by R. Lee Moore
“You haven't killed me,” Vanya shouted back. The rage was still there, but it was held tight and still under control.
Tamina leaned out over the edge of the car. She was risking a bullet to the head, but it was necessary. She had to figure out where he was if she was going to make this work, and she had to get closer. That wasn't going to be easy. There was a streetlight over head that was lighting up the area all around her. Vanya was likely able to see every move she made. On the other hand, looking out past the playground where the carcass of the other werewolf lay in the dirt, she couldn't see a damn thing. It was too dark. The bastard could be anywhere, she thought.
“Yeah. Well, I'm working on it,” Tamina said pulling back into cover and looking up at the light above her. “I got lots of time. Pretty sure you don't, though. Even if I don't get you, once all your friends are put down, they'll come for you. You ain't making it out of here alive big guy.”
Unless she miscounted, she had maybe five rounds left in her magazine. She hated to waste any of them, but she didn't see any other option. Vanya had the advantage of being able to see her when she couldn't see him. That had to change.
She took steady aim at the streetlight, and gently stroked her trigger. The weapon bucked in her hands, and the round drove dead center into the streetlight shattering the glass and extinguishing the light in an instant. It probably wouldn't do much, she thought to herself. Even in the relative darkness she'd just given herself, he could still see a hell of a lot better than she could. He was a werewolf after all.
Tamina could hear him laughing and mocking her efforts, but she ignored him. She turned to Siobhan and motioned for her to hold in place. The red wolf growled angrily and tried to hobble up to her feet again. Tamina shook her head sharply, and shoved the wolf back down to the ground. Siobhan snarled and glared at her, but Tamina didn't have time to explain. She needed to move.
Peering back around the edge of the car, she made a quick judgment on where Vanya might have been and fired off a round hoping to send him ducking for cover. The second the round went off, Tamina scrambled up and lunged across the courtyard. She threw everything she had into the run, and knew she still wasn't going to be fast enough the moment she started.
The rounds started coming in the instant she broke cover. They snapped past her head, and rippled all along the pavement at her feet with each impact sending a shower of dust and debris up into her face making it hard to see where she was going.
Her chest burned with every labored breath, the pain flashing across her eyes with a blinding white light that took her feet out from under her and sent her tumbling forward to the ground. She'd expected to hit pavement, but found herself colliding with and bouncing off a chain-link fence instead. Once she hit the ground, she instinctively rolled to her stomach and flattened herself out as much as she could. She was only a few feet away from the corpse of the werewolf she'd killed and the makeshift cover of turned over tables and playground equipment he'd been using.
Tamina pulled herself furiously over the short distance to cover, biting back the sharp stabbing pain pulsing through her from dragging her now very broken ribs across the ground. When she got there, she wrapped her arms tightly across her chest to alleviate the pressure and clamped a hand over her mouth to keep the screams from escaping.
This is it, she thought. She was done for now. There was too much pain, and she barely had the strength to keep herself going let alone keep up the fight. The problem was, Vanya was still out there, and it was either him or her. Only one of them was going to come out of this whole thing alive, and she'd be damned if it was going to be him.
“Missed again,” she croaked out weakly. “You're not very good at this whole other people fighting back thing are you?”
“I could have killed you ten times over, but I like to play with my food, I have more fun that way. I get to savor all your fear and desperation.” Vanya shouted.
His voice sounded closer and less human than it had before. She realized with a bit of dismay that he'd been maneuvering and moving forward just as she had. He'd started his change too. That complicated things.
“Don't worry. You're not going to die that easy,” Vanya continued. “I'm going to take my time. You're going to have to beg me to kill you.”
“Yeah?” Tamina said looking over at the corpse on the other side of the makeshift barricade. The man's weapon had to still be there somewhere. She could tell how close to the edge he was. She just needed to keep poking at him until he went over. “You keep saying that, but last time I checked I'm still winning. My friends are still alive. All yours are burnt up mangled corpses just waiting to be maggot food.”
