Timesurfers (13 page)

Her mum sent him a fierce look. “You don’t
have a track record of making the best choices, Balthazar. Have you
boys finished with your vegetables?”

“These snow peas are top and tailed.” At
twenty, Balthazar was the oldest of the three and a real man
mountain. His eyes were the brightest sea green, and his brown hair
was never more than a half an inch long.

Gaspar crunched an enormous bite from an
apple Balthazar had finished peeling. “Broccoli chopped,” he
spluttered through his mouthful.

Melchior waved a green, leafy vegetable.
“I’ve chopped the end off whatever this is.”

“Must have been a challenge, Mel,” Eve
winked. “Any energy left for training?”

“I’ve got energy for anything you want,
baby!” Melchior leered at Eve. His shaggy blonde hair, intense
green eyes, and
chiselled
jaw made him a
favourite
with the girls. His eighteenth
birthday party last year proved that.

Gaspar, the youngest of the three at sixteen,
piped up. “There’s no way she’d choose you when she could have me.”
He was gangly after growing a foot last summer. His scarlet curls
bounced as he nodded vigorously. “Come on, Eve—tell Mel I’m right.”
His brown eyes stood out against his pale skin, which freckled
instead of tanning.

“Neither of you are my type.” Eve grinned
affectionately. “I see you too much; I know you too well. You’re
like my brothers.”

“Stop hitting on my friend.” Cate slammed the
refrigerator door as she retrieved another piece of chicken. “It’s
creepy. Mum, make them stop.”

“Everyone, outside and warm up,” her mum
barked.

Cate deliberated how to tell her mum about
Jonah. “Zach’s cousin is coming over. He’s apparently some Grand
Master in the making.”

“Dude have a name?” Balthazar asked.

“Jonah.” Eve and Cate chorused.

A knife clattered into the sink as her mum
yelped.

“Are you cut?” Cate asked.

Her mum held her pointer finger for Cate to
see. “False alarm. Jonah’s welcome. Never hesitate to bring a
friend home. Suit up and join us.” Her mum opened the back door and
bowed before heading out. The three boys stood around the bench,
eyes averted.

Sunlight glinted on the knife blade in the
sink. A single red tinged droplet slid off the knife and into the
sink. It looked like blood. She could be jumping to conclusions
though. It could be tomato, or tomato paste, or that disgusting red
drink Balthazar downed each day before he trained. That would be
it. Her mum had no reason to lie.

“I’m off.” Eve headed to the front door.

A sizzling ball of yellow in the sky, the sun
prepared to disappear. “I’ll get one of Mum’s misfits to walk you
home. SOMEONE! Come and walk Eve home,” she bellowed over her
shoulder. A flurry of pushing and shoving followed, just as Cate’s
6:00 p.m. reminder alarm went off.

“Settle. Kettle.” Gaspar appeared around the
corner. “There might be someone back in Australia who didn’t hear
you. I’ll be your protector this evening.” He offered Eve his arm.
“It would be my pleasure to escort you home.”

Cate trudged up the stairs, texting as she
peeled her school uniform off.

CATE: “HOME”

PIP: “? YOUR
DAY?”

CATE: “FINE”

PIP: “HOT GUY HEADED UP
FRONT PATH. NEW BOYFRIEND?”

CATE: “NOPE”

PIP: “TOO BAD”

She deleted the conversation. Her socks were
stained red from the dirt at the Break, and there was a grass stain
across the right shoulder of her shirt. She let her hair down from
her bun and clipped in her rainbow hair extensions. There was one
for every colour tae kwon do belt she’d passed, plus pink and
purple ones because they were pretty.

As she stepped into her white cotton training
pants, she contemplated how to begin a conversation with her mum
about Brittany. “So, Mum, today I brought a dead cheerleader back
to life.” Too direct. She pulled on her white tank top and tied her
crossover. The doorbell sounded. Jonah was here!

Her heart sprinted. There was no time to be
paralysed
by the fear of
possible death. This was her opportunity to find out more about the
Timesurfers.
Carpe diem
. She raced from
her room and leapt over the banister, thrilled when she stuck the
six-foot drop landing.

