Timesurfers (36 page)

Rose turned slowly and deliberately on her
heel. “That coward ran and hid after a woman defeated him.” A feral
yowling rang out across the yard, and Polka Dot appeared at the
window.

Cate gave a toothy grin as the cat hissed at
Rose. “Polka Dot hates everyone except Eve.”

Rose opened the window and a warm breeze
wafted the scent of gardenias into the room. It was transitioning
from twilight to evening. The colour had washed from the sky, but
the stars were still hiding. Rose shoved the ginger cat off the
ledge. “Well, I don’t care for him and his racket too much
either.”

Cate made a horrified noise in the back of
her throat.

“Don’t have a cow. He landed on his
feet.”

“That was mean.”

“So you think that’s mean, but you’re fine
with joining Mortez who murders people on a whim.”

“If Naitanui was more like Mortez, this could
have been over that first day.” Cate hurled a shoe across the room.
“I won’t kill Zach. I’d rather kill myself.”

Rose raised her hands over her head in
frustration. “If Naitanui was more like Mortez, I would have
decapitated you at the bus stop. I’d still be up for a quick
decapitation if it wasn’t forbidden. Death is the coward’s way out.
It takes courage to move past and live with what you’ve done, good
and bad.”

“You’re the consummate martyr.”

Rose poked at the half-packed bags on the end
of the bed. “Are you going somewhere?”

The heavy thud of car doors saved Cate from
answering. “Mum’s home. Get out. Use the window.”

Rose fidgeted with her hair and cracked her
knuckles. “Can I meet her?”

Cate picked up a weird vibe from Rose.
“Absolutely not.”

Rose dug around in the bags. “You
are
going somewhere. I want to meet your
mum.”

Cate shoved the bags out of Rose’s reach.
“Stop pawing my stuff. I’m not introducing you to my mother. What
would I say? ‘Hi, Mum, this is Rose. She’s an immortal
Timesurfer.’”
Bitch
, she added
silently.

Rose growled in the back of her throat.
“Socially awkward does not begin to describe you. ‘Hi Mum, this is
my friend, Rose.’ is fine.”

“Friend? That’s an enormous lie,” Cate
snickered.

Rose shoved her out the bedroom door.
“Move.”

“Touch me again and I’ll smack you,” Cate
growled and started out of the room.

Rose laughed. “We both know how successful
you’ve been at that to date. Forgive me for not pretending to be
scared.”

Annoyingly, Rose made an excellent point.
“You can’t make me introduce you.” Cate stomped down the stairs and
swung around the banister at the end. “Get out.” She kept her voice
low and opened the front door. Voices floated from the kitchen.

Rose hesitated on the last step. “I guess the
three wise men are here too.”

“I said get out. What if they
recognise
you?” Cate hissed.

“That’s a given.”

“Cate!” her mother called from the kitchen.
“I found Zach lurking in the front yard. I wasn’t sure if you
wanted to talk to him or kick his butt. Either way, I invited him
in.”

How many times did Cate have to tell him to
piss off?

Balthazar’s enormous form filled the kitchen
doorway. “I’ll throw him out for—” He stopped short at the sight of
Rose. His eyes widened, and he let forth a string of curses.

Rose smiled her predator smile. “Is that any
way to greet a lady?”

He lunged and stumbled as Rose danced under
his arm. She sent him skidding across the terracotta tiles with a
ferocious backward heel kick to the lower back. The crunch made
Cate clench her teeth.

“Too slow.” Rose flounced through the kitchen
door.

“Stay out. Please.” Balthazar’s eyes pleaded
with Cate.

Having her own defiant moment, Cate stepped
over Balthazar, crumpled against the wall, and followed Rose into
the kitchen.

Chapter 30

Family Meeting

Z
ach stood near the kitchen island bench. “Hey. Your
mum said it would be fine for me to come in.”

“Rack off, Zach! We are never,
ever
, getting back together.”

Gaspar and Melchior were backed up hard
against the kitchen cupboards. Their fear filled eyes darted
between her mother and Rose. The colour had drained from her mum’s
face, and her knuckles glowed white where she gripped the edge of
the kitchen bench, her eyes fixed on Rose.

“Just passing by and thought I’d say hello.”
Rose arched an eyebrow as she stared defiantly at Cate’s mum.

