Race for the Cure
Chapter Twenty: The Cure
by Indy McDaniel
Copyright © 2009 Indy McDaniel
Once Ulbrecht was let into the mansion, he noticed the blood seeping into the sleeve of Nadya’s shirt. He moved over to her, turning back to the American man. “What did you do to her?” he asked, glaring angrily.
“Forget about it,” Nadya said, waving it away with the arm that wasn’t currently throbbing with pain. “I’m fine. We’re here to get you fixed, remember?” She turned to the American. “And I understand time is an issue.”
The American nodded and moved past Nadya and Ulbrecht, heading for a set of double doors that were currently closed. “It is. Luckily, I’ve got everything we need in here.” He opened the door, revealing a small study. “My name is Cyrus Fuller, by the way.”
Nadya and Ulbrecht followed him into the study. Cyrus went over to a bar and opened it up, but inside wasn’t the usual collection of alcohol bottles. Instead, there was a collection of powders and herbs and strange liquids. He began to select a number of jars and set them aside.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a first aid kit around here, would you, Cy?” Nadya asked.
The man knelt down and opened up the bottom section of the bar and pulled out a kit, turning and handing it to her.
“Thanks. How bout a bathroom?”
Cyrus started to open the jars and remove precise amounts of their contents. “Down the hall, on the right.”
She turned away and headed for the door with the first aid kit. She noticed Ulbrecht standing near the door, looking uncertain and nervous. She tried to give him a reassuring smirk but it was difficult through the aches her body was giving her.
“Relax. We made it.” Then she left the room and started to search out the bathroom. She had to try a couple doors before she finally found it. She entered and shut the door behind her. The door had an old-fashioned skeleton key-style locking mechanism and since she didn’t have the key, she couldn’t lock it.
Hoping there weren’t any other visitors in the house to come bumbling into the bathroom while she was treating herself, she turned away from the door and tugged her shirt up over her head. Dropping it to the floor, she looked at her shoulder. There was a fair amount of blood seeping from the gunshot wound but it didn’t seem too bad.
She popped the kit open and took out an anti-septic wipe, tearing the packaging open and pulling it out. She wiped the wound clean before slapping a bandage over top of it. Finding some low-grade painkillers in the kit, she tossed four into her mouth then shoved her head into the sink and drank a good bit of water. After that, Nadya retrieved her shirt and slipped it back on. Disposing of the trash and closing up the kit, she left the bathroom and headed back to the study.
She returned just in time to see Cyrus filling a syringe with a strange concoction. “What the fuck is that?” Nadya asked, eyeing the stuff dubiously.
Ulbrecht had moved over to a chair and sat down, but he still looked quite nervous.
Cyrus turned to Nadya, holding up the syringe. “Stage one of the cure.” He then turned to Ulbrecht. “This is gonna hurt… a lot.” He motioned to a small couch sitting against one wall. “You might want to lie down, actually.”
Ulbrecht looked from Cyrus to the needle then over to Nadya then back to Cyrus. Finally, he stood and moved over to the couch. Cyrus followed him over and Nadya moved up behind the two of them, watching.
“Roll up your sleeve, please,” Cyrus said to Ulbrecht. He did but his eyes were back on the needle.
“I hate needles…” Ulbrecht muttered.
“Toughen up,” Nadya said. “You’re supposed to be a doctor.”
“I don’t have a problem sticking other people with needles,” he said.
Cyrus brought over a small piece of wood and handed it to Ulbrecht. “You’ll want to bite down on that.”
Ulbrecht took it and placed it in his mouth, then lay back and waited for the injection, averting his eyes from the needle. Cyrus knelt down next to him, bringing the needle up and stabbing it into the flesh of Ulbrecht’s arm and pushing the plunger down.
Ulbrecht’s reaction was instantaneous.
His teeth clamped down into the wood and he let out a scream of agony. His body tensed up and his back arched away from the couch.
Nadya winced as she watched him writhe in pain. “Is that normal?”
Cyrus nodded.
He’d already removed the needle before Ulbrecht’s movements could break it off inside his arm. Ulbrecht pounded a fist against the side of the couch several times, let out another howl of pain, then collapsed unconscious onto the couch.
At first, Nadya thought he’d died, but she quickly noticed his rapid breathing and let out a sigh of relief.
Cyrus moved past her, back over to the bar, starting to mix up another concoction.
She turned to him. “How many stages are there to this cure?”
“Several,” he said. “The werewolf virus can be pretty tenacious. He should be out for a while. Once he wakes up, he’ll need a good meal and lots of water. Then it’ll be time for stage two.”
She sighed, looking down at her boots. “I hope this works…”
If it didn’t, she’d have put Ulbrecht through a whole lot of pain for nothing, which would make his fate really no better then if she’d left him with Vladimir. The only major difference was, at least this way there was a chance of curing him and keeping him alive.
“I need a smoke.”
“There’s a patio out back where you can do that,” Cyrus said, continuing to work on stage two of the cure.
Nadya left the study and found the patio with relative ease. She shut the door behind her and pulled out her smokes, popping one between her lips and lighting it up. She took a long drag and looked up into the night sky.
The pain meds were starting to kick in and her throbbing body parts were starting to ache a bit less. It had been a long night and it still wasn’t over yet. She’d managed to get Ulbrecht where he needed to be to get help, but there were still so many other things that could go wrong that she wasn’t feeling much relief at their arrival. Her nerves were still very much on edge.
She felt a light breeze against her backside. She sensed more than just a gentle shift of the air was the cause. Reaching down into her waistband, she grabbed hold of her pistol and pulled it free, spinning around.
As she brought the gun up, Remy grabbed hold of her wrist and twisted it. Nadya cried out and released the gun. It clattered to the stones below and discharged, firing a round harmlessly into the darkness. Remy grinned at her, showing off his fangs. She flicked her cigarette up into his face, nailing him right in one of his eyes. He released her and stumbled back, growling and wiping at his face.
“Whore!” he snarled before backhanding her across the face and sending her slamming into the glass door leading back into the mansion. The glass shattered and Nadya fell through, gaining several cuts along the way. She laid half inside, half outside of the mansion, letting out a groan of pain.
Cyrus came running when he heard the gunshot and caught sight of Remy grabbing hold of Nadya’s ankle and dragging her back out of the mansion. “Hey!” he yelled.
Remy yanked the Russian girl to her feet and slammed his forehead into her’s. Sharp pain streaked through Nadya’s head before darkness consumed her and she went limp in Remy’s arms. The vampire tossed her over his shoulder, flipped the approaching American the finger, then darted into the darkness.
Cyrus reached the broken door and jumped through it, chasing after Remy but by the time he made it into the backyard, he’d already lost sight of the vampire.
