Nadya’s Nights: Road to Vengeance
Night Three: Settling Scores
Chapter Thirty-Three: Ball Room Blitz
by Indy McDaniel
Copyright © 2009 Indy McDaniel
Bridget led Nadya into the ballroom. As advertised, it was large with a wide-open space in the middle that would give the two of them plenty of room to cause some damage. Entering the middle, the two looked to the four entrances to the room. Nadya didn’t much like having so many ways in. They’d both have to stay alert to make sure no one snuck up behind them as they were fighting.
Bridget turned to her. “You know they’re gonna come in full glory, right?”
Nadya gave a nod. She’d expected as much.
It wouldn’t be the first time she’d had to face a full werewolf, but it would be the first time she’d face so many in their harrier states at the same time.
One down, nine to go.
“Look,” Bridget said. “I’m pretty good at fighting, but unarmed against them, the only chance I’m gonna have is if I stretch out a bit, too.”
Whether Bridget was trying to get an edge on Nadya or she was being sincere, it didn’t much matter. “Do it,” the Russian responded quickly.
The sound of the approaching werewolves was growing louder. Her eyes darted from one door to the next; waiting to see which one would be smashed open first.
Behind her, she heard the sound of stretching skin and tearing fabric. Bridget grunted and groaned as her body deformed and grew. Somewhere along the way, the woman’s groans became more guttural growls. Nadya glanced back and saw a full-sized werewolf right behind her.
Now Bridget was almost a full two feet taller then Nadya. Her fur was a darker shade of red than her hair had been but her eyes were still that same shade of green. Nadya kept staring at her, waiting to see if the wolf-woman was going to attack her. Bridget stared back, but didn’t make any hostile moves. Then the sound of wood splintering diverted both of their attentions.
The door they’d come through was being forced open. Already, a hole had been torn through the wood and a thick, hairy arm had been shoved through, grabbing at the handle.
Nadya raised her pistols, ready to start shooting as soon as the beast broke through. Then she heard pounding against the door behind her. She turned her head quickly, confirming that another werewolf was at that entrance as well. Already, Bridget stalked towards the second door, waiting for her chance to pounce the werewolf on the other side.
Turning back to the original door as there was a loud crack, Nadya saw the door being smashed inward and had to dive to the side as it came flying past her. Rolling to her feet, Nadya turned the top half of her body towards the werewolf who was already charging her. His head was low, mouth hanging open. Saliva slopped down from his fangs and his eyes flashed with hunger and rage. Nadya began to fire at the monster, watching small red holes opening up over his thick arms and torso.
The werewolf howled in pain, but continued to charge. If anything, he sped up. One of her guns clicked empty and the werewolf was still coming at her. Dropping the empty pistol and grabbing the remaining one with both hands to steady her aim, she tried to spot a good shot. She wasn’t sure how many bullets she had left in the gun and she wouldn’t have time to reload or grab for another weapon before the werewolf was on her.
So she waited for a sure thing.
The werewolf mistook Nadya’s lack of shooting for being scared stiff. Rising from his low running position, the beast leapt high into the air, intending to slam down on the small girl and snap his jaws down over her head. As he leapt, he extended his arms outwards in an attempt to make himself look even larger and frighten her more.
She wasn’t frightened, though.
Far from it.
And the werewolf realized his mistake as he descended towards the petite Russian and saw the triumphant smirk on her face a moment before he saw the barrel of her gun aimed right at his exposed chest.
If he’d been able to form words in his current form, the werewolf would have muttered a resigned, “Fuck…”
As it was, all he could do was let out a loud snarl as Nadya unloaded the last two rounds in her pistol directly into his chest and clean through his rapidly beating heart.
The silver caused the organ to practically explode in his chest and by the time he smashed into the floor where Nadya had been only a moment before, he was well on the way to being a corpse.
As Nadya rose to her feet, she turned and saw that her attacker was already into his transformation back to human form. With a flurry of speed, she reloaded the pistol she was still holding and quickly snatched up the one she’d tossed aside and slammed a fresh magazine into it as well.
Confirming the first werewolf was dead she looked over to where Bridget was, just in time to watch her rip the head off the werewolf that had come through the second door.
Blood spurt from the second werewolf’s neck as its twitching corpse dropped to the floor. Bridget hurled the severed head at the nearby wall and it hit with a sickening crunch, leaving a smear of blood and brain matter before the pulped skull fell to the floor.
The headless werewolf also began to shift back to its original human form, revealing a girl roughly Nadya’s size. The hair on her severed head that wasn’t soaked with blood was cropped short and dyed bright blue.
Nadya gave Bridget a brief thumbs up, then turned away, covering the door that had already been smashed open.
It was empty for now.
Running low on ammo for her pistols, Nadya holstered them and drew her machine gun from her hip. Placing the butt of the stock against her shoulder, she held the gun at the ready, waiting for any targets to present themselves.
There should be seven more to kill, she thought.
