Nadya's Nights: Road to Vengeance (20 page)

Chapter Thirty-Four: Ball Room Blitz

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,” Nadya responded quickly.

The sound of the approaching werewolves grew 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 than 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, Nadya saw it 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 fired 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.  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 Nadya 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.

Far from it.

The werewolf realized his mistake as he descended towards Nadya 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.  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 shifted 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 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 jumped 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.  The werewolf grabbed hold of her ankle and yanked 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 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.

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 it meant she fell 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 slid down 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 Nadya 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, Nadya reloaded her pistols, 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.

Chapter Thirty-Five: Wolves to the Slaughter

Nadya’s eyes shot up from the partially demolished floor as she heard the pounding of another werewolf heading her way.  She looked to the open doorway they’d originally entered through just in time to see the newest threat charge through.

This one was almost the exact opposite of the previous mammoth-sized wolf they’d dealt with.  Its diminished size didn’t make it any less dangerous, as displayed by its speed.  In a flash, the creature was almost upon Nadya.

With no time to think, she did the first thing that came to mind and dropped flat to her back as the monster leapt at her.  Her sudden movement caught the creature off guard and it wound up jumping clear over her.  As it passed over, she brought up her machine gun and pulled the trigger, spraying a line of bullets along the werewolf’s body.

The creature howled in pain and slammed into the floor, flipping head over feet and leaving a trail of blood in its wake.  Flipping to her feet, Nadya turned towards the werewolf when she heard another snarl and without thinking launched herself backwards just in time to avoid a second werewolf diving towards her from another of the doorways.

Landing on her back, she used her momentum to flip her feet up over her head and performed a backflip, landing on her feet and facing the new werewolf.  This one was of a more average size – for a werewolf. One of his eyes was missing and a long scar traveled across where it would have been.  He growled and snapped his jaws at Nadya, starting towards her.

Raising the MP7 to her shoulder, Nadya squeezed the trigger.  Instead of a blast of automatic fire, there was a click that was quite loud in her ears.  Looking at the rifle, she saw it was jammed.  Her eyes flashed back to the werewolf and she could swear it grinned at her.  He moved towards her more swiftly.  Over his shoulder, Nadya saw Bridget grappling with the wounded werewolf that had leapt over her.

No help there.

Dropping the useless automatic rifle to the ground, Nadya reached to her side and grabbed hold of her katana, drawing it from its sheath and holding it out in front of her.  The werewolf stopped his advance, looking at the weapon for a moment before starting towards her again, resuming his cautious approach.

The two circled each other, staring into one another’s eyes, waiting for an opening.  The werewolf lunged first, expecting Nadya to dart in the direction she’d been moving.  Nadya, having predicted the werewolf would try the attack, jumped backwards and slashed her katana down, slashing deeply into the werewolf’s backside.  Letting out a yelp, the werewolf jumped back and put a hand to the bloody gash, glaring at her.

Nadya smirked, keeping her sword at the ready and the two continued their dance.  The second offensive maneuver was from Nadya, who feinted to the left before spinning right and swinging the katana low, slicing into the wolf’s ankle and forcing him to hop away.  The pain of the wounds caused the werewolf to lash out, but his movements were slowed a bit and easy to spot in his haste.

Easily sidestepping the beast, Nadya swung the sword downwards hard, cutting into his forearm and severing it from his body.  Now the werewolf howled, throwing himself back and falling to the floor, clutching at the stump of his arm as blood spurt from it.

Walking around her fallen foe casually, Nadya stopped when she reached his head and brought her sword up.  “Heads up, Nibbles,” she muttered before bringing the sword down and splitting the werewolf’s head down the middle.  Yanking her blade free, she saw his brains spill out as the body shrank and lost the coarse hair that covered it, leaving yet another nude corpse in the room.

Glancing to where Bridget was, Nadya saw the female werewolf ripping organs out of the smaller werewolf, prolonging its agony.

“Hey.  Four left.  Quit playing around,” Nadya called over.

Bridget looked up from her plaything then gave a nod before looking back.  She raised one of her feet up and slammed it down, crunching the small werewolf’s head into mush.

The two moved back to back, eyeing the entranceways into the room.  There was only one set of doors that had yet to be forced open, the other three having been smashed to bits.  The gaping hole above them loomed ominously and they each glanced up every few seconds to make sure they weren’t about to be blindsided from above.

The remaining door smashed inwards, revealing one of the four remaining werewolves in the hideout.  It didn’t charge into the room.  Instead, it seemed content to stand in the doorway, staring in at Nadya and Bridget.

As Nadya considered drawing one of her pistols and opening fire on the beast, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to face the second door she was keeping an eye on.  A second werewolf entered that doorway and stood staring in at them.

Looking between the two werewolves, Nadya gripped the handle of her sword tighter, waiting to see what they planned on doing.  She turned her head, glancing behind her in time to see a third werewolf entering the doorway on the other side of the room.  Turning her head to the left, to the only doorway that remained clear, and then upwards to the hole in the ceiling, she waited to see where the fourth and final werewolf would emerge.

