Timesurfers (17 page)

He quirked his eyebrow.

Could everyone do that but her?

“You beckoned?” His shaved head highlighted
the tattoos encircling his neck.

“My friend was just here, Eve. Do you know
her?”

“Don’t do names,” the barman replied.

“Long white-blonde hair and the same school
uniform as me.”

“She got kind of an Asian looking face?
Little eyes?” he asked.

“Yes!” Cate clapped her hands. “That would be
her.”

“Don’t know her.” The barman gave her a tight
smile and moved away.

“Want me to beat it out of him?” Jonah said
in a good-natured voice.

“No.” She drew out the vowel sound in
resignation. “I’ll ask Eve tonight.”

“Hey, babe!” The salivating brunette from the
the end of the bar now stood on the other side of Jonah. “First day
out of detention and I’m looking for some no-strings-attached
action. Interested?”

Jonah grabbed her hand as it disappeared
under his coat. “I’m flattered, but no. Close your mouth,
Cate.”

Some people had no shame. Cate was standing
right there. She could be Jonah’s girlfriend for all the girl
knew.

“Offer’s open ended,” the brunette said with
a coy wink.

“Move, pretty boy!” A gorilla of a guy
knocked the brunette to the floor and attempted to shove past
Jonah. The man blinked as he
realised
Jonah had pinned his arm behind his back
and knocked his knees out from under him, leaving him dangling by
one arm. Which had to hurt.

In one fluid movement the brunette was on her
feet. Anyone who could do a kip-up like that had martial arts
training. A Swiss Army knife glinted in her left hand. “I bought
these jeans today. Now you’ve spilled crap all over them.” She
heaved a knee into gorilla guy’s groin.

Dark silhouettes swarmed across the room from
one of the dimly lit corners and fenced them in. Jonah pushed Cate
behind him and shoved gorilla guy toward his friends, who were all
brandishing weapons. There were metal bars, knuckle-dusters, and
assorted knives. One guy drew a long sword from over his shoulder
and twirled it in a figure eight.

The brunette gave an ear-splitting whistle,
and dark figures flocked from the shadows and positioned themselves
behind her. Cate
recognised
some faces from the detention centre.
Those guys were always up for a fight, which took them straight
back there.

She didn’t know who moved first, but someone
did. The opening bars of Hoodoo Guru’s song “Like Wow! Wipeout”
played, and it was on. The brunette yelled and vanished into the
brawl.

Jonah smashed an elbow into some guy’s nose
and knocked him out with a spinning heel kick. Gorilla guy roared
and
barrelled
toward
them. Jonah pushed Cate out of the way and cracked gorilla guy’s
head into the bar.

Cate smashed a tray of glass pots over his
head for good measure.

“Thanks.” Jonah sized up the three attackers
attempting to fence him in. He glided to the right to improve his
position. His moves were snakelike. Silent, graceful, and
deadly.

A sword glinted to her left. Sword man
pointed his shiny weapon and rushed at her. She sidestepped and
helped him on his way head first into the bar. The unconscious
gorilla guy cushioned his fall. He shook his head and came at her
again.

“Call the police,” Cate shouted to the barman
as she hoisted herself on the bar and fended off sword guy with
both feet.

“Back in,” Jonah called.

She leapt over the unconscious bodies
littering the floor and pressed back to back with him. A tall guy
came at her. She stepped to his right and punched hard at his
stomach before smashing his head on her knee. The splintering crack
as she slammed her foot into his ribs was way more satisfying than
kicking any bag.

A gunshot sounded over her right shoulder and
the room filled with light. Everyone blinked under the glare of the
harsh fluorescent brightness. The barman pumped a shotgun with one
hand and pointed to a diminutive figure loitering in a dark corner.
“Get your lot out of here.”

Blood roared in Cate’s ears. Poised to fight;
her eyes searched through the crowd for any movement. She was
pumped!

“Easy, Catherine,” Jonah crooned.

The figure from the corner ambled over. He
was petite and lithe with honey
coloured
skin. Gold tattoos covered both his arms,
and he had an orange and yellow striped Mohawk with a thin plait
that hung half way down his back. His eyes were lined with thick
black pencil, and his eyelids were dusted with gold sparkles.
People hustled out of his way. He stopped a foot from Jonah.

