Timesurfers (34 page)

“No.” Rose smiled sadly. “My mother died
during childbirth. She chose the name Anna for me before she died.
Father always called me by my second name, Rose. It was only the
two of us for a few years before he remarried. It was fun having
sisters and brothers, and his new wife was so kind. She loved me
because she loved Father.”

“What did your dad do?”

“He designed ships, which other people built.
On Tuesday, a week before my thirteenth birthday, Father didn’t
come home. The constabulary arrived on our doorstep and delivered
the news that he had been murdered for the money in his wallet. My
stepmother
endeavoured
to make ends meet—but there was no money for anything. What
furniture we didn’t sell, we burned for heat.”

Cate had never pegged Rose for someone who
wanted for anything. Let alone food and heat.

“The night before the bank was due to evict
us, an
unsavoury
man
called Leonardo offered to buy me from my stepmother.”

“Did you say ‘buy you’?”

“Yes, you heard that correctly.” Rose’s face
was devoid of expression.

“To marry you?”

“If Leonardo wanted to marry me, he would
have offered my mother a dowry. I was a business acquisition.”

She must have looked blank, because Rose
lifted her shimmering curtain of black hair and parted the diamonds
draped across her back. Red welts started on her neck, continued
down her spine and under her dress. “He gave me these.”

“What are they?”

“He paid for a whore he could rent to his
friends by the hour.”

Cate stifled a gasp with her hand.

“He branded me with the initials of anyone
prepared to pay that little bit extra.”

“I’m so sorry you had to go through something
like that.” Cate couldn’t imagine the horror Rose experienced at
the hands of that monster.

“I’m not. My actions ensured my family was
secure. It will always be a part of me. Every day I choose not to
forget, I grow stronger. Decent people do dreadful things every
day. How they deal with the consequences is the true test of
character. Naitanui allowed me to use his cubes to see how that
despicable piece of dirt ended up. He got what was coming to him.
He was one of the first victims of the 1831 cholera epidemic in
London. Karma can be a complete bitch. It’s decision time for
you.”

“You did what you had to for your family, and
you weren’t killing people. My soul is blacker than that gunk you
had me drink. I cavort with the undead. The boys said that I killed
Zach, or I should have killed Zach...I’m sure you know what I’m
trying to say.”

Rose sighed. “Zach deserved everything he got
in that time line. I would happily knock him off again for you if
it was guaranteed to realign the time line. Leonardo made me sleep
with men. He
could
have made me murder
children and collect their hair to sell to the wig makers. I still
would have done it. When you’re fighting for your life, or your
family’s life, you do what you have to do. You fought for your life
today with all the resources at your disposal. You create and
command the undead. There’s no cavorting with them that I’m aware
of.”

Cate grabbed Rose by the hand. “You know what
I’m going to become. Can you honestly say the world wouldn’t be
better without me?”

“No, it wouldn’t.” Rose stood and picked up
the toga sheet. “Heroes only exist because there is evil. Hope only
exists because there is despair. Theirs is a symbiotic
relationship. One can’t exist without the other. You’re also
special to Jonah and his only chance at any type of real happiness.
That’s more important to me than you will ever know.” Rose bunched
the sheet and fastened it at Cate’s shoulder with a broach made
from an emerald jewel the size of an egg. She wrapped a belt made
from a row of the same emerald stones around Cate’s waist.

“Imagine if these were real?” Cate stroked
the green stones.

“They are.”

Cate opened her mouth, but was unable to form
any words.

“They’re yours now. Put these on.” Rose
dangled a sparkling green Converse sneaker from each hand. “There
will be glass everywhere at the end of the night.”

“How did they become mine?” Cate’s hands
trembled as she laced the sneakers.

“The trainer of every successful grommet
selects a gift for them from jewels which have been collected over
centuries from ancient
civilisations
. These emeralds came from the
Incas.”

“You
chose these for
me?”

“Yes.” Rose crinkled her nose in disgust as
she held out Cate’s rainbow hair extensions to better dry them with
the hairdryer. “I was your trainer so it was my
responsibility.”

“Thank you.”

Rose nodded.

Cate stared at herself in the mirror. The
black sludge had put a flush on her cheeks. “I overheard you and
Jonah talking about erasing Austin’s memory of Catherine the other
night.”

