Timesurfers (9 page)

“Yes. That was low. Dirty, cheap, and...low,”
he panted. The sparkle was back in his eyes though.

She released the pressure for a second.
“Don’t make me show you all the pressure points I know.”

“Knock yourself out. You can’t make me tell
you anything I don’t want to.” Austin gritted his teeth and growled
under his breath as she pressed harder. “You know how you think
Rafe reads minds and compels people?”

She nodded.

“Zach has some new acquaintances and one of
them has a healing power and fixed his nose. Now let go before I
hurt you.”

The cut that disappeared on her foot and
Eve’s disappearing graze made slightly more sense. “Is a healing
power common?”

“No. This time
you
were warned.” His finger and thumb grabbed at her arm. Too late she
realised
his plan. He
pressed hard on her lower arm.

She winced and involuntarily released her
hold on him. Her elbows smacked against the pavement as he dumped
her on her butt.

“Let’s try and be a bit
civilised
, shall we? Either that or let’s
really have at it. A half-hearted fight is plain unsatisfying.” The
intense look on his face made it clear he wasn’t kidding
around.

Even she couldn’t believe her next words.
“Could I have a healing power?”

“If you’re who I think you are, technically
it’s not a healing power you have.”

She threw her hands in the air and kicked the
ground with her heels. “I woke up to an entirely redecorated house
and a life filled with friends I didn’t have yesterday. I’m going
insane.”

“You aren’t going insane.” Austin smiled.

How many good girls had turned bad for that
smile? “Your sexy little smile isn’t going to work with me.”

“And neither is your little temper tantrum on
the floor. It’s the same world as yesterday. It’s just been
tweaked. You better hurry. Do you want your mum getting a call to
say you aren’t in class?”

Absolutely not!
She
didn’t need any more drama in her life at the moment. She scrambled
to her feet and took off. When they reached the school gates, she
struggled to catch her breath. Austin wasn’t even breathing
hard.

He tapped the brass letters of the Socrates
Private School motto,
“Philosophia”
on the
square granite post the iron gates were attached to. “That’s ‘Love
of Wisdom’ in Latin.’ This is one fancy school for such a small
town.”

“Yes it is.”

An obscure billionaire renovated a monastery
built in 1902 and converted it to the Socrates Private School a
decade ago. The elite private school offered free tuition to all
its gifted students. Entrance was by invitation only. Each Socrates
graduate was also guaranteed a full academic scholarship to their
choice of any of the top fifteen universities in the world.

“You have to be super smart or excel in the
arts to get accepted. And be prepared to live in a town with the
largest detention centre in America. There are two juvenile
delinquents to each law abiding citizen here,” Cate said.

“Did you get in on your academic or artistic
talents?”

“Both actually. How’s Zach involved with all
this?”

“Zach’s working with Jonah.”

She snorted. “That’s ridiculous. I know
everyone Zach knows, and he doesn’t know Jonah.”

“He does in this altered time line.”

“Ah yes. The magically altered time line.”
She rolled her eyes. “There’s nothing magical about Zach. I would
have noticed that.”

Austin raised his eyebrow and shrugged.

“Can you tell me what you
actually
do?”

“I ensure every innocent leads a life free of
magical manipulation. Jonah does the manipulating.” He dropped his
head and looked at her through his long eyelashes.

His sexy little look wasn’t going to distract
her today. “What’s an innocent?”

“A person with no magical powers.”

“So an ordinary person, like me?”

“I said you didn’t have a healing power. Not
that you didn’t have any powers. You aren’t an innocent, and
there’s nothing ordinary about you.” There was a dull thud followed
by the grating sound of metal on metal. He pointed to the school
gates inching closed.

“Are you coming to class?”

“Nope. I’m swamped protecting
bonafide
innocents,
checking into loser new recruits, and researching you all day.”
Austin backed away and grinned. The gates low metallic grind turned
into a whine.

She tugged her backpack off and squeezed
sideways through the gates. As Austin sauntered away, so many
questions buzzed in her head.

If she wasn’t an innocent, what was she?
Could she really have magical powers? She was done with following
rules set by nameless and faceless people. A face-to-face
conversation with the Naitanui person running this freak show was
required. PRONTO!

