My Vampire Harem Will Dominate Everything

"I… I'm not there?" Ezra asked. Had he failed? Did he die?

"How can you be there when you broke the most important law of Vampire Society in such a… public and irrevocably damaging manner?" Connell asked.

"All seven council elders came down themselves to kill you, Ezra Matten." She leaned forward, her voice low. "Who knew the lastborn would be this powerful?"

"Within the space of a day, you went from the fourth ring to the sixth ring. You alongside your… brother-in-law for so long the Princes of both Courts had to join the battle."

Brother-in-law? Ezra was confused. He didn't know he even had one.

"You were like a demon, fighting with golden eyes that saw everything before it even happened."

Ezra took a small step back. She knew about his eyes!

"The Progenitor Reborn you were called. The Mad Lastborn others called you. But most… called you The One Who Ended."

"You were somehow able to unlock something and that something stripped away every limiter you had, including your vitality."

"You were finally killed but when the dust settled, you had gutted the leadership of both the Council and the Monarchy."

"You somehow, with your death, ended the animosity between the two. After all that had happened, it was unanimously decided that vampires shouldn't be ruled by a person or body. The throne was left vacant and every vampire was their own ruler. It went back to the days after the progenitor's departure."

"We vampires lived in peace until the Cutting Off." Connell said. "We scrambled for answers. We wanted to know why this had happened. How can we even stop it? Well, we found no answers. Earth would be destroyed whether we like it or not."

"If all this is true." Ezra spoke, every muscle in his body tense. He had no idea what to do or how to feel about all he'd heard. "If all this is true and the earth was cut off, how are you here?"

Connell chucked softly. "The same way vampires solve all problems. Tattoos."

"I crafted the perfect tattoo. It allowed me to go back in time to find a solution. But the energy of the abyss keeps following me back into the past."

"I tried all I could, even sacrificing my rings but nothing could stop it. Anytime I changed something, the future would shift but the outcome was still the same." She sighed. "Until I learned to read the energies of the abyss."

"Everything that happens in the future all led back to you, Ezra Matten. It all leads back to the day you destroyed Faewall."

"If I can somehow stop that, I'll stop the Cutting Off." She chuckled. "So, I did the thing everyone would obviously do."

"I killed you."

"Wait, what?"

"But that didn't change a thing." Connell said like she hadn't heard him speak. "Apparently, the world needs you to stop the Cutting Off. It wasn't the destruction of Faewall that triggers everything. It was actually your death."

"And you wouldn't have died if you hadn't destroyed everything. It was your sins of tomorrow, Ezra Matten, that we all had to pay for."

The two vampires kept staring at each other in the resulting silence.

Ezra had no idea what to say and Connell seemed to be waiting for something. When she saw that he wasn't saying anything, she continued.

"So, I realized what I had to do." She said. "I had to stop you from destroying Faewall. And that was when I hit a roadblock."

"The energies of the abyss have finally caught up to me. I can't come back as myself again. So, I had to send my consciousness back to this time."

"As you can see," she spread her hands, "it has its drawbacks. I can't stay for too long at a time and that means I can't do things the way I want to."

"So, tell me, Ezra Matten." She tilted her head, a cold smile appearing on her face. "Is all I've said proof enough for you?"

Ezra took a deep breath, his mind still processing all that she had said. She knew things that no other vampires can predict. Things like the end of the world or his golden eyes.

"What do you want?" He finally asked her.

"I want to prevent the future from happening." Connell said simply. "I want to stop you from becoming what you do. I want to stop Faewall from burning."

"Then help me." Ezra growled. "I also don't want to become the… One Who Ended. If we really have the same goal, you can help me put an end to whatever is going on in this city. You can stop this."

Connell's eyes narrowed. "I can help, but only if you follow my lead."

"Trust me, and things will turn out differently this time. But if you continue down the same path… it'll end like it always does."

Ezra sighed. Finally! Someone on his side.

"What about Gen's coven?" He asked. "Do you know what happened to them?"

"I know what happened to them but I won't tell you." Connell said. "This isn't my first time here, Ezra Matten.

"Every time I've told you in the past, it didn't matter. The future came to pass anyway. If you want to know the truth, you'll have to find it for yourself."

Ezra gritted his teeth in frustration. He should've known things wouldn't be this easy.

His only choice right now, was to use Connell to prevent the disaster.

"Alright." He nodded. "How do I get what I need from Lana? How do I get to the bottom of all this?"

Connell leaned forward, her voice calm and certain. "There's only one way to get what you want."

"You have to follow the steps I outline for you. Every move, every decision, has to be made exactly as I tell you."

"I've been through this before, Ezra. I know what works. Trust me, and I'll make sure everything turns out well."

Ezra studied her carefully, weighing his options.

Could he really trust her? Could he really put his future and Faewall's in her hands?

She wanted to stop the destruction of the world but vampires were not naturally that selfless. What if she discovers that there was a way to kill him and stop the Cutting Off at the same time?

After a long pause, he finally spoke. "How can I trust you?"

Connell smiled at him as if she had been expecting the question.

"That is up to you, Captain. All I know is that the path you're on now will lead to ruin."

"If you want a different future," she grinned, showing teeth, "you need to trust someone. And I'm the only one who knows what's coming."