Chapter 13

Immortals

A trail of glazed eyes and slack jaws followed Jonah. The girls, and a few guys, had that dazed I’ve-been-hit-over-the-head look. In a movie this was the perfect moment for a slow motion walk in. He wore a black velvet jacket that reached just above his knees and a grey and black scarf. His athletic build guaranteed he could sweep you effortlessly into his arms without the worry he might stagger under your weight or possibly drop you. While not often required, it made for some awesome fantasies. He exuded sexiness with each confident stride.

Oblivious to the stares, he slouched against the lockers. “Hey, Catherine.”

“Hi.” He’d called her Catherine again.

If Eve noticed the “Catherine” reference, she ignored it. “I have to get straight home. Mum’s waiting to chew out the few bits of my butt I have left after this morning. Can you look after Cate for me, Jonah?”

“I will happily escort Cate home.” Jonah ran a hand through his perfectly tousled chocolate locks. “We could grab a coffee on the way.”

“Umm...sure. That would be cool,” Cate stammered. “Nice scarf.”

Jonah chuckled, and his beautiful face relaxed. “I wore it just for you.”

“Cate! Wait up!” Zach pushed his way toward them.

She groaned. “I can’t be held responsible for what I’ll do if he doesn’t leave me alone.”

Jonah gave her a rueful smile. “He can be trying.”

Zach’s eyes flickered toward Jonah as he spoke to Cate. “I’ll pick you up at six tonight for the monster trucks.”

“Give me strength! We are done. Do I need to send you a text? Is that the only form of communication you accept now?”

“All right.” Jonah’s quiet voice demanded they listen. “Zach, go home.”

“But...” Zach’s face was pinched and drawn.

“Do as I say.” Menace shimmered from every word as it left Jonah’s mouth.

Zach’s mouth moved but no words came out. “Fine!” he said after a few moments. “But you are not the boss of me,” he mumbled and huffed down the corridor.

“Are you the boss of him?”

“We both report to Mortez, but I’m directly responsible for Zach. Let me get that.” He took her backpack and waved his arm as if to say “ladies first.”

She hesitated. “If you ordered Zach to stay away from me, would he have to?”

“Yes.”

“Good to know. Monster trucks!” Cate rolled her eyes. “I’d like to run over him with a monster truck.”

“I would be completely on board with that.” Jonah’s eyes sparkled. They didn’t have the mischief in them Austin’s nearly always had. Jonah was masculine, pretty and angsty.

She resisted her strange urge to skip alongside Jonah. Just barely.

“How was your day?” he said.

She shrugged. “Austin gave me a bit of background on mutant wizards, and I had a mini breakdown because all things point to me joining the evil Mortez in the future.”

Jonah quirked his eyebrow.

“No offence.”

“None taken.”

She massaged her temples. “I’m so confused.”

“Don’t be a victim. You’re in control of your future. Own your decisions and live with the consequences.”

That was easier said than done.

Everyone was taking advantage of the winter sun, lounging at the alfresco tables that lined the street. They remained oblivious to the two mutant wizards strolling along the path. Either Jonah didn’t see the stares and hear the comments, or he was excellent at ignoring them.

“Austin wouldn’t tell me why he was back watching me.”

“That’s because he can’t.”

“Can you tell me?”

Jonah gave her a superior sideways look. “I may work for a different person, but we’re bound by the same magic.”

“That sucks!” Her shoes slapped against the pavement as she slunk along next to Jonah.

“Want to go and bang some drums?” Jonah pointed to the Neon Posse.

“I’ve never been there. I’m game if you are?” She hurried across the street and started down the wooden stairs. The steps vibrated under her feet with every drumbeat. A black tunnel lined by ghoulish freckles of glowing, fluorescent paint stretched in front of them.

Jonah grabbed her hand when she hesitated. “Stay or go?”

She took the last three steps in one leap. “That’s AC/DC playing. I’m in!” She walked backward, hauling Jonah with both hands. His smile faded the second before her head cracked against something hard.

“Sorry. Sorry,” a familiar voice muttered.

