Page 2 of Dragon Keeper

Those big front teeth made a whistling sound when the guy blew out a frustrated breath. “You stay there. Right there.”

The guy turned and headed toward the front door, putting his feet down hard. They made an impressive noise for bare feet. He strode to the front door of the house, then knocked, crossing his arms over his chest as he waited, glaring at them kind of sideways.

The door opened to a violently green man, like Jolly Green Giant green, but somehow it worked.

“Yarrow, we’ve talked about naked time around the yard,” the guy said.

The beaver man jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “They want to talk to you about people who used to live here.”

Emerald eyes met his, and one of the green eyebrows lifted, arched madly. “Do they now? Interesting.” The beaver man gota smile. “Thanks, Yarrow. Get some clothes on or shift back. You’re going to freeze your nuts off.”

See, that’s what I said.Riley was two seconds away from socking him in the shoulder. Sloan could tell.

Not now.He shook his head and stood up, stepping forward. “Hello. We’re not here to cause trouble. We had friends who lived here. We were worried about them. Looks like maybe we had a reason to be…”

“How did you know them?” The roses seemed to be growing. Like just climbing up the house, the thorns thick and worrisome.

“We were just friends. Last time we saw them, Nevvy was just a baby, but they were… dealing with an infestation.”

Vampires. They’d been dealing with bloodsuckers.

Brayden nodded. “Nevada is a sweetheart. Just a little dragon.”

Suddenly, one pink and one purple face appeared on either side of the green one’s head. It was sort of like he duplicated himself in different colors.

Creepy.

“These are the ones I was telling you about,” the pink one said.

“They’re a little bigger than you described them.” The green one was the oldest, Sloan could tell.

“Yeah, I think we should get Hawk. Let’s see if Hawk knew them. They look old.”

“Hey!” Riley burst out. “I’m not old.”

All three brothers grinned as one, saying, “No?”

The purple one motioned to them, and it looked like rainbow fairy lights falling from his fingertips. “Come on. It’s chilly, even for springtime.”

What do we do? Should we go in?Brayden asked.

I don’t think we have a choice. I mean, seriously. We have to know what happened to Myk and Luuk and Jon? That’s what’s important. What if they have Nevvy in there?

“I guarantee you Nevvy is at school.” The original triplet winked at him.

How had they heard them?

“Are you sure?” Sloan shot back.

“Yes, actually. I had to go into town, so I walked down with all of them. Well, rode. Are you coming in? I mean, it is getting late…”

Are these guys for real?Riley was starting to get agitated.

I’m going to say it doesn’t matter. We need to find out.

“Come on, guys. We make empowering burgers. And we can prove to you this way that there are no vamps here.” The green one stepped back, even as the beaver thumped his tail in disapproval on the ground.

“Okay. We’ll come.” Brayden gave them a winning smile, then glared at Riley as he made to protest.