Hellboy: Unnatural Selection(63)

"You there, Liz?" he yelled.

"Right behind you."

"I thought I'd lose you in the perfume shop."

"Sexist ape."

Skidding around a corner, Hellboy saw what had caused the explosion. There was a dragon thrashing and twisting amid the ruins of a car display stand. The car itself — once a polished and curvaceous totem of materialism — had been kicked aside into a tie shop, and was now a burning wreck. Several bodies were scattered around its broken chassis. They too were burning.

"Son of a bitch!" Hellboy yelled. The dragon stopped its orgy of destruction and turned to face him. It grew quiet for a moment, perhaps confused at this big red man. Then it growled. "Oh yeah," Hellboy said. "Your cousin was an ugly mother too."

The dragon darted forward, surprisingly nimble despite its size. It coughed fire at the same time, and Hellboy and Liz rolled to the side. They ended up in a coffee shop — spilled coffee sheening the floor, discarded bags and magazines pushed against walls like snowdrifts — and they had to duck again when the dragon drew level and let out another gush of flames. The fire consumed the air around them and stole their breath, blazing across the counter and bursting bags and cans. As it receded the pleasing smell of roasted coffee filled the air.

"Now I'm getting very pissed," Hellboy said. "Liz?"

"I'll give you first shot," she said, smiling.

"So considerate." Hellboy stood, brought the gun up, and fired. The dragon seemed to dodge, flexing its neck and body as if it knew where the bullet was aimed. Then it lunged with its heavy front claws, dashing him aside, dragging him out, holding him down so that it could twist its body and stand on his chest. Hellboy aimed again and fired, but the bullet glanced from the thing's skull and took out the display window of a sports shop. Sneakers and footballs tumbled out, and the dragon snapped its head to one side and fried them.

Hellboy squirmed against the weight of the beast, taking in a huge breath and smashing at its foot with his right hand. The dragon screeched and lifted its foot ... and then brought it down again, hard. Hellboy's breath was forced from his lungs, and he felt the tiles beneath him shatter from the impact. He kept hold of his gun.

From his left he felt the livid simmering of a different fire.

The dragon turned its foot left and right, crunching Hellboy down into the floor. The sharp edges of broken tiles scraped his skin, the beasts claws bit into his chest and abdomen, and Hellboy looked up and saw a security camera turn toward him, flashing red. Great, he thought. Ass kicked on film for the second time. He turned the gun, pressed the barrel against the dragons foot, and pulled the trigger. Blood exploded in his face, and the dragon fell to one side, howling like a puppy left on its own.

Hellboy rolled toward Liz, and as he knelt and brought the pistol up, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck singed. A roar of flame curved over his head and struck the dragon on the face.

"Burn," Liz said. Her voice sent a shiver through Hellboy. He would trust Liz to death and beyond, but hell, she had hidden depths.

The dragon reared up and flapped its huge wings. They scraped walls, smashed doors, and scored the tiled floor. When it opened its mouth to inhale Liz's fire, Hellboy knew they were in trouble.

He aimed the pistol. "One good shot," he said. "That's all I ask. One ... good ... shot." He pulled the trigger and suddenly believed in the power of prayer. The bullet hit home in the dragons throat.

The giant lizard froze, stiffened, let out a small squeal. The hole in its throat spewed something colorless that distorted Hellboy's view of the monsters head — gas or heat, he could not tell — and then its eyes rolled up in its head.

"Oh, Liz," Hellboy said, "this is going to be — "

The dragon exploded. It gave a wet, dull thud that thumped through the ground into Hellboy's legs and set his eardrums pounding. Its neck was pushed apart by a ball of fire. Blood, flesh, and bone spattered the walls and powered in through the coffee shop entrance. Hellboy barely brought up his hands before he was hit by a slab of meat almost half his size. It was warm and stinking, and it rolled him to the floor and slid against the back wall with him. He tried to push it away but found that it was burning, pockets of gas in its flesh popping and sparking and dribbling fire down across his face and neck. It fused the meat to him, and he started to smell like a bad steak.

"Dammit!" He kicked up and out, shoving aside the still-melting chunk of meat, and then Liz was there adding her weight. The piece of dragon parted from Hellboy with a sucking sound, and he kicked it away. "Now, that is grim."