“Look who’s crawled out from under his rock,”
Jonah exclaimed.

“Greetings to you also, Jonah.” He motioned
to the limp bodies scattered on the floor. “Carry those who can’t
walk. We’re done here for today. Please give my regards to Mortez.
I hope to see her soon.” He sashayed from the club with his people
limping and staggering after him under the weight of the bodies
they carried.

The barman pointed to Jonah and Cate. “Get
out. The police are on their way and so is your mother, girlie.
Best you’re
not
here when she
arrives.”

The remaining crowd scrambled to their feet
and headed for the door. Another gunshot rang out. “No one else
move or I’ll put a hole in each of your legs.”

Jonah grabbed her arm and dragged her toward
the door.

“Who was the tiny man with the gold tattoos?”
Cate struggled to keep pace with Jonah’s enormous strides. Her
first full on brawl had been damned exciting.

“That’s Elias.”

She missed the last step and smashed her
knees against the pavement. Jonah had her back on her feet so
quickly she checked her knees to be sure she had fallen. Blood
oozed through the raw pink skin. Drops of blood welled up, burst
with a silent pop, and trickled down her shinbone. A hot prickle
crawled over her palms and knees.

“We have to get out of sight unless you want
to explain this to your mother.”

Not in a million years did she want to do
that. “Let’s move.”

They jogged across the street. Sirens blared
to their right, so they headed left and ducked down the first
laneway. She leaned against the wall. Nervous laughter bubbled up
through her chest.

Jonah grimaced and rested his head against
the wall. “Don’t make me laugh.”

“Broken ribs?”

“Yep.” Jonah closed his eyes and exhaled. He
opened one eye and looked sideways at her, a crafty look on his
face. “What did you think of that brunette?”

She elbowed him in the ribs. “You’ll get a
disease from her.” She continued to poke at him.

“Stop, stop.” Jonah held his ribs. “I take it
back.”

“Ouch.” She lifted her skirt for a closer
inspection of her grazed knee.

Jonah gently brushed her hands away and
cupped her knees. His knuckles were bleeding and starting to
bruise. “Put your hands on mine.”

She held out her hands, surprised to see her
knuckles were also bloody and bruised.

“You don’t feel the pain until the
adrenalin’s gone.” Jonah took a deep breath, and warmth tingled
through her hands and knees. He lifted their hands from her knees.
The gaze had disappeared.

“Can you heal people too?”

Jonah raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean
‘too’?”

She patted Jonah’s arm. “I’ve done that
before. Eve had a graze; I covered it with my hand, and hey presto,
it was gone.” She bounced up and down on her toes. “I also brought
a dead cheerleader back to life. Oh, and my foot fixed its self
when I cut it stomping on an alarm clock the other morning.”

“Okay.” Jonah rubbed his temples.

“You don’t seem surprised.”

“There’s very little you could do that would
surprise me. I’m a conduit. I channel the powers of
other
Timesurfers. You can heal, so when I touch you,
I can heal.”

“Get out!” She shoved Jonah’s arm, and he
grimaced. “Sorry. You can use me to fix your ribs if you like.”

Jonah pressed the hand she waved in his face
against his ribs.

She saw each rib knit together. “Elias
turning up now couldn’t be a coincidence.”

“No. Let’s walk and talk.” He steered her
toward home.

“How long has he been in hiding?”

“Five years.”

That was how long she’d been in witness
protection in Tempus Falls. The sun slipped lower in the sky, a
luminous neon balloon balancing on the spiky treetops. She half
expected it to pop. “Should we tell someone about Elias?”

Jonah gave an enormous sigh. “Have you ever
seen Elias or any of those other guys before?”

“Not Elias. I
recognised
some of the brunette’s mates from Mum’s
detention centre.”

“Let’s keep this between us while I work
through it.”

“Sure. What’s one more secret? Have you been
in many fights?”

“I’ve been a Timesurfer for a long time. We
fight a lot.”

“How old were you when you knew you were a
Timesurfer?”

“Eleven.”

