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.”
Chapter Ten: A Little Help
Slamming on the breaks, Nadya brought the battered Benz to a screeching halt in front of the address Vladimir had sent them to.
The area was desolate. She was wondering if she’d heard the address correctly when she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye and looked out onto the street to see a lone figure standing in the middle of the road.
A woman, by the looks of it.
Another assassin sent to kill me?
Or Vladimir’s back up?
She popped the door open and got out, her pistol held ready to fire at the first sign of hostility. The woman looked back at her. She was older than Nadya, maybe thirty, with straight black hair cropped even with her jaw line. She wore a black duster that could have hidden numerous weapons. Her eyes were just as hard as Nadya’s.
Whoever she was, she’d done some killing.
“Where’s the wolf?” the woman asked. She spoke with a British accent.
Nadya raised an eyebrow. The backup, apparently.
She was about to remark what good one lone woman would do to help kill the beast tracking her but refrained. After all, she’d killed more than her fair share of assholes for the night.
She motioned back down the street they’d come up. “Probably on its way here. Along with a van of assholes armed to the teeth.”
“They’ll be yours,” the woman stated. “I’ll deal with the beast.” She pushed her duster aside and withdrew a large handgun, raising it up and pulling the slide back to chamber a round. She’d be packing silver ammunition. That alone caused Nadya to relax.
But only slightly.
Nadya nodded. “Fair enough.” She turned back to the car, looking in at Ulbrecht, who still sat inside. “You might want to get out of there. You know, in case they decide to blow up the car or something.”
He got out, still carrying the extra weapons she’d scavenged off their pursuers.
Nadya looked back at the woman with the very large pistol. “Who are you, anyway?”
“Samantha Bethany Carter,” she replied, her voice as cold as it was firm. “Hunters Guild. European Branch.”
“How much does Vladimir pay you?” Nadya asked, somewhat sarcastically. She couldn’t hide the smirk on her face.
“Quite a bit,” Carter deadpanned.
Before there was time for any more small talk, Nadya heard the sound of speeding automobiles and turned to see two cars moving down the street towards them.
She looked over at Ulbrecht. “Take a gun and take cover,” she said. “You stick your head out and get it shot off, it’s your own fucking problem.”
He nodded and set the extra guns on the hood of the Benz, taking one for himself and heading into a nearby alley.
Nadya walked over and picked up another of the pistols then went to stand in the street next to Carter, slightly in front of her. The cars continued their approach.
There was no sign of the werewolf.
The cars, driving side by side, screeched to a halt about ten feet away from where the two women stood. Wasting no time, Nadya raised her guns and started firing. The shots deflected from the armored cars easily and she stopped shooting.
“Cocksuckers…” she cursed.
The doors on the cars opened and men poured out, carrying a wide range of projectile weaponry. The only thing Nadya didn’t see was a crossbow. Some took cover behind the armored doors of the car they exited and opened fire.
Both Nadya and Carter took off running, heading in opposite directions. Nadya returned fire, although she didn’t have time to aim very well and was fairly certain she wasn’t hitting anything. She ducked behind the Benz, hearing more bullets ping off the exterior of the car.
No doubt, this situation sucks total ass.
Nadya didn’t know where the monster hunter had run off to and she didn’t count on her help. She raised the pistols up over the top of the Benz and fired a few more rounds at the assholes in the armored cars. Again, she was sure she didn’t cause
any significant damage to anyone.
“Fuck this…” she muttered then crouched low and ran to the other side of the Benz, popping up from the rear of the car which put her alongside one of the armored autos.
Lifting her guns, she fired at the men that she now had a clear shot at. A couple cried out and fell back as bullets struck them, but the rest adjusted their aim on her and fired again.
Ducking down, she realized one of her guns was empty. She waited for a break in the firing then stood again and hurled it at one of the men. She saw it slam into the knuckles of his hand and make him drop his own gun. She pointed her other gun at him and fired, hitting him in the chest and bettering the odds in her favor by one more point.
The other pistol was now empty as well, so she hurled it at another man as she leapt over the dented trunk of the Benz and charged the remaining men in the first car.
The second thrown pistol smashed into the goon’s knee and made him cry out and shift the aim of his rifle enough to send his fired shot wide of the young woman rushing him. She leapt up, stretching her legs outward and her upper torso back, smashing both her feet into the man’s face and knocking him into the backseat of the car.
His rifle fell and Nadya managed to grab hold of it while still airborne. Her forward momentum sent her flying into the backseat of the car, sitting right in front of the men on the other side. She lifted the rifle and sent a burst into the one in front of her and then aimed over the front seat to shoot the driver as well.
The men from the second car were stunned at her rapid movements, but not too stunned to aim their guns at her. She hooked her foot around the door handle of the open back door and pulled it closed just in time to deflect a barrage of fire. She scooted backwards, out of the door she’d entered through and rolled over to land on her feet in a crouch.
She crept up to the front of the car then burst upwards, resting the barrel of the rifle on the hood and firing along the length of the car on the other side, taking out the row of men standing alongside it.
My odds are getting better by the moment.
Then she felt the barrel of a gun press into the side of her head. She glanced over to see that one of the assholes had somehow snuck past and rounded the opposite side of the car. She froze, trying to see an opening to somehow move out of the way of the gun or disarm the man.
Nadya winced as she heard a gunshot.
But there was no pain. And she was fairly certain she wasn’t dead.
The man holding the gun on her stumbled to the ground, blood soaking through his shirt.
