Disclaimers: This is a work of fiction. Any similarities between the characters in this story and real people (appearances, names, etc.) are purely coincidental. This story may contain homosexual material, including love and sex, so if material like this is illegal in your region or if it discomforts you, please leave.
It takes quite a bit of time and effort, not to mention money, to run a site like this. Even more so when the service is FREE. So please take the time to donate what you can to Nifty Here
"A two week lockdown?!" Ulysses screamed in anger. "That's it?! A fucking two week lockdown?! What the fuck is Trump thinking?!"
Queen Sofi sighed and stated, "There is nothing Henry could do. The president is informed and knowledgable. He is also stubborn and arrogant.
"Some good news, though, Hansen in New Zealand has persuaded Ardern to completely freeze visitors from the country. This will be instrumental in decreasing viral contagion, at least for New Zealand."
Ulysses nodded his head slowly and responded, "That will be incredibly helpful. Can we have Garrik send Hansen a bonus? It couldn't have been easy for Hansen to have New Zealand close their doors."
A Hungarian man called out from the other side of the table, "I have already wired twenty thousand New Zealand dollars."
"That concludes today's meeting, everybody," Queen Sofi announced. "I want to thank you all for your tireless work. You have been incredible in these unprecedented times."
After everybody had left the conference room, Mark said to Ulysses, "So you're a Guard officer."
"Yes," Ulysses replied slowly, unsurely.
"But in meetings like this, meetings where Isak isn't present, you seem to have power and pull. Why?"
"Because I am six-hundred-years-old," Ulysses stated and wrapped his arm around Mark's shoulders. "I have six hundred ten years of magical practice, four hundred years of Guard experience. I have fought in countless battles and a couple of wars."
"That makes sense," Mark stated and kissed Ulysses on the lips. "I didn't think about that."
"Are you ready to head home?"
Mark smiled and was about the answer, but there was a violent shake in the building. Decor fell off the walls, glass was heard shattering, and fire alarms rang. Ulysses immediately stood, pulled Mark to stand, and wrapped both of his arms around Mark.
"I can't teleport," Ulysses said with worry. "They are trying really hard to keep everybody inside. Stay close."
Ulysses grabbed Mark's hand and ran out of the conference room. Out in the hall there was a giant hole in the wall, and balls of fire flew in from outside. At each point on the white walls that the fireballs hit, a blue light pulsed and dissipated. After a dozen or so hits at certain points in the wall, cracks would begin to appear.
"SHUT YOUR EYES!" Ulysses shouted as he came to a stop.
Mark saw as Ulysses raised his arms out in front of himself. He saw Ulysses inhale and promptly squeezed his eyes shut. He heard Ulysses scream and he saw red. A bright light shone and the explosions and collisions came to a halt.
Mark was about to ask if he could open his eyes yet, but his stomach twisted and turned and went upside down. He swayed slightly and opened his eyes, finding himself doubled over in Kiri's house.
"You'll be safest here," Ulysses stated with urgency. "I have to go back to the palace. I will be back. I promise."
Ulysses gave Mark the quickest peck on the lips and then dissipated in thin air. Mark blinked, but then bit his lower lip in worry. He walked over to a chaise and laid down, a blank expression on his face.Mark awoke to the feeling of a hand gently caressing his hip. He opened his eyes and placed his hand over Ulysses' on his hip.
"Hey," Mark said sleepily. "Why are you crying? Oh no, what happened?"
Ulysses smiled in despair and answered, "We subdued the majority of the mercenaries that attacked the palace. But there were so many casualties on our side. We lost some of the most important witches of our time. These mercenaries were so well trained, it's astounding. Horrible for us, but astounding."
Mark quickly sat up and asked, "Are you okay? Are you hurt? There's so much blood on you."
"My mother healed me," Ulysses replied and kissed Mark's palm. "I'm fine now. Some of these mercenaries were able to halt the constance spell on me and my mother. It was terrifying."