“Eve!” Cate exclaimed as she steadied herself.

Eve stood wide-eyed, like a startled deer paralysed by a spotlight.

“I thought you were going home. What are you doing here?” Cate asked.

“I was...I am...” Eve shook her head and pressed her fingers to her temples. “I am going home.” She waved a silver purse in her hand. “I left this here last night.”

“You were here last night?”

“I always come here on Thursday night.” Eve elbowed Cate and smiled. “I have to get going or I’ll be chained to my bed until I’m fifty. Have fun.” She hurried away.

It didn’t matter what altered time line thing was going on, Cate would have known if Eve had ever come to the Neon Posse. She knew everything about Eve. They had no secrets. “Come on.” She marched into the darkness.

The noise crawled inside her head. A dozen people dressed in paint-splattered overalls bashed at drums on a stage. Fluorescent paint misted every time someone pounded a drum, drops of colour hovering in the air. Some exploded like super slow motion photography. Paint cascaded onto the drums from an overhead dispenser.

Clusters of people pressed into the dark corners. She couldn’t make out any faces, but there was a definite mind-your-own-business vibe. A brunette in the corner was openly salivating over Jonah.

“BAR!” Cate pointed toward the far corner.

Jonah signalled the barman for two drinks. Without discussion, the barman set down two glass pots layered with brown, white, and green. Jonah gave the barman a twenty. “Keep it,” he yelled.

“You’ve been here before?” Cate eyed the drink. Orange bubbles floated through the layers. A small bead of apprehension lodged in her throat. She was in a strange place, with a virtual stranger and an unknown drink. Those were some serious red flags.

“First time.” Jonah downed his drink and pointed to a makeshift sign tacked behind the bar.

 

Java shots

Caffeine, wheatgrass, and chocolate.

Nothing else.

DON’T ASK!

 

Cate waved at the barman, who slid two more drinks her way. “No! Come here.” She signalled him to come over.

He quirked his eyebrow.

Could everyone do that but her?

“You beckoned?” His shaved head highlighted the tattoos encircling his neck.

“My friend was just here, Eve. Do you know her?”

“Don’t do names,” the barman replied.

“Long white-blonde hair and the same school uniform as me.”

“She got kind of an Asian looking face? Little eyes?” he asked.

“Yes!” Cate clapped her hands. “That would be her.”

“Don’t know her.” The barman gave her a tight smile and moved away.

“Want me to beat it out of him?” Jonah said in a good-natured voice.

“No.” She drew out the vowel sound in resignation. “I’ll ask Eve tonight.”

“Hey, babe!” The salivating brunette from the the end of the bar now stood on the other side of Jonah. “First day out of detention and I’m looking for some no-strings-attached action. Interested?”

Jonah grabbed her hand as it disappeared under his coat. “I’m flattered, but no. Close your mouth, Cate.”

Some people had no shame. Cate was standing right there. She could be Jonah’s girlfriend for all the girl knew.

“Offer’s open ended,” the brunette said with a coy wink.

“Move, pretty boy!” A gorilla of a guy knocked the brunette to the floor and attempted to shove past Jonah. The man blinked as he realised Jonah had pinned his arm behind his back and knocked his knees out from under him, leaving him dangling by one arm. Which had to hurt.

In one fluid movement the brunette was on her feet. Anyone who could do a kip-up like that had martial arts training. A Swiss Army knife glinted in her left hand. “I bought these jeans today. Now you’ve spilled crap all over them.” She heaved a knee into gorilla guy’s groin.

Dark silhouettes swarmed across the room from one of the dimly lit corners and fenced them in. Jonah pushed Cate behind him and shoved gorilla guy toward his friends, who were all brandishing weapons. There were metal bars, knuckle-dusters, and assorted knives. One guy drew a long sword from over his shoulder and twirled it in a figure eight.

The brunette gave an ear-splitting whistle, and dark figures flocked from the shadows and positioned themselves behind her. Cate recognised some faces from the detention centre. Those guys were always up for a fight, which took them straight back there.