“Please tell me you were like a child
prodigy.” For her to be a late bloomer and second-rate Timesurfer
would be crushing. Zach was only finding out now too, so maybe they
left all the losers until last.

“Sixteen is plenty early enough to be a
Timesurfer. You’ll be more than able to hold your own.”

“Were your parents also Timesurfers?”

“At least one of them must have had
Timesurfer blood. I never met my father and can’t remember my
mother. They were both sixteen when I was born. My father was from
a wealthy English family who sent my mother to America when they
discovered she was with child. He promised to follow her, but never
did. A lovely family took Mother in. After I was born, she went mad
and was
institutionalised
. The family raised me like one of
their own. When I started seeing things, they became
concerned.”

“The altered time lines after the midnight
reset?”

Jonah nodded. “You couldn’t blame them after
my mother. They were trying to do the right thing sending me to the
institution. I don’t know how long I was there. When Naitanui
appeared in my ward, I thought I was hallucinating. He looked like
some kind of witch doctor with those dreadlocks and his ebony skin.
While he untied my restraints, he warned me to brace for an
unimaginable pain. I screamed more than I ever had during the
electric shock therapy the pain was so intense that first time I
surfed with him. We arrived at the Break, and there was Rose. She
was so beautiful. I tried to hide that I’d been crying, but she
knew. She slipped a handkerchief into my hand while no one was
looking.”

Cate touched his arm. Walking next to him and
having this conversation felt natural. There was nothing awkward
about it. He stopped and wiped her face with his scarf. She was
crying.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I
forgot who I was talking to.”

“Is this something you would talk to
Catherine about?”

Jonah’s grey eyes widened. “Huh?”

“You called me Catherine earlier. No one in
Tempus Falls calls me that.”

“Yes, it’s something I would talk about with
Catherine.”

Cate was beginning to think she might be
Catherine. They reached her house before she had worked up the
courage to ask Jonah if she was Catherine. A little hot air balloon
was propped against the blue front door. Austin.

“Can I ask you a question about Austin and
Rose?” she blurted.

“You can ask.”

She kicked a few imaginary pebbles. “Are they
an item?”

Jonah threw back his head and laughed.
“No.”

She folded her arms defiantly against her
chest and stared at him with her best “I am not amused” look. “Were
they ever an item?”

“Never.” He shook with silent laughter.

“But you dated Rose?”

“I did.” Jonah’s face turned wistful. His
eyes had a faraway look so tender her heart contracted. His lips
turned up in a sad smile. “That was a lifetime ago.”

“You’re sure Austin and Rose aren’t together
now?”

“I can say with certainty, they never have
been and never will be an item.”

The fact they weren’t together made her feel
less skanky about going with Austin tomorrow.

“The reason I can say that without any doubt,
is because Rose is Austin’s mother.”

As Jonah’s words filtered into her brain, she
stumbled.

“Let’s get you onto the porch.” Jonah swept
her into his arms.

A little part of her gave a smug sigh. He had
lifted her even more easily than she imagined. “How is that even
possible?” She wiggled back onto the white cane chair and sat
cross-legged. Rose must have been the youngest mother in history,
which was a bit icky now she thought about it.

“Rose is an immortal.”

She face palmed. “Austin told me his mother
was an immortal. How’s that work exactly?”

“Naitanui and Mortez have the power to grant
Timesurfers the gift of immortality. We’re easy to spot.” He tapped
next to his eye. “Immortals have grey eyes.”

Panic sliced through her head. “My mum has
grey eyes! You said one of my parents had to have Timesurfer
blood.”

Jonah held his hands up. “Relax. All
immortals have grey eyes. Not everyone with grey eyes is
immortal—there’s a difference.”

She thought through all the Timesurfers she
knew—Rose, Rafe, Austin, Jonah, and Zach. “How come Rafe and Zach
don’t have grey eyes?”

“It’s a discretionary gift. Mortez is more
generous with immortality than Naitanui. Zach is going through
Timesurfer puberty, and Naitanui likes his Timesurfers to prove
themselves. Rafe’s got a way to go. It’s not uncommon for
Timesurfers to join Mortez purely for immortality.”

“Is that why you joined her?”

“Naitanui granted me immortality when I was
eleven.” His tone was dismissive.