Vaguely, she thought she remembered alarm bells ringing as well. But for the moment, at least, she was still alone with Nora. The guards running around didn’t know where she was and hadn’t thought to check the small park. It was out of the way and not usually patrolled by them.

Nora felt the punches slamming into her and they actually hurt, which she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around. Lola was just a human. She should be too weak to do anything to her. But already her face was healing. The nasty gash she’d gotten when her head hit the stone bench was nearly gone. The pain had dissipated as well and she could think straight again.

“Die!”

Lola was screaming that word over and over again.

Nora felt all the humor at the situation suddenly evaporate inside her. The fact that she’d gotten into Oclan so easily, made her way across the country to the capital, and then into the castle itself only to almost immediately find Lola had been extremely funny at the time. What were the odds of that? She’d barely had to kill anyone on her way through Oclan. Maybe one or two unfortunate souls that saw her and four guards that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Other than that, there was barely any resistance.

Except for the oni.

Those had been a surprise for sure but she sacrificed Zac and Alana to them. It had been a calculated risk but one that paid off in the end. The oni focused on those two and she made it through.

Now here she was, finally at the end of her goal, and the weak, sniveling, human bitch had the audacity to punch her?

No way would she allow that to keep happening.

Once the last bits of disorientation from her fall and the punches left her, she lashed out with most of her strength and pushed Lola away. The girl went tumbling backward, unable to do anything to prevent it. The sudden shift in balance along with the shove was enough to overbalance her. She was a fighter though, much more so than when the two first met. That version of the girl had been a coward, willing to run away while everyone she knew and loved was killed. This Lola, however, had evidently learned some moves. She kept her center of gravity lower and while one arm wasn’t working, she held the other one up in a guard position. Since Russel Polver had been the one to rescue her, Nora assumed he also taught her a few things.

Good, she whispered to herself. At least now she would have at least a little fun before she ripped Lola’s throat out. She liked it when they fought back. It was much more satisfying than the weepy ones that begged for their lives right before she killed them.

She had to be careful though. Time was not a luxury she had a lot of at the moment. The guards running around the castle would find them eventually and if Lola wasn’t dead by then, her entire mission would be a failure and she would have thrown her life away for nothing.

Before tangling with Lola again, she let more of the beast out and felt her body start to change in response. Her brow ridge protruded outward and she felt fangs itching to come out. The claws on her fingers got longer and more pointed. Then she ran straight for the bitch.

The two met in a clash of claws against a single fist. Despite all the pain of her injuries, Lola still kept up and was able to hold her own. For the most part. She took a few brutal slashes to her arms and legs but while they were painful, they were mostly shallow, superficial cuts. She kept herself back and away from those swinging claws but Nora was also persistent and didn’t give Lola any breathing room.

I need a weapon of some kind, Lola told herself. She looked around but couldn’t find anything. She wished she had her blade with her. That, at least, would have given her a fighting chance. But as she glanced around, she saw nothing useful. The only hope she had now was to either knock Nora unconscious and kill her or deliver a killing blow in one shot. The first might be doable but the second was almost definitely not. She was already injured and even if she wasn’t, she didn’t have the raw strength to kill a werewolf in one blow.

She dodged out of the way of one of Nora’s blows and then dodged again. She was happy that the limb that got broken had been her arm and not one or both of her legs. There would have been nothing she could do to get away if that had been the case. At least now, for the moment, she could move around.

“I thought you wanted to kill me!” Nora shouted and then laughed. “Quit running scared, little bunny! I’m right here.”

“Fuck you,” Lola screamed back, dodging another swipe of Nora’s claws.

The rage started to fade as she realized with dawning horror that she was not going to get out of this. Not unless something or someone intervened. That was a hard thing to swallow considering everything the wolf-woman had done to her but she had to be realistic now.

She was too weak and too hurt to kill Nora.