Edge Of Tomorrow (Eternal Flames Maddox Book 6)

by Cree Storm

  Their Day stepped forward and walked to the glass, stopping within an inch of it. The other Day’s gaze shifted to meet Day’s and a small sad smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. He stepped forward until he too was almost touching the glass. The two stood face to face with just the thick glass barrier between them.

  “Who are you?” Day growled fiercely. Wyn had never heard Day sound so deadly before. It made even him take a small step back.

  “Hello, Daytona, or should I say…hello me?” the other Day replied in his gravelly voice.

  “Who the hell are you and what do you want from us?” Day repeated.

  “I know you are all scared and confused, but we don’t have much time. I have tried so hard to save them, but I have failed. That is why I come to you now.”

  “Who is them? Saved them from what? And where did you come from?” Illan asked just as intense as Day as he moved to stand beside his son.

  The other Day’s eyes softened and Wyn could see a hint of moisture in them as he looked at Illan. “It is so good to see you again,” he whispered.

  “See me again? I have no idea who you are. Why have you come here? I know it isn’t the first time because others have seen you all over Maddox and Crystal, so what do you want?” Illan insisted.

  “As I said, I have come here for your help. Tell me, Da…Illan, has Angelo yet told you of his latest vision? The Founders Day Celebration?”

  A few gasps rang out and Angelo hissed in a whisper, “How the hell did he know?”

  Destrain stepped forward. “You say you come for our help and that there isn’t much time, so get to the point.”

  “Answer my question first.”

  Illan started at the other Day, then drew in a deep breath and released it. “Yes. Angelo has informed us of what he saw would happen.”

  “What? What do you mean? What will happen at the Founders Day Celebration?” Dain rushed to ask.

  “Angelo had only just told us this afternoon. That is why the council was meeting today and why we were all here when one of the guards brought the video to our attention to begin with,” Illan answered.

  The other Day gave a small smile. “Good, then I have come at the right time.”

  “Which means?” Day growled.

  The other Day shifted his gaze back to Day. “Which means there may still be time. Because of that vision you now know what is to come, and I have come back to you to get you to take it seriously. What Angelo saw must be stopped, at all costs. It is the beginning of the end,” he said cryptically.

  “For those of us who have no damn idea what he’s talking about, how about the council share it with the rest of us?’ Wyn demanded.

  Illan looked to the others and they all seemed to be talking with their eyes. Finally, Illan met Angelo’s gaze and nodded.

  Angelo cleared his throat. “I saw an attack on Maddox at the Founders Day Celebration. It was…horrible. Many were wounded, and many…died.”

  “An attack from what?” Nash asked.

  “I don’t know exactly what it was honestly, but I do know I saw an all-out war. All the humans still in Maddox died. The town was ripped apart and blown to pieces. Everyone on the council…” Angelo stopped as tears began to stream down his face. Morgan wrapped his arms around his mate and held him tight.

  “Everyone on the council died. Except for one,” the other Day finished, then looked at Manny.

  “Me?” Manny asked, surprised.

  “Yes. You are the only council member to not perish in the attack.”

  “What about everyone else? Where were my men?” Suneth asked.

  The other Day looked to him. “Those who were assigned to watch over Maddox during the celebration died along with the others. Those of your men who stayed behind in Crystal are safe.”

  “You said are safe. Let’s cut to the chase. What the hell is going on here and who the hell are you?” Day demanded.

  Ollie couldn’t believe what he was hearing. They were going to be attacked at the Founders Day Celebration and most of them would die. Was he about to die?

  The guy with the scar look at Day intently. “I. Am. You. This is what you look like after the attack. This,”―he motioned to the scar― “is the reminder of how you failed. I am you, Daytona, and I have come here from the future to try to save us all.”

  “Holy shit!” Jett, Pas, Avery, Manny, Angelo, and Frankie all said at the same time.

  “The future? That’s impossible,” Dain argued.