Chapter 7

A Dead Cheerleader
Awakens

E
ve tapped her watch as Cate rushed into class. Cate
gave her a reassuring smile and sent Zach a fierce glare as she
slid into her seat. She froze.
No way!
Her
palms went clammy, and the short hairs on the nape of her neck
stood on end. Jonah was headed her way. Holy crap! Her legs tangled
in the chair, and she tumbled onto the floor. Her heels skidded and
scraped on the linoleum floor as she scooted away from him.

Jonah loomed over her, blocking out the
fluorescent lights. “Are you all right?” He held out his hand. “Let
me help.”

She remembered his fingers around her neck at
the bus stop. A series of terrified squeaks escaped her lips.

“What a klutz. She’s fine.” Eve put herself
between Cate and Jonah. “Hello, insanely hot bad boy!” Eve breathed
as she righted Cate’s chair. “Do we know him?”

“No,” Cate lied. Her fingernails dug into her
palms as she attempted to still her shaking hands.

“Ms. Zetrom, what are you doing on the
floor?”

Her calculus teacher had arrived.

“Sorry, Sir.” Cate scrambled to her feet. She
shuffled her chair away as an attack of the shivers set in. Zach
and Jonah exchanged some form of greeting, known only to males,
which involved fists and exploding noises.
What
the hell? How did they know each other?

Zach tapped her shoulder. “This is my cousin,
Jonah. He’s transferred from Calf Creek in Texas.”

One hand moved to her throat, while the other
tapped her pencil at a furious pace.
Keep it
together
, she chanted silently.

Jonah met her gaze. “Morning,” he drawled
with no indication he
recognised
her. The fluorescent lights made his
alabaster skin glow and highlighted his model cheekbones and
chiselled
chin. He had
the same grey eyes as Austin.

“Calf Creek,” Eve said. “Is that a real
town?”

“Meet Eve.” Zach jerked his head toward Eve.
“Cate and Eve are a two for one deal.”

“Pleasure.” Jonah sizzled a smile at Eve.

He was way too attractive to be trusted. The
ultimate tortured bad boy. “We met at the bus stop on Sunday.” Cate
blurted way louder than she intended. Her cheeks burned.

“I don’t think so. I’d remember meeting you.”
Jonah reached over and rested his hand on the pencil she was
rapidly tapping on the desk. “You’re very...memorable.”

“Hands off!” She snatched her hand away. “You
drive a black Maserati, right?”

“Not today,” Jonah said.

The pencil slipped through her trembling
fingers and rattled onto the desk. Austin and Jonah were both
first-class liars.

“Seriously, is Calf Creek a real town?” Eve
repeated.

Jonah stretched his long legs under the desk.
“Yes indeed. A tornado went through last week. It flattened
everything. So I’m spending the next few weeks with my cousin Zach
to get the last few calculus credits I need for college while my
folks sort through the rubble.”

While Eve quizzed Jonah, Cate shuffled her
chair away. The increased distance failed to dull her fear he might
casually lean over and snap her neck.

The teacher clapped his hands. “Pop quiz
time! Books away and let’s delve into the world of derivatives. I
know a love of calculus and the desire to learn is the reason you
all got out of bed this morning.”

She tensed as Jonah leaned in. His warm
breath sent goose bumps marching up her arm. “Let’s get together
after school.”

“No chance.”

“I’m persistent,” Jonah replied.

“I know it was you at the bus stop on Sunday.
Don’t insult my intelligence by denying it. I have a strict policy
of not hanging out with anyone who’s attempted to kill me.”

“You seem to have forgotten that I said we’d
laugh about what happened at the bus stop in a few years. I was
only
pretending
to kill you.”

“Oh well, that makes it all fine.”

“So we can hang out?” Jonah smiled.

“No, I was being sarcastic.”

Jonah chuckled. “I’ll spring for sticky date
pudding with toffee ice cream?”

She stared straight ahead. That was her
second
favourite
desert.
Disturbing.

“I would have suggested trifle, but your
birthday is so close.”

Her mouth threatened to drop open, but she
clenched her jaw hard. Trifle was her
favourite
dessert, and her birthday, which was next
Saturday, was the only time her mum made it. “Since you were just
pretending
to be a murderous stranger, I’d
love to hang out with you. Shall we say around four?”

