Under A Painted Sky (Spirit Warrior Series)

by Jenna Roads

  He said, “Get behind me.” Then he went around the room looking for someone as he grabbed a copper statue off the end table and made his way upstairs. My heart was racing again, but not nearly as bad as before, because I had Logan here. He went through every room and closet and found nothing.

  “Stand still,” he said, and went out on the veranda and checked and saw nothing. As we went back down the stairs, he said, “I’ll check outside.” He went out to the backyard and then the front and nothing. He came back in and we locked up. Logan asked, “Are you sure that wasn’t there before?”

  “Yes, the frame was on the end table and the vase was right side up on the mantle. I’m a neat freak. Everything must be in its place. It’s a character flaw, I know,” I replied.

  “You are not flawed; I like everything neat myself. I don’t see any place where they could’ve gotten in. Are you sure the door was locked?”

  “Yes, the lock was intact and security was armed just like last night. No alarm went off. The man tested the alarm and found it to be working fine. What is going on here, Logan? Do you think someone stole the key somehow and knows the code for the alarm?” I asked.

  “Well, we can fix that right now. Let’s go to my shop. I have plenty of locks and we’ll change them and I can also change the security code afterward,” Logan responded.

  “Okay, let’s go,” I said.

  We locked up and headed out to Logan’s shop.

  It was only two miles down the road.

  I noticed that his shop was very neat. Everything was in its place. I felt a little less OCD than before. He located the locks and we were ready to go back. He reached in a drawer and pulled out a gun. It was a revolver.

  “What is that for?” I asked.

  “It’s for you and your protection,” Logan replied.

  “I don’t even know how to use that,” I said.

  “I will show you,” he said.

  “I don’t think I could shoot anyone.”

  “You could if they were trying to hurt you. It’s not a big deal. I’ll just feel better knowing you’re safe,” Logan said.

  In a flash, we were back at my aunt’s house.

  He checked the door before unlocking it and found it intact. After we went inside, he spread out the things to change the locks.

  We both heard someone walk upstairs at the same time. We looked at each other. Logan grabbed his gun and said, “Stay here.”

  He went quietly up the stairs and I waited at the bottom so I could hear. He walked around up there and then said, “All clear.” He came back down, looked at me and asked, “I did hear someone walking, right?”

  “Yes, we did,” I replied.

  “Come here,” he said.

  He went up the stairs with me and when we get to the top of the steps it was very cold. He walked me through the hall and it was cold the whole way. We walked into the bedroom and it instantly became warm, and likewise in the other rooms. We started back down the hall and it was cold again. We went back downstairs and it was warm.

  He looked at me and asked, “You did feel the cold, right?”

  I replied, “Yes. What can it be?”

  “I don’t know, unless it’s a ghost. I never saw anything funny when I was here before you came. When I was working and setting up things for three days straight or when I was here before that. This is too weird,” he said.

  “Well, I will just go ahead and tell you that I am not a believer in ghosts. That is just for the movies hogwash,” I said.

  “I would not say there is no such thing, because I have heard many stories from people I respect. One thing that was said a lot, was about the cold areas in a house was where a ghost was supposed to have been,” he said.

  “This isn’t my first incident of thinking something was wrong or someone being here.” I told him about hearing my name being called, the fireplace turning on when I didn’t turn it on, the lights being turned on and off when I was in the tub, my cup appearing back on the counter and the shadow upstairs. “Do you really think there are ghosts? That is pretty farfetched, if you ask me,” I said.

  “I don’t know,” Logan responded.

  “Now that I hear myself saying these things that happened out loud, it does seem like a lot of things. The security man said everything was intact and the electrician has been here twice and said the fireplace worked perfectly. He didn’t believe me that it turned on by itself and the security guy and the police didn’t believe me either. It doesn’t make sense because nothing has been missing. What could anybody possibly want?” I asked.

  Logan started fixing the locks. “Well, I believe you. I can’t come up with an explanation just yet, but I’m going to change these locks just to be sure.”

  He changed the locks and we changed the security code together. Logan turned to me and said, “I believe you promised me a movie, Isabella.”

  “I did indeed. Let’s see what you might want to watch,” I replied.

  We put away the boxes from the locks and I gave him the remote to find a movie. We sat on the couch together. Logan and I agreed on the Eddie Murphy movie A Thousand Words. We needed to laugh and this was supposed to be a clean Eddie Murphy funny movie, which is a rare find.

  Logan scooted in and placed his arm around my shoulder. I got wind of his cologne and I was in heaven. This is the life, I thought to myself. The movie was playing and I asked Logan, “Can I get you anything?

  “Sure, I will take a soda,” he replied. I went into the kitchen and returned with them.

  I nestled back in under his arm and we finished watching the movie. It was funny and did take our minds off of our intruder. Logan clicked on the stereo with the remote. “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction was playing.

  Logan looked at me with his flashy smile and pulled me to him. I almost lost my breath as he took my lips in his, ever so gently. He kissed me with such passion.

  “Isabella, you are the most beautiful person, inside and out, that I’ve ever met.”

  I looked up into his emerald eyes where I think I could spend forever and managed to breathe out, “Ditto.”