“Impressive.” Jonah slouched against the open
front door with Balthazar. Her heart continued to beat double time.
She was careful to keep Balthazar between herself and Jonah.

“You need to be more selective of who you
invite over,” Balthazar said with a ferocious glare at Jonah. “This
one has trouble written all over him.”

“Like I care what you think.” Cate’s voice
was full of attitude. Messing with Balthazar was one of her most
favourite
things to do.
She was also over people telling her what to do and think.

“Bite me! Bring your suitor in and introduce
him. I’m going to get a front row seat for his meet and greet.”
Balthazar swaggered down the hall.

“Permission to enter?” Jonah leaned through
the doorway, one arm resting on each side.

Her bravado flickered, but she steeled
herself. No more being the victim. She poked his chest hard with
her finger. “Not so fast.”

He leaned against the doorframe, relaxed,
confident, and tall. His unruly hair and beautiful face gave him
the perfect grimy-to-gorgeous ratio.

“So word is you’re a Timesurfer with the evil
Mortez?”

“Someone’s had an enlightening afternoon.
Evil is a bit harsh.”

“I travelled through time to the
future
and had a very informative conversation with
Naitanui and
his
Timesurfers. I think evil
fits perfectly. You tried to kill me. Twice, if you count the bomb
and the near strangulation.”

“Let it go. The bomb was never about you. I
disarmed it as soon as I
realised
you were in the kill zone.”

“Then you promptly attempted to strangle
me.”

“I already explained I was only
pretending
to strangle you.”

“I suppose you’ve some amazingly complex
reason you pretended to strangle me?”

He shrugged and sighed. “I had hoped it would
save you from being discovered by Naitanui’s Timesurfers and all
the palaver guaranteed to follow.” The genuine regret and sadness
that clouded Jonah’s face was unexpected.

“They don’t know who I am.”

“Powerful, ancient cloaking magic can do
that.”

Magic was not her friend at the moment. “But
you do. You knew about my migraines and my
favourite
dessert. What’s the story?”

“I’m not having this conversation standing in
your front door. Permission to enter?” He drummed his fingers
against the doorframe.

This could end very badly. But she also
really wanted to find out what the hell was going on. She sighed.
No guts. No glory
. “Fine!” Against her
better judgment she let him in. “Don’t blame me if this is a trap
and you end up dead.”

“I’m confident I can hold my own should this
be a trap.”

“Cate!” her mother hollered from the
backyard.

“I’m not finished with this discussion.” She
ushered him through the house, careful to keep him in front of her
and at a safe distance. He stepped back to let her through the
kitchen doorway, and she hesitated. The last thing she wanted was
to have her back to him. She jumped as his fingers brushed her
shoulder.

“Don’t be scared,” he said.

“I’m not.” She forced a smile. “Don’t ever
touch me again without my permission.”

“Understood. I apologise.” He pushed the door
open, careful to avoid touching her.

For a microsecond, her mind flashed to the
moment those long, tapered fingers were around her throat. Here,
surrounded by her mum and the boys, she couldn’t be safer. Her
blind terror at the sight of Jonah had been replaced by intrigue.
He knew her in the future and she kind of felt drawn to him. Like
their souls
recognised
one another. She cringed inwardly at even thinking such a lame
thought.

“Don’t worry, mothers are my specialty.”

He had misunderstood her hesitation. She
bowed and entered the backyard. “You don’t know
my
mother. Hey, Mum. This is...this is Zach’s cousin,
Jonah.”

Balthazar and Melchior thrust out their
chests and assumed the alpha male stance, arms folded with feet
planted wide, to stare down Jonah.

“Jonah,” her mother said with her best
principal smile. Cate breathed a small sigh of relief at how
excellent her mum was at dealing with weird and unexpected.

Jonah inclined his head and shook her
mother’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ma’am. I’m
honoured
to be invited into your
home.”

There was an old world charm about Jonah,
which was so...manly. Balthazar coughed and mumbled something that
sounded like “loser” or “tosser,” which earned him a glare from
Cate and a lazy grin from Jonah.

“Boys,” her mother warned, holding a hand
toward Balthazar and Melchior, shuffling behind her. There was a
weird vibe between Jonah and the boys. Particularly Balthazar.

