Midnight Surrender: A Paranormal Romance Anthology (20 page)

“
Don’t you think you’re being a little overly dramatic, Liv? I just want to help.” He rolled his eyes at me.

He’s always so passive when it comes to his own safety.

“
Getting yourself killed isn’t going to help anyone!” I think I’m about to have an aneurism.

“
There you go again…” More eye rolling, a flip of his hand, dismiss, dismiss, dismiss…

“
You think this is so simple…” I can’t believe his attitude. “OK Mr. ‘I know it all,’ please enlighten me! Please explain to me exactly how I am overreacting to your desire to hunt down a soul sucking Daeva?” I was fuming now. This better be good.

He shrugged first to enunciate his point. What a jerk! “I am more of an asset to you than I am a liability.” I was about to say, ‘so what stupid’ but he held up the palm of his hand in objection. I hate how he can read me so well. “You said you were going to be traveling underground with the Gnomes.” He just stared at me. “…right?” he prompted me further. I nodded in agreement. “OK, so what is the big deal? I’ll be under the ground. The mother Earth suffocates and kills Daevas. Do you think Shy is going to come looking for me under the ground?” He had a superior look on his face that I was tempted to smack off, but he did have a point. As much as a hated to admit it… I gestured for him to continue. His Cheshire Cat grin widened. “If my life or my soul is ever in danger, I’ll just burrow down into the bunny hole. See? It’s no big deal. Meanwhile, you’ll have an extra Spiriter on duty. I can see masks and feel allures just as well as you and your Gnomes can.” He was positively proud of himself… and so darn cute! Gaaah! Life is so unfair.

“
Fine…” I caved. I’m such a sucker for his steely blues and gleaming grin. “Meet me in Gaea’s meadow tomorrow at six o’clock sharp.”

“
Six o’clock in the morning?” he uttered in disbelief.

“
Do you want to go or not?” I challenged.

He straightened his posture abruptly and nodded a salute. It took everything in me not to roll my eyes this time.

“
See you in the morning.” He smiled, warming my heart again. He could be every bit as sweet as he could be infuriating.

“
Six o’clock,” I reemphasized.

This was not the time to go weak in the knees over a boy. There is a Daeva on the loose for crying out loud. He didn’t cooperate with my efforts. His eyes remained playful and his smile endearing.

“…
on the dot.” He chuckled and with a quick wink he turned and headed for home.

The next morning…

“
Six o’clock on the dot, just as promised.” Jedd beamed as he stepped through the misty trees that outlined Gaea’s meadow.

Gaea is the Oracle of Life. She’s an Elder Guardian Spirit that chose the form of a grand old Oak tree after her human charge passed on to the Spirit World. Her son, Beau is my mentor, my Guardian Spirit. Jedd and Beau don’t like each other very much.

“
He’s pretty cute. I can see why my Beau is so jealous,” Gaea whispered to me as Jedd approached.

I shushed her and her branches wriggled in laughter. Everyone is a comedian…

“
You really don’t have to do this Jedd.”

He can’t say I didn’t offer him a way out when the Gnome’s tunnels leave him feeling filthy and claustrophobic.

“
No way Liv, I’m not going to bail. Forget it!”

He was being thoroughly pigheaded again, even at this early hour. He wasn’t going to change his mind so I suppose I should just accept it. I sighed…

“
Fine, this way…”

I moaned and groaned under my breath as we silently trudged off toward the forest line. He kept looking at me out of the corner of his eye but he didn’t speak. He was probably worried I would change my mind about allowing him to join me on the quest. After several minutes of stepping over tree knots and ducking under leafy green limbs we came to a ledge in the forest floor. It wasn’t a significant drop but would still require a careful decent. At the bottom of the decline rushed a stream of crystal clear water.

“
We’re meeting Gert and the others on the opposite side of the stream,” I informed Jedd.

“
Gert? What kind of a name is Gert?” he asked incredulously.