"Jesus Christ," Mark breathed. "Are you- oh, baby."
"I could- I could have..." Ulysses began but was becoming emotional. "I could have died today. And- and- and my only regret would have been that I didn't say I love you one last time."
Ulysses was crying then. Full on bawling. His eyes had quickly become red and swollen from the tears. When Mark grabbed him into the tightest hug of his six centuries of life, Ulysses hugged him back like his life depended on it. Ulysses wailed, and Mark did nothing but stroke his fingers through Ulysses' hair and rocked him gently.
Three minutes later, Ulysses stopped crying and loosed his embrace on Mark. Mark released Ulysses as well and planted a long kiss to Ulysses' temple.
"You shouldn't feel regret about not conveying your love," Mark said softly. "I know you love me. You know I love you. And I don't think you would've died today. It was terrifying for you because you haven't felt vulnerable like that in, what, five hundred eighty years?"
"Yeah," Ulysses replied with an emotional smile. "Thank you. You're right, even with the constance spell forcefully removed I was nowhere close to perishing."
"I am very thankful to the universe that you are perfectly fine," Mark stated and grabbed Ulysses' hand. "So whose blood is this all over you? Do I even want to know?"
As he peeled his bloodied shirt off his body, Ulysses answered, "I've killed three people today and subdued a couple dozen. They were relentless, I had to use extreme force."
"I will run a bath," Mark said gently. "Go pour yourself a glass of bourbon or scotch."
Mark kissed Ulysses' forehead and made his way to the guest bathroom. As Ulysses sat and relaxed in the hot water, Mark slowly, methodically, and sensually massaged Ulysses' chest.
"Welcome back to work, Mark," Evelyn greeted as she walked toward her office. "How is it possible that you look even more tired than when you left?"
"I..." Mark began but puffed his cheeks up and slowly exhaled.
"Hey," Evelyn said with concern. "Hey, what's going on? What's the matter?"
"Nothing," Mark lied. "I was just super horny. Even when Uly and I got home I jumped his bones, like, five times a day. I've barely gotten sleep."
Evelyn laughed quietly and teased, "Oh, to be young again."
"Please," Mark said with a scoff, "you're only forty."
Feigning offense, Evelyn responded, "I'm thirty-nine."
"Right. I distinctly remember buying the office birthday card. My apologies."
"Seriously, are you sure everything is okay?"
Mark reached his arm out to Evelyn's and replied, "Yes, I promise."
"Good," Evelyn said and entered her office, to which Mark followed. "I need you to call marketing to get forecasts. I need you to get Ricardo Juarez to confirm our meeting. Have Gerard pick up Becca's birthday cake at two o'clock and deliver it to my house."
"The bakery is called Duchess, right?" Mark confirmed.
"Yes. I need an appointment with Terrence Hoskins either today or tomorrow. Lindsay Brascol at Ledior has some files that I need you to pick up. And no, she can't email them for security purposes."
"Fine," Mark said with a teasing smile.
"You look so much more handsome with half your face covered up, by the way," Evelyn teased.
Mark scrunched his nose, chuckled sarcastically, and responded, "Thank you so much. You're so sweet."
Evelyn's expression then sobered and serenely stated, "I want to thank you, Markus, for coming to work with this virus overtaking the world. You have been the most patient and understanding person."
Mark, with a soft voice, responded, "Evelyn, it is my pleasure. Times are tough and scary, but you have been kind and considerate. Nothing but a joy to work for."
"Well that is seriously great to hear. Thank you. Now, marketing. Forecasts."
"Yes," Mark responded and quickly made for the office door. "Yes. On it."
Ulysses was at the palace's training wing testing the magical knowledge and practicality of a new Guard officer. Lucian Nasson was very intelligent and efficient, his skills were really impressing Ulysses. He was about to launch a series of pyrotechnic explosions when sirens in the palace blared loudly.
"The wards are being breached," Ulysses stated. "Follow me."
