Purrfect Roast: A Dragon Cozy Mystery by Verena DeLuca (the giving tree read aloud TXT) 📗

"I hope she heard her name called," Aubrey said, looking around for the group of ladies that she came with.

"Doesn't look like any of them are still here," Skylar said.

"Darn," Aubrey said.

We all giggled as Nathan cleared his throat again to announce the first-place trophy winner.

"Can you three keep it down?" Azure transmitted. "I would like to hear him say my name."

"Ha," I transmitted. "Fat chance."

"In first place," Nathan said. "Let's give a big round of applause to Azure Rune, who also won best in his division, plus four smaller categories."

Wait, What? Did he just say we won?

"Told you," Azure transmitted. "Let's pick up my loot."

He walked off in front of me, only to turn back and see that I was not following. This caused him to run back and headbutt my legs.

"Come on woman, I need your appendages!"

Aubrey screamed beside me, "You won! You won!"

She and Skylar were both jumping up and down as they pushed me through the crowd. I was dumbfounded. The cheers echoed throughout the lobby as we made our way to the cafe. I could not believe it. We really won. Never in my dreams did I think we even had a chance.

"I don't know why you doubt me," Azure transmitted.

As I shook hands with Nathan, I saw Sue out of the corner of my eyes throwing a balled-up piece of paper to the floor and scooped up her cat. She stormed out of the hotel before I could make eye contact. Icing on the cake, guess rude never prospers.

Once we had our box, Nathan searched his list for Shadow, who won quite a few smaller division trophies and silver in Best of Unaltered.

After photos with the other winners and a few too many hugs, we finally were able to make it out to the car.

"Do you want me to drive?" I asked Aubrey.

"Yes, please," Aubrey said. "Driving here was bad enough."

"You don't know how much I appreciate you driving here," I said. "Skylar and I would have been so bored without you."

"I know." Aubrey laughed. "I'm the life of all parties."

"Wow," Skylar said. "Someone's full of themselves."

"No kidding." I laughed. "Looks like we still have time to make the bats, y'all still want to go?"

"Yes!"

"Jinx," they both said again.

We all crumpled into laughter as we drove out of the parking lot.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Sunday, May 17th, 8:15 PM

The drive to the Congress Avenue bridge was one of the most relaxing moments since waking up. Austin bumper-to-bumper traffic did not phase me like it usually did. The day had taken the fight right out of me. Not to mention my mind was still racing from Azure winning gold.

As we approached the downtown area, it took longer than I hoped to find the free bat-parking lot, within walking distance of the bridge. But I did not complain and neither did the girls. They must have felt relieved to be out of the hotel, like I was. At least, I hoped that was why they stayed quiet for the entire drive.

As we walked, Aubrey read bat facts off her phone. I stayed silent taking in the gorgeous sunset. Austin's skyline had to be one of the best in the country. It amazed me at how well the city incorporated an urban feel, while still being lush, filled with greenery.

The city changed so much in the years since I graduated college. Especially with the redesigning of a few homeless laws, making camping on city property legal as long as they were not obstructing the public. So now on any given drive through the city, the cozy wooded areas around the roadsides were overrun with homeless camps or single tents.

Overall, it creeped me out to even get out of my car in most places. Not to mention the fact that at many lights throughout the city, stopping at them gave the homeless an open invitation to start washing your window or asking for spare change. I hoped the city was working on a better solution to the growing homeless population, because these latest changes were clearly not working.

"If we flew right next to you guys would Aubrey scream?" Azure transmitted.

"Don't you dare," I transmitted with a smirk.

While it would be hilarious, I knew it would draw attention that we were not looking for. Better for him to keep his bat self in the sky until we got back to the car.

"So responsible," Azure transmitted. "Doesn't winning gold grant me a bit of leeway?"

We told Aubrey we were leaving the cats in the car, but in reality, they were joining the bats on their flight. A single cracked window was enough to let them get out, and back in before Aubrey noticed they were gone.

"Not that level of leeway," I transmitted.

"Fine, Fine."

"Did you know there is going to be over a million bats flying out from under the bridge?" Aubrey asked.

"Creepy," Skylar said. "Good thing vampires aren't real."

"Ooh," I said. "What if they were, and this bat experience was just a way for them to pick out their prey?"

We giggled and stopped at a light to wait for the crosswalk signal.

"Let's hope that's not true," Aubrey said. "These little guys are so cute."

She held up her phone to show us a picture of a Mexican free-tailed bat. Just as adorable as Azure when he glamoured into a bat. It was not until college that I realized the bats in Texas were small for bats. Australia had bat species that would eat ours for lunch—if they were cannibals that is.

"This isn't even the largest colony in Texas," Aubrey said. "Bracken Cave has like twenty million of these little guys. It's the largest colony on earth."

"Guess I know where our next vacation will be." I laughed.

"Totally not here for caves," Skylar said.

"Oh yeah?" Aubrey teased. "Afraid of the dark are we?"

"Maybe," Skylar retorted, and stuck her tongue out causing us all to giggle.

"Alright children," I said in my best