Keeping their backs to each other, Nadya and Bridget turned with each other, keeping an eye on the three werewolves waiting just outside the ball room.  As they finished the first full circle, the fourth werewolf finally came into the empty doorway.

Nadya didn’t like the look of things.

So far, they’d been rather lucky at how the werewolves had attacked.  Facing the last four of them all at once was not something she was looking forward to, even with a werewolf of her own at her back.  The four beasts each let out long howls and Nadya steadied herself.  She’d come this far and she wasn’t about to back down.

As their howls came to an end, the four werewolves charged forward.

Deciding that being at the convergence point of all four of them was probably not the best plan, Nadya picked a target and charged right back at her.  The werewolf’s foot falls faltered a bit, clearly caught off guard by her offensive movement.  Nadya used the surprise to her advantage, sidestepping the lumbering beast and swiping her sword in under her arm, opening up a deep gash along her midsection.

The werewolf let out a roar of anger and pain and tried to spin around to slash a claw at Nadya, but she’d already gotten around her and changed directions, rushing another of the werewolves who’d taken an interest in Bridget.

Bridget had also decided to charge one of the four attacking werewolves and had locked arms with him.  They snapped their jaws at each other, trying to find a good chunk of flesh to bite into without receiving a similar blow.  The second werewolf going for Bridget was coming up from behind and didn’t notice Nadya rushing up with her sword held low until it was too late.

Catching the movement of Nadya, the werewolf turned his head as he continued to stomp towards Bridget’s exposed backside.  Planting a foot down onto the chest of one of the already dead werewolves, Nadya launched herself into the air, spinning and lashing out with her sword.  The blade caught the surprised werewolf in the mouth, splitting his top and bottom jaws apart, clean through to the back of his skull.

The top of the werewolf’s head came off, blood spewing up into the air.  His large tongue flopped wildly as the rest of his body collapsed to the ground.  Nadya landed a moment later, turned around and immediately pulled the upper half of her body backwards as the female werewolf she’d previously slashed tried to return the favor.

The clawed hand came within an inch of her face.  As the muscled arm missed her, Nadya moved forward, bringing her sword up and thrusting it forward into the werewolf’s stomach.  A pained ‘urk’ escaped the werewolf’s mouth and her eyes widened.  Smirking, she yanked the sword to the side, splitting the werewolf’s gut open.

Stumbling backwards, the werewolf brought her hands down, trying to hold in the steaming guts that spilled from her torn stomach.  The intestines splattered onto the floor and got tangled under the beast’s backpedaling legs, causing her to trip and fall to the ground.

Rushing forward, Nadya jumped up onto the werewolf’s chest and slammed the tip of her katana downwards, crunching it through the werewolf’s thick chest and spearing her heart.  Nadya gave the sword a twist, slicing the rapidly beating organ in two, and then yanked the blade free as the werewolf went limp underneath her.

Before she could check her surroundings and see where the other two werewolves were, a furred hand grabbed hold of her leg and yanked her off the dead female.  Nadya was hurled, gaining weightlessness for a moment before she slammed into the wall and dropped to the floor, her back screaming at her.

She watched the werewolf stomping towards her.  Her sword lay a good five feet away, dropped as she’d been hurled.  Wincing, Nadya turned her head and saw Bridget was still occupied with the original werewolf she’d begun grappling with.  The two were slashing at each other and smashing into furniture and walls.  Turning back to the werewolf before her, Nadya saw that he was standing right before her now, leering down at her with a look of rage.

“Mangy motherfucker…” Nadya muttered, drawing her pistols and unloading them both into the werewolf’s chest.

The expression of rage became one of surprise as the silver slugs tore through his body and he fell back to the ground in a heap.  Using the wall to help her, Nadya pushed herself back to her feet.

Across the room, the remaining werewolf gave Bridget a solid punch across the snout causing her head to snap to the side.  The werewolf followed the strike up with an uppercut, sending Bridget up into the air before slamming back down onto her back.  The victorious werewolf placed a foot down onto Bridget’s chest, pushing down hard and tilted his head back to let out a loud howl.

A single gunshot rang out, striking the werewolf under his throat before scooping out his brains and sneezing them out of the top of his head.  The beast remained standing for a few more moments before falling backwards to the floor.

Nadya looked past her smoking pistol and smirked.

Bridget climbed to her feet, nursing some deep gashes that were already starting to seal themselves up due to her increased healing ability.  Limping over to where Nadya was, she licked at the wounds she could reach.

Nadya looked up at the wolf-woman.  “Wasn’t so hard…”

Bridget looked down at her with a look of disbelief.

From above, the sound of clapping was heard.

The two looked up to the hole in the ceiling and saw Remy standing there, looking down at them with a wide grin as he clapped his hands together.  “Not bad…”  Remy stopped clapping and his grin faded as his face transformed into something more demonic.  His eyes grew red and his fangs elongated.  “But I’ve had just about enough of you…”  He extended a finger out towards Nadya.

Scooping her sword up, Nadya planted her feet firmly and looked back up at him.  “C’mon, then, asshole.  I’m right here.”