Beyond Tomorrow

by Leigh Vernon

  Beyond Tomorrow

  Justin Lakes Supernatural Thriller Series

  Book 1

  Leigh Vernon

  Copyright © 2020 by Leigh Vernon

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by an electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  Check Out Other Books

  Bonus Free Material

  Chapter 1

  A whiff of smoke rose into the air and died as quickly as it had bloomed. Another followed, and another, until the man making them had to stop for a while; he was losing his breath. He looked back - no one was following him now and that seemed very unusual. There were scuff marks on both his arms and legs. He sighed deeply. It had been bad for him to stay that long in there. Each day, he had planned his escape. He knew when the guards changed. He knew who came to feed him and where the dogs were. So, when the opportunity came, he took it, but he didn't know that the man who had held him captive for five years would be visiting that day, and he certainly didn’t know that he was going to run into his car at full speed. He had taken advantage of the shock on the faces of his men as a means to quickly disappear into the night. And now, they were after him.

  There were acres and acres of trees spread before him and he knew that if he was going to survive, he would have to do the very same thing he had refused to do in those five years of his captivity. He glanced backwards, listening keenly for footsteps or the sounds of hounds crunching snow as they ran towards him. All he heard was nothing, not even the rustling of trees. Odd as it seemed, he knew he had only a couple of minutes to do what needed to be done.

  He sat under a tree, legs crossed underneath him. He checked again. The silence seemed rather too ominous. There wasn't time to dwell on that, though. He closed his eyes and entered into the other realm, the only place where he ever felt safe. He heard things more clearly now; he heard the beating of his own heart, the birds, the trees and their low grunts as the wind ran through them and voices. Hundreds of voices all at once. He began to pick through the voices, searching desperately for one. It took a while, but he found what he was looking for.

  "It's been five years. I don't think he's alive anymore," she was saying.

  There was another voice with her - a male voice. The other one was saying something, but he was drowned out by other voices and so he couldn't hear it well. He stayed with her voice for a while longer before he went in search of another. It was where he knew he would find it.

  "Cole," he spoke from within the vision.

  The man heard him and replied instantly. "Shay! Where the hell have you been?!"

  "I don't have much time. Meet me by the old road. There's so much to do and there's little time."

  Cole nodded emphatically. "I'll be there in a few minutes," he said. Then, he stopped talking.

  "Cole? Cole!" Shay called out. He managed to pick out another voice. This one was stronger than any he had ever heard.

  "Cole isn't here anymore," the voice answered him. "Just you and I."

  "What do you want?" Shay asked.

  "You. Your soul," the voice replied.

  Shay knew who it was in that instant. He floated back towards his human body as fast as he could. He saw his fear and terrors manifest as he raced against time. He saw the horror of his childhood, each one of them gnawing at him desperately. He had barely made it when something stopped him. A giant door stood before him and mortality. Behind him, voices called out. Terror shrieked at him from all angles, and he knew it was the end.

  "I must say, you're quite formidable," someone said from behind him.

  He turned around and came face to face with the man he had been running from before.

  "You're formidable, but you're also stupid. If you had been more observant, you'd have heard me talk to your wife just before you breezed past us."

  Shay remembered now - the other voice that had been talking to Catherine when he had gone to her. The man saw the look of terror in his eyes.

  "You see them, don't you?" The man asked, as he pointed towards the approaching horde of fear and terrors. "You hid them quite well, so it was so difficult to find them. But I found them anyways."

  Shay looked back at his human body. There was a man beside him. He watched as the man took out a dagger and stabbed it into his right thigh. He screamed out loudly as fear crept into his soul.

  "Yes," the man said excitedly. "Do you see what I wanted from you now? And you had to make me wait five years for it! Five freaking years!"

  Another stab to his stomach and Shay began to lose his touch with reality. Trapped behind the door, there was little he could do but watch as his body was mutilated.

  "What do you want from me?" He managed to croak out.

  "Now, that is a very interesting question," the man replied. He waved a hand and the approaching horde stood still. The man beside Shay's human form also stopped stabbing.

  "What I wanted from you five years ago, I already have. The question is, what do you have to save yourself with?" the man asked him gently.

  "I'd rather you kill me!" Shay spat out as he realized what the question was about. "We have sworn an oath of silence and it's unbreakable by any force."

  The man sighed. "You know, your friend, Cole was his name? He said the same thing before I got through to him. Strong soul, that one; he put up quite a fight. And just like the rest of you pathetic lot, he was so sure the oath was unbreakable that he laughed at me when I told him I could break the oath."

  If they were in the human realm, Shay would have scoffed at him. Instead, he smiled wryly.

  "You're what? Another oath breaker?"

  The man waved his hand and another realm appeared before them. Shay watched in horror as he saw the demons they had put away for years, all of them thirsty to return.