“You!” Her mother’s voice was scarily quiet,
her face now an ash grey. The knife in her mother’s hand sailed
through the air, ruffling Rose’s hair, it passed so close.

“Mum!” Cate’s jaw dropped as her mother
grabbed a second knife and speared it across the kitchen.

Rose gave a harsh laugh as she swatted it
away. “After all this time, that’s not very friendly.”

Cate’s brain strained. “You know one
another?”

The air in the kitchen rippled as Austin and
Rafe appeared. Rafe slammed Melchior and Gaspar’s heads together
with a sickening crack. They slithered, unconscious, to the
ground.

“That evens the odds.” Rafe rubbed his hands
together.

“You...” Cate started toward Rafe, but her
head snapped back as someone grabbed her from behind. Hot fingers
dug into her bicep.

“Stay still,” Austin breathed in her ear.

She tensed, preparing to struggle, when
Austin threw her onto the ground. Her head smacked against the
corner of the kitchen bench on the way down. Red stars exploded
behind her closed eyelids. Their glare forced her eyes open as
Jonah burst through the side door. Warmth trickled down her cheek.
She brushed a hand up the side of her face. It came away tacky and
crimson. “Austin...” There were no words to describe the betrayal
and rage flooding through her.

She scrambled to stand. Her heels slipped
along the polished cork floor, and her hand knocked the knives
scattered on the floor. There were three. Her mother only threw
two. Where had the third come from? Zach stood by the knife block.
The carving knife in his hand sailed toward her head. Austin’s
hands roughly grabbed her shoulders and spun her out of its
path.

Zach reached for the last knife in the
block.

“What the...? You’re trying to stab me now,
you insane tosser!” Cate yelled.

As he drew the knife back and aimed the point
at her head, Jonah deftly plucked it from his hand. “Children
shouldn’t play with knives.”

Zach dashed forward.

“Let it play,” Rose murmured.

Zach showered Cate with punches which she
easily deflected. A fierce blow to his nose sent him reeling
backwards. He pointed at Cate. “I’m going to kill you before you
kill me.”

“What?” Cate said.

He pointed an accusing finger at Cate. “I
overheard you and Eve on the phone planning to have that zombie,
Brittany kill me. Jonah forgot I can hear from miles away now.”

Cate glared at Zach, astonished he would even
suggest that. “You’re one insane dickhead.”

Zach puffed out his chest proudly. “But I was
too clever for you both. I texted Brittany and pretended I wanted
to see her. When she arrived I smashed a vase over her head, and
the broken pieces stuck in her brain. She’s dead. Again. I googled
how to kill a zombie.”

“You killed Brittany?” Cate shook her
head.

“You killed her first!” Zach stomped his foot
like a petulant child.

“You’re a complete psycho. Mum, come here.
Mum! Get away from Zach,” she repeated when her mother didn’t
move.

“It’s kill or be killed, babe!” His lips
curled in a lurid grin.

“I’m not your ‘babe’! Did you hear how
ridiculous what you said sounded?”

Rafe’s eyes narrowed as he inspected her
mother from all different angles. “How
are
you doing that?”

“How is she doing
what
?” Cate demanded. Zach charged at her again and
she speared a knife from the floor toward him.

There was an audible groan from Rose and
Jonah.

“That won’t kill him,” Rose breathed.

“It will hurt like hell though,” Austin said
with glee.

Zach clutched at the knife. Its blade was now
buried deep in his chest. “You’ll pay for that, bitch. I’ve had it
with you. You and your permanent sidekick are both dead. Killing
Eve will be a bonus! I’ll do it first and make you watch.”

Cate scrambled toward her mother. “Mum, get
out now. If you so much as breathe on Eve, you’re dead, Zach,” she
hissed.

Zach started to sway. “She’ll be dead before
morning. Just like you.”

“The only person likely to die in this room
today is you, Zach.” A lazy flick of her mother’s elbow caught Zach
on the temple, and he tumbled to the floor. She grabbed Zach by the
hair. “You did all this. You should be dead. History says Cate
should have already killed you. Jonah, make this right.”

Icy fingers of fear crept along the back of
Cate’s neck. “Why is my mother giving you orders, Jonah?”

The air rippled. Her mother’s image blurred.
It was like looking at a reflection in a pool of water after you
dropped a pebble. She stretched an arm toward her mother, terrified
she was going to dissolve before her eyes. “MUM!”

