Chapter 29

Another Plan

The twilight shadows shimmered as Rose materialised and strode with a fierce grace toward the house. Jonah smiled from behind the bare jacaranda tree. She was right on time. The curtains were drawn at Cate’s bedroom window. Since the GTs, Cate had made the job of surveilling her as difficult as possible. She hadn’t taken well to being thwarted by Naitanui. Jonah jogged across the manicured lawn.

Rose was all business. “Did you deal with Pip?”

“Pip is sleeping peacefully courtesy of a caramel latte laced with sleeping powder from yours truly.” Beads of sweat trickled down Jonah’s back. Catherine was near delirious from the raging temperature she had been running for close to fifteen hours now. His temperature started at the GTs ball. Whatever was going down now impacted him, Mortez, the boys, Rose, Austin, and of course Catherine.

This was the last roll of the dice. He would return from this trip just minutes before the midnight reset, after which everyone’s temperatures would vanish and the altered time line would be revealed. That altered time line would become their new reality.

“This is risky, Jonah. If Mortez discovers we’ve collaborated to have Cate murder Zach, she’ll make you hurt. Regardless of the fact it’s the best thing for her. The guilt and self-loathing Cate experiences after she kills him is paramount to setting her on the correct path.”

He wiped the sweat from his forehead with his shirt. “You mean the path she chose the first time?”

“Yes, the correct path. The one she will have to learn to live with. You’re running a temperature and so is Austin. I can’t believe that little teenage troll is even making me run a temperature. That’s proof this alternate time line where she doesn’t kill Zach affects us all. I’m confident in saying it won’t be for the better.” Rose wiped droplets of sweat from her top lip.

“I think you might be right there.”

“How did you convince Zach that he was going to be murdered? It’s worked like a charm so far.”

Jonah ran a hand through his damp hair. “He thinks he overheard Cate and Eve hatching a plot to have Brittany murder him with his super-duper hearing. It was a recording I cobbled together on a mobile phone and played to myself in the backyard.”

Rose sighed. “The young are so easily fooled. Zach’s so full of his own self importance he wanted to believe those two would collude to kill him. He texted Brittany to come and visit him, and when he opened the door killed her without so much as a hello. She’s dead, again. Zach is convinced the threat against his life is real and he’s headed here to deal with Cate. I’ve sent someone to keep an eye on Eve just in case he changes his mind on the way.”

“Be vigilant. He’ll attempt to kill Cate at the first opportunity.”

She dragged her hands down her face. “Never have I been so tempted not to save someone’s life. But I’ll do my duty. Like I always do.” Rose lifted her damp black hair off her neck.

“How’s Austin?”

“Hot, literally. His temperature has continued to climb since the GTs.”

Jonah brushed at the last few stubborn pieces of hair plastered to the back of Rose’s neck. His fingers lingered and traced the initials branded down her neck. “I’ve never wanted to kill someone more than the animal who gave you these.”

“Let’s focus on one revenge death at a time shall we?” Rose wriggled her phone from her back pocket. The warm evening breeze carried the muffled ring of a mobile phone from inside the house. Rose rolled her eyes. “Any normal teenager’s life stands still for the phone. She doesn’t even have a signature ring tone. The girl is so bland.”

“Hello,” Cate’s flat voice came through the phone when she finally picked up.

“Come downstairs and let me in.”

“Well Rose, since you asked so nicely—”

Rose ended the call with a self-satisfied chuckle. “That’ll piss her off, and guarantee she’ll tear down the stairs to indignantly throw the door open. She’s bland and predictable. Go! She’ll see you.”

“I’m going. Make it happen.” He slipped into the shadows as the painted blue door opened. As predicted, Cate was fuming. Rose dismissed her ranting with a wave of her hand and sauntered inside. Game on.

***

“Is anyone else home?” Rose checked the newly redecorated lounge with a nonchalance that made Cate want to smack her in the mouth.

“NO!” Cate threw her head back. “The boys are at the detention centre with Mum, and as I’ve recently become an only child, that leaves just me. What do you want?” After each breath, her chest snapped back like a taut rubber band.

Rose’s faded black jeans fit her perfectly. There was no way she had any weapons concealed in them. When she lifted her arms, Cate glimpsed knife holsters under the cropped leather jacket.

“I’m on Cate Watch tonight, so I thought I’d come in and see how you were dealing with...everything.”

“That’s all you people do. Watch! It’s so...insipid,” Cate growled.

Rose tapped her silver fingernails against the railing of the polished wooden stairs. “Is that so?”

“Yes,” Cate stated emphatically. “If you turned up and laid all the cards on the table, people would be a hundred times more likely to do what you want.”

Rose languished on the step. “People have to make their own decisions.”

“That is the biggest load of CRAP!” Cate slammed the front door. “That’s your pathetic excuse for protecting history in a passive way. Naitanui is weak. He should be helping me find Xavier if he’s so wedded to keeping his precious history free from manipulation.”

Rose shrugged. “Get over yourself. More than 600 people go missing without a trace in the world every day. That’s over a million during the last five years. Naitanui doesn’t look into all of them. Now he knows about Xavier and his connection to you, I’m sure he’ll investigate his disappearance further.”

“Elias kidnapped him.” Cate flopped on the step below Rose, suddenly exhausted from being angry all the time.

“Someone may have kidnapped him. That someone could have been Elias. However, most Timesurfers who disappear have inadvertently fallen in a different time line or dimension.”

“Is there a manual or something to teach Timesurfers all this stuff?”

“You can get by with remembering four things. Time is linear and definitive. History resets at midnight and on February the twenty-ninth each leap year. Timesurfers should be home by midnight to avoid the worst of the side effects of an altered history and they always follow orders. Simple.”

“So I have to be home by midnight, or I’ll turn into a pumpkin?” Cate snorted as she pressed her thumb into her eye socket.

“The majority of changes will have absolutely no impact on you. If you’re awake at midnight when history resets and a change does impact you, it makes you violently ill. There’s vomiting, fever, and other nasty things.” Rose screwed her nose up and shuddered.

“Great.” Cate rubbed her eyes. “I’ll turn into a sweaty, vomiting pumpkin if I stay out past midnight. Even Cinderella had it better than me.”

Rose pointed a finger Cate’s way. “You can learn a lesson from Cinderella. Never leave anything on a mission someone can use to track you. She was stripped of her powers and had to live with an insipid prince as punishment for her carelessness with that glass slipper.”

“Cinderella wasn’t a Timesurfer,” Cate scoffed.

“She was until she was careless,” Rose said without cracking a smile. “History is rampant with Timesurfers who didn’t respect their powers and follow orders.”

“Tell someone who cares.”

“Here’s another fun fact. The midnight resets are what cause most of those nasty twenty-four hour illnesses people say they’ve had.”

When Rose tossed her hair to the side, Cate’s stomach clenched as she glimpsed the red marks down her neck. “Naitanui doesn’t want me. He wants her. Future Cate. I think I like Mortez better anyway. At least she does something.”

“I’m very supportive of you continuing on your chosen path with Mortez,” Rose growled under her breath.

Cate squeezed past Rose and stomped up the stairs toward her bedroom. “The boys told me that Mortez was helping me search for Xavier.”

Rose strode across the room and yanked the gold, heavily embossed curtains open. “Well she’s either really bad at it or just pretending.”

“Naitanui didn’t take Xavier. So it’s either Elias or Mortez. I think it was Elias.”

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.