Nadya’s Nights: Road to Vengeance
Night Four: Revelations
Chapter Forty: Questions & Answers
by Indy McDaniel
Copyright © 2009 Indy McDaniel
Visions of pummeling her so-called ‘sister’ into a bloody pulp filled Nadya’s mind as she hurriedly pursued her, trying to catch up. As the main focus of her mind was devoted to creating colorful images of torture and bloodshed, her other senses were absorbing her surroundings.
Fucking floor is freezing, was at the top of those sensory perceptions.
Glancing down, she saw the floor was made of metal. The fact that she wasn’t wearing any shoes assisted in the assessment of the floor’s temperature.
In fact, this whole fucking place is freezing, came close after that.
Another part of Nadya’s mind countered that just about anyplace would be freezing when you were essentially wearing nothing more than a sheet but still conceded that it was quite a bit cooler than would normally be.
Catching up to Xenia, she matched pace with her. “Where the fuck am I?”
“M.A.D.,” Xenia replied.
“As a matter of fact, I am quite mad,” Nadya shot back. “Actually, mad doesn’t cover it. Fucking pissed beyond belief and ready to smash heads into fucking mush would be a bit more accurate.”
Xenia chuckled. “No… although, I like your visuals…” She stopped and turned to face Nadya, raising her arms to her sides to show off their surroundings which, at the moment, were comprised of a long hallway without much in the way of decorum. “This is M.A.D.”
Nadya’s response was a blank look, followed by a solitary blinking. “Motherfuckers against drunk drivers?”
“Mutually Assured Destruction,” Xenia corrected then turned and began to walk down the hall again.
“That’s a stupid name…” Nadya muttered, following along.
“Well, I didn’t think it up. I just work here.”
Nadya had never heard of the organization before and she was quite sure, with a name that lame, she would have remembered. That, combined with the fact that their place looked very high-tech and expensive, gave her a pretty good idea at how expansive the group must be.
“So… what is it you people do? Aside from hack up dead werewolves and piss me right the fuck off?”
“Don’t pretend you gave a shit about that bitch,” Xenia said, her voice going cool. “You knew her for what? Maybe two hours? A portion of that time was spent trying to kill each other.”
“You tend to bond with someone when you kill assholes together.”
A small smirk formed on Xenia’s face. “You don’t bond with anyone very quickly, regardless of who you kill with them. Case in point, your young doctor-in-training friend. Ulbrecht, isn’t it?”
Nadya’s anger flared back up at the mention of Ulbrecht’s name and only the recent memory of the effects of the shock collar kept her from attacking Xenia. “You leave him out of this.”
“Then again, maybe I’m wrong,” Xenia continued. If she sensed Nadya’s anger, she didn’t care. “After all, you risked alienating the only family you’ve known, not to mention your very life, to save him.”
Nadya’s hands were on Xenia before she could stop herself. A moment later and she had her sister pinned to the wall and a hand around her throat, gripping tightly but not tight enough to obstruct airflow.
Already, Nadya could feel a slight tingling around her neck. Her eyes glared angrily into Xenia’s. “I said… leave him out of this.”
“Mmm…” A strange smile formed on Xenia’s face. One Nadya couldn’t really figure out. It was almost as if she liked being gripped like she was. “I guess you do care about him. Interesting…”
Nadya’s fingers tightened around Xenia’s throat and the level of electricity emanating from the collar amplified. It still wasn’t enough to make her stop.
“I’d say I wouldn’t want to see my sister writhing on the ground in pain, but I am a bit of a sadist…”
Continuing to glare, Nadya released her hold on Xenia. “You’re not my sister.” She turned and started to walk down the hall again. She didn’t know where they were heading, but she didn’t want to look at the woman.
“I’m sure you’d like to believe that.”
Even the bitch’s voice was getting on her nerves, made all the worse due to her speaking Russian.
It felt like an insult.
“I’m also sure that you don’t really. What do you know about your family, Nadezhda? Our family?”
“My family…” Nadya’s voice trailed off.
If this bitch didn’t shut the fuck up soon, she was going to slam her fist into her face and take whatever punishment the fucking collar dished out to her.
“My family is Vladimir Belikov. You’re just some cunt that looks a bit like me.”
For almost a minute, Xenia was silent. Nadya was starting to think she’d gotten lucky and the bitch had decided to cut her losses. “So… you don’t remember them, then?”
Of course, she wasn’t that lucky. “Who?”
“Our parents,” Xenia said.
Nadya’s only response was to continue walking in silence.
“You’re lucky. They were a couple of pricks.”
“If they spat you out, that doesn’t surprise me.” She stopped and looked back. “Does this fucking hallway go on forever? Where are we going?”
Xenia smirked and motioned ahead. “Not much further. We had you in maximum quarantine. The bosses wanted to make sure you weren’t infected before allowing you anywhere near the fun stuff.”
“Infected? By the werewolf virus?”
“Werewolf, vampire, whatever,” Xenia shrugged. “Congratulations, you’re a hundred percent healthy. Better than healthy at the moment. Thanks to our little potion.”
The stuff in the IV bag.
Nadya turned to fully face Xenia. “What was that shit? How is it I don’t have a scratch on me anymore?”
“I was going to take you to see about that.”
“What do you do here? What the fuck is this place?”
Warning bells were starting to go off in Nadya’s head. She hadn’t liked the place to begin with – and the blonde bitch in front of her even less – but the longer she was there, the less she liked each.
“Oh, a little of this, a little of that,” Xenia said with a shrug. “You could call us an amalgamation. The Swiss Army knife of organizations. We’ve got a thousand and one uses and all of them totally badass.”
Nadya wasn’t sure if she was suddenly becoming a hypochondriac or if her veins really were starting to buzz. The more she thought about it, the more she thought she could feel the stuff they’d put in her, oozing through her and being pumped back out through her heart.
“What the fuck did you put inside me?”
Xenia sighed, looking a bit disappointed. “Well, shit, if you’re so fucking impatient about it…” She looked away, as if contemplating. “You should still have enough of the Lazarus Serum in your veins…” She shrugged and reached behind her back. “Oh well, only one way to find out.”
Nadya’s eyes widened as she watched the gun come out.
The hall was narrow and a straight shot in either direction. Nothing to hide behind. And the fucking collar around her neck made attacking a bit difficult. Still, she launched herself forward at Xenia, extending her arms outward, trying to grab hold of the gun.
If there was one edge Nadya had over her opponents, it was her speed. Some might even say it bordered on supernatural, the way she moved.
The woman before her moved just as fast and less than a second after she’d spotted the weapon, it was aimed directly at her head.
Holy fuck, Nadya thought.
She is my sister…
Then blinding light filled her vision, followed by searing pain blazing through her head.
Then nothing.
