Drake attacked the flames with both hoses while he waited for an opening to shift without being seen. His dragon breath would extinguish the flames in a matter of seconds.
He was surprised when one of the hoses was yanked out of his hands. One of the cowboys, Warren, moved away to help fight the fire.
"Did you get all the horses?" Drake looked for Colton, who hadn't seen someone slip past him. He couldn't shift if he had a witness.
"Yep. All safe and out of harm's way. I figured I'd give you a hand."
"Why don't you go make sure they get the feed and stuff out?" Drake needed him to be gone before they lost the entire barn. The water wasn't doing anything.
"They have it handled. You were the one who needed help."
A crackling noise sent another shower of sparks high up into the air. Drake didn't have much time to get the fire out before there wouldn't be a reason to worry about it.
Over Warren's shoulder, Drake saw Vinia and Sarah walk up. He caught Sarah's attention and gestured to Warren, hoping that she caught on to his meaning.
She did. After he saw her lean over and say something to Vinia, Sarah suddenly doubled over and crouched to the ground. Drake grabbed the hose and motioned to Warren. "Hey, can you go help my sister? I think the excitement is messing with her pregnancy."
Warren saw Vinia trying to comfort her daughter. He gave Drake a curious look that asked why he wasn't going to help his sister, but with a little urging, he nodded and ran over to the women. Drake watched him lift Sarah off the ground and then they all shuffled off back toward the tent.
Drake ran to the end of the barn where the fire was the worst and shifted. The fire had reached the point that he either put it out now, or it wouldn't matter. He carefully blew his own brand of fire on the flames, and they were instantly extinguished. He made his way carefully through the entrance and blew his breath all along the base of the flames.
Even though the fire extinguished as he moved along, he felt the heat on his scales.
He frowned. He shouldn't be feeling the fire at all. This wasn't the first time he had been in this situation. There had been plenty of wildfires over the years that he had shifted and gotten into the middle of to put out, and he had never felt the heat. As he moved forward, the heat on his tail almost became painful.
He twisted his neck and looked back the way he had come. The flames he had already put out had suddenly reignited and were once again blazing.
What the hell?
He blew a stronger stream of breath behind him and once again extinguished the flames. He waited a moment and watched, but they didn't reignite this time. By the time he turned back, the flames nearest him had flared up again. He blew them out for a second time before he continued to the interior of the barn and carefully blew on all of the existing flames. Several flared up again seconds after being extinguished, but after a second time, they stayed out.
Nothing like this had ever happened before. Colton had to have been right about magic. Nothing like this had ever happened before.
Once all the flames were out for the second time, Drake happened to catch a glimpse of the inside of one of the stalls. Several propane tanks were stacked against the wall.
Where the hell did they come from?
As he blew on them to cool them off, he made a mental note to tell all of the competitors not to store what he assumed was their camper supplies in the barn at any future stops they made.
Once all the flames were out, he shifted back to his human form. His boots crunched on the charred wood strewn on the floor. Luckily only a third of the barn was damaged, with only a quarter of that totally destroyed. Or so he thought as he surveyed the damage.
The fire had been hot, but it didn't seem to have really affected the wood as much as it should have. The fire seemed to have been superficial and just burned on the surface without burning too deep into the beams.
He frowned deeper. Something was really messed up here. He stepped into the stall to make sure there weren't any hot spots around the propane cylinders. They were smaller than he would have thought the tanks on the campers would be.
Once he got a good look at them, he realized that they were not set up to work with the campers or any type of barbeque grill. They were simply containers with and on and off valve but no hook-up for any specific device.
None of the competitors put these here, that was for sure. Arson was definitely the culprit, but who? And what kind of arson? Drake wasn't sure that black magic counted for an insurance claim.
He turned to leave the stall and ran his finger along the gate. Once again, the wood was charred, but it wasn't really burned very deep. It would make rebuilding more challenging, because if they saved the existing structure, they would need to strip all of the boards before any horses could be boarded inside again.
As he stood there contemplating the situation, flames suddenly burst up all around him. He moved away from the flames and beat on his shirt to put out a burning spot. He felt his skin blister underneath.
He stepped out into the barn so he could shift and have another go at the fire, but he heard a loud hiss behind him. As he turned to look, he saw a bright flash accompanied with a loud bang.
He felt himself thrown backwards before his world went black.
Chapter Seventeen: Revealing Situation