“Ah, I got the sarcasm that time. We aren’t
strangers though,” Jonah said.

“Back off, you lying tool!”

“Eyes down and no talking,” her teacher
called.

She cast her eyes down and quickly completed
the pop quiz. A sick feeling squirmed down her throat, and a
migraine pain stabbed behind her right eye. She pressed the heel of
her hand into her eye socket. That always helped dull the pain.

“Those migraines will be a thing of the past
soon,” Jonah whispered.

She hadn’t told anyone about her ferocious
migraines the last few weeks. Jonah knew an unnerving amount about
her.

“I could come to your house after school and
help you with your calculus.” Jonah’s voice was like velvet.
Smooth, warm and it made you want to touch him. He tapped the 100
percent scrawled in the right-hand corner of his paper and then the
25 percent on her paper.

“I’m sure you’re a real Mr. Helpful.”

Eve jumped up and down behind Jonah,
mouthing, “Say yes! Say yes!”

“It’s a firm no,” Cate said.

“That’s code for she’d love you to come over
and help.” Eve patted Jonah’s arm. “It’s a girl thing.”

“That’s settled then. I’ll be at your house
at five tonight.” Jonah unwound himself from the chair. He looked
even taller close up.

“Don’t come,” Cate said.

“Don’t listen to her; definitely go,” Eve
said.

Cate gave Eve a furious glare. “Seriously,
today’s not good. I have training.”

“Zach tells me you’re a black belt.” Jonah
ran a hand through his perfectly mussed chocolate hair.

“Jonah’s a black belt too. He’s a fifth Dan.”
Zach stumbled as Jonah shoved him toward the door.

That was a total
lie
. He would have to be at least seventy to have earned
five Dans. She jumped back as Jonah lifted his hand.

“Easy, Catherine,” he muttered.

Cate groaned. She knew that he knew she was
scared of him. He called her Catherine. No one ever called her
that. She was Hannah Catherine Zetrom, but she’d gone by Cate since
she moved to Tempus Falls.

“I’ll see you at five tonight. You can show
me your best moves and learn some calculus.” The bell to start the
next class rang, and he headed off with Zach trailing behind.

“Wait.”

Neither Zach nor Jonah responded.

“I don’t want you to come to my house,” she
yelled to no one in particular. “Ever.”

“Sure you do!” Eve said. “He’s bad in all the
right ways. You just know there’s a whole lot of angst rolled up in
that one. He’ll get better and better as you munch through the
outer coating to get to the delicious burst of
flavour
in the centre.”

“He doesn’t do it for me,” Cate said.

“Oh please! You’re blinded by boy band
wannabe Austin.” Eve paused. “He does have a smile that could melt
an iceberg in seconds, and I’m sure he knows how to show a girl a
good time. But he’s not in the same league as Jonah. Both are
significant upgrades on loser Zach. You’ve know Austin for as long
as you’ve know Zach and I. Have you always had a secret thing for
him?”

“No. I just woke up and it was like I was
meeting him for the first time.” She smiled to herself. Clearly she
had missed her calling to be a comedienne. “How do you think Austin
got his scars?” Maybe Eve had that bit of information filed away in
her brain as a result of Rafe’s mind control games.

Eve shrugged. “I don’t even see them when I
look at him. I can’t remember him without them.”

Cate headed to anatomy. Eve could have the
oh-so-fabulous Jonah. It was creepy that he knew
stuff
about her, though. On the bright side, four
other black belts would be there when she next saw him, if he
showed at her house tonight. And her mum was the fiercest of them
all. That should keep her safe.

***

Cate breathed a sigh of relief when her last class
wrapped up. She had said hello to more people today than in the
entire last five years. Her cheeks ached from smiling. This new
popular thing in this upside down world was weird and
exhausting.

Rose, Rafe, and Eve waited on the lawn under
the century old maple tree at the front of school. Rafe and Eve
threw armfuls of the autumn tinged leaves strewn around at each
other. Rose was too cool for that. Their cheerleading tryouts with
Brittany were this afternoon. The fact Eve was head girl
and
trying out for
cheerleading—incomprehensible.