  "Now, the Oath Breaker, could he do that?" The man asked as he noticed another fear creep into Shay's soul. "Of course, he couldn't."

  "This is impossible!" Shay choked out. His human form got stabbed in the heart and he lost touch with reality instantly.

  "Nothing is impossible, Shay. Not even the end of the world." With that, the man walked out into the human realm.

  Shay saw his terrors clearly. He watched as they all snarled at him. There was no escaping this one.

  "You should have taken his soul. It's a powerful life source," Gianna said to the man as he walked towards the dead body of Shay.

  "Baby girl, you cannot possess every single soul. Some are just too much trouble," he replied.

  "You should have let me take it, then," Gianna tried further.

  "And it would have killed you!" He thundered at her.

  Gianna moved back. She looked at the body against the tree for a while before she stomped off, swearing loudly as she did.

  "She's right, you know," someone said from behind.

  The man didn't turn. "I k
now she is, but it's too much of a risk. Besides, there's no way in the seven hells he would get out of there alive."

  The man behind him scoffed. "What do we do with the body?" He asked.

  "Burn it."

  "And the others?"

  The man turned around this time. "The Butcher needs some supplies, from the looks of it. Make sure he gets all he needs."

  As soon as he had made the statement, the man turned into a crow and flew off.

  "You heard the man!" The other one shouted to those around him. "Let's get to work!

  ---

  "Okay! Here's another one. What if I said Cage isn't a werewolf?"

  "Justin! No way!"

  "Don't act like you don't know, Angie. I understand that he keeps his beard full and roars when the kids are around him, but you know it's just an act."

  Angie shook her head; he was getting even more cynical than she was. "I am not going to argue with you, you weasel!"

  Justin stood back quickly. She was as fierce as she was beautiful. The only thing that had kept them together over the years had been his resolve. Even if she could hurt others, she couldn't hurt him. He knew pain and he knew it too well.

  "So, we should go back to pretending he's a scary man?" He asked her.

  Angie shot him a look. She was about to say something when he stopped her, striking a pose as he did so.

  "What? What is it?" Angie asked. Her eyes were darting around the lone alley they both stood in.

  "Do you hear it?" He asked.

  Angie looked around. "What? There's nothing here."

  Justin nodded. "Exactly. Even the rats have stopped squeaking."

  Angie realized what he was trying to tell her. "They found us!" She said quickly. She threw her hands out, long daggers in both.

  The first one to come at them was an ice man. His white face was covered with a black veil. His freezing skin churned out enough filth for Justin to know where he was even before he appeared.

  "Hello Justin, hello Angie. How y'all doin'?" He asked. His Drunish accent was unmistakable. Justin hated the Druns.

  "An ice man and a Drun, pathetic," Justin said to the man.

  He could see anger flash across his blue eyes and before he could say anything further, Justin was standing right in front of him. He grabbed the man and threw him against the wall. The Drun got up and snarled angrily. Justin blasted him with a ball of fire.

  "Do you have to do that all the time?" Angie asked him.

  "What? It's better that way - they won't even know you're coming. It's best if you attack them from afar."

  "Yeah, but you know it doesn't work on the others," Angie answered as she stood straight. The daggers disappeared just as they had appeared.

  "You worry too much, love. You worry too..."

  The words died on his lips as two icy pikes stabbed through Angie from behind. He watched as she went down with the pikes still inside her. Her soul left quickly, fading fast before he could even say a prayer for her.

  The assailant moved away from her and turned to him. "You killed my son," he said as he pointed to the body of the Drun before them both, "and I have killed your woman. Isn't that a fair exchange?"

  That was a problem with the Druns; they had lived their lives trying to blend in but there was a dead giveaway - they mixed up their speech when they were angry. Justin had heard him try to mask his pain by speaking the normal language, but he had slipped and relapsed back to the old language through clenched teeth. That meant only one thing - the Drun was angry. Justin stepped back. This was no ordinary Drun – he had an aura of bloodlust which probably meant he killed many of his own kind. Humans would be easy prey for him.

  "We're even now," Justin said, holding out his right arm for a clasp.

  The Drun was surprised and he didn't hide it. "You won't avenge her?" He asked.

  Justin shook his head. "No. She was dead before she hit the ground. I feel no remorse."

  The Drun lowered his guard and thrust his own arm out. It was a costly mistake. Justin drove himself straight into the man, falling over him as they both crashed to the ground. Before the Drun could recover, Justin kicked him in the ribs. He yelled loudly and clutched to his sides. Justin squatted before him and gave him a dry laugh.

  "You see, there are things much worse than death. Things that rip your soul out from your eyes and feed on it while your body is still warm. I have seen these things and I have fought them. Do you think I survived because I liked to make peace with my enemies?" Justin asked fiercely.