Vanya snarled angrily from out in the darkness. Just from the way he sounded, Tamina could tell how close he was to his change. It had to be right at the surface, she thought. It couldn't have been easy or pleasant to hold it back.
“Struck a nerve didn't I?” Tamina called out. The sound of his voice, his growling, and snarling was getting closer and closer. She only had one shot at this, and she was damn sure going to make sure it was on her terms. “Hey, were you close with that short-haired bitch that was running behind you? Almost felt sorry for her when she ate it. Two of my friends ripped her apart like a fucking chew toy. Should have seen it. Was crying and begging the whole time. Well, right up until they bit her face off to shut her up anyway.”
She saw Vanya's muzzle flash and heard his bloodthirsty howl of fury before she'd even finished her sentence. The werewolf fired of a quick succession of shots at her in a blind rage the same moment she'd found the dead man's Kalashnikov laying discarded in the grass. She snatched the weapon up and began firing in full-auto even before she'd gotten the barrel all the way up.
The initial burst hammered into the corpse in front of her sending of a spray of blood and gore splashing across her face. The muzzle of the rifle jerked and climbed with each successive shot spraying a stream of bullets wildly in the air.
None of her shots hit, but she'd caught the werewolf by surprise. The furious enraged snarling and blur of movement diving out of her line of fire told her that much. She kept firing, holding the trigger down and feverishly burning through what was left in the magazine trying to cut him down.
The second the magazine ran dry, the werewolf turned on a dime and abruptly rushed towards Tamina with a blinding speed. Howling as he ran, his eyes had completely bled off their humanity and glowed in the moonlight with the familiar bright supernatural amber.
He flung his weapon away and with inhuman speed streaked across the courtyard and parking lot towards her baring open a mouthful of dangerously sharp fangs. Tamina didn't even have the time to discard the rifle and reach for her pistol before he was on her.
The werewolf snatched her up off the ground with a powerful iron grip, and hurled her tumbling through the air back across the courtyard. Her breath left her the moment she hit the ground leaving her stunned and with vision that blurred and struggled to keep in focus. She could mostly ignore and fight through the pain, but the strength wasn't there. She tried forcing her way up to her knees, but she was drained and spent. All she was able to manage was to lift her head to stare out across the courtyard at the werewolf trying to kill her.
A growling snarl echoed out behind the werewolf, and Vanya's attention momentarily focused on Siobhan's presence. The red wolf had skittered and limped out from behind cover and hobbled out after him. The maneater gave an amused smile that revealed the bestial teeth still shifting and forming within his mouth. His change was coming, but he was holding it back and only letting it progress in a slow drip.
Both werewolves snarled in challenge to each other. Siobhan was still surprisingly agile on three legs. She lurched forward jaws snapping around Vanya's wrist before he could dance out of her way. He howled in pain and rage, grabbed the other wolf by the scruff of her neck, and violently shook her in the air in front of him to dislodge her jaws from his flesh.
Siobhan was tenaciou
s, and only released her grip when a better target presented itself. Vanya whipped her around and beat the red wolf's body furiously into the ground while she steadily worked her way up his arm savaging and tearing at his flesh.
With a roar of anger and anguish, the man jerked his mangled arm free from the werewolf's locked jaws leaving behind shredded torn and bloody pieces of himself in her mouth. Claws burst out from the tips of his fingers, and he drew them across Siobhan's face with a vicious swipe that rocked her head back with a pain-filled yelp momentarily stunning her.
It was all the opening Vanya needed. In a rush of speed he charged toward the row of cars, red wolf in his grip, and drove her bodily through a windshield and into the interior, leaving her twisted and broken body where it lay.
The man turned back around, and examined what remained of his mutilated limb as he stalked back towards Tamina. A growling laugh poured from his lips coming deep from within his chest. He stood over her silently, and drove a kick into her already injured ribs that flipped her roughly onto her back.
