Timesurfers (22 page)

“Hearing? That’s a lame power,” Zach
whispered, his face pale and piqued. “I want to be fast or have
X-ray vision...something cool.” He screwed up the paper and
groaned.

With a combination of charades and force,
Jonah manoeuvred the close-to-delirious Zach to his bedroom. He
closed the velvet curtains, and left the room with his arms full of
everything that made any sort of noise. After he checked on Cate he
would report Zach’s condition.

***

Jonah paced across the foot of the wooden steps. His
stomach churned at the thought of what lay inside the house. The
white, two-story weatherboard house with its blue door, matching
blue shutters, and picturesque English garden gave no hint of the
evil inside. The perfume from the pink roses evoked memories of
summers he had spent in the backyard with Rose and Austin at their
cottage. With a deep breath, he charged up the steps and pounded on
the blue door.
Just my luck
, he thought as
the door swung open.

Cate’s mother stepped back and motioned him
in with a lazy smile. The glamour she had used for her outside life
these last sixteen years was impressive. No matter how he tried,
Jonah couldn’t see the real Mortez through it. The short, perfectly
bobbed black hair and petite frame were the complete opposite of
how the real Mortez looked.

“Where is she?” he demanded.

Mortez pointed upstairs. She turned his arm
over and tapped the 2017. Her curious grey eyes looked him up and
down. “I hope I’m treating you well in the future.”

“For all you know, I’ve dumped your sorry ass
to do Naitanui’s bidding.”

“I’m confident that’s not the case.” Her dry
smile was familiar. “It would be a fatal move for your somewhat
depleted family. You’re a great warrior, Jonah, but your heart
makes you vulnerable. There’s your family, Rose and
her
family, and now the jewel, my daughter Cate.”

He clenched his fists and glared. “Does she
know Xavier’s gone?”

“Yes. She still hasn’t got her first QI yet.”
Mortez’s hands gestured flamboyantly as she spoke.

A knife twisted in his stomach. “I can’t
believe you went ahead with your plan to kidnap Xavier after I
pleaded with you to reconsider. I’ve never asked you for anything.
NEVER!”

“Don’t be dramatic, Jonah. I had no doubt you
would come to me at some stage and plead that I amend the orders I
gave you in 2014 to kidnap Xavier. I had the three boys sleep over
here last night so you all have an aura clash with the time. None
of you can come back again to that time. This date is one of the
most heavily guarded since you kidnapped Xavier, just in case you
should ever manage to convince someone to help you.”

“Does family mean nothing to you?”

A fierce mask slipped over Mortez’s face.
“Duty often clashes with love. You of all people should know
that.”

Jonah flinched. “I came to see Cate. Let me
pass.”

Mortez gripped his arm. Her nails dug
painfully into his skin. “I’ll remind you to hold your tongue.”

He shook off her hand. “I’ve kept your filthy
secret. It was the only way to protect Catherine.”

“It’s
our
secret,
about something you did,” she crooned as he started up the
staircase.

“On your diabolical orders.” Jonah refused to
look back as he climbed the steps to Cate’s room. He paused at the
gold plaque with “Cate’s Room” inscribed in bold black letters on
her bedroom door. Should he tell her? He wrestled with the question
constantly. Keeping his secret always won out. Cate would see and
hear her mother do horrendous things. He wanted to shield her from
this terrible act.

He tapped on the bedroom door. “Cate, it’s
Jonah. Your mother said I could come up.” He twisted the heavy
golden handle and pushed the door ajar to peer into the room. The
ornate cheval mirror, the cream and gold four-poster bed, the
bookshelves overflowing with books, ornaments and
stuff
were all familiar. As was Cate’s much-loved
mirror ball the size of a beach ball hanging from the ceiling.

She was face down on the bed, her long blonde
hair, striped with the vibrant rainbow pieces, tumbled across her
pillow and hung over the edge of the bed. He repeated her name.
Apprehension fluttered in his chest when she remained motionless.
He strode across the polished wooden floor and tentatively touched
her shoulder.

