"One that doesn't concern you. Now goodbye. Get everyone ready. I'll take care of cancelling the matinee."
A thought occurred to her. "You never planned on having a matinee, did you? You set this fire, which is why we stayed."
"Goodbye, Ms. Preston."
Joey rushed out of his camper with no idea what to do.What the hell were those things?She needed to warn the Hales, needed to find Drake. And she needed to tell the others to prepare to leave. And she wanted to warn them to start putting out feelers for other rodeos so they didn’t get stuck with no money. As for herself, she was going to do the same thing immediately.
Her breathing was rapid as she hurried along. She could see dragons, but she had never detected whatever creature Percy and his men were. Why? That simple question, which really wasn’t so simple, bothered her terribly. She either had an ability or she didn’t, but obviously it was selective in what it could detect.
She was halfway back to the barn when she heard the explosion. Her intuition told her that Drake was in danger, and she took off running. Fear dogged her with each step, and she reached the far end just as Colton pulled Drake out of the fire, his clothes on fire.
She dropped to her knees and helped Colton roll Drake back and forth to extinguish the flames. She used her hands to pat a smaller flame here and there, and she was vaguely aware when Vinia and Sarah ran up.
"What happened?" Vinia's voice was high pitched as she cradled Drake's head. His eyes were closed, and he had soot build-up all over his face.
"I have no idea," Colton answered. "He shift..." His eyes turned to Joey.
"He shifted. I know, he showed me."
Colton's brows lifted but he turned back to his mother. "He shifted and had the fire out. Then all of a sudden it just reignited as if someone poured gasoline on it. I have no idea what exploded."
Sarah stared at the flames. "I'll go put it out."
"No!" Colton jumped up. "Not pregnant you won't. I'll go."
She put her hand on his chest. "If Drake couldn't put it out, I doubt you can. Maybe with the pregnancy hormones, I'll have better luck."
Vinia started to argue but changed her mind and talked to Drake. "Come on, son. You need to wake up. You can heal yourself, but you need to be aware."
Joey watched as Sarah ran to the barn. She stayed far enough back that she was out of the reach of the flames, and when she shifted, she was the most beautiful color of seafoam green that Joey had ever seen. She sparkled in the sun as she blew dragon breath on the flames. Slowly but surely, she advanced into the barn. The flames didn't relight, and when she was done, Sarah came back out and shifted back.
She stood and watched for a minute, but only smoke rose lazily from the ruined building. After waiting a minute, she hurried back over.
"Propane tanks."
"What?" Colton snatched his head up to stare at her. "Who the hell put propane tanks in the barn?"
All eyes turned to Joey. She held up her hands. "Don't look at me. None of us carry spare tanks. We only have the ones on the campers. Percy gets them refilled at the various stops. It's too dangerous hauling around extras with the livestock we haul."
Vinia clenched her teeth together. "Which means it was intentional. Come on. We need to get Drake to his house."
"Shouldn't we call an ambulance?" Joey couldn't believe they were just taking him home.
"No, sweetheart. You don't take a dragon to an emergency room. He'll heal himself. He hasn't damaged any internal organs or broken any bones, so he'll be fine. The concussion of the blast has just knocked him silly."
Joey didn't ask how she knew that. As Colton hoisted Drake off the ground, he spoke to his mother. "You might want to know just how much she knows about us. I never in a million years would have thought Drake would expose himself," he glanced at Joey, "as a dragon, I mean."
"He only did it because I asked him to after I told him that I could see both of his beings."
Sarah and Vinia both gasped, and Colton's face darkened. "You could see him?"
"I could see his dragon form when I looked at him. I told him about it." She couldn't figure out why they seemed upset.
Without a word, they all turned away from her and carried Drake off. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to follow or not, but she did anyhow. There was no way they were disappearing with the man she loved without an explanation of what she had said to upset them.
Chapter Eighteen: Learning the Situation
Drake Hale