Behind him, Nadya spotted Ulbrecht, holding the pistol he’d taken. A trail of smoke crept out of the end of the barrel.
“Good job,” she told him, giving him a thumbs up before she turned back to the second car.
It looked as if the rest of the men were dead. She heard a groan from beside her and looked over to see the man she’d kicked coming around. She pulled the rifle back and smashed the butt of it into his throat. The man made a strangled sound and his eyes went wide as he tried to breathe. She smashed the butt of the rifle into his throat again – harder – and there was a crack.
The man went limp.
Nadya heard clapping and snapped around, bringing the rifle to her shoulder.
Carter emerged from the side of one of the buildings, a smirk on her face. “Fine killing,” she said. “Very well done. We could use someone with your skills at the Guild.”
Nadya rolled her eyes. “Already got a job. Thanks, though.”
“If you reconsider…” she started to say.
A low growl filled the air.
Nadya’s eyes widened as she saw the hulking beast emerge behind Carter. The British woman saw Nadya’s expression, knowing that she’d been effectively snuck up on. Her hand reached back into her duster and pulled the large pistol free. She spun to face the werewolf, lifting the gun in front of her, but she didn’t move fast enough.
Nadya watched in shock as the monster lashed out at the woman with one of his enormous clawed hands, slamming it into the side of her head. There was a nasty tearing sound and then the woman no longer had a head.
Well, she does… It just isn’t attached to the rest of her body anymore.
Nadya watched the severed head fly through the air before slamming into the ground and rolling into the gutter. Carter’s headless body still stood in front of the beast, as if so surprised by the sudden decapitation that she didn’t realize she was dead.
Blood spurt from the neck stump, spraying the werewolf, who opened his jaws and extended his tongue to lap at the warm fluid. Carter’s body dropped to her knees. A moment later, she fell onto her back, twitching slightly as more of her blood pumped out onto the ground.
So much for the backup, Nadya thought as the werewolf turned to face her.
Chapter Eleven: Final Battle
The werewolf let out a low growl and charged Nadya. She raised her rifle and fired away at the monster. Blood sprayed from the beast as the bullets struck him along the midsection, slowing him a bit. The kickback forced her to stop firing and as she did the werewolf leapt into the air. She looked up, following him with her eyes as he came towards her.
Lifting the rifle higher, she fired again, emptying the rest of the clip into the creature as he came down. He landed a few feet in front of her and Nadya flipped the empty rifle around to hold it by the barrel, feeling the heat of the metal burn her hands. She ignored the pain and brought the rifle back, attempting to slam the butt of it across the monster’s head.
The blow came up short as the werewolf grabbed hold of the rifle’s stock and squeezed, shattering the wood. He yanked the gun away from her, dragging her forward a few feet. When the gun left her hands, she was right in front of the werewolf. He snarled, specking her face with his saliva, and then backhanded her in the face.
Nadya felt as if she’d been hit in the face with a sledgehammer.
Her body flew to the side, bashing into the front of the Benz. She tasted the coppery warmth of blood in her mouth and spit some of it out on the hood of the car. She pushed herself to her feet and looked over to the werewolf, who glared at her.
“Don’t tell me,” she said. “That cunt was your mother, too? For a ritzy bitch, she sure found time to get herself in bed with quite a few monsters.”
The werewolf roared angrily at her and charged her again.
“Touch a nerve, did I?” she shot back.
Nadya waited and right before he crushed her against the car she dove to the side. The beast totaled Ulbrecht’s Benz, smashing the front of it in. Something in the engine compartment started spewing steam.
She snatched up a discarded gun and turned to the werewolf, firing rapidly. She unloaded the clip into his back in a matter of seconds.
Snarling in rage, the beast ripped the driver side door of the Benz off and hurled it at her. Nadya dropped backwards to the ground as the chunk of metal soared over her head. She landed on her ass and, in turn, hurled the empty pistol at the werewolf. “Fetch, fucker!” she yelled at him.
The monster didn’t bother trying to dodge the projectile and the gun smashed into his snout, drawing a small amount of blood from his nostrils.
The werewolf snorted, spraying blood out of his nose, and started towards Nadya again. She looked around for another weapon.
As she did, Ulbrecht leapt onto the werewolf’s back, wrapping his arms around the beast’s thick neck. She saw his heroic move and cursed.
“No, you idiot! Get out of here!” she yelled in Russian, forgetting momentarily that he didn’t speak the language. She felt fear spike through her and she didn’t exactly know why.
It wasn’t like she even knew him all that well. She’d only met him an hour or so earlier but she found the idea of him getting slaughtered by the werewolf very distressing.
She turned to find another weapon, hoping she could get to one before the werewolf ripped Ulbrecht’s head off or something equally fatal. Spotting a shotgun, she reach
ed over and grabbed it, sliding it over to her and putting the butt of it to her shoulder as she took aim on the beast.
Meanwhile, the werewolf struggled to get Ulbrecht off his back. He reached around and grabbed hold of the German by the back of his shirt and tugged, successfully pulling the man free. The werewolf then flipped him off of his back and hurled him against one of the armored cars.
Ulbrecht hit the side of the car with a terrible sound and crumpled to the ground, unmoving.
Nadya cursed, anger flooding through her. She fired the shotgun into the beast’s stomach and pumped, firing again. At some point between blasts, she rose to her feet and advanced on the monster, continuing to fire. The powerful shotgun blasts opened up gaping wounds in the beast’s stomach and chest and drove him backwards.
Nadya's Nights: Road to Vengeance Page 7