There was a snarl and a blur of movement.
Cate’s fist smashed into his temple, and strands of hair whipped
across his cheek. He staggered as she flipped off the bed and
thrust a heel into his sternum. “Stop it.” He fended off another
kick.

“My brother is gone,” she said through
clenched teeth. “He’s gone because of YOU!”

He deflected a barrage of punches and kicks,
cursing when a sneaky punch got through his guard and smacked him
hard on the nose. “STOP! I don’t want to hurt you.”

Cate’s eyes glittered with rage as she
continued to fight.

After a few minutes dodging her furious
fists, Jonah was officially over being pounded. He allowed her to
put him into a headlock and then used the wall to push off and flip
over her head to break the hold. He then clamped her arms against
her sides and held firm while she sobbed and stomped on his insteps
and raked her heels down his shins.

“I won’t pretend I didn’t know Xavier would
be gone when you got home.”

Her struggles weakened.

“Stop and let me help you.” He cautiously
released her arms and steered her to the bed.

“Do you know which Timesurfers took him? Do
you know why they took him?” she choked out between sobs. Her
cheeks were flushed red, and the freckles across her nose stood out
against her pale face.

“No,” he lied. Nausea rolled through his
chest. Shame gnawed at his gut. Seeing her go through this was more
agonising than he could ever have imagined.

She grabbed the neck of his purple T-shirt.
“You’d know if it was Mortez, wouldn’t you?” Her face was filled
with desperation, as a small gleam of hope flared through the tears
in her eyes.

Jonah steeled himself to look directly into
her eyes. The desperation he saw made his stomach churn. Each tear
she spilled was like a knife to his heart. “Cate...”

“It could have been Elias.” Her hands
clutched frantically at his shoulders, her face still for a second
as she collected her thoughts. “Maybe he came here to kidnap
Xavier. Yes. That has to be it. Xavier’s got nothing to do with
this. Please. I’ll do anything if you help me find him.”

He gently prised her hands from his shirt.
The raw pain glowing in her eyes sliced through Jonah’s heart.
Sadness crept along his skin, leaving a trail of icy deceit. He
detested himself before his words were even out. “Anything,
hey?”

Chapter 17

Magic Trumps Technology

A
flicker of raw emotion crossed Jonah’s beautiful
face, highlighting the perfect angles and planes of his classical
bone structure. It vanished before Cate could read it clearly. Her
eyes burned and itched from crying about Xavier. The agony, which
had shredded her heart with each breath, had been replaced with a
dull ache.

Jonah ducked to avoid hitting the glittering
mirror ball hanging from her ceiling and meandered to the window.
The absence of the telltale creaks her wooden floor always gave
when someone walked through her room confirmed his feet weren’t
touching the floor. Sunlight filtered through the coloured glass
panels which stretched above the bedroom window. His hair danced
with red, yellow, green, and orange tints. The ends curled
defiantly around his neck and ears. He gingerly felt his nose.

She had got one good hit in. It served him
right if it was broken.

“Take it from someone who knows, you should
never throw the ‘anything’ card out there unless you’re prepared to
back it up.”

“Try me.” The bed creaked as she stretched
out on her stomach.

“Is that an invitation?” He gave her an
amused look, his fingers twirling the plaited golden rope of her
curtain ties.

“Don’t be an idiot.” She hastily scooted off
the bed. A weird thought popped into her head. “Did you
want
it to be an invitation?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “There’s one
thing right off the bat you won’t do to find Xavier, and I can
think of ten others without even trying.”

His purple T-shirt and skinny black jeans
made him look longer and leaner than ever. His silver studded black
belt had a fancy silver buckle. He always looked so stylish.
Something had been gnawing at her for a while. This connection she
felt to him was intense. “You and future me, we aren’t...you know?”
She motioned between the two of them.

He looked puzzled, and then he smiled as big
as she had ever seen him smile. “I can’t say. The magic won’t let
me.”

“Ahh...” She threw her hands over her head.
“The magic won’t let me. Austin played that card. This magical
brain chip you all seem to have is very convenient and also
complete rubbish.”

“Magic trumps technology every time. A chip
you can disarm, remove, or bypass like all technology. Magic just
is. There is no logic, mercy or upgrades available. It does what it
does—end of story. Will you fix my nose?” He pressed along his
puffy yet still defined cheekbone. “I’m pretty sure you broke it
earlier.”