Rose’s gaze remained steady. “All memories
fade. Good and bad. I stand by what I did.”

“I know how you did it. You had Austin,
Naitanui, and Jonah pose for a photo together. When Jonah put his
arm around Naitanui for you to take the photo he accessed his power
to erase memories.”

“Do you have a point?”

“Someone else might tell Austin about him and
Catherine?”

“No one else knew about it.”

That wasn’t true. Godfrey knew. When they
were fighting he had said she was Austin’s Cate. “What if I tell
him?”

“You won’t.” Rose wiped a hand under her eye
to clear some smudged makeup and fanned her face. “It’s getting
warm in here. Sometimes we protect our loved ones by keeping
secrets from them, even leaving them. We endure the immeasurable
pain of these actions every day
because
we
love them.”

Cate’s next step etched itself clear and bold
in her mind.

Rose ushered her into the hallway.

Her heart instinctively glowed warm at the
sight of Austin sauntering toward her. With his toga wrapped low
over his hips and draped across his chest and shoulder, there was a
significant amount of skin over smooth muscle on display. Only he
could wear a toga with that much swagger.

Rose’s hot breath washed over Cate’s neck.
“If you do anything to hurt my son, I’ll hunt you down, and kill
you slowly with a thousand cuts from a poisonous knife.”

Austin was deep in thought, head down and
eyes focused on the ground. When he looked up, he grinned. “Wow,
Mum, you look great.” His eyes glittered with happiness as he
twirled Rose, whose cheeks were flushed red.

Rose frowned. “You’re hot, Austin.”

Austin gave her a quizzical look. “That’s not
at all creepy. But thanks...I think.”

“Not hot to look at. Hot to touch.” Rose
pressed her hand against his forehead.

“I’m fine! Are you meeting Jonah?”

“I’ll see you later.” The thick floor rugs
muffled the click of Rose’s heels as she hurried away.

“That’s a yes. You look amazing.” Austin
grabbed Cate’s waist and spun her around.

She blinked a few times. “You did see what
happened in the arena?”

“You were phenomenal!” Austin threw a
nonchalant arm around her shoulder and shepherded her along the
brightly lit corridor. Heat radiated from him. He did feel hotter
than normal. The glow from the lamps resting on smooth stone
pedestal tables highlighted their shadows gliding along the cream
limestone wall.

No one
seemed the least bit fazed about her creating zombies.
If
anything, Austin was more relaxed than ever.
He was always comfortable in his own skin, but
there was a buoyancy about him tonight.
“So you weren’t
surprised?” Cate prodded.

“Nope.” Austin gave a bright grin.

“How about repulsed or scared?”

“Pu-leese!” Austin drew out the word. “Not
much scares me. I’m relieved if anything.”

He did seem relieved. “Why?”

“Everyone likes the
idea
of my world. Travelling through time, the magic,
and being a badass. Very few people can actually stomach the
reality of it. You’ve proved you can, and I’m psyched!” His eyes
shone with excitement.

“But—”

“Let yourself enjoy tonight. It’s a few
hours. All the other rubbish will still be there after.”

“I have one question for you and then I
promise to be fun-filled Cate all night.”

“Ask away.”

“When the dome came down to mask the magic
for the hand-to-hand combat the three boys could talk about my
future. There was no magic stopping them. I know that I should have
killed Zach but I didn’t.”

Austin looked dumbfounded. “We went to disarm
the bomb, then because of what happened, Naitanui decided I should
watch you until we could confirm your identity and trace your
history with the cubes. He found a few snippets of you in the cubes
but nothing substantial.”

Austin hadn’t known about Zach, but Rose did.
Jonah was feeding her information.

“That is definitely your one question. Is
fun-filled Cate ready to show herself?”

“She is.”

Chapter 28

Toga

S
he shoved the dark thoughts to the back corner of her
mind, determined not to let them consume her until after the toga
party. As they headed along a balcony, the uneven stone floor
pulsed under her feet. The dull thud of music hinted at the party
on the other side of the doors directly ahead.

Austin strode past a lengthy queue of
people.

Cate grabbed at his arm. “Ah, should we wait
at the end? I’m not up for a ‘you pushed in’ fight.”

