Under A Painted Sky (Spirit Warrior Series) (12 page)

“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.

As we pulled out, Logan
asked, “Would it be all right to swing by my office and take a house key and
drop it off at a vacation home, since we have some time to kill? It will keep
me from having to do it later.”

I agreed and soon we
were at his office. We went inside the building and into his office where he
pulled a key from a cupboard. As we turned to leave, Logan’s sister came in. He
walked up to her and introduced us.

She said, “So, you’re
the one that has been keeping Logan busy this week.”

“Guilty,” I replied.

“Call me Megan,” she
said.

“Nice to meet you,
Megan,” I replied.

Logan said, “We are in
a bit of a hurry. Catch you later, sis.”

We drove to a big
beautiful house on top of a hill and Logan got out and placed the key in the
agreed upon place and we were off again.
 
Cheveyo called and Logan let him in the gate. After a few minutes, we
were back at my aunts’ house. Just as we neared the door, a truck pulled in the
driveway. It was his friend, Cheveyo.

Cheveyo had brought an
incense pot and a bag of things. “I will need to be alone with the house. Can
you two sit outside or something?” he asked.

“Sure. Is the back
patio all right for us to be?” Logan asked.

“That would be good,”
Cheveyo replied.

We let him in the house
and then followed the stepping stones out to the back patio. I was so glad we
both had on
shorts,
otherwise we would’ve been hot.

“What is he going to
do?” I asked.

“He is praying a
blessing over the house and trying to banish evil spirits and remove negative
energy. His name literally means Spirit Warrior,” Logan informed me.

“We definitely need a
spirit warrior. I wander what my aunt would say about all of this. She would
probably have me checked into an institution if she knew,” I said.

Logan laughed and said,
“She probably would have us both sent to an institution if she knew. I think
you are right about us not telling her. This is too much to swallow.”

“Especially
for me.
I’ve always laughed at other people claiming
ghosts. I’m not laughing anymore, I assure you.”

“Maybe Cheveyo will
take care of this problem. I know he took care of mine before,” Logan said.

“What problem?” I
asked.

“I had a new house
which I was the caretaker of, that was built on some sacred land of some sort before
and the spirits were upset. He took care of it, is all,” Logan replied.

“Well, I somehow feel
better knowing it has worked before,” I said.

After a little bit,
Cheveyo came out with incense going and chanting. He told us to go inside as he
would need to do the outside as well.

We both went inside and
peeked out as he went over the entire property chanting and waving his arms. In
no time at all, he finished and came to the door. He told Logan he was through
and time would tell.

Logan followed him to his
truck and gave him a donation for his blessings on the house.

When Logan came back
in, he grabbed my hand, and asked, “Are you ready to see some more places?”

“You must be exhausted
because you haven’t slept.”

“Actually, I’m pretty
wired.”

“If you are sure you
are okay? Then I’m game,” I said.

“How about we drive
down to Santa Fe?” Logan asked.

“I would love it,” I
replied.

“We can pull into a
drive-thru and pick up some food and continue on our road trip, if that’s
okay,” he said.

We locked up and started
out on our next adventure.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

We picked up some
burgers and fries and ate our food while we listened to the sweet sound of
Jason Mraz singing “I Won’t Give Up.” Life was good.

I looked over at Logan
and he was looking at me and my face turned red because he had this really sexy
grin on his face.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing, I was just
enjoying the view. You are so beautiful, Isabella,” Logan said.

“Thanks, but you’re the
sexy one.”

I asked myself if this
could really be happening to me. Was I really sitting in the truck riding down
the road with the sexiest man alive and he couldn’t keep his eyes off of me. I
came here to New Mexico to run away from the weirdness of my life after
divorce. Then, the first guy I met in the land of enchantment was the best guy
I have ever seen in every way. That only happened in fairy tales. Wow, Taylor
Swift is on the radio singing the lyrics to “Love Story.”
You’ll be the
prince and I’ll be the princess. It’s a love story, baby, just say yes.