Behind her, Bridget also waited, licking at the blood that now stained her muzzle and keeping her emerald eyes on the two doors she was covering.
Suddenly, from above them, a huge chunk of ceiling came crashing down. Both Nadya and Bridget dove out of the way and spun back around to face the third werewolf to enter the room.
He was even bigger than the others.
There was really no such thing as a small werewolf, but this one made the others look like babies in comparison.
Bridget lunged at him and he turned, backhanding her and sending her flying into and through a wall. Then he turned to Nadya, growling and snapping his jaws at her.
“Ah, shit…” Nadya said, gripping her machine gun tighter and taking aim.
The thing must have been at least twelve feet tall and maybe eight feet wide. As big as the room was, with him in it, there wasn’t a whole lot of room left.
Swiping one of his long arms out at Nadya, she was forced to jump back and squeezed the trigger on her gun, putting a few rounds into his outstretched hand. The werewolf yanked his hand back, letting out a yelp of pain.
At least I can make him cry, she thought. Maybe he’s just a big baby…
Just then, the hulking werewolf slammed both of his fists down into the floor, shattering the wood and sending a massive shock wave outwards. Nadya let out a surprised yell as she was thrown from her feet, landing on her back hard and feeling the air knocked out of her.
Coughing and trying to regain her senses, she rolled over onto her hands and knees. She felt the werewolf grab hold of her ankle and yank her towards him. The machine gun fell free from her hands and she made a desperate grab for it that came up short.
A moment later, she was being lifted up into the air by her ankle.
Thoughts of her encounter with the blob creature came back to her. This time she didn’t have a bunch of grenades to hurl at the monster attacking her, though.
The werewolf lifted her high into the air, tilting his head back and opening his maw wide, revealing sharp, glistening fangs and a large, red tongue flicking with anticipation. For a monster as big as him, Nadya would be no more than an appetizer, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t looking forward to seeing how she’d taste.
“Not today, Fido,” Nadya said, reaching up and grabbing the pistols out of her shoulder holsters. She extended them up… or rather down… over her head, right into the werewolf’s open mouth. Starting to fire, Nadya didn’t stop until the grip on her ankle loosened.
The problem with that was now she was falling right into the werewolf’s bloody mouth. She managed to grab hold of his snout as her lower body dangled over his jaws and into his mouth. Gripping hold of his fur hard, she flipped her legs up backwards, doing a back flip just as the werewolf snapped his mouth shut.
Landing fully on the werewolf’s snout, Nadya began to slide down it towards the top of his head. She saw his large, angry eyes locked on her and lifted her pistols as she grew closer.
Jamming the barrels of both guns into each of the beast’s eyes, Nadya emptied the rest of her bullets into them. With a howl of pain, the werewolf flailed wildly, successfully knocking the small Russian girl free of his head and sending her falling to the ground.
Nadya managed to hit the ground in a way that didn’t cause her too much pain and scrambled to her feet, wanting to put as much distance as possible between herself and the blinded giant werewolf.
She didn’t realize until she saw a reddish blur shoot past her that she’d gone in the direction of the wall Bridget had been thrown through. Turning back around, she saw the female werewolf latched onto the larger werewolf’s back, clawing at him heavily and snapping her jaws down on his thick neck.
Nadya wasn’t sure what Bridget was trying to do, as her attacks seemed to be, at best, only aggravating the bigger werewolf. It wasn’t until Bridget managed to get her teeth firmly sunk into the other werewolf’s neck and her clawed feet dug into his lower back that her plan became clear.
Pulling one arm back, Bridget slammed it forward. Her claws tore through the mammoth werewolf’s back and he let out another massive howl as Bridget’s hand disappeared inside him. The red-furred werewolf felt around inside, as if trying to find something, before gripping it firmly and yanking backwards.
Nadya couldn’t help smiling at the brilliant maneuver Bridget had pulled off, watching the female werewolf drop free from the larger male, holding his still beating heart in her hand. The big werewolf stumbled forward and collapsed to the ground, sending another shock wave through the hideout. Being more prepared for it this time, Nadya managed to stay on her feet.
Bridget pulped the large heart in her hand and threw it to the ground, giving it an extra stomp for good measure. Nadya watched the massive werewolf as he reverted to human form, wondering just how big the guy really was.
As the transformation finished, Nadya found herself staring in shock at the dead man. He couldn’t have been any taller than she was, and he was flabby.
Thoroughly confused as to how werewolves worked now, Nadya reloaded her pistols once more, noticing that she only had one extra magazine for each one left. She holstered them and snagged her machine gun from the ground.
Six more to go.
Nadya hoped that there weren’t any more extra-huge ones lurking around. It was bad enough that now they had to keep an eye on the gaping hole in the ceiling as well as the four doors that surrounded them.
What’s next? Is one gonna come up from the floor?
She cursed herself for even thinking it, letting her eyes drift down to the partially destroyed floor, waiting for something to burst up from it.
