Nadya's Nights: Road to Vengeance (6 page)

Chapter Eight: Narrow Escape

Nadya ran back into Ulbrecht’s apartment, bending down to scoop up one of the dead goons’ pistols and shoving it into the waist of her pants.  She grabbed her jacket off the table and slung it on then headed for the open window.

She stood on the fire escape outside the window.  The hard metal dug into her feet and she realized she’d forgotten to grab her boots.  Looking through the window, she saw the werewolf move into the apartment’s doorway.  His head turned and he looked straight at her.

No time to go back for them now.

She turned and started down the fire escape as quickly as she safely could.  She saw Ulbrecht below her, just about to the ground level.  Once he reached it, he stopped and looked back up to her.  His expression told her that he wasn’t sure what to do next.

She didn’t have time to give him any hints.  She was too busy concentrating on not falling down the steps and breaking her neck.  Up above, glass shattered and bricks crumbled.  She didn’t look up but the expression on Ulbrecht’s face told her enough.  The werewolf wanted onto the fire escape as well.

A moment later, the metal scaffolding shook hard and made Nadya stumble.  She was close enough to the ground so she leapt over the side of the railing and landed on the sidewalk beside Ulbrecht.  She hazarded a glance back and saw the beast on the fire escape, looking down at her.

“Got a car?” she asked Ulbrecht.

He nodded.

“Well, move it!”  She gave him a shove and he took off.

“My keys…” Ulbrecht said, looking back at her helplessly.

“Don’t worry about it!” Nadya yelled back.  “Just get us to the fucking car!”

The ground shook underneath her feet and she glanced back, seeing the werewolf rising from a large crack of crumbled bricks where he had landed.  The beast turned to the pair and started towards them at a running pace.  He was much faster than either of them and it was abundantly clear that he would reach them before they could get to the car.

Nadya selected a few choice Russian expletives and turned to face the monster, backpedaling as she lifted the shotgun to her shoulder.  She was willing to bet none of the goons had been packing silver ammunition.  She just hoped that the firepower would be enough to slow the creature down.

She fired the shotgun at the werewolf and watched a spray pattern speckle his chest, drawing some blood but barely slowing him.  She pumped the weapon and aimed lower.

Firing again, she was rewarded with a howl of pain as one of the werewolf’s knees was destroyed.  The monster stumbled forward, slamming into the ground and rolling a few times.  She hoped the wound would buy them enough time.

Turning, she ran after Ulbrecht.  He’d managed to cover a good deal of ground.  He stopped next to an older model Mercedes Benz and pointed to it.

“It’s locked.  How are we -?”

Nadya moved past him and slammed the butt of the shotgun into the window, shattering it.

Ulbrecht didn’t even bother finishing his sentence.

She reached in, unlocked the car, opened the door, and jumped in.

Ulbrecht moved around to the other side, getting in the passenger seat.

“Catch.”  She tossed him the shotgun and ducked under the dash, yanking at wires.

Outside, the werewolf had gotten to his feet.  The nasty wound in his leg was rapidly healing.  In a few moments he charged towards the Benz.  Ulbrecht saw the creature but Nadya was too busy trying to get the car hotwired.

“It’s coming,” he told her.

“Fucking shoot it!” Nadya replied, hands full of wires.  “Fucking Benz’s… pain in the ass to hot wire…”

Ulbrecht raised the shotgun to his shoulder and aimed over Nadya’s back and out the broken window at the rapidly approaching werewolf.  He pulled the trigger.

And nothing happened.

He looked at the weapon, confused.  “What’s wrong with it?”

“Pump it!” she yelled.  “Doctors… I swear…” she added under her breath in Russian.

He pumped the shotgun and aimed again.  The werewolf was only about ten feet away.  He pulled the trigger a second time and the weapon roared and bucked in his hands, nearly jumping free.

The shot hit the werewolf in his right shoulder and spun him half to the side, but he kept coming.