She didn’t know who moved first, but someone did. The opening bars of Hoodoo Guru’s song “Like Wow! Wipeout” played, and it was on. The brunette yelled and vanished into the brawl.

Jonah smashed an elbow into some guy’s nose and knocked him out with a spinning heel kick. Gorilla guy roared and barrelled toward them. Jonah pushed Cate out of the way and cracked gorilla guy’s head into the bar.

Cate smashed a tray of glass pots over his head for good measure.

“Thanks.” Jonah sized up the three attackers attempting to fence him in. He glided to the right to improve his position. His moves were snakelike. Silent, graceful, and deadly.

A sword glinted to her left. Sword man pointed his shiny weapon and rushed at her. She sidestepped and helped him on his way head first into the bar. The unconscious gorilla guy cushioned his fall. He shook his head and came at her again.

“Call the police,” Cate shouted to the barman as she hoisted herself on the bar and fended off sword guy with both feet.

“Back in,” Jonah called.

She leapt over the unconscious bodies littering the floor and pressed back to back with him. A tall guy came at her. She stepped to his right and punched hard at his stomach before smashing his head on her knee. The splintering crack as she slammed her foot into his ribs was way more satisfying than kicking any bag.

A gunshot sounded over her right shoulder and the room filled with light. Everyone blinked under the glare of the harsh fluorescent brightness. The barman pumped a shotgun with one hand and pointed to a diminutive figure loitering in a dark corner. “Get your lot out of here.”

Blood roared in Cate’s ears. Poised to fight; her eyes searched through the crowd for any movement. She was pumped!

“Easy, Catherine,” Jonah crooned.

The figure from the corner ambled over. He was petite and lithe with honey coloured skin. Gold tattoos covered both his arms, and he had an orange and yellow striped Mohawk with a thin plait that hung half way down his back. His eyes were lined with thick black pencil, and his eyelids were dusted with gold sparkles. People hustled out of his way. He stopped a foot from Jonah.

“Look who’s crawled out from under his rock,” Jonah exclaimed.

“Greetings to you also, Jonah.” He motioned to the limp bodies scattered on the floor. “Carry those who can’t walk. We’re done here for today. Please give my regards to Mortez. I hope to see her soon.” He sashayed from the club with his people limping and staggering after him under the weight of the bodies they carried.

The barman pointed to Jonah and Cate. “Get out. The police are on their way and so is your mother, girlie. Best you’re not here when she arrives.”

The remaining crowd scrambled to their feet and headed for the door. Another gunshot rang out. “No one else move or I’ll put a hole in each of your legs.”

Jonah grabbed her arm and dragged her toward the door.

“Who was the tiny man with the gold tattoos?” Cate struggled to keep pace with Jonah’s enormous strides. Her first full on brawl had been damned exciting.

“That’s Elias.”

She missed the last step and smashed her knees against the pavement. Jonah had her back on her feet so quickly she checked her knees to be sure she had fallen. Blood oozed through the raw pink skin. Drops of blood welled up, burst with a silent pop, and trickled down her shinbone. A hot prickle crawled over her palms and knees.

“We have to get out of sight unless you want to explain this to your mother.”

Not in a million years did she want to do that. “Let’s move.”

They jogged across the street. Sirens blared to their right, so they headed left and ducked down the first laneway. She leaned against the wall. Nervous laughter bubbled up through her chest.

Jonah grimaced and rested his head against the wall. “Don’t make me laugh.”

“Broken ribs?”

“Yep.” Jonah closed his eyes and exhaled. He opened one eye and looked sideways at her, a crafty look on his face. “What did you think of that brunette?”

She elbowed him in the ribs. “You’ll get a disease from her.” She continued to poke at him.

“Stop, stop.” Jonah held his ribs. “I take it back.”

“Ouch.” She lifted her skirt for a closer inspection of her grazed knee.

Jonah gently brushed her hands away and cupped her knees. His knuckles were bleeding and starting to bruise. “Put your hands on mine.”

She held out her hands, surprised to see her knuckles were also bloody and bruised.