“If only I had the time,” the wolf said as he knelt down. He began methodically shredding open the front of Tamina's shirt with his claws. “I'd turn you and make you one of us. Devour you bit by bit, then let you heal just to prolong your suffering. Days, weeks, months, locked away in your own inescapable little hell. It's too bad that I don't. It really is. I would have enjoyed all the torment.”
Tamina fought back against the horrifying images and thoughts filling her at his words. The situation was bad enough as it was without succumbing to the utter terror that Vanya had planned for her. She had to keep herself as calm and in control as possible. This wasn't over. Not yet.
“I'll just have to give you what I gave the others,” Vanya said as he pulled the tattered remains of her shirt open and began tearing apart the vest beneath until he reached the bruised flesh below.
Once the vest was out of the way, his claws traced lightly, almost lovingly over her skin causing a deep shudder of revulsion to ripple through her. Tamina weakly lashed out with her fists at the man's head, only for them to be negligently batted aside.
“I'm going to violate you. Every part of you. Just like all those other pretty little girls,” Vanya said.” His voice was barely human, the change in him was unstoppable now. It was tearing him apart right in front of her dripping bits of bloody discarded flesh across her face and exposed chest. “Feel free to enjoy it as much as I'm going to it while you can. The pleasure I give you won't last.”
Tamina forced out a weak derisive laugh that caused anger to burn through the werewolf's eyes.
“You-you're not man enough,” she rasped out hoarsely. She had to anger him more. Distract him. “Bet this is the only way you can even get it up isn't it. You're just a weak little mutt who can't get it any other way aren't you?”
The wolf snarled savagely, its jaws mere inches from her face. Close enough that she could see his flesh twisting and writhing. Reshaping itself from human to wolf. The bones cracking, narrowing and beginning to extend outward as tufts of dark fur began to grow out from within.
“You won't laugh when I'm gorging myself on your meat,” Vanya raged. “You'll be screaming. Begging.”
She could feel his whole body writhing over top of her as his claws began scrambling furiously over the waist of her jeans. Her body beginning to feel wet and slick from the gore sloughing off his body. She could hear the tearing of cloth above her, the man's clothes ripping themselves apart as his body grew and expanded taking on a new form.
Tamina could feel her pulse quicken and her heart racing. Her whole body was trembling in barely controlled terror. She'd never been this close to a changing werewolf before, and if she survived this, never wanted to again. It was like a living nightmare that she couldn't escape laying on top of her.
Vanya's grip had loosened as he lost control of himself. The rage inside him fueled his change and ripped away his focus. All he could do was let the change run through him now. Let the beast inside him tear its way free of its prison of human flesh.
Tamina writhed and squirmed beneath him struggling to pull her arms free. The werewolf had exposed himself, but it wouldn't last much longer. Once the change went through, it was over. She'd been given an opportunity, and she had to act now before it was too late, if it wasn't already.
Barely managing to wrest her arms free, Tamina wormed her hands beneath the small of her back and began desperately struggling to get beneath the remains of her jacket and shirt to get to what lay below. Fumbling around blindly until she found the sheath tucked into the waistband of her jeans, she let her fingers wrap around the braided handles of the pair of combat knives. It wasn't much, but it'd have to do.
Killing the beast with the knives wasn't possible. She knew that when she jerked the blades free from the leather holding them. They didn't have to kill it, though. She just had to get the thing off her. She'd figure something out after that.
When she drew the blades out from behind the small of her back, it wasn't subtle, and it didn't go unnoticed. Vanya saw it coming, but he couldn't do anything about it. The werewolf hadn't regained enough control of himself and his change to defend himself from what was coming. All he could do was flail and writhe through the last remnants of his change, and watch as the pair of blades reaching out towards him.
If she'd gone for the meat, gone for his heart, Tamina was sure she wouldn't have had the strength to make the blades penetrate far enough to make a difference. On the other hand, those glowing inhuman amber eyes locked with hers, were an easy enough target, and there was nothing he could do to stop her.
