Wildfire Read Online Free

kitchen door
after her friend. Excitement skittered through her. Maybe she’d find something
concrete at the scene of this new fire.
    “No, I’m the fire department’s treasurer.”
    “Treasurers help fight fires?” Lynn arched an eyebrow. “In
their pajamas?”
    Jen looked down at herself and laughed. “Ah…no and no. Could
you load up? And you might want to put on shoes.”She
disappeared down the hallway.
    Lynn finished loading the car and buckled herself in. She
drummed her fingers and counted backwards from a hundred. Both she and the
dragon chaffed at being forced to wait and to use a vehicle.
    On sixty-six, the door opened and Jen slid into the driver’s
seat. “I essentially stay out of the firefighters’ way. Everyone turns up to
help however they can.” She took a deep breath and started the old station
wagon. “I’m usually on the sidelines if the firefighters need water to drink,
the victims need comforting or, God forbid, if somebody needs first aid.”
    “Do you know the people whose house is on fire?”
    “Like I said, this is small place.”
    “Okay, I get it— small community. Everyone knows everybody,
everyone helps everyone.” Lynn leaned her head back against the seat. “Just
don’t start singing Kumbaya.”
    Jen cut her a glare.
    “So, who’s Jack Callaghan?”
    Her friend’s knuckles blanched on the steering wheel. “He’s
my landlord and my nearest neighbor.”
    “How come he didn’t show up at your fire?” She angled her
head toward Jen. “That wasn’t very neighborly of him.”
    “Being a neighbor here doesn’t mean right next door, he’s
about two miles away.” Jen’s face darkened, grew pinched. “But he’s part of the
volunteer fire department and he should have been here. I hope he’s
okay.”
    God, Jen was such a softie. Where most people would run away
from an injured bull, she’d try to help it. And yes, where most people would
have panicked and fled from a dragon shifter, or attacked, she became BFF. “You
know him well?”
    “Pretty well,” Jen said. “Jack’s one of the nicest guys I’ve
ever met. He is gentlemanly, straight forward, and big brotherly.”
    “Hmm, full of praises aren’t we? Do I sense a spark of
interest here?”
    The car almost swerved off the road.
    “Let me repeat myself: big brotherly ,’” Jen scowled.
“He’s a good friend though.”
    Lynn righted herself in the seat and looked around. “Holy
Wasabi.”
    The dry, brown West Texas countryside turned uglier with
swaths of charred pasture on both sides of the road. Blackened trees stood
silent witness. Soon the stink of smoke seeped into the car despite the closed
windows. Her blood tingled and a thought resurfaced. “How many fires have there
been?”
    “The Jarvis fire will be the fourth one this month.” Jen’s
lips tightened into a thin line.
    Too many. And these last two were too close. Lynn stiffened
as a twinge of intuition hardened inside her. She hadn’t seen anything, but
she’d definitely sensed something. Smelled him. While her other faculties might
be backfiring, she trusted her nose. Or had until now.
    “Do you think….” She paused and rubbed her chin. “Do you
think it’s something like me?”
    “A dragon? But that’s not possible.”
    “You know better.” Jen knew all her secrets.
    “But…but I haven’t seen any Japanese or half-Japanese around
here,” Jen said. “To be a descendant of the Dragon king’s daughter, don’t you
have to be somewhat Japanese at least?”
    As young girls, they loved hearing Obaa-chan tell the
story of Kiyohime, a daughter of Riyojin, the dragon lord of the sea. She fell
in love with a human and approached him as a beautiful teahouse waitress. After
a brief affair, he spurned her. In her grief she turned into a dragon and
killed him.
    Lynn sighed as a dull ache pulsed at her temples. The story
of a grief-stricken dragon losing control seemed too close to her reality.“Jen, dragon myths exist in all