Ulysses teleported to the front gate, and a fraction of a second later Lucian teleported there as well. They both looked out front, and met the sight of one hundred or two witches standing a line with their hands joined. Red light shone from their bodies, a light that travelled to the centre of the line and shot out to the magical shield around the palace.
"GUARD!" Ulysses commanded. "SHOW NO MERCY!"
Dozens and dozens of Guard officers teleported from one side of the shield to the other. Forty Guard officers began firing spells and hexes at the line of attacking witches, but the witches had their own shield around them. They were unphased.
"GUARD! TAKE EVERYTHING FROM THEM! LEAVE NO SURVIVORS!"
Every Guard officer screamed as they fired more spells, putting all of their power behind each shot. And more officers teleported in. Ulysses smiled in the midst of the onslaught of spell casting due to the sight of the witch's shield slowly weakening.
A female Guard officer shouted, "Behind us!"
Ulysses turned his head and instinctively raise a magical shield around him and the other sixty officers. Fifty more mercenaries had teleported in and began attacking the shield.
With conviction and anger, Ulysses screamed, "NO! SURVIVORS!"
Ulysses teleported to the other side of the new witches and began throwing spells and punches and hexes and kicks. A bolt of electricity flew toward Ulysses, which was easily dissipated in thin air.
In the fray Ulysses heard a familiar female voice grunting and groaning. He turned toward the sounds and saw an officer named Celine Hargreed on the losing end of a magical duel. Ulysses quickly launched an ice spear at the offending mercenary that plunged into his heart. Celine gave Ulysses a nod in thanks and resumed battle.
The battle was going in Ulysses' favour, more than sixty percent of the newly teleported witches were slain. Ulysses placed his hand on the side of man's head and sent jolts of electricity, the man fell dead.
Streaks of purple light flew passed Ulysses, which startled him as he flung himself to the side. He looked ahead, noticing each and every body that was hit by the purple streaks now lying lifelessly on the ground. Each person that was hit by the purple light streaks was immediately killed, even a couple of mercenaries.
Ulysses looked further down and was perplexed by the sight of a male figure. This figure wore form-fitting heather grey cotton from the neck down, seemingly one piece judging by the lack of seams and no sight of skin. His face donned a red and orange wooden mask with spikes around the edges, and no apparent eyes.
Ulysses became even more unnerved when this male figure slowly turned his head and stopped. If the figure was not wearing the mask, Ulysses would have connected eyes with him, which caused his heart rate to skyrocket. He inhaled a deep breath, and then pointed both palms skyward. He screamed with the immense power he called forth. The already grey clouds in the sky darkened, and a bolt of lightning ripped down to the male figure.
Ulysses opened his eyes and his heart sunk. The figure's face remained transfixed on Ulysses', but his left palm was pointed to the clouds. He appeared to be completely unharmed. Ulysses, on the verge of panic, created a spark in each palm and pointed them at the figure, jets of fire barrelling out.
Both streaks of fire met a barrier in front of the figure that seemed to eat the flames. When Ulysses halted the flamethrowing the male figure immediately fired his own jet of flames to Ulysses. Ulysses flung both of his arms upward, which redirected the offending flames to the sky. Ulysses pointed his fingers at the ground around the figure and grunted. The ground and the rubble around the figure shook and shifted until two boulders shot out to the figure. The figure caught the two boulders, which crumbled into sand and dust milliseconds later.
The figure lowered his arms to his sides and stood completely still. Ulysses assumed that the figure was gathering energy or focusing for a big spell. All the Guard officers and mercenaries remained in the heat of battle, screaming and shouting rang through the air. Blood flew about, spells zoomed by, and bodies fell.
And then a torrid of water flung in like it had come from a broken dam. The force of the water hitting each witch immediately ended their life, the water turning a bright red colour. The water turned mid air as if travelling through invisible pipes, crashing into even more witches. The deadly stream carried lifeless bodies and body parts, turning into a circle that surrounded Ulysses and the mysterious figure.