“I’m undecided,” she huffed. “Are you going
to help me find Xavier?”

“That ‘anything’ statement is looking more
flimsy by the second.”

She squeezed her eyes shut to hold back the
frustrated tears burning her aching eyes. After wiping the few
delinquent tears from her cheeks that slipped past when her guard
was down, she took a deep breath. “Can you help me find Xavier? I’m
going to keep asking until you answer.”

“I could.”

The silence stretched wider and bigger with
each tick of her bedside clock. “
Will
you
help me find Xavier?”

Jonah’s soldier mask slipped over his
exquisite face. A beautiful but unyielding and ruthless warrior
stared back at her. This Jonah emitted sparks of danger. “Mortez
would have to sanction my involvement in that mission.”

“Why?”

“If Mortez caught us on an unsanctioned
mission, she’d kill us both. I would never put you in that kind of
danger.”

“So let’s go and get it sanctioned. Take me
to her. I’m ready to go.” She stood and straightened Austin’s black
and green checked shirt, which had twisted itself around her torso
a few times.

“I can’t take you to her.”

She focused hard on Jonah, repeating her
request silently.

He raised an eyebrow and shook his head.
“Your mind games don’t work on me. My brain’s a steel trap. Nothing
gets in there but my own thoughts. It’s impossible for me to take
you to Mortez.”

“You Timesurfers always say ‘can’t’ when you
mean ‘won’t.”

“Well, I
mean
, I
can’t.”

She strode over and shoved his chest. “That’s
a complete lie. Austin took me with him to the future to see
Naitanui. I know you can take me. Now I have my wings, it won’t
even hurt.”

Concern flickered in Jonah’s eyes. “I can’t
take you to Mortez.”

“Liar!”

He ran a hand through his hair. “I refuse to
risk killing you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Now who’s being overly
dramatic? I’ve surfed as a mortal. There’s nothing you could throw
at me to top that. I’m happy to take the risk. I want to take the
risk. It’s completely my decision, and if I die, you can remain
guilt free.”

“You must stop with these gross
generalisations. Mortez hacks off people’s ears and fingers before
she feeds them to her fire ants. Alive. That’s just one example of
something that would top your initial foray into time travel. And
if you die—I’ll wish I was dead.”

She shuddered. Her nightmares about fire ants
crawling up her nose and down her throat were so vivid she tasted
the blood. One night, when they burrowed inside her ears, she was
adamant she had been partially deaf for most of the next morning.
It was a relief when the fire ants chose to only gnaw her arm or
leg during a nightmare. That pain was bearable.

Jonah dragged his hands down his face and
tore at his hair. “You and your stubborn ways teach me patience
like no one else, Catherine. For the record, I’m dead against this.
I’m only doing it because I know how pigheaded you are.”

“Duly noted.”

“Don’t let go of my arm.” He grasped both her
elbows. “And don’t you dare come back and haunt me if you die. It’s
your own bloody fault.”

“Completely my fault! I promise not to haunt
you.”

The corners of his mouth twitched as he
suppressed a smile. “Hold on
extremely
tight. That reduces the chance of death significantly. In the
interests of full disclosure, you could end up in some random time
line or alternate dimension. Both of which are extremely hard to
get back from. Know that if you end up dead or lost, Mortez will
feed me to the fire ants, and I will
certainly
come back and haunt you mercilessly. Or
stalk you relentlessly if we’re both dead.”

“Understood.” She gripped his elbow with one
hand and then decided to use two. There was no doubt she was doing
this, even with the annoying voice in her head chanting that she
would regret it.

“It’s not too late to accept this won’t work.
It’s going to hurt.
Immensely
.” Sweat
beaded along his upper lip.

He was worried. Her apprehension shifted
gears into dread. Now might be a good time to back away from Jonah
and tell her mother what was going on. No, there was no turning
back now. If this was what it took to get Xavier back, it had to be
done. “I’m ready.”

“Take a deep breath.” He sighed. “I’m a
billion percent against this.”