She watched as the hand holding her heart crushed her precious organ, making it explode and spray blood in all directions. The windshield was painted crimson along with Nadya’s face.
After it finished destroying her heart, the hand opened back up and dropped the ruined organ into her lap, then yanked back through her chest, leaving a gaping, bloody hole there.
Outside of the gory hallucination Nadya was trapped in, her eyes slipped half-closed and her head fell back against the headrest of the seat. Her hands dropped limply away from the steering wheel and the car drifted towards the edge of the road.
Ulbrecht looked over when he saw they were about to run off and saw the state Nadya was in. He moved over and grabbed the steering wheel, straightening them out.
“Nadya!” he yelled to her, trying to snap her out of the daze she was in.
She didn’t react, seemingly comatose in the seat. Her foot pressed down on the gas pedal and the engine revved making the car speed even faster down the road.
“Nadya, wake up!” Ulbrecht tried again with still no response. Steering the car from the passenger seat at the speed they were traveling at was immensely difficult. They came close to running off the side again and Ulbrecht jerked the wheel in the opposite direction, swerving them across the road. He worked the wheel back again, finally getting the car more or less aligned.
He looked over at Nadya again and saw she was still in an unresponsive state. Taking one hand off the wheel, he held it back and hesitated briefly before slapping her hard across the face.
Nadya’s eyes fluttered open and focused instantly, realizing what had happened.
“Fuck!” she yelled, reaching up and grabbing the wheel. She let up off the gas and slowed the Maserati down. She braked and pulled onto the side of the road then threw the car into park. She sat back in the seat, breathing heavily. Beside her, Ulbrecht was also out of breath. She noticed her hands shaking and forced them to stop.
The fear was back and clawing strongly through her brain. She told it to get back down where it came from and spent the next several minutes forcing it there. Once that was done, she inhaled and let out the breath slowly. Then she lit up another cigarette and took several long drags.
“Maybe you should drive,” she said to Ulbrecht quietly.
Chapter Twenty: Pitfall
The Maserati screeched to a halt outside of a large stone home. Nadya flicked her cigarette butt out the window before rolling it up. She’d been chain smoking ever since Ulbrecht had taken the wheel and she still looked more than a little stressed, not to mention pale.
The gas tank hovered near empty again, but that didn’t matter so much now that they’d arrived at their destination. Nadya only hoped that the man they’d come to see was home. And that he could help.
Once Ulbrecht killed the engine, she opened her door and got out. As she pushed the door shut, she noticed her hand trembling slightly. She clenched her jaw and focused, making the tremors cease. Rounding the car, she fell into step alongside Ulbrecht and together they headed for the house.
It was more of a mansion than a house; two stories and quite large. She figured the place had to be pretty old. Whoever this guy is, he has money if this is where he vacations.
A tall, wrought iron gate was directly in front of the mansion with stone walls moving out away from it to surround the perimeter. She noticed a call box as well as the security camera that seemed to be tracking them as they approached. She looked away from the camera as they stopped in front of the gate. She reached over and tapped the button on the call box. A few moments later, a voice responded.
“Who are you?” the voice asked in a suspicious tone. It was gruff and distinctly American.
Nadya sighed. It wasn’t that she despised Americans per say. She just didn’t particularly care for them.
Pressing down on the transmit button and leaning slightly towards the call box, she replied. “Nadya Valentina and Ulbrecht Reinhardt.”
Another pause, this one longer than the initial one. “Why are you here?”
Suppressing her impatience and aggravation, she hit the button again. “Word has it, someone here knows how to stop the curse of the werewolf.”
Hardly any pause followed her statement this time. “You’re mistaken.”
“The hell I am,” Nadya muttered before pressing the transmit button to reply to the annoying American. “My friend is infected. He needs the cure.” After a few moments of hesitation, she spoke again. “Please.”
“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” the reply came. “Please leave.”
Nadya glared into the security camera then hit the button.
“No.” She looked over to Ulbrecht. “I’ll be right back.”
She examined the gate more closely. It was designed with an intricate pattern that made it a work of art and quite beautiful to look at. Unfortunately for the homeowner, it was piss poor as far as its ability to keep someone out.
Especially if that someone is a limber Russian girl who’s been trained at infiltration.
In a series of quick movements, she scaled the gate, ignoring the pain emanating from her bruised knee. She dropped down on the other side and took in her surroundings. A well-manicured lawn, some bushes, a few trees and some shadowy statues were all she noticed. Nadya walked up the path to the front of the mansion, limping slightly on her injured leg.
About ten feet away from the front door, a series of lights clicked on, illuminating Nadya and her surroundings. She squinted her eyes against the bright light and looked around herself, her senses kicking into overdrive.