Ulysses fired everything he could at the figure. Lightning, fire, acid, and lava. Every spell and hex disappeared into the barrier that the figure had erected around himself. Ulysses ran forward, screaming his heart out. He stopped just in front of the figure, pressed his palms against the invisible barrier, and closed his eyes. He looked, in his mind, at every oxygen particle beneath his palms, at every carbon dioxide particle. He felt the altered particles of oxygen beneath, particles that were covered in a microscopic layer of diamond.
Ulysses, maintaining hard eye contact with the figure, or trying with the mask, rhetorically asked, "Is this the best you can do?"
Ulysses created his own stream of diamond-covered oxygen particles beneath his hands that jet fired at the figure's. A mere five seconds later, when there was half-meter length hole in the barrier, the figure shot his arm out and grabbed Ulysses' neck. Ulysses shifted every cell in his body and clothing and the figure's hand fell off of Ulysses' neck. Ulysses stepped back and flung a bolt of lightning from his hand to the figure. The figure swiftly raised both hands, one out to his front that absorbed the lightning bolt and the other high in the sky that the bolt flew out of.
Ominously, the figure slowly looked up toward the sky, where the lightning bolt disappeared. He lowered his arms as he watched the clear blue sky, unmoving afterward. Ulysses was perplexed at the figure's unmoving, uncaring stance that was creating a pit in his stomach. His breath became quick as his heart raced, his emotions going to and fro. Ulysses was about to unleash a slough of fire and lightning at the figure, he raised his hands. But then the figure slowly looked back down from the sky, to Ulysses. A second later Ulysses noticed flakes of heather grey floating away from the figure's body and slowly disappearing as they flittered in the air.
"No!" Ulysses cried as he created a pair of shackles from rock.
The shackles flew to the figure and were about to close around his wrists. But the moment the shackles touched the grey cloth covering his hands, the whole of the figure disintegrated and the grey particles floated and flittered away.
"RETREAT!" a man's voice screamed.
Four witches disappeared into thin air, and a millisecond later more witches were about to teleport as well, but Ulysses mentally reached out into the air for quadrillions of particles. He froze those particles which prevented teleportation, but the mercenaries were fighting back, making Ulysses grasp onto the quadrillions of frozen particles even harder.
"EGIL!" Ulysses screamed to his fellow Guard officers. "SEDATION SPELLS! NOW!"
Dozens and dozens and dozens of surviving Guard officers placed their hands on the heads of paralyzed mercenaries. When Ulysses felt in the cells of each mercenary were sedated, he released them from his paralysis spell.
Two minutes later, each and every one of the mercenaries were sedated, so Ulysses commanded, "We need to freeze their magical cores. Olivia, Renata, you check and verify every single core. We cannot- cannot allow any to slip away."
Renata tied her shoulder-length blonde hair into a quick bun and then walked up to Ulysses. She asked, "Are you feeling any exhaustion?"
With laboured breath, Ulysses answered, "I'm fine. You fought valiantly, my friend."
Renata kissed Ulysses' cheek and then returned to the unconscious mercenaries. She knelt down on one knee, placed one hand on the chest of female witch, and the other hand on the face. She then rose and did the same to another female witch. Ulysses, meanwhile, teleported back into the palace security and intelligence office.
As he approached an intelligence officer, Ulysses asked her, "Francine, can you show me the footage of the front lawn?"
As she typed keys on her computer keyboard, Francine clarified, "Of the attack?"
"Of the last five minutes," Ulysses answered. "I need to see how a witch teleported."
Still typing and clicking away, Francine asked, "Did this witch teleport in a different way?"
"Yes. I've never seen anyone teleport the way he did."
Francine hit the play button. In the video, Ulysses had flung a lightning bolt and the mystery witch redirected it toward the sky. And then the figure instantly disappeared in thin air. That scared Ulysses because his and every other witch's teleportation took a moment or two longer than that. Another factor in Ulysses' fear was the fact that the mysterious witch was able to cast a spell that created an illusion of the disintegrating of himself.