I pretended not to hear him. If he thinks Gert’s name is odd just wait until he sees his caution sign orange glowing hair. Jedd followed me down the embankment. As it turns out I was more in need of assistance than he was. I slipped on three different occasions and he caught my fall each time. Each steadying hand was accompanied by a gloating superior smile.

“
Oh fine, so you can walk more stealthily through the woods than I can, big deal!” I complained.

He laughed at me, but his smile transformed from cocky to adoring. After we crossed the stream I tried to feel for the Gnome’s allures. Jedd picked up on what I was doing and joined in my search. After a few minutes we caught their signal.

“
This way…” Jedd nodded beyond a large boulder in the brush.

He scaled the humongous chunk of rock in about the same time it took me to walk around it.

“
You can quit showing off,” I teased.

“
You know you like it,” he flirted back, wagging his eyebrows at me.

Ugh! He’s just too cute. OK, time to snap out of it. It’s show time. I began stomping on the ground to let the Gnomes know our exact location. Jedd watched me skeptically.

“
What?”

What was his problem now?

“
You’re like this demi – God, super ninja Spirit girl and the best you can do to summon your Gnomes is stomp on the ground?”

He was making fun of me… and I loved it. To Jedd, I would always be his best friend Liv. No more, no less. I gave in and shared a laugh with him. It felt nice to be plain old Liv and Jedd for a brief moment. He accompanied me in my Gnome stomping dance and it felt like we were back in the third grade again trying to pack the dirt down where we had buried our most recent treasure. Unfortunately, the trip down memory lane was short lived. Before I knew it, chunks of dirt came flying up into the air followed by a clan of Gnomes with Crayola coded hair coloring. Jedd stared at their tiny, stodgy looking, little figures in amazement.

“
Ha! They look just like those little naked troll dolls you can fasten on your key chain or insert on the top of your pencil… except they’re wearing clothes…” he babbled.

He continued to chuckle in amusement. I could tell his fascination with them was innocent but I wasn’t sure the Gnomes would appreciate his behavior so I elbowed him in the ribs. The Gnomes merely looked momentarily confused before returning their expectant gaze to me.

“
Jedd, this is Gert, Nort, Runt, Mo and Snert.” I pointed to each Gnome as I spoke his name. Jedd nodded to each of them and they grunted their return. “Gert, what news do you have for me? Were you able to make contact with any of the Gnome clans in the south or out west?” I asked Gert because he is the Master of the eastern clan.

“
Grrnt, yes, there have been sightings of your Daeva in both areas. Grrnt, here is a list of the most likely cities to find him.” Gert handed me a piece of paper.

The hand written list read:

Memphis

Tulsa

Pittsburgh

Las Vegas

Cincinnati

Nashville

Albuquerque

“OK, so what’s next?” Jedd wondered.

“
We’ll need to plot out a course of destination. You know, map out a travel route,” I answered and Jedd pulled a map of the United States out of his back pack. I shook my head. “We’ll require a different type of map, a map of the Gnome’s underground tunnels.”

Just as I finished my sentence, Nort fished just such a map out of his pocket. He unfolded it and spread it out on an adjacent smaller rock next to the boulder Jedd climbed over minutes before. This time Jedd pulled a red Sharpe pen out of his bag and handed it to Gert. Good job, Jedd. He’s such a quick learner. Appreciative of Jedd’s gesture, Gert took the pen immediately and circled the listed cities on the tunnel map. Then he began to number them in order of priority for the journey; Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Nashville, Memphis, Tulsa, Albuquerque, and finally Las Vegas. The order may have varied slightly had we been preparing to travel above ground but tunnel travel was different. There were short cuts and a general lack of obstacles. We wouldn’t have to climb mountains or cross rivers. It would be a straight shot from one city to the next which would seriously decrease the distance.

“Whoa, you mean we can travel on foot to Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Nashville in just two days? That’s crazy awesome!” Jedd breathed in honest appreciation.