  Future Day looked to Dain and smirked. “Right now, it is impossible, but in my time, you and your mate, along with a mage, have figured out a way to create this portal that has allowed me to track you all down to this day. I have been taking these journeys for over six months and have gone back to times before the phoenix and dragon even reunited. With each trip, I have been able to get closer to today. To this moment, so that we could meet.”

  “So, all the times people have seen you, you’ve been what, trying to see if you were here on the right day?” Dain asked.

  “Yes and no. The portal can only hold one person and not for too long of a time or it closes on my side. I have come back here looking for three of you. I needed it to be this time in your lives so that all the players would be present. I need to bring two of you back with me to show you the future and what becomes of us all. But to do that, the portal needs more power. It needs the combined effort of all four of the Santorini brothers so that I may bring them back with me,” future Day explained.

  “You said the combined power of Toby, Nelson, Pas, and Ollie. So that means some of them didn’t make it in the future. Which do you need to help boost the power of the portal?” Illan asked.

  Future Day’s eyes filled with sadness. “Toby, Nelson, and Oliver survived the attack, but Pascal…”

  Ollie’s eyes were wide in shock and fear. He, Toby, and Nelson all lived, but Pascal didn’t? Shit, of course. He was part of the council now and all of them were killed. Ollie looked to Pascal and saw the fear in his brother’s eyes as tears began to stream down Pas’s face. “I…I don’t make…it?”

  Future Day looked to Pascal. “We can change the future, Pascal. I know we can. With your help. That is why I have been trying to find you. Each time I have come through, I have used your brother’s energy to locate you. That is why you have been one of the only ones to see me. Others have seen me from afar, but you are the only one who has seen me up close. Except for Timmy that one time and only because he was with you.”

  “That was you that saved me that day, from Lucinda’s man.”

  “Yes. I could not let her get her hands on you. That was the first thing I needed to stop. If she had, then when the attack comes, she would have been one of the evil ones that were spared. Could you imagine a world full of paranormals, and not too many humans, with Lucinda doing what she did? Those of us still left behind would be suffering even more. Maybe we wouldn’t still be alive,” future Day said.

  “If we are to believe you, then what do we need to do?” Ezra asked.

  “I need to take Pascal back with me so that we can use his powers, along with Toby, Nelson, and Ollie so that I can come back here and take others into my time. I need to show you what is to come and find a way to fix it.”

  “Fuck no! You are not taking my mate anywhere!” Zen yelled and wrapped his arms around Pascal, picking him up. “We’re out of here.” Zen turned them and headed for the stairs.

  “Then everyone here will surely die,” future Day called out, his words stopping Zen.

  “Why does it have to be Pascal? I can go,” Ollie offered.

  “No, you will not!” Wyn demanded through clenched teeth.

  Ollie spun around to face his mate, his own face twisted with anger. “You don’t have any damn say in what I do, so back the fuck up!”

  “Like hell I don’t! You are my mate and there is no way I am allowing you to go into gods only know where with this…whoever the hell he is. For all we know, he’s a fucking demon
sent here to grab the Santorini fox for their powers.”

  “Wyndingo is your mate, Ollie?” Toby and Pascal asked at the same time.

  “No!” Ollie snapped at the same time Wyndingo growled, “Yes, but he refuses me.”

  Toby and Pascal gasped in horror. “You refused your mate?”

  “It’s nobody’s business but mine. Now drop it,” Ollie seethed.

  “I have to agree with Wyn. Kali said it was up to us to protect them and make sure―”

  “That no harm came to the last four,” future Day interrupted Nash. “She told you that they needed to be kept safe or it would mean the end of days. The Apocalypse.”

  “Yes. How did you know that? Only Toby, Pascal, Ollie, Nelson, and I knew that, and we didn’t share that part with anyone else,” Nash replied.

