Hellboy: Unnatural Selection(68)

With a sound like a jet taking off, a mass of fire engulfed Liz and poured skyward. So rich, she thought. So pure. If this keeps going it'll part the clouds!

She looked across the airport and was shocked to see how close the dragons already were.

The first lizard was flying just above ground level, looking like a bottom feeder in clear water. It was using its claws to guide its way across the concrete, while still beating its wings to keep it truly afloat. Its mouth trailed streamers of meat, clothing, and skin. Its eyes were black. Just as it reached the wheeled steps Liz was standing on, it skirted sideways, performing a full circle around her, its head tilted up and its black eyes reflecting her flames.

The other two dragons from Terminal Three followed close behind. One flew in high, the other copied the first, flying clockwise around Liz instead of counterclockwise. All three of them stared at her and her fire, perhaps impressed, perhaps hypnotized by this alien creature that could perform their own incredible trick.

But Liz knew it would not last for long.

Come on, Hellboy, she thought. Don't screw around. Shoot the damn things!

One dragon roared a mouthful of flame at Liz. Her own fire consumed it and cast it skyward. The dragon paused and roared again, but this time only the sound came out. It looked up at the tower of flame, back down at Liz, and as it opened its mouth for the third time, several holes appeared in its neck, and its head flicked sideways.

Liz could not help staring. This is when it —

The dragons neck exploded, sending its severed head spinning thirty feet into the air. Blood and flickering flames trailed behind it. Its body slumped to the ground. Dead, it was no longer immune to fire.

The other two dragons screeched, and Hellboy and the policemen moved out from cover to open fire. Hellboy had been hiding up on the terminal roof, and Liz saw him from the corner of her eye. His big cannon was blasting holes in the air, but not every bullet was finding its mark. The policemen emerged from a line of loaded luggage carts, and their marksmanship left no questions. Bullets raked the beasts' flanks, wings, and stomachs, and when a slew of slugs hit the second dragons neck, it screeched like a wounded baby, spun down to the ground, and clawed at its throat. It was still hissing when a chunk of its head was blown off by gases erupting from its torn hide. It crawled across the ground, aimless in death, and flames began to eat it from the inside out.

"Crap!" Liz heard Hellboy snap open his pistol and lock in another load, but it was as if the third dragon had instantly sensed his weakness. It darted past Liz and aimed for Hellboy.

She turned and threw a punch at the dragon. Even though it was twenty feet away, it took the blow hard in the side, Liz's bluish flames knocking it out of the sky. They did not burn the beast, but the flames of her wrath obviously carried weight. Startled, winded, the dragon was an easy target for the policemen. While his colleague was reloading, the sergeant stepped forward and emptied a magazine into the things neck. He ducked back as the lizard burst open and caught fire.

Liz threw a ball of fire at the gaping wound and smiled in satisfaction as she saw it settle into the creatures still-leaking flesh.

"Still one more!" the sergeant yelled, scanning the skies. His colleague, wide-eyed and stunned, finished reloading with shaking hands.

Liz looked up at Hellboy. He stood smiling on the roof's edge, hands on hips as if surveying a job well done, and as he opened his mouth to say something, a shadow fell over him. The dragon powered in from behind, plucked Hellboy from the parapet, and rose quickly into the sky.

Liz threw a ball of flame after it, but the dragon was rising too quickly, and the fire spluttered out after a hundred feet.

Hellboy twisted in the monsters claws, looked down at Liz, and she saw him raise his gun. She did not hear what he said next, but she could imagine it: This is going to hurt ...



* * *



Shocked for a few seconds, by the time he gathered his wits, Hellboy had been hauled several hundred feet into the air. The dragon drove upward, trying to escape the field of fire from the policemen below and probably never believing that the man in its claws would usher in its own demise.

But Hellboy was more than a man, and more determined than that. He was also very, very pissed; this was the second time he'd been carried off by a dragon. But now that he knew their weakness, he had no intention of letting this one get away with it as well. It stank, for a start, like a car exhaust stuffed with dead fish. And its claws were slick with the remains of fresh kills.

Hellboy looked down at Liz receding below him, blue flames still dancing about her like frolicking ghosts. "This," he said, "is gonna hurt." Then he aimed the gun and fired six shots in quick succession.