Free Tortured Souls (The Orion Circle) by Kimber Leigh Wheaton Page B

angel. The vision always ends with Kacie and the angel fighting the goat man, but I never see the outcome. Oh, and tell Kacie I don’t care what her inner critic thinks. That color fuchsia is beautiful on her.”
    Logan takes the phone off speaker.
    “Thanks, ma’am,” he says in a polite tone. Just a hint of his Texas drawl comes out in the word ma’am. “Please call Gavin if you have any further information,” he adds before he passes the phone back to Gavin.
    “Can’t talk now,” Gavin says into the phone. “Yeah, call if you see anything else. Bye.” He ends the call and stuffs the phone back in his pocket.
    “That was by far the strangest thing I’ve ever heard,” Dad says, shaking his head. “I hate to say it but I think Jessica is hitting the bottle a bit too hard again.”
    Fearing Dad is right, I glance up at Logan to see him staring across the room. His body is rigid and he appears deep in thought.
    “So Kacie has to save some lambs from a goat man,” Gavin says laughing. “Oh and she needs Logan’s help to save the lambs.”
    “Why Logan?” I ask confused.
    “Well he must be the golden angel, right,” Gavin says like it should be obvious to everyone in the room. “He has golden-brown hair and eyes. Well, thanks to Mom, looks like you get to spend a lot more time with Kacie,” he adds with a snicker.
    “Can’t say I’m complaining,” Logan murmurs, his lips curled into a small grin. “The evil man in the mask is most likely an evil spirit, perhaps demonic given the goat head. The thirteen lambs could be other spirits he’s holding captive, keeping them from crossing over—probably children. Of course your father may be right and she’s been hitting the sauce a little heavily. Who knows? We’ll just have to be careful.” His cell chirps and he pulls it from his pocket. “That’s my mom, I gotta go.”
    He stands and walks to the front door. When I follow him out onto the porch, he stops and turns back to me. Several moments pass in silence. He continues to gaze at me while I desperately hope he’ll kiss me. Right now I want nothing more than to feel his lips on mine, my first kiss. Well first meaningful kiss anyway.
    “I’ll see you in the morning, Kacie,” he murmurs before turning and walking to his car.
    Hugging my arms around my body, I watch in silence as he gets in his Mustang and drives away. The chilly breeze cools my warm skin. I walk out onto the wet grass, the cold water on my bare feet forcing my mind to stay rooted in the present. The storm has passed taking the clouds with it, leaving the half moon and stars visible in the darkened sky. Gazing at the stars my mind fills with images of Logan. His citrine eyes, curly brown hair and his amazing smile. My heart flutters a bit as I think of what it would be like to kiss his full lips. With a wistful sigh, I head back into the brightly lit house and make my way to my room, hopefully to some very sweet dreams.

Chapter Nine — Ghost Hunt
    Chapter Nine
    Ghost Hunt

    The days fly by with school during the day and three hour training sessions with Michelle and Logan in the evenings. Two sessions and I’ve already learned how to raise and lower a psychic barrier that keeps spirits out. I just can’t keep it up all the time or it starts to cause problems. By imagining the barrier as a brick wall, I’m able to block out all but the most stubborn spiritual energy. It will take time and practice, I know. But Michelle said I’m a quick learner and it’ll be second nature soon.
    Learning to control my psychic walls is much easier than I expected. It seems I was doing it subconsciously when I was a child. Each time I yelled, “go away”, in frustration, I was actually throwing up a psychic block. If I hadn’t been so stubborn a year ago and refused to lower the barrier, I might be even better at this by now.
    Every night the visions plague me—barrier or no barrier. No matter what I do, I can’t seem to block them out.