  Future Day closed his eyes and sighed. “Because I have come to you from a time where Pascal does not exist.” He opened his eyes and looked around at all of them. “Toby, Nelson, and Ollie told me what Fate said. And Kali herself came down to help us, but it was too late.”

  “I’ll go. Take me,” Day volunteered.

  Future Day looked to Day again and smiled, the scar on his face crinkled and looked even more gruesome. “I wish you could, but you are the last person that I can take with me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I need Pascal’s powers, ones that you do not possess, to help his brothers in my time to give this portal more energy. And more importantly, I have no idea what will happen if you and I are sharing the same space.”

  “But you’re in the same room now,” Finn argued.

  “No, we are not. Without this thick glass and all the wards that have been placed on it, it is working like a shield to keep us apart. If Pascal is to come with me, then the others once the portal can handle it, I will insist that your time Day is not in the room.”

  “Why is that?” Dain asked.

  Future Day looked to him. “Because you and Ke…the others, aren’t sure that if past me and future me are in the same space that we may open up some kind of wormhole or rip the fabric of time or some shit you said.”

  “Yes, that may cause a tear in the space time continuum,” Kerrick said.

  “Bloody hell, people, have we stepped into Star Trek? The space time continuum? Really?” Jett said.

  “I am assuming I am not in this future you are in,” Rune said and stepped forward.

  “Why would you think that, love?” Kerrick asked.

  “Because he said your mate to Dain before, meaning plural, then he stopped when he said your name just now, Kerrick. Probably so we wouldn’t know which one of us are gone. But, seeing as I am a portal maker and creator like Dain, but also have been doing studies in just this you are talking about, portals to the future, how did this come to be?”

  Future Day looked at Rune with sad eyes. “I’m sorry, Rune, but no, you are not in my time. You did survive the attacks, but it took you years to come up with the magic and potions you would need for these portals. When you passed, your mates took over where you left off. It has taken them a long time to figure out the rest of your equations and only then did they realize they would also need the help of a powerful mage.”

  “How far in the future do you come from, Day?” Justice asked.

  “I come from the year 2042,” Day replied solemnly.

  “2042? Shit, that’s twenty-five years from now,” Marco yelled.

  Twix stepped forward until he stood beside Day. “I won’t ask if me or my mates survive, but…does my Fiere live?” Twix asked, his voice choked with emotion.

  Future Day looked at him with a sad smile as tears came to his eyes once more. “Yes, Twixie, he does. And you can be very proud of him. Fiere has grown to be a good man and a strong warrior. He is one of my top men.”

  “Thank you,” Twix whispered, then stepped back, turned, and ran into Finn’s arms crying.

  “I need to do this, Zen,” Pascal’s loud voice echoed through the hall, drawing all of their attention.

  “But what if he’s lying, sweet pea? What if this is some kind of trap? I can’t live without you,” Zen argued.

  “He has had a shit ton of opportunities to take me, like that day in the alley, but he didn’t. I think if he meant me harm he wouldn’t have saved me, or that he would have and then taken me for himself. I feel it inside me that he is telling us the truth and if I, we, don’t do this, then it won’t matter because I’ll be dead in two weeks anyway when the Founders Day Celebration comes. I love you, Zen. More than anything. But I need to do this. For all of us.”

  CHAPTER 7

  After Zen finally, reluctantly agreed, everything went pretty quickly. Today’s Day was forced by Illan to leave. He, Ethan, and Rhys went back to the conference room to watch everything through the monitor, but not before Ethan and Rhys asked future Day a few questions.

  “Our children…are they?” Ethan asked.

  Future Day smiled at him lovingly. “Yes, my heart. Our children are all safe. They have all been brought up with love, even in the darkest of days. All six of them are just as strong and fierce as Twix’s three and are great warriors.”

  “Six?! Did he just say six? Oh hell no! I am not going through that again,” Rhys cried.

  Future Day had the smarts enough to look scared of his little pixie mate, and realize that he had given away information of the future that he maybe shouldn’t have.