"Do we have this from any other viewpoint?" Ulysses asked.
Typing quickly, Francine answered, "Each watchtower on the west side has four cameras, so we can get two more clips from there. Here you go. Tower two."
Francine had to zoom in on the footage quite a bit, the footage was shot from the mysterious witch's left flank. And it was the exact same footage as before, just a different angle.
"Thank you, Francine. Can you email this clip and the previous to me?"
Ulysses then immediately teleported to the front of the queen's secure bunker, which, to his surprise, was open. He then teleported to the medical wing, fearing the worst. He thankfully was met with the sight of Queen Sofi performing cellular regeneration spells on injured witches.
"We have a major problem," Ulysses told the queen when he walked up to her. "I may have met the leader of the mercenaries. And he is powerful."
Queen Sofi stopped the regeneration spell in surprise and worry, and asked, "How powerful?"
"I didn't come close to subduing him," Ulysses answered, worry tinging his voice. "He redirected a lightning bolt without batting a lash."
Shocked, Queen Sofi asked, "Your lightning bolt?"
Ulysses solemnly nodded his head, and then stated, "Francine from intelligence is emailing security footage to me. We should get my mother and Isak."Mark was on the phone with his mom and waiting for an elevator at the end of his work day. Evelyn had left about a half hour before, Mark having stayed a bit, as usual, to make sure everything was done and he was set up for tomorrow. The elevator doors finally opened, but there were a dozen people in it already. Mark gave them a single nod and made for the door to the staircase.
Just as Mark opened the door, a hushed male voice whisper-shouted, "Markus Jeffrey Lillico!"
Ulysses was walking toward the human with a smile gracing his gorgeous face. Ulysses slid his hand on Mark's lower back and kissed his cheek, and then teleported the two of them to Mark's apartment.
After he removed his N95 face mask, Mark asked, "What'd you do at work today?"
"An interrogation," Ulysses answered. "Isak arrested a Sargent of sorts from these mercenaries that have been making attempts on Queen Sofi's life. My mother and I have been interrogating her all day. She is stubborn."
"What's her name?" Mark asked from the kitchen. "Where is she from?"
"She will not even tell us her name," Ulysses replied with a tone of frustration. "We even had Torsten- the world's most talented telepath, try to gather information. But her mind was blank to him. And her smile when he failed telepathy- it- it- it was arrogant."
"That sounds scary," Mark stated and wrapped his arms around Ulysses. "What will you guys do with her now?"
Ulysses planted a kiss to Mark's temple and answered, "Tonight mother and I rest. Tomorrow will be filled with the most powerful spells we know. And we know a lot. But most require rested bodies and minds, so I will sleep immediately after dinner."
"Then you sit and relax," Mark commanded his boyfriend. "I will make dinner. Go rest on the couch."
Ulysses smiled at the human with gratitude and gave him a lingering kiss on the lips. With a half hour Mark presented him with a plate of chicken mango spring rolls with peanut sauce. Together the two young men ate while watching Two Broke Girls on Netflix. Afterward, Ulysses gave Mark another lingering kiss before he made his way upstairs and went to sleep.
Ulysses had only been asleep for just over two hours when he was suddenly awoken by the sensation of falling rapidly and a hot wind ripping at his skin. He found himself crashing down to an endless desert with sunlight beating down on him. Ulysses slowed thousands of oxygen and carbon dioxide particles under him, and thousands more, which effectively slowed his descent. Seconds later he stopped and was about to teleport back to Mark's apartment but he was hit in the left side by a spike of ice. He crashed down a hundred feet and hit the hot sand of the desert. He sat himself on the side of his right leg and looked down at his torso, angry at the sight of the giant icicle stuck in his side. He telepathically reached out and ripped the icicle out of his body, and immediately regenerated the gaping puncture wound.