“You don’t feel the pain until the adrenalin’s gone.” Jonah took a deep breath, and warmth tingled through her hands and knees. He lifted their hands from her knees. The gaze had disappeared.

“Can you heal people too?”

Jonah raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean ‘too’?”

She patted Jonah’s arm. “I’ve done that before. Eve had a graze; I covered it with my hand, and hey presto, it was gone.” She bounced up and down on her toes. “I also brought a dead cheerleader back to life. Oh, and my foot fixed its self when I cut it stomping on an alarm clock the other morning.”

“Okay.” Jonah rubbed his temples.

“You don’t seem surprised.”

“There’s very little you could do that would surprise me. I’m a conduit. I channel the powers of other Timesurfers. You can heal, so when I touch you, I can heal.”

“Get out!” She shoved Jonah’s arm, and he grimaced. “Sorry. You can use me to fix your ribs if you like.”

Jonah pressed the hand she waved in his face against his ribs.

She saw each rib knit together. “Elias turning up now couldn’t be a coincidence.”

“No. Let’s walk and talk.” He steered her toward home.

“How long has he been in hiding?”

“Five years.”

That was how long she’d been in witness protection in Tempus Falls. The sun slipped lower in the sky, a luminous neon balloon balancing on the spiky treetops. She half expected it to pop. “Should we tell someone about Elias?”

Jonah gave an enormous sigh. “Have you ever seen Elias or any of those other guys before?”

“Not Elias. I recognised some of the brunette’s mates from Mum’s detention centre.”

“Let’s keep this between us while I work through it.”

“Sure. What’s one more secret? Have you been in many fights?”

“I’ve been a Timesurfer for a long time. We fight a lot.”

“How old were you when you knew you were a Timesurfer?”

“Eleven.”

“Please tell me you were like a child prodigy.” For her to be a late bloomer and second-rate Timesurfer would be crushing. Zach was only finding out now too, so maybe they left all the losers until last.

“Sixteen is plenty early enough to be a Timesurfer. You’ll be more than able to hold your own.”

“Were your parents also Timesurfers?”

“At least one of them must have had Timesurfer blood. I never met my father and can’t remember my mother. They were both sixteen when I was born. My father was from a wealthy English family who sent my mother to America when they discovered she was with child. He promised to follow her, but never did. A lovely family took Mother in. After I was born, she went mad and was institutionalised. The family raised me like one of their own. When I started seeing things, they became concerned.”

“The altered time lines after the midnight reset?”

Jonah nodded. “You couldn’t blame them after my mother. They were trying to do the right thing sending me to the institution. I don’t know how long I was there. When Naitanui appeared in my ward, I thought I was hallucinating. He looked like some kind of witch doctor with those dreadlocks and his ebony skin. While he untied my restraints, he warned me to brace for an unimaginable pain. I screamed more than I ever had during the electric shock therapy the pain was so intense that first time I surfed with him. We arrived at the Break, and there was Rose. She was so beautiful. I tried to hide that I’d been crying, but she knew. She slipped a handkerchief into my hand while no one was looking.”

Cate touched his arm. Walking next to him and having this conversation felt natural. There was nothing awkward about it. He stopped and wiped her face with his scarf. She was crying.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I forgot who I was talking to.”

“Is this something you would talk to Catherine about?”

Jonah’s grey eyes widened. “Huh?”

“You called me Catherine earlier. No one in Tempus Falls calls me that.”

“Yes, it’s something I would talk about with Catherine.”

Cate was beginning to think she might be Catherine. They reached her house before she had worked up the courage to ask Jonah if she was Catherine. A little hot air balloon was propped against the blue front door. Austin.

“Can I ask you a question about Austin and Rose?” she blurted.

“You can ask.”

She kicked a few imaginary pebbles. “Are they an item?”

Jonah threw back his head and laughed. “No.”

She folded her arms defiantly against her chest and stared at him with her best “I am not amused” look. “Were they ever an item?”

“Never.” He shook with silent laughter.

“But you dated Rose?”