  The Drun's body turned purple as Justin placed both hands on him. His eyes went wide with fear as he realized what was about to happen to him. If Justin continued like that, he was going to lose his soul.

  "Let me die peacefully!" He howled.

  "Oh no, you won't. You lost that right when you stabbed her from behind."

  Justin held him there, watching the pain get to his soul. He was waiting for the man to let go of his soul so he could trap it. Drun souls were said to be extremely powerful, and he knew a couple of people who might need one. He held him there slowly as he waited for the soul to flee the body.

  "That's enough now!" Someone said to him.

  He was about to answer when he felt a strong surge from within himself. A soul was trying to possess him. He let go of the Drun, forgetting about revenge and money as the fight for his own human form began.

  "You're strong," the soul said to him. "You're strong and that's why I need this body of yours."

  "Looks like you'd have to kill me for it," Justin replied. He felt a sharp pain as the soul began to force itself into him.

  "Killing you would make this easier, but I also need you alive," the soul told him.

  Despite his predicament, Justin managed a snicker. "You need my soul and you want me alive. Isn't that the most marvelous thing I've heard all my life?"

  The soul ignored him and probed deeper until it was halfway in. Then, it stopped. Fear was written all over Justin as he breathed heavily, desperately hanging on to what was left of his human form.

  "Yeah, that's right," the soul told him. "I could kill you and get this over with, but, like I said earlier, I need you."

  "Need me for what?" Justin cried out.

  The soul crawled deeper into him. "A greater evil than all you have ever known is coming, Justin. And I need you to stop it." Saying this, it crept fully into him, forcing the man to fall into an epileptic fit.

  Chapter 2

  "This city stands because of the enormous amount of effort you all have put in. It stands because of everyone here today, every single person who dedicated themselves to ensuring that humanity remains in the same light as it should be. And although there are those amongst us who felt the effect of what happened more than others, we will continue to grow together in strength. Together, we will defeat any enemy that comes our way!"

  A thundering applause accompanied the speech as soon as it ended. From where she was standing, behind the Mayor, Gianna scoffed. The only thing humans enjoyed more than money and pleasure was listening to their own voices, and she had learnt to study them keenly when they did so. It was moments like that when they were most vulnerable. She knew this too well, having served humans for over three hundred years of her life. She had waited and lurked within the shadows, expectant that the promised one would come one day. She had endured as humans transformed into something more than they ordinarily were. Each age, each dynasty, she had played important roles; helping kingdoms to rise and fall, until it had all come to this. This time when humans and the powered could now live together without fear and prejudice. She had seen men bend their own rules and allow the powered to guide them. And just as was prophesized, she had lived long enough to see humans trust their lives into the hands of her kind. She had believed then, that the prophecy was real, and when the Mayor invited her to his private bedroom that cold night, transforming into something she couldn't explain, she had known her wait was over.

  "Look at the way he pr
eens himself," the man beside her muttered.

  She ignored him and continued to watch. The talking was over - it was time for men to get drunk and say things they may live to regret all their lives. She sighed and moved towards the Mayor. He nodded as she whispered softly into his ears.

  "Forgive me, gentlemen, but it seems I have a few things to attend to at the moment," the Mayor said to the group of men beside him.

  "Nonsense!" The Governor answered. "You saw how people and the powered alike talked about your heroics during the civil war. You should stay here and enjoy the moment with us."

  The Mayor smiled wryly and nodded. He hated the Governor, but there was nothing he could do about that. He looked back at Gianna, who looked the other way.

  "Be patient. It won't be long now."

  "Every moment we wait, the time grows shorter. We need to bring him back while there's still enough time."

  "You don't believe me, do you? You doubt my loyalty."

  "I only know as much as anyone else. Time is running out and you're here playing politics."

  "What would you have me do? Stab a knife through his heart?"

  "If that's what it would take, so be it."

  "Mayor," someone called him from behind.

  He turned to look into a pair of blue eyes and a healthy smile. Her radiance was so unbelievably strong that he was forced to return the smile she had on her face.

  "I'm sorry, ma'am," he answered her, "but everyone else calls me Sam."

  The lady continued smiling. "I'm not everyone. My name is Lisa Hearts. You saved my dad from the burning car, remember?"

  Sam didn't try to hide his surprise. It had been five years since he tore off the car door and rescued the girl and her father. He hadn't stayed around long enough to ask them who they were, but the girl had told him her name before he ran off.

  "Well, you're beautiful," he said quickly when he noticed he was staring too much.

  "Thank you, Mayor."

  "Sam."

  "Sam," she echoed. "There's something I need you to help me with. I was hoping we could get away from all these people?" There was a glint in her eyes that Sam noticed.