Five feet away from the Benz, the werewolf lowered his shoulder, intent on ramming the vehicle.  The car came to life and Nadya sat up, slamming her foot down on the gas pedal as she extended a middle finger to the beast.  The tires squealed for an instant then caught tread and the car sped forward.

Instead of smashing into the driver door, the werewolf creamed the rear corner, putting a large dent in the side and destroying the left taillight.  The car skidded sideways but kept moving forward.  Nadya kept her foot on the accelerator and sped down the road, glancing in the rear view mirror to see the werewolf giving chase.  She skidded around a corner and continued to speed.  The werewolf kept after them.

Driving fast and hard, she took turns much more recklessly than any sane driver would.  She figured there weren’t too many drivers who would drive sanely while being chased by a giant wolf-creature so she didn’t let it bother her too much.

After a lot of speed and tight turns, she no longer saw the werewolf behind them.  She slowed down – slightly – but kept putting distance between themselves and the creature chasing them.  She looked over at Ulbrecht, who seemed in a perpetual state of shock.

“That was…” he started to say.

“Werewolf,” she finished for him.  “Cell phone?”

Ulbrecht blinked and looked over at her.

“A cell phone.  Do you have one?”

He reached into his pocket and pulled one out, handing it to her.

She took it and dialed Vladimir, putting it to her ear.

I’m getting pretty pissed off at this night.  Taking out a building full of guards and a Summoner is one thing.  Hell, that was a cakewalk compared to Billy Blob the fucking tentacle demon.  But now, after all that shit, I have to deal with a goddamn werewolf?

Nadezhda Valentina was not pleased.

Vlad answered on the third ring.  She didn’t announce herself or even let him say anything.

“They sent a fucking werewolf!”

“You got away alright?” he asked.

“No shit!” she yelled into the phone.  “Did you hear me?  A fucking werewolf!  Don’t get me started on the fucking blob critter that bitch had calling her ‘mommy’.”

“What?” Vlad asked, confusion in his voice.

“I said, don’t get me started on it!” she responded.  “I’ve got no silver to kill this fucking thing.  I don’t even have any fucking shoes!  You get me back up and you do it quick.”

“I’ll make some calls,” he said.  Apparently, her anger didn’t bother him much because he sounded as calm as ever.  “Stay on the move.”

The phone call ended abruptly and she tightened her grip on the cell phone, fighting the urge to throw it out the window.  “Fuck your mother!” she yelled, dropping the phone in Ulbrecht’s lap before slamming the palm of her hand into the steering wheel several times.  She gritted her teeth before looking over to the young med student who was still a bit dazed.

“You better snap out of that shit fast,” she told him.  “Because I don’t have time to babysit you.”

Chapter Nine: Car Crash

Nadya noticed the high beams on the vehicle behind them come on and looked into the rearview mirror.  Another car sped up behind them.  She knew what they were after even before the first shots smashed the rear window.  She ducked her head down and swerved the car, yelling for Ulbrecht to stay down.  She pulled the pistol she’d stolen out of her pants and tossed it to him.

He looked down at it, uncertain what to do with the weapon.

She glanced over at him, rolling her eyes.  “Shoot back!”

Ulbrecht turned in the seat and aimed the gun out the smashed rear windshield.  He pulled the trigger, filling the vehicle with the sound of gunfire.  More shots came back and Nadya could hear them plunking into the back of the car.

“Hold on!” she yelled before swerving to the right.

Ulbrecht, having not had enough time to hold on to anything, fell across the car and into her.  Her wounded left shoulder bashed into the side of the car door and she cursed, shoving Ulbrecht back to his side of the car.  The Benz swerved hazardously on the road before taking off in a more or less straight line.

Behind, the pursuing car made the turn and continued after them.

“Gimme that,” she said, taking the pistol from Ulbrecht.  Then she reconsidered.  “No… gimme
that!
”

She tossed the pistol back to him and took the shotgun in one hand.  She looked in the rearview mirror again at the speeding car behind them.