“I did.” Jonah’s face turned wistful. His eyes had a faraway look so tender her heart contracted. His lips turned up in a sad smile. “That was a lifetime ago.”

“You’re sure Austin and Rose aren’t together now?”

“I can say with certainty, they never have been and never will be an item.”

The fact they weren’t together made her feel less skanky about going with Austin tomorrow.

“The reason I can say that without any doubt, is because Rose is Austin’s mother.”

As Jonah’s words filtered into her brain, she stumbled.

“Let’s get you onto the porch.” Jonah swept her into his arms.

A little part of her gave a smug sigh. He had lifted her even more easily than she imagined. “How is that even possible?” She wiggled back onto the white cane chair and sat cross-legged. Rose must have been the youngest mother in history, which was a bit icky now she thought about it.

“Rose is an immortal.”

She face palmed. “Austin told me his mother was an immortal. How’s that work exactly?”

“Naitanui and Mortez have the power to grant Timesurfers the gift of immortality. We’re easy to spot.” He tapped next to his eye. “Immortals have grey eyes.”

Panic sliced through her head. “My mum has grey eyes! You said one of my parents had to have Timesurfer blood.”

Jonah held his hands up. “Relax. All immortals have grey eyes. Not everyone with grey eyes is immortal—there’s a difference.”

She thought through all the Timesurfers she knew—Rose, Rafe, Austin, Jonah, and Zach. “How come Rafe and Zach don’t have grey eyes?”

“It’s a discretionary gift. Mortez is more generous with immortality than Naitanui. Zach is going through Timesurfer puberty, and Naitanui likes his Timesurfers to prove themselves. Rafe’s got a way to go. It’s not uncommon for Timesurfers to join Mortez purely for immortality.”

“Is that why you joined her?”

“Naitanui granted me immortality when I was eleven.” His tone was dismissive.

Jonah certainly looked older than eleven, and immortals weren’t supposed to age according to her fantasy references. “Besides the forever young benefit, why do Timesurfers want immortality?”

“When you travel through time your body is subjected to pressure and heat. For mortals, the experience is similar to having their insides liquefied and boiled, and their skin shaved off. Immortals feel nothing.”

That she could attest to. It also explained why Austin, with his grey eyes, took the trip in his stride. “You look older than eleven. I thought immortals didn’t age.”

“The anti-ageing side of immortality only kicks in at eighteen, regardless of how early you’re granted the gift. If you’re granted immortality at fifty, you’re forever fifty.” Jonah stretched his arms and legs. The blue tattoos glistened on his inner arm from his bicep to the crook of his elbow. There were so many numbers. The last one read 2017. “So you’re also from 2017?”

He nodded. “Always check a Timesurfer’s QIs to ensure you’re dealing with the correct person and not them from a previous or later time. That can get you in all sorts of trouble.”

He had said there was one for every year he had been a Timesurfer. “How old are you?”

“I’ll be 149 in July.”

Immortality certainly suited him. She giggled, unable to resist making her next comment. “You’re an outrageously hot old man, you know.”

Jonah blushed and dropped his eyes. That bashful look would break hearts wide open. “On that uncomfortable note, I’m off.”

“Are you coming back?” Her phone beeped with the 6:00 p.m. reminder.

“Not tonight. I have plans.”

“Plans to play cards or plans in another century doing some of Mortez’s evil bidding?”

Jonah smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Never you mind. Your evening is free to go to the monster trucks with Zach.”

“As if! I’m going out with Mum, Xavier and the boys for a pre birthday celebration. It’s tradition.”

Jonah ran a hand down his weary face. “I will return tomorrow bearing an appropriately sparkly birthday gift.” He meandered down the path.

CATE: “WALKING IN THE DOOR NOW”

PIP: “? YOUR DAY?”

CATE: “FINE”

PIP: “THE NEON POSSE...REALLY?”

CATE: “HOME SAFE”

PIP: “I HAD TO ACQUIRE 17 PHONES WITH VIDEOS OF YOU FIGHTING”

CATE: “AT LEAST YOU GOT TO OGLE JONAH”

PIP: “NIGHT”