“It’s a perk of being a successful grommet.
No waiting in queues.”

A wall of sound crashed over her when Austin
ushered her through the solid wooden doors. Glitter exploded from
iron tanks that hung from the ceilings. It floated through the air
like acid rain and settled over the mass of toga wearing figures
writhing on the dance floor. The darkness and smoke filled air
created near on complete anonymity.

Austin pulled her close and pointed left.
Rafe wore a gold leaf Caesar crown and an obscene amount of glitter
with his lime green toga. “He’s wearing a leopard print G-string
under that.” Austin shook his head and rolled his eyes. “It’s the
same each time. After a few drinks he’s flashing everyone.”

Cate had imagined Rafe would be a great
dancer. Instead, he looked to be having an epileptic fit
interspersed with some complex yoga moves. “Isn’t that Godfrey from
this afternoon?”

“Yep, that’s Godlike Godfrey. He
hates
if you call him that.” Austin threw his head
back and laughed. “We did our GTs together. He’s my go to man when
I want to actually go surfing in the ocean.”

Godfrey was pretty easy on the eyes.

Austin cupped his ear with his hand. “I hear
them playing our song! Let’s boogie.”

There was extremely dirty dancing going on
everywhere. When Austin pulled her obscenely close, she dropped her
chin, unable to look him in the eyes. He was an awesome dancer.
Rhythm oozed through him, and his body responded effortlessly to
the music. She peeked up at him. There was a look of freedom on his
face as he moved with his eyes closed. She took a mental picture
and relaxed into him. They fit perfectly.

The girl behind Austin whipped her hair like
a weapon. If Cate tried that, she’d either break her neck or end up
on the ground a dizzy, disoriented mess. She closed her eyes and
let her body feel the music. Nothing much happened.

Someone grabbed her hips from behind and
started grinding against her. Austin opened one eye and swung her
away from the perpetrator. She peered around Austin and saw Rafe.
Completely devoid of shame, he gyrated against his next target. She
envied that he could let go so completely with no fear. He caught
her staring and smiled big.

He shimmied around and slid in behind her,
grabbed her hands, and wrapped them around his neck. He forced her
body to follow him as he moved. “Be sexy and free!” he yelled near
her ear and twirled her around to face him. She giggled at his
renewed efforts to make her follow his outrageous moves. “Try a
sexy face,” he pouted. “Always helps me!”

In the second she looked up at the water
misting from rows of black rubber tubing crisscrossing the ceiling,
Rafe disappeared. Her heart squeezed out a few extra beats as she
searched for Austin through the unfamiliar faces dancing in a
trancelike state. She blinked, concentrating on the dark-haired boy
on the other side of the room.
Had his eyes
flashed violet?
Panic gripped her heart and squeezed. Violet
eyes flashed back at her from every face she checked. She pushed
her palm into her eyes and looked again. No violet eyes anywhere
this time.

Godfrey had become the meat in a very hot
dance sandwich, but his eyes were fixed on her. “Are you okay?” he
shouted.

She nodded and shouldered her way through the
crowd, suddenly desperate for fresh air. Her hand pushed against
the wooden doors, and she gulped the cool night air that rushed
against her face as she stepped outside.

“Cate!” A step behind her, Austin closed the
doors, dulling the deafening noise. His cheeks flushed red.

She hurried to the edge of the balcony. “I
needed a moment. You didn’t see any violet-eyed zombies in there,
did you?” Her voice trembled.

He smiled that outrageously potent smile that
scrambled her brains and made her heart threaten to explode through
her chest. “No.”

“Great, there are no zombies. Not so
great—I’m seeing things.”

He slid both hands around her waist and
nestled his chin on her shoulder. “It’s been a big day. You’re safe
with me. This is a guaranteed zombie-free zone.”

She relaxed back into him. Heat poured off
him through her toga. An involuntary sigh escaped her lips as he
lifted her hair and kissed the back of her neck. From the moment
she saw Austin, it was "
Hello! Hot stranger, I
think I love you! I know I need you."
It was like her life
had been a puzzle she’d been looking at forever, and Austin was
that lost piece you find under the table that suddenly makes
everything else fall into place and make sense.