  “Three? So I have two more?” Twix asked.

  “It’s okay, my love. Don’t answer that. Just…just be careful,” Ethan said and placed his palm on the glass. Future Day raised his arm and placed his palm over Ethan’s on his side of the glass.

  Today’s Day wrapped an arm around Ethan and Rhys’s shoulders and drew them away. Before turning to leave, he gave future Day one last look. After a moment of them staring at one another, today’s Day gave future Day a nod, then turned he and his mates away and left the basement.

  Rune, Dain, Kerrick, Destrain, Toby, Pascal, and himself all stepped forward and raised their hands. They each began to chant under their breaths, taking off the wards that they had placed on the room. Once they were all done, Illan opened the door. Future Day stepped back away from the opening and waited until Pascal stepped inside.

  “I still don’t see why I can’t go instead. Pascal has a mate, I don’t. And before you start bitching, he’s been claimed, I haven’t,” Ollie bitched and threw that last part over his shoulder in Wyn’s direction.

  “I am not bitching. I think it is perfectly reasonable to want my mate!” Wyn argued.

  “Well, that ain’t happening so suck it up.”

  “Then we are all surely doomed,” future Day said, surprising all of them.

  “What does that mean?” Ollie insisted as he crossed his arms over his chest.

  “It means that I have come because I need Pascal’s energy to make the portal stronger to allow you and Wyndingo to come back into the future with me. That, is my purpose,” future Day said, then took Pascal’s hand and turned toward the dark portal and stepped through.

  Ollie stood shocked from future Day’s claim. He had come back twenty-five years through time for him and Wyndingo? But why?

  Everyone stood still, almost not breathing as they stared at the portal waiting for something to happen. Fifteen minutes passed and Zen, who had been pacing the whole time, turned and headed for the portal. Suneth, Wade, and Illan grabbed him, stopping him. “I need to go after my mate. Let me go, damn it!”

  “We don’t know what will happen to you if you go in there?” Illan replied.

  “It won’t matter if something has happened to my Pascal,” Zen argued.

  Just then the dark portal began to pulse, and that throbbing sound came from it. Once the pulse quickened, future Day’s form appeared again. Well, he hoped it was future Day’s form because if it was something else, like a demon or a two-headed alien, with six eyes, tentacles, and sharp teeth, he was so out of there.

  Future D
ay stepped back into the light with a big smile on his face, and looked to him. “It worked. I can now take a few of you back with me.”

  “Besides Ollie and Wyn, who do you need to take?” Illan asked.

  “I was hoping that Manny and Frankie could come. With his white phoenix powers, it will come in handy if we need to defend everyone while they are there, and I know he cannot be without Frankie yet in your time. Also, Ezra and Angelo. We think they may come in handy as well, as I show them around.”

  “Show us around? What, are we going on a fucking vacation?” Ollie complained.

  “No, but things are not as they are here, there. If rogue vampires attack, I was hoping Ezra could help with that, and with Angelo’s gift, maybe he will get a vision if what we are doing will make a difference,” future Day explained.

  “Oh,” Ollie said.

  Illan stepped into the cell and said, “I would like to go as well.”

  “I’m not sure that would be a good idea, Dad.”

  “But you said anyone who is alive then shouldn’t be going and from your own admittance, I am not part of this future.”

  Future Day moved closer to Illan and placed a hand on his shoulder, then leaned in and whispered in his ear. Lucky for him, Ollie was close enough to hear and what he heard scared the shit out of him. “You’re not, but Avery is, and I don’t think it is a good idea for you to see what he becomes. It’s bad enough I am taking Angelo. I don’t want him to see Morgan, but we may need him.”

  Illan’s head snapped in future Day’s direction and they stared at each other. After a few moments Illan sighed heavily and nodded, then stepped back and moved out of the cell, rejoining his mates.

  “Take me,” Destrain offered. “I have no mate and I am not in your future. I also have some wicked powers if I do say so myself.”