Ulysses was about to look around his surroundings for the source of the assault, but trillions of sand particles flew up in a circle around him. These particles flew up and around in a spiral, and met in the middle forming a giant sphere of sand with Ulysses in the middle. Ulysses, alarmed, transformed trillions of oxygen particles in the dome into sparks that formed flames that licked the walls of the sand. That did nothing, the sand continued to fly and swirl around Ulysses. Ulysses flung his hands out, shooting bursts of air at the sand walls. The points of impact bulged out of place for a fraction of a second before falling back into place.
Ulysses telepathically reached out for some oxygen particles to transform into hydrogen, but then a big hole opened up directly ahead of Ulysses. Ulysses' heart stopped upon seeing the mysterious witch dressed head to toe in heather grey cotton. As the mysterious witch strutted over to Ulysses, sand particles shot up out of the ground and cuffed Ulysses, and pulled him down to his knees. Straps of sand flung over Ulysses' shoulders to help bind him down on his knees. The witch strutted the rest of the twenty feet to Ulysses and the sand dome flung away. Ulysses attempted to teleport away but he felt every one of his cells unable to move by force.
Ulysses felt nothing but terror as the witch reached him and crouched down. The witch reached his hand out and brushed the back of his forefinger down Ulysses' face. When his finger reached Ulysses' chin the witch cupped it between his forefinger and thumb. And then he was gone, teleported right before Ulysses' eyes. A second later, the sand restraints fell.In the morning Mark awoke and turned over to find Ulysses' side of the bed empty. Curious, Mark grabbed his cell phone off the nightstand and found no messages from his boyfriend. So he called him.
"Good morning, my love," was how Ulysses answered the call. "How did you sleep?"
"Hey," Mark greeted neutrally. "Good, thank you. How about you? Where'd you go?"
"I'm at the Guard headquarters in Germany," Ulysses answered. "I was attacked last night."
"What?" Mark said in alarm. "Where?"
"The masked witch I told you about," Ulysses began, "he teleported me out of your bed. He brought me to a dessert in Turkey, and restrained me there."
"Restrained?"
"He had every opportunity to kill me," Ulysses stated with wonder. "He neutralized me with zero effort. He made physical contact."
"Oh, my god," Mark responded quietly. "Are you- are you okay?"
"Yeah," Ulysses answered with a sigh. "No harm whatsoever. The witch was- was toying with me. I think he was showing me that he has more power."
"Really?"
"That's all I can assume. I came by before I started investigating this incident. You were sound asleep, so I'm thankful the witch left you alone."
"Wow," Mark breathed. "I- I didn't even think about myself. Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes," Ulysses answered, and Mark could hear the affection in his voice. "I promise. I can pause this investigation for just a minute to prove to you that I'm fine."
Smiling, Mark replied, "If you wouldn't mind."
Mark's phone beeped, signalling the end of the call. A second later, Ulysses materialized on Mark's bed. Mark smiled serenely at the witch as he caressed his forearm. Ulysses kissed Mark's temple and held his lips to Mark's skin.
Mark gently peeled his head away from Ulysses' to examine him. "I love you. I'm so glad you're okay."
Ulysses smiled softly at his boyfriend and replied, "I love you, too, baby. I was so worried about you, too. I imagined the worst when the witch retreated and abandoned me at the desert. Hope you don't mind that I read your cells and nervous system to make sure you were unharmed."
"I appreciate that you did that," Mark stated and grasped the side of Ulysses's shirt. "You should get back to your investigation, I have to get ready for work."
I hope that you are enjoying this series so far. I have been working on this series for about two years, it is so new to me. Listed below are my other works of fiction if you are interested.
Car Radio
Connected
Do Not Go Gentle
Near Wild Heaven
The Other Half of Me Unknown
A Quick Fall
Some You Give Away
Somewhere a Clock is Ticking
Strawberry Wine
Tearing Me Apart
You Call It Madness
You Don't Mean to Hurt Me