“Hold on,” she told him again, before twisting the wheel to the left and slamming on the brakes.  The car swerved sideways and screeched several feet before coming to a halt.

Nadya turned in the seat to look out the shattered driver side window and raised the shotgun, aiming at the approaching car.  All she could see were headlights and the subtle silhouette of the car behind them.  She aimed for where she figured the driver was and fired.  There were only three more shells in the shotgun and she fired them all as rapidly as she could.

For a moment, she thought the pursuing car was going to smash directly into them.  No time to get out and diving across to the other side of the car wouldn’t help much.  Then the car swerved off the road and smashed into the front of a shop, shattering the front window.

Letting out a long breath, she tossed the empty shotgun to Ulbrecht before taking the pistol from him again.

Stepping out of the idling Benz, Nadya looked over at the wrecked car that had been chasing them.  She aimed the pistol at the vehicle and walked towards it, watching for any movement.

She didn’t see any.

Moving alongside the car, she aimed the gun through the driver side window and saw the two occupants both dead.  She slid the gun into her waistband and moved forward, pushing the top half of her body in through the window and scrounging for more weapons.

She found a couple more pistols and some ammo for them.  She started back over to the Benz with the weapons, handing them in to Ulbrecht.  She was just getting back into the driver seat when a black van screeched up into the intersection in the direction they had been heading.

Nadya looked over at it, her eyes widening slightly as the side door slid open and a group of thugs were revealed, all aiming weapons at the car.  Without thinking, she jammed her foot down onto the accelerator and twisted the wheel, turning the car away from the van and speeding back the way they’d come.  More shots dinged off the hard steel of the car.

One good thing about old Benz’s
, Nadya thought. 
Built like fucking tanks.

She caught movement up ahead and let out a choice curse word as she saw their other pursuer – the large werewolf – charging towards them down the middle of the road.

Yanking the pistol from her waistband, she shoved her arm out the broken window and aimed ahead.  Her wounded shoulder complained about the rapid, sharp movements but she mentally told it to shut the fuck up and focused on keeping her aim more or less steady.

She fired, not knowing if she was even hitting the monster.  Judging by his undeterred charge, she suspected not.  Behind them, the van raced after them.

She gunned the car faster.

Ulbrecht looked over at her with wide eyes.  “What are you doing?!”

She ignored him, bringing the empty pistol back into the car and tossing it to him.  Then she concentrated on her driving.

The werewolf was getting closer.

Moments before impact, Nadya jerked the wheel hard and took the Benz into yet another impossibly tight turn, swinging it into a narrow alley that was almost too small for the car to fit down.  The left side smashed against the brick wall and the side mirror ripped off.  Sparks flew as the car scraped along the wall.  Some flew in through the broken window and she felt searing burns eat into the side of her neck.

She tried to steer the car away from the wall but that only resulted in bashing into the wall on the other side.  The impact caused the wheel to jerk and in a moment the car was right back where it started, with the sparks shooting up against her.

Looking in the rearview mirror gave Nadya a small joy to combat the burning pain in her neck.  The pincer move that her enemies had tried to use to trap her had backfired.  She saw the front of the black van totally smashed in.  The werewolf lay on the street in front of it, dazed.

That will buy us a bit of time.

Reaching the end of the alley, she turned the wheel and accelerated down the new street, hoping there weren’t any more surprises in store for them.  She jumped when Ulbrecht’s cell phone rang.

“Fucking whore…” she muttered then reached over as Ulbrecht handed her the cell phone and answered it.  “Nadya.”

It was Vladimir again.

He gave her an address then hung up.

She passed the phone back to Ulbrecht, repeating the address to him.

“That’s clear across town,” he said.

“Fucking brilliant,” she muttered, slamming her foot down and lurching the car forward at a faster rate.  “Just tell me how to get there.”