  “You know I am falling very hard for you, don’t you?” he asked.

  “I was hoping you were, because I am sure falling for you,” I replied.

  Logan said, “Just a week ago, I had no intention of getting serious with anyone or even being in a relationship for that matter. Now I can’t think of anybody but Isabella Reed.”

  “Me, either. I can’t think of anybody but you and don’t forget, I am the one who was married a little over six months ago. A relationship was the last thing on Earth I wanted and then came Logan Hayes, and you are just, well, amazing,” I said.

  “I guess when you least expect it—love picks you,” Logan said.

  “I guess it does, since it sure did not feel like this the first time when I thought I was in love. I guess he did me a favor by divorcing me. I would never have known what real love feels like,” I said.

  “Really, I guess he did me a favor also. I may never have found you if that had not happened,” Logan said.

  Just then, all of a sudden I felt a cool wind pass by from behind the couch and Logan looked at me as if he felt it too. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck and my arms. A candle flew off the end table beside Logan and we heard glass breaking. I looked down at the floor and the candle was in one piece. I dug my arm through Logan’s and got as close as I possibly could. I looked up toward the television and I saw above the mantle to the fireplace a faint shadow of a woman on the wall. I pointed so Logan could see because no words would come out of my mouth. I was terrified and I felt Logan tense up.

  The vision of the woman faded and Logan jumped up pulling me behind and went into the dining room and grabbed his gun. He started moving around the room dragging me behind him, but we didn’t see anything.

  He yelled out, “Where are you? What do you want?” There was no answer or sound to his demands. He looked at me and yelled out again,
but no response came.

  He pulled me to him and said, “I am not leaving you here tonight. You just got yourself a house guest.” Relief flooded over me. I sure didn’t want to stay there by myself after that.

  “I might have to take back what I said earlier. This is starting to look like a bad ghost movie,” I said.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “I didn’t figure out what it was, but it’s starting to look that way. That was the first time I have ever seen anything that looked like a ghost,” Logan said.

  “The first time for me, too,” I replied.

  I looked at the clock and it was 1:30 a.m.

  Logan said, “I’ll take the couch and just stay here tonight.”

  “I don’t think I want to get in the bed upstairs. I’m too spooked,” I said.

  “You’re right. I don’t think I want you upstairs either. You take the couch and we can get some blankets and make a pallet on the floor for me right here by you,” he said.

  We went upstairs and got some linen to make up the couch and the pallet on the floor. I grabbed an extra toothbrush and toothpaste. We made the couch and pallet and took turns brushing our teeth in the bathroom downstairs. We lay down and left the light on just in case. It was useless—I wasn’t able to sleep. I saw that Logan was still awake too. I sat up on the couch and he followed suit.

  “You can’t sleep either, Isabella?”

  “No, I just can’t figure this out. I know what I saw. I know what I felt. I know what I’ve heard, and now you know part of it too. I just don’t know what is going on and better yet, why?” I asked.

  Logan joined me back on the couch, grabbed my hand, and held it in his as he spoke. “Tomorrow, I will go see a friend of mine. The one I told you has seen this kind of thing before and see what he thinks. I promise it will be okay, Isabella. We’ll figure this out somehow. Did you call your Aunt Carol and tell her about this?” he asked.

  “No, I thought she would bother you when you needed to do your work yesterday. Now that I think about it, what would I even say? Is anybody gonna believe something like this? The first two people that I tried to tell certainly didn’t believe me when they came to check the security and fireplace,” I replied.

  “You have a point there. I would sure hate to try to tell her. We will figure this out,” Logan said.

  He pulled me to him and gently held my face in his hands as he looked into my eyes. “Isabella, you’re very precious to me and I would protect you with my life.” My heart was pounding with excitement. He tilted my chin up as he searched my lips with his and locked down as if to say, I am your protector. He made me believe every word of it and I could hardly breathe under his touch and smell. I was putty in sweet surrender under his lips.

  I couldn’t believe how different this felt compared to my love before. There was no breathlessness or pounding heart. It felt good before, but no fireworks. This felt amazing. I could die in Logan’s arms and leave this world a very happy girl. Uh, Earth to Isabella. I became present in his arms once again.

  He placed his arms around me and pulled me longingly into his embrace. He held me with his soft lips kissing my neck as they made their way gently to my lips once more. I felt like my heart would burst as he wrapped his lips over mine again and again.

  Just as I thought my heart would stop beating, it did momentarily, when I heard a door slam hard coming from upstairs. We both jolted back to reality and Logan grabbed his gun.

  We headed upstairs with me behind Logan as close as I could possibly get. We knew the master bedroom door had been shut and now it was open. When we got to the door, Logan motioned for me to step aside as he threw it open further. Nothing happened, except my heart dropping to my feet. I fell in behind him while he went through the room and closets, but we saw nothing.

  My eyes rose and the mirror on the dresser caught my eye. Written on the mirror in childlike red letters was the word ‘help!’ I pointed at the dresser and Logan tensed back to alertness. We didn’t see anything else.