Maybe she’d set off a motion detector that automatically lit up the exterior of the mansion for the convenience of whoever was taking a stroll through the grounds, but she doubted it.
After remaining still for several long moments with nothing happening, Nadya took a step forward. As her foot came down on the stone pathway, something gave underneath it.
A whole lot of something.
She watched with wide eyes as the path before her dropped away, opening into a dark chasm before her. She pin wheeled her arms, trying to get her balance under control but the sudden change had caught her completely off guard and she found herself falling forward into the black pit.
“Nadya!” she heard Ulbrecht cry as she fell.
Reaching out for something to grab hold of, she came up empty. She dropped into the darkness.
Nadya didn’t fall for long – no more than ten feet or so – but her fall ended abruptly as she collided against a slopped stone surface. She landed on her wounded shoulder and let out a yelp of pain before she rolled further downwards. Her world spun and the fact that there was no light only helped to disorient her further.
The slope came to an end and she thudded face first against a cool earthen floor. Coughing several times, Nadya pushed herself to her feet, using mostly her right arm and left leg to accomplish it. Her already battered areas were alive with throbbing pain.
Once she was standing, she brushed herself off and looked around. The room she was in appeared to be a holding cell. Directly across from where the chute had deposited her was a wall of bars and a gate that was currently closed.
“Perfect…” she said, cursing her rotten luck.
Beyond the bars, there wasn’t much more to the room. A single wooden door was the only thing of any note, which she assumed led up into the mansion above. She turned and examined the slope but quickly realized it was too steep and smooth for her to make it back up. And even if she could, there was no way she could get back out of the pit she’d fallen into.
Nadya heard the creak of door hinges and spun around to find the door opening. A man who appeared to be in his mid to late thirties entered the room, his dark eyes trained on her. She remained where she was, looking back at him. She assumed he was the American she’d been speaking to over the intercom. “That was a stupid move on your part.”
“I agree,” she responded. “I thought you’d on
ly have attack dogs.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Or attack wolves, rather.”
The man gave her a curious look. “Why’s that?”
“Birds of a feather and all that,” she said. “Are you going to let me out?”
“Eventually,” he said. “First, I want to know who told you about me.”
“A French woman named Elise Lussier said you could help my friend. A two-bit informant named Lonestar sent me to Elise.”
The man nodded. “I know Elise. She’s trustworthy.”
“She’s also dead,” Nadya added.
His face went from shock to deadly in a matter of seconds. “You?”
She shook her head. “A werewolf-turned-vampire named Remy. I killed him as the one thing but he came back as the other. He’s also the one who infected my friend upstairs.”
“When?”
“Last night. As far as I can tell, the curse hasn’t taken hold yet. If he can’t be cured, I’ll have to put him down,” she said, trying to keep her voice smooth. It didn’t entirely work.
The man smirked. “Sounds like you’re the one with the attack wolf.”
“Not yet,” Nadya said, shaking her head. “And I’d much rather keep it that way.”
“All right, then,” he said, producing a key from his pants pocket and stepping to the gate. He unlocked it and swung it wide.
Nadya’s brow furrowed with confusion. “Wait, why was it that easy? A few minutes ago and you were telling us to fuck off.”
“That was before you went and got yourself stuck in my trap,” he replied. “Thus giving me only two options. Kill you and the guy you came here with or help you out. I’ve gone a couple hundred years now without killing anyone. I’d hate to have to ruin that record.”
Nadya moved forward, limping even more on her busted knee. The man surveyed her hobbled walk. “I find it hard to believe you got that banged up in the fall.”
“No,” she replied. “The fall just helped to awaken some not so old injuries.” She exited the cell and the man pulled the gate shut behind her.
“You’re bleeding,” he said, pointing to Nadya’s shoulder.
She looked down at her left shoulder, noticing blood staining the fabric of her shirt. “Must’ve popped my stitches.”
“We should get you patched up,” the man said, turning to lead her through the door and further into the mansion.
Nadya followed after him. “I’ll take care of that. You just worry about my friend waiting outside.”
Chapter Twenty-One: The Cure
Once Ulbrecht was let into the mansion, he noticed the blood seeping into the sleeve of Nadya’s shirt. He moved over to her, turning back to the American man. “What did you do to her?” he asked, glaring angrily.
“Forget about it,” Nadya said, waving it away with the arm that wasn’t currently throbbing with pain. “I’m fine. We’re here to get you fixed, remember?” She turned to the American. “And I understand time is an issue.”
The American nodded and moved past Nadya and Ulbrecht, heading for a set of double doors that were currently closed. “It is. Luckily, I’ve got everything we need in here.” He opened the door, revealing a small study. “My name is Cyrus Fuller, by the way.”