As the ripples cleared, Mortez stood where
her mother had been.

“Well, well.” Rose’s face was incredulous.
“You’ve been using a glamour all this time? No one’s been able to
hold a full glamour in hundreds of years.”

“That’s why Cate didn’t
recognise
you at the GTs,” Austin
murmured.

She shook her head, hoping to purge the
nausea
spiralling
through her. The floor bucked and tilted under her feet. Austin’s
fingers bit into her arm as her knees sagged and she dropped toward
the ground. The room slid in and out of focus. She picked a spot on
the floor and concentrated to clear her mind.

“Where’s my mother?” Cate’s words were laced
with quiet menace. She fought free of Austin’s grasp, grabbed
Mortez by the shoulders, and shook hard. “Where is she? You
sick—”

Austin yanked her away from Mortez, whose
shirt cracked and ripped where Cate had refused to let go. “Don’t
say something you’ll regret.”

She bucked and twisted against the pressure
of his arms clamped around her. Her heel made solid contact with
Austin’s knee.

“You wanted us to lay the cards on the
table,” Rose snapped. “Mortez here is your mother! She’s been here
all along. Hiding behind a glamour.”

Hysteria bubbled up Cate’s throat. “No...”
All the air was sucked out of the room. The only sound was Zach
gasping on the floor. Everything seemed to slow as her mind toiled
to comprehend the vile truth.

Mortez stepped closer. “I am your
mother.”

Tears dripped down Cate’s cheeks. With her
eyes squeezed shut, she fought to deny the sound of her mother’s
voice. “You can’t be my mother!”

“I named you Hannah after my mother. You have
her eyes. Even though you go by Cate now, I still call you Hannah
when I kiss you goodnight.”

“Plenty of people know that.”

“Ask me anything, Hannah. Something only you
and I would know.” The woman purporting to be her mother crooned in
an all-too-familiar voice. She even smelled of her mother’s
perfume.

“You’re not my mother,” Cate hissed.

“Your first day of school here, I gave you a
special shell. I told you to turn it three times if you needed me.
After school, you proudly handed me the shell and said I should
keep it and turn it three times if I ever needed you.” Mortez dug
into her front pocket and pulled out a round, raised shell with a
familiar pattern.

Cate knew that stone. Her heart clenched and
a fragment cracked and broke away. The raw hole it left burned more
with each heartbeat. Her heart somehow knew this woman spoke the
truth. Still her brain refused to accept it.

“I wanted to protect you from this life for
as long as possible,” Mortez said.

Rose snorted. “You weren’t protecting her.
You were hiding a weapon.”

“Shut up!” Mortez took a menacing step toward
Rose, who stood her ground. Austin and Jonah were between them with
the speed and grace of water.

Rose beckoned Mortez. “Come and get me.”

“Enough.” Jonah’s shirt clung to his back.
Dampness the shape of a rising sun stretched across his shoulders.
Sweat dripped from his chin and his hair was plastered in wet waves
across the nape of his neck. “Cate isn’t in danger from them.”

“From the look of you and Austin, you’re both
getting a real historical adjustment.” Mortez brushed Jonah’s
sopping shirt.

“Cate, this is your mother.” Jonah’s sad
smile made her stomach shrivel.

Cate tasted bile. “Did Dad know about
you?”

Mortez nodded.

“You never worked black ops, and there was no
witness protection program.” Each lie was like a fist smashing into
her rib cage and made her gasp.

“Your father and I agreed going into hiding
here was the best option. I could protect you and also have the
added security of your brothers being near you without raising
suspicions,” Mortez said.

Cate pointed to Mel and Gaspar’s unconscious
bodies. “They’re my brothers?”

Jonah nodded. “And Balthazar too.”

“But...they’re Austin’s brothers.” Her brain
stopped dead and refused to move past one thing. Mortez had been
married to Austin’s father. Mortez was Cate’s mother. Did that
mean...? She covered her mouth.

Rose made a frustrated choking sound.
“They’re Austin’s half brothers. Austin’s father was your mother’s
first husband. You and Austin don’t share any family blood.”

Cate gave a bitter laugh. “So we aren’t
hiding from the bad guys. We are the bad guys.”

Mortez reached forward but recoiled as Cate
flinched. “I know this is a lot to take in. I did this all for you.
Preventing Elias from hurting you again was my priority.”