  Logan opened the door to the veranda. We saw nothing but a sky filled with glistening stars and the lights of the city in the distance. We came back in and searched the other rooms with no results. We went back to the master bedroom to look at the writing on the mirror and it was gone. You couldn’t even tell anything had ever been on the mirror.

  Logan yelled out, “What do you want from us?” No answer. He repeated the yell and nothing. He looked at me, grabbed my hand, and dragged me behind him down the stairs.

  “This is crazy. What is going on with this place?” he asked, although I don’t think he expected an answer from me.

  I looked up at him in the living room and saw that he was very frustrated. “I wish I knew.”

  “I think your aunt has herself a haunted house. It’s funny though, because I spent time here before you came, getting everything stocked and up to par and this is the first I’ve seen of this. I was here for days and nothing happened.”

  “Well, now that you mention it, I was here for two days before anything started happening. Oh wow, the episode in the bath tub when the lights went off only in the bathroom and the music was still playing could have been this ghost thing. Oh my God, I can’t believe I just thought it was a faulty bulb,” I said.

  Logan said, “I don’t think it was a faulty bulb anymore. We are gonna have to figure this out since it won’t tell us what it wants. Come sit with me, Isabella.”

  I went over to the couch and sat down. He put his arm around me and pulled me close. We sat in silence, being comforted by each other.

  I said, “I think I want to get out of here and go somewhere else. I’m scared, Logan.”

  “We are not letting this thing make you leave your new home. We’re going to fix this in the morning.”

  At some point, I guess I dozed off, because I woke up in Logan’s embrace on the couch. My clothes from the night before were still on and wrinkled and my long hair was across my face. Logan was looking down at me smiling a peaceful smile.

  “What time is it?” I asked.

  “It’s 8:05 a.m.,” he replied.

  “I’m sorry, I must have fallen asleep.”

  “Don’t be sorry, you needed sleep. I was watching over you and keeping you safe,” Logan said.

  “You needed sleep too,” I replied.

  “I’m fine and usually don’t require much sleep. I need to let you get dressed so we can go see a man about a ghost. We can swing by my house and I can change clothes and freshen up. In fact, let’s just go get you some clothes and whatever else you need for the day and we’ll go to my place and you can freshen up there, also. Let’s just get out of here for now,” Logan said.

  “That sounds really great to me. Can we stop by the coffee shop or drive-thru on the way and grab some coffee? I can’t think without it,” I said.

  “Sure, we can even pick up breakfast to go and eat at my place,” he replied.

  Logan followed me upstairs so I could get my things and we came back down without incident. In the truck, he had the stereo going and I often felt like the radio was playing directly to me. It was weird. The song playing was “When We Stand Together” by Nickleback.

  We pulled through a drive-thru window and Logan ordered our coffee after asking me how I liked mine, then he got some breakfast burritos.

  We arrived at his place shortly after that. It was a small adobe house with an adobe arch entrance and xeriscaped nicely. We went in and Logan showed me around. It had two bedrooms and two baths. It was very simple and immaculate. “Let’s take a few minutes and eat and enjoy our coffee.”

  I was so glad to be somewhere else. I said, “Are you sure you don’t have any ghosts here?”

  “Well, I moved out of my parents place to this one, a year ago now and I haven’t noticed any ghost,” he replied.

  “I like your place.”

  “Thanks. It is great for just me. I had to get my own space and get out of my parents’ house. They are great, but well, they�
�re parents,” Logan said.

  “I definitely know what you mean,” I said.

  We ate our food and I realized that this was the second time since I’ve been in New Mexico. If I keep this up, I’ll have to hit the gym. With all the places Logan has taken me lately to pig out, I probably should anyway. After we finished, Logan gave me one bathroom and he took the other.

  We were both done bathing and dressing in no time. I gathered my dirty clothes and cleaned up where we had breakfast and Logan flashed me his smile of approval. That was one thing we definitely had in common. We were both neat freaks, judging by his home and what he’d told me. We both checked our phone messages and Logan made a few calls before we headed out the door.

  “What about your work?” I asked.

  “Remember, I cleared my schedule for a week for you and then had to go back on my word and take one day off. You are my work, although I intend to give back your aunt’s money. Let’s go see my man,” he said.

  He helped me into the truck. We drove about eight miles down the road and turned down a long winding driveway, pulling up to an Indian reservation.

  Logan looked at me and said, “Stay close, because they really didn’t like people coming here uninvited, but we need to talk with Cheveyo.”

  We got out and walked a long way away from the truck to an adobe style house and Logan knocked on the door. After a moment, a man came to the door. Cheveyo was kind of tall and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. He had long black hair and a kind face. He greeted us and told us to sit down. He pointed to some chairs and a table outside in the shade.

  We got seated and Logan told him the reason for our visit. He did not even look shocked nor did he look at us like we were crazy.

  “It definitely sounds like a spirit of some sort.” He asked about the house location and Logan told him where it was. “Give me time to collect a few things and I will meet you there. “The house may just need to be blessed to keep out evil spirits. I will meet you there in one hour.”

  We said our goodbyes and Logan told him to call when he gets to the gate and he would enter a code to let him in. We walked back to the truck. People were lined up outside their homes staring at us like we were trespassing.