Timesurfers (15 page)

“I’m travelling back.” He held out his arms.
“Hannah Catherine Zetrom, show me some love.”

“Don’t call me that. I haven’t used Hannah
since I moved to Tempus Falls.” After a seconds hesitation she gave
up maintaining a serious face and snuggled into him.

“While I fear incurring your wrath, I think
you might need a quick shower.”

“Oh, crap.” She strained to pull away.

His arms tightened, as he refused to let her
go. “I’ll be here when your temperature breaks at midnight.” The
not knowing what would happen after it broke terrified him but he
couldn’t let Catherine see that.

“Have you seen Xavier?”

Jonah nodded. A big ball of guilt smacked him
in the stomach.

“Could you do something nice for him? Maybe
take a picture for me? I don’t have a picture of him.” The sadness
on Catherine’s face made Jonah’s stomach squirm.

“No problem.”

“Thanks.”

“Eve is one of a kind. I like her very much.”
That brought an instant smile to Catherine’s face.

“There’s a lot to love about Eve. For the
record, Cate is way too switched on to be taken in by your rustic
charm.” With a flick of her leg, she upended him and pinned him to
the ground with her knee.

“What’s not to like?” Jonah relaxed against
the ground.

“The list is far too long for me to go into.”
She released him.

“What’s with your getup?” His eyes swept over
her black training gear.

“Stop thinking about Rose.” She yanked him to
his feet.

“I wasn’t. There’s something sexy about a
girl decked out in skin-tight black combat gear. And nothing
screams ‘I am fierce’ like a girl with weapons strapped to her
thighs.”

“You have on your tortured, love lost face.
That can only mean Rose.”

“You’re clearly not mission fit, so what’s
the deal?” He pointed at her clothes.

She prodded a loose pebble with her boot and
gave it a vicious kick. “We were heading to the graveyard this
afternoon but no one is up for it with these temperatures.”

He pressed his lips against her blazing
forehead. “How do you want this to play out with Zach? You can’t
avoid the situation.” There was a window of time in the early
morning of Cate’s birthday in 2014 at Tempus Falls that Jonah had
an aura clash with. He wouldn’t be able to be there during that
time. He and Mortez were the only two people that knew the reason
why.

She rested against him for the briefest of
seconds. “I chose this. It’s all I know. I don’t hate my life.”

“I’ll help you maintain this path or create
another, but I won’t make the decision for you.” His voice was
calm, but his chest was tight with tension.

“I can’t be responsible for you taking
another beating from Mortez like after the bus stop. You have to do
as Mortez orders. This is how history intended things to play out.
Mortez and Naitanui will both be happy. Everyone wins.”

“We can make our own history. It’s what we
do. I’ll be back in two hours and I need your final decision.
Decide if you want to let Zach live and roll the dice on the impact
that it will have on your history, or if you want to try and set
things as they should be.” He rubbed her back and kissed her
forehead before he stepped away. “On that note I’m off. Oh...can
you do a covert search for active and inactive wizards in 2014 for
me and see if any travelled to Tempus Falls around the time that
spell was put on Zach. Don’t tell Mortez.”

“Sure. Be safe.” She blinked back tears.
“Hey, Jonah!”

“Hmm?”

“Ralph Lauren and the Gap left you messages.
They’re showing their winter collections and need you. You know no
one can work a scarf like you do.”

He gave a very ungentlemanly signal with his
middle finger as she disappeared from his view.

Chapter 12

Mutant Wizards

“H
ey!” Cate responded to the umpteenth person today.
Her newfound popularity in this altered time line was wearing thin.
Eve had nailed it when she said popularity was overrated. It was
also exhausting. Her cheeks ached from all the polite smiling she’d
done already this morning.

Eve bustled through the door, her hair more
dishevelled
than usual
and her skin drained of its normal glow. She dumped her books on
the bench and held her phone three inches from her ear. “Slept in
and irate Mother,” she whispered.

Cate heard the angry buzz of what sounded
like a
man’s
voice on the phone, not Eve’s
mother.

“Mum, I have to go. Class is starting.” Eve’s
face broke into a beaming grin and she beckoned with her hand.
“Hey, Rose, I saved you a spot.”