Nadya and Ulbrecht followed him into the study. Cyrus went over to a bar and opened it up. Inside wasn’t the usual collection of alcohol bottles. Instead, there was a collection of powders, herbs, and strange liquids. He selected a number of jars and set them aside.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a first aid kit around here, would you, Cy?” Nadya asked.
The man knelt down, opened up the bottom section of the bar, and pulled out a kit, turning and handing it to her.
“Thanks. How about a bathroom?”
Cyrus opened the jars and removed precise amounts of their contents. “Down the hall, on the right.”
She turned away and headed for the door with the first aid kit. She noticed Ulbrecht standing near the door, looking uncertain and nervous. She tried to give him a reassuring smirk but it was difficult through the aches her body was giving her.
“Relax. We made it.” Then she left the room and searched out the bathroom. She had to try a couple doors before she finally found it. She entered and shut the door behind her. The door had an old-fashioned skeleton key-style locking mechanism and since she didn’t have the key, she couldn’t lock it.
Hoping there weren’t any other visitors in the house to come bumbling into the bathroom while she was treating her wounds, she turned away from the door and tugged her shirt up over her head. Dropping it to the floor, she looked at her shoulder in the mirror. A fair amount of blood seeped from the gunshot wound but it didn’t seem too bad.
She popped the kit open and took out an anti-septic wipe, tearing the packaging open and pulling it out. She wiped the wound clean before slapping a bandage over top of it. Finding some low-grade painkillers in the kit, she tossed four into her mouth then shoved her head into the sink and drank a good bit of water. After that, Nadya retrieved her shirt and slipped it back on. Disposing of the trash and closing up the kit, she left the bathroom and headed back to the study.
She returned just in time to see Cyrus filling a syringe with a strange concoction. “What the fuck is that?” Nadya asked, eyeing the stuff dubiously.
Ulbrecht had moved over to a chair and sat down, but he still looked quite nervous.
Cyrus turned to Nadya, holding up the syringe. “Stage one of the cure.” He then turned to Ulbrecht. “This is gonna hurt… a lot.” He motioned to a small couch sitting against one wall. “You might want to lie down, actually.”
Ulbrecht looked from Cyrus to the needle then over to Nadya then back to Cyrus. Finally, he stood and moved over to the couch. Cyrus followed him over and Nadya moved up behind the two of them, watching.
“Roll up your sleeve, please,” Cyrus said to Ulbrecht. He did but his eyes were back on the needle.
“I hate needles…” Ulbrecht muttered.
“Toughen up,” Nadya said. “Even animal doctors have to deal with needles.”
“I don’t have a problem sticking other things with needles,” he said.
Cyrus brought over a small piece of wood and handed it to Ulbrecht. “You’ll want to bite down on that.”
Ulbrecht took it and placed it in his mouth then lay back and waited for the injection, averting his eyes from the needle. Cyrus knelt down next to him, bringing the needle up and sticking it into the flesh of Ulbrecht’s arm before pushing the plunger down.
Ulbrecht’s reaction was instantaneous.
His teeth clamped down into the wood and he let out a scream of agony. His body tensed up and his back arched away from the couch.
Nadya winced as she watched him writhe in pain. “Is that normal?”
Cyrus nodded.
He’d already removed the needle before Ulbrecht’s movements could break it off inside his arm. Ulbrecht pounded a fist against the side of the couch several times, let out another howl of pain, and then collapsed unconscious onto the couch.
At first, Nadya thought he’d died, but she quickly noticed his rapid breathing and let out a sigh of relief.
Cyrus moved past her, back over to the bar, starting to mix up another concoction.
“Is that stage two?” Nadya asked.
Cyrus shook his head. “No, this is whiskey,” he replied before taking a healthy swig of the beverage. His face cringed as the booze burned its way down the back of his throat. “I try my best to stay away from this stuff.”
“Whiskey?”
“No, the werewolf stuff,” he said. “I did a lot of terrible things when I was younger. Even now, I don’t have complete control over it.” He looked over at Ulbrecht while pouring some more whiskey into his glass. “It’s like having something else in your head with you. And all it wants to do is hunt and eat. It doesn’t care who it hurts as long as it gets to taste some meat on its tongue.”
“Sounds cheery,” Nadya muttered.
; Cyrus shook his head. “It’s not. I started working on the cure as a way to try and get the beast out of me. Turns out, it’s too deep inside. But it does have some success in preventing the curse from taking hold.”
“How much success?”
Cyrus shrugged. “About forty-percent, maybe less. This isn’t a guarantee. And even if it keeps him from fully turning, there might still be… side effects.”
“Fucking beautiful,” Nadya grumbled. “How many stages are there to this half-assed cure?”
Nadya's Nights: Road to Vengeance Page 13