The Gnomes were delighted by Jedd’s enthusiasm and fascination with their tunnels. Jedd asked them all kinds of questions.

“
How did you create the tunnels and how long have they been here?” Jedd bantered excitedly.

“
Grrnt, we dug them many, many years ago,” Nort answered as he dug his fingers into his scalp of red fuzzy hair to scratch his head. “Grrnt, it is hard to say how long they have been here… many millennia no doubt.”

Jedd’s eyes widened.

“
Well, how can you tell where it would be safe to dig or not to dig?” Jedd persisted.

This time Mo, the purple headed Gnome, answered. “Grrnt, we use our nature charms to sense water, lava or anything that may endanger us.”

“
Wow, but how do you navigate? A compass won’t work under the ground.” Jedd was unstoppable but the Gnomes seemed to enjoy his curiosity.

“
Grrnt, you could say we possess our own version of charmed GPS.” Gert laughed and the rest of the Gnomes and Jedd joined in.

Male bonding? Go figure…

The journey...

The first stop on our journey was Pittsburgh, PA. This bustling city would be the perfect place for a Daeva to hide. Home to the Steelers, Pirates and Penguins, this historically known, industrial driven, steel and glass town is a sports fan’s dream spot. People come from all over to cheer on their favorite team. They could easily be lost or misplaced in the festivities and conveniently tossed into the Allegheny River after their souls have been consumed. Jedd and I planted ourselves on a riverside park bench and scoured the newspapers for traces of Shy. There were literally dozens of papers to choose from; Arts and Entertainment, Sports, Business, African American, and half a dozen university press pages. We decided to sift through the more traditional newspapers dedicated predominantly to the local, regional and national news. Jedd was flipping through the Pittsburgh Post – Gazette and the Pittsburgh Tribune – Review while I paged through the Pittsburgh City Paper and The South Pittsburgh Reporter.

“
We’ve got a Jane Doe listed in the local section of the Pittsburgh Tribune - Review. It says they pulled the body from the Allegheny last Wednesday.” Jedd raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

“
Yeah, that certainly sounds like Shy’s signature work. Where is the body now?”

I had to ask. We were going to have to investigate the remains.

“
It’s at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.”

Jedd looked doubtful about our ability to successfully break into a university hospital morgue. I sympathized.

“
Look at this.” Something caught my attention as I flipped the page. “Alley Cat Killings Taper Off.” I read the name of the article aloud.

“
Vagrants…” Jedd peered over my shoulder to get a better look at the article. “It would seem the Alley Cat Killer was on a murderous spree for a few days and then suddenly quit.” Jedd’s suspicious eyebrow returned. “The killings stopped just about the same time the Allegheny began surfacing corpses.”

Jedd was echoing my exact thoughts.

“
This was no Alley Cat Killer… this was a Daeva.” I looked at Jedd and the concern in his steely blues showed me he’d come to the same conclusion. “Let’s make a visit to the morgue,” I added reluctantly.

Jedd nodded his dread.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center...

“
This place is huge!” Jedd repeated my thoughts as we stepped inside of the large hospital.

“
Well, lucky for us, hospital morgues are always in the basement. Let’s find an elevator,” I said and we trudged off into the nooks and crannies of the medical center.

After a few short minutes we spotted an orderly pushing an empty cart intended for soiled laundry. It was just rounding the corner.

“…
that way,” Jedd insisted. “The cart had clean sheets and supplies on it. They keep all of that kind of stuff in the basement.”

We whisked ourselves around the corner and at the end of the hallway an elevator awaited us. Before I knew it we were on the elevator pressing the button that would take us to the basement.

“
That was easy enough.” Jedd grinned with pride.

Then the elevator beeped and dictated a digital message requesting a clearance code.

“
You were saying…” I laughed. Jedd’s shoulders slumped forward. “OK, plan B. All multiple level buildings have stairways to satisfy fire code mandates. What do you say we take the elevator down as far as we can, get off and try to find the stairwell?” I suggested.