Cate spun on her seat. Momentum toppled her
onto the polished concrete floor. Through the legs of her upended
stool, she saw Rose’s perfectly toned calves strut in. Rafe
traipsed past and there was a sliver of daylight between the bottom
of his boots and the floor. He was gliding ever so slightly above
the polished concrete. She waited for the all-important third set
of legs.

“What are you doing down there?” Zach’s
pallid face leered at her. “Look up ‘klutz’ in the dictionary, and
your name’s there in bold print.”

She glowered as Zach pulled out a stool and
plonked his stocky self at her bench. “You cannot be serious?”

Zach ignored her question and held out his
hand. “Need some help up?”

“Touch me and I’ll tie your little fingers in
a knot,” she hissed.

“Nice...” Rafe chuckled from behind her. “I
sense a deliciously awkward few minutes ahead.”

“She asked you to keep your hands to
yourself,” Austin’s silky voice broke in. He offered Cate a hand
up.

“Brace yourself, dude,” Zach said. “She’s no
lightweight.”

With a withering glare at Zach, she took
Austin’s hand. She started to smile and caught herself.
Oh, no!
She would
not
be distracted by Austin’s boyish good looks,
charm, smile, or any other part of his well toned body for that
matter today. Last night on the phone she and Eve had discussed why
the Timesurfers might be so interested in her. They discussed her
saving the world, because Naitanui talked about destinies and they
normally involved saving the world in some fashion. They
disregarded destroying the world because Cate had been to the
future and the world was still there. Eve had way too much fun
thinking of horrible things that Cate could possibly be going to
do.

“Recovered from your wild ride yesterday?”
Austin glided onto the stool next to her.

“I took it all in my stride. Hey!” She
slapped Zach’s stubby fingers as he trawled through her pencil
case.

“I
need
a pencil,”
Zach said.

“I
don’t care,” she
said.

Austin nodded to Zach. “Salutations,
incompetent Newbie.”

Zach harrumphed and opened his books. He was
such an idiot to be a Timesurfer.

Eve dug the pointy end of her pencil into
Zach bicep. “I saw your cousin Jonah styling some ridiculous fight
moves at the park this morning.”

An abrupt silence descended around Cate. No
pencils tapped; no papers rustled. No one looked at Zach, but Cate
had the distinct impression everyone was listening.

“I find it astonishing he shares any DNA with
a loser like you.” Eve smacked Zach on the head with her pencil,
oblivious to the death stare Rose gave her. “He made even
my
girl senses tingle.”

“Well I for one can appreciate that is quite
an achievement,” Austin said.

Austin looked better today than yesterday. He
might be with Rose, but Cate couldn’t stop thinking about him. She
wanted to scoot her chair over as close as possible to him and hold
his hand under the desk. Which was so lame it made her want to slap
herself
. She was no better than the
boyfriend stealing Brittany, who was apparently one of her BFFs now
and drove her to school each morning. It was a little bit funny
Zach was dating one of the walking dead. She scrawled “Zach and
Zombie Girl” on her desk and chuckled as she outlined it with a
love heart.

“How did your night go?” Austin asked.

“I survived it.” Cate drummed her fingers on
the bench.
What to say now.

“Would you like to get some frozen yogurt
after school?” Austin asked.

“Umm...” She thought after yesterday he would
have dropped the pretence of being into her. Rose was definitely
the type to
favour
aggressive negotiations when it came to everything. Especially if
she thought someone was moving in on her boyfriend, irrespective of
what an outrageous flirt he was being.

“A coffee maybe? Your choice.”

Her traitorous heart popped each time he
smiled. Frozen yogurt, coffee—she would happily eat dirt to spend
time with him.
No
. She needed to focus.
“You know, you could just tell me what you want and be done with
all the games.”

“I live for the games!” He shook his head.
“The more you know, the more you over think things, and the messier
it gets. Trust me.”

She was unlikely to trust
any
Timesurfer in the near future.

“Cate, the monster trucks are in town. We
should go and check them out,” Zach said in an overloud voice.

“Tempting, but I’m going to say no.”