Cate was extremely unperceptive, so for her
to notice something was off between Jonah and Balthazar, it had to
be big.

“You have some training gear with you?” her
mother asked.

Jonah nodded and tapped the leather duffel
bag over his shoulder.

Her mother appraised Jonah. “I have zero
tolerance for insubordinate
behaviour
. My time. My do-jang. My rules. No
exceptions.”

“Always.” Jonah murmured something as he
sauntered passed the boys. Their eyes flashed with...well...and
again she was extremely unperceptive, but it looked like
amusement.

Her mum rolled her eyes, but her mouth
twitched as if she was holding back a smile. What was Cate
missing?

Chapter 10

Quantum Indicators

I
f Cate had to hold this wall squat for much longer,
she would disintegrate from the inside out. Her thighs were on
fire. She blew at an irritating strand of damp hair stuck near her
right eye.

“Cate, get a foot lower,” her mother called.
“Your thighs should be parallel with the ground, not a random angle
of your choice. Get down or everyone spends another three minutes
doing this.”

The groans and murmurs about maiming forced
Cate to suck it up and slide lower. Her heels dug into the grass,
exposing the rich, black dirt underneath. She inhaled the clean,
fresh, earthy smell. “Come on. Come
on
.”
Pink, orange, and yellow streaked the sky, their boldness lost
against the grey evening sky. She peeked at Jonah. He was killing
this. Balthazar was a first-rate martial artist, but Jonah was in a
whole other league.

“Two minutes to go!” her mother barked. “Suck
in your abs, Cate. A wilted flower has more core strength.”

Cate ground her molars. Her mum had it in for
her tonight.

“Drive through the pain. Your body registers
pain because you brain tells it to. It’s all in your mind,” her mum
called.

Someone needed to tell that to Cate’s
thighs.

“Geu-man!
” Her mum
finally called for them to stop.

Eyes closed, she wilted to the spongy, damp
ground. A shadow crept across her face as someone stood over her.
Opening an eye, she spied Jonah. “How is it possible you look none
the worse for wear?”

“Pair up! I want to see a bridge.” Her
mother’s voice interrupted her exhaustion. “Jonah, lie under Cate
and provide some incentive for her to hold herself up.”

“That would be my absolute pleasure.” He lay
on the ground and rolled on his back. “Show me what you’ve
got.”

Cate found having less than an inch between
their bodies from head to toe disconcerting to say the least. She
braced her elbows on the ground, trying to keep as much space
between them as possible. And that wasn’t much in this
position.

“So you wanted know about Timesurfers?” Jonah
breathed, close to her ear.

“Now isn’t a great time to talk,” she hissed.
If her arms or abs failed, she would land splat on top of him—an
idea that evoked mixed reactions. “This is wrong on so many
levels.” Her eyes looked everywhere but at Jonah.

“We’ve been closer.” His fiendish grin mocked
her.

“Enough with the innuendo,” she hissed. “I
get you know me in the future. I know you’re
from
the future.” If she was a Timesurfer she wouldn’t
be with Mortez. She wouldn’t be with the evil one. “Are there other
groups of Timesurfers besides the ones with Naitanui and
Mortez?”

“Naitanui and Mortez are the super powers in
this war. There are a few small breakaway groups. Then there’s
Elias. That’s who Mortez overthrew to take command. He’s off
licking his wounds. There are unconfirmed
rumours
he’s rebuilding his army.”

“Where does he sit on the scale of good to
evil?”

“Where ever best serves his purpose on any
given day.”

Her mind raced. Jonah might not actually know
her, he might just know of her. She flopped to the ground a second
before her mother yelled for everyone to change.

“You heard the lady.” Jonah rolled on his
front. “Good and evil aren’t always easy to define.”

“Well of course you would say that.” She slid
underneath him, and heat flooded her cheeks. “How are you Zach’s
cousin?” She focused on a spot over his shoulder.

“We share family blood.”

She had tried to remember if Zach’s parents
had brothers and sisters. It was fruitless. Parents were just
someone to be polite to at the front door. “So Zach’s a Timesurfer
too?” Now
that
was a scary thought.