There was a wet squelching sound when the blades pierced the surface and plunged in deep. A moment where they eyes jiggled before they popped and sprayed wet gore across the sinking blades. She buried the both of them into the wolf's skull all the way down to braided hilts.
Vanya reared back instantly and screamed an ear-piercing inhuman shriek. The werewolf clawed frantically at his eyes to remove the blades. He fell backward to the ground writhing and kicking, giving Tamina the opportunity to weakly skitter out from under him and give herself as much distance as she could.
She half crawled, half drug herself across the ground back towards the makeshift barricade to where she'd dropped her sidearm. The moment her fingers wrapped around the handle of her weapon, Vanya's agonized screams turned to howls of impotent rage. Tamina painfully turned herself to face the werewolf. Pressed her back up against the makeshift barricade, and held her weapon out in front of her.
The beast hadn't been able to remove the blades from the ruined remains of its eyes before the change had run its course. She'd blinded it, but it was still alive, and still very much a threat. The maneater raised his muzzle into the air taking deep breaths into itself, zeroing in on her from just scent alone.
Vanya's jaws parted with a low rumbling growl from deep in his chest as he began stalking slowly forward. Even without being able to see, the thing knew where she was and was coming right towards her with deadly intent.
Tamina gripped her weapon, and fought to keep it steady and on target. The pistol felt heavy and unwieldy in her hand, and her muscles ached and strained from the effort of keeping it from tumbling from her hands. She couldn't even see straight. The wolf advancing towards her was blurred in her eyes making her uncertain of where Vanya really was.
She stroked her trigger and her pistol near bucked itself out of her hands. Vanya jerked back slightly, but he was barely even slowed. If she'd hit him, it hadn't done much. If she hadn't missed outright, she'd likely just grazed the beast in front of her. That wasn't good. Three shots left, she thought. Just three more shots and it was all over.
There was a shattering of glass behind the werewolf. Vanya's ears twitched, and he turned his head over his shoulder and began sniffing at the air. He let out a snarl as his senses told him what Tamina could barely make out over his shoulder with her impaired vision.
The red furred wo
lf was clawing and writhing her way back out through the broken windshield of the car she'd been hurled into. The sharpened edges of shattered glass tore into her body scouring deep wounds all along her flesh as Siobhan forced herself through the opening heedless of the pain and damage.
The red wolf tore herself free of the windshield, and tumbled forward, her claws skittering across the hood for purchase until she dropped heavily onto the ground in front of the car. She was weakened, severely injured, but the werewolf was still coming.
Vanya had stopped his advance and frozen in place. Tamina could see the uncertainty in the way he moved. He shifted back and forth on his paws unsure of where the biggest threat was coming. Siobhan was in no condition for a fight, but she could still kill. She just needed the opportunity.
Tamina steadied herself as best she could, took careful aim, and gently stroked her trigger. The weapon bucked in her hand with a sharp crack of thunder. Vanya's body jerked back like he'd been struck with a hammer. He let loose with a howl of pain and snapped his head back in her direction. Tamina had gotten his attention and made his choice for him.
The maneater lunged towards her, making it only a few steps before stumbling and driving its head muzzle first into the ground. The momentary distraction and indecision had been enough to give Siobhan the opportunity to crawl forwards quickly and snap her jaws around Vanya's hind legs taking them out from under him.
He flailed around on his back, and before he could right himself, Siobhan was on him. She'd buried her head beneath his jaws and sunken her teeth deep into his shoulder pinning him down with the full weight of her body.
The maneater writhed beneath her struggling to find a position that would allow it to sink its teeth into the red wolf. He could barely manage a few grazing bites over her shoulder. Siobhan had tucked herself in too close for anything else. All he could do was furiously slash all up and down her body with all four paws. He could hurt her, but he couldn't kill her. Not in the position they were in.