“Admit when you’re beaten. She’s moved on.”
Austin rubbed his hands together gleefully and bumped Cate’s
shoulder. “It’s fun messing with him. Admit it,” he murmured under
his breath.

Cate fought back a smile.

“Listen up!” Mr. Elms stood in front of the
class. He taught calculus, not chemistry. “Mrs. Dent is ill and her
replacement teacher won’t arrive until period three. That means you
have two free periods. Do not leave the school grounds. I trust you
are all responsible enough to use the time wisely.”

“Shall we catch some sun, Rose?” Eve tucked
and retucked her hair behind her ears.

“Sounds great.” Rose stared at Austin’s
fingers resting close to Cate’s. She rubbed a hand across her
forehead and suddenly looked incredibly weary. When she noticed
Cate staring, a look of pure hatred replaced the weariness.

Anger stabbed at Cate. Rose had the boyfriend
with the wandering hands and “come throw yourself at me” smile. She
should send her death stares his way.

“That sounds like fun, Eve,” Rafe said.

“I don’t remember inviting you.” Eve gave him
a dark look.

Rafe quirked his eyebrow. “Not up for a bit
of competition?”

Eve flushed beetroot red all the way to her
hairline. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She kept her
eyes on the books she was stacking and restacking.

That was a nice twist on your ordinary love
triangle. Rafe had a thing for Rose, but so did Eve. Cate didn’t
fancy either of their chances of luring Rose away from Austin. They
were about as good as her chance of enticing Austin away from Rose.
Not that she would even contemplate attempting to do that.

“You can hang with me, Cate. Come and
experience life in the land of the popular.” Zach looked extra
short and stocky next to Austin.

“Again...tempting, but I’ll decline.”

“You think you’re quite the charmer, don’t
you?” Rose eyed Zach with distaste.

“Come a little closer and I’ll show you just
how charming I can be,” Zach said with a completely straight
face.

“I think your cousin Jonah might have
something to say about that.” Austin stretched his arms over his
head, and his white shirt rode up. “If you get past him, you’ll
have to deal with me.”

That was a weird thing to say. Jonah and Rose
weren’t together anymore. Why would he care who Rose associated
with? Cate lost her train of thought as her eyes fixed on the sexy
triangular stomach muscles flashing between Austin’s low-slung
school trousers and shirt.

“Keep your opinions to yourself.” Rose
punched Austin as she went by, ruining Cate’s view.

“You coming, Cate?” Eve trotted after
Rose.

“I might catch up.”

Eve looked from Cate to Rose.

“Go.” Cate flapped her hands.

The classroom had emptied. It wasn’t until
Zach scraped his chair that Cate realised he was still there. His
blue eyes blazed at Austin. “I don’t like you and your friends. At
all.” He jammed his books under his arm and stalked from the
classroom.

“I thought he was going to pop a blood
vessel,” Austin said.

“I need some answers.”

“Do you have specific questions, or are you
making a general request for information?” Austin slid onto the
desk, carved with random thoughts on school and the world in
general, most rated PG 13 plus. He swung his legs and looked at her
expectantly.

Cate stopped herself from returning his sexy
smile. “I have plenty of specific questions.”

He threw his arms wide. “Ask away.”

She cleared her suddenly parched throat. A
list would be handy right about now.

“Okay,” Austin said. “I’ll get the ball
rolling with a quick recap of the salient points as I see them. On
a mission to disarm a bomb, which Jonah had set, I ran into a
complication...you.”

Cate rolled her eyes. This was going to be a
very one dimensional and unflattering recount.

“Actually, I might go back a bit. Around 500
years ago...”

“Oh, come on! Seriously?”

“Hush and listen. A very resourceful young
warlock, Elias, discovered the magic of time travel.”

“Jonah mentioned him...”

Austin held up a hand. “I’ll take questions
and comments at the end. Elias learned changing history altered the
present. The emperors immediately outlawed the use of magic
throughout their lands and captured anyone suspected of sorcery.
Most were executed, but the emperors hid and trained a small army
to protect their lands against Elias and his growing group of
followers. Naitanui was the wizard responsible for training their
secret army, which they called Timesurfers.”