Incognito

[WP] - It wasn't the leather jacket or dark eyes that sent a chill down my spine. It was the sly smile that crept onto her face when she looked in my direction. No one was supposed to be able to see me.

******

I had lived a fair share of my existence - I couldn't exactly call it a life - 'incognito'.

It was something The Force had been willing to do for me, perhaps a show of appreciation for my infiltration of Niphileim which contributed to the downfall of the cult. The Existence Erasing spell, or Incognito as I like to call it, allowed me to interact with this earth on a different plane, thereby allowing me to see, feel and touch without being seen, felt, or touched.

Of course, I could activate and deactivate it; but I used it more when I was outside. It allowed me to live without paying for things, and also, I was hidden from the remnants of the defunct cult which were lucky to be free.

When I infiltrated them, I knew The Force would never be able to completely clean up those guys, so why did I do it? For personal reasons. Zikorrah, one of their commanders, so to say, had been my mortal enemy for a long time, and an opportunity to bring her down to naught was not one I was going to let pass.

Nonetheless, Incognito was one thing I was thankful for, the one thing which truly protected me.

Until now.

As I watched her approach, I knew something was wrong. Was it the way she looked in my direction n and suddenly did a double-take as though she could actually see me despite my supposedly being invisible and intangible? No, it wasn't just that. The sly smile on her face as she looked at me like prey before approaching me was it.

I kept my hands in my picket, holding my beads as I waited for her to come near me. Dark eyes; dark eyes with that leather jacket already told me she was bad news. And yet she felt familiar.

"Arthur..." she said, and I knew that voice.

"Zikorrah," I said, trying not to look afraid. I kept my stance and smirked. "Fancy seeing you here, or actually, fancy you being able to see me here..."

"Don't try to act cool," she said, coming closer, invading my personal space, "we both know your heart's beating erratically, and you're clenching those beads in your pocket like your life depends on it."

Looking around, we could see people looking at her like she was mad for talking to herself. I began to walk, expecting that she would follow. Then it probably wouldn't look so awkward.

"You can see me," I said matter-of-factly. It was a statement and a question, one at which she beamed. She was obviously feeling so proud at being able to see me.

"I know you can see my dark eyes. My oculus. You're seeing things on a mother plane, things, not even those Sentinels sent to capture the rest of us fugitives can see. But this spell, why did you use it, Arthur?"

"It was given to me by The Force. To protect me from people like you."

"The Force. Those old geezers. You work for them still?"

"No," I said, clenching my fists. The Force was like the annoying nerdy class representative at school - so uptight that no one liked them. "They were a means to an end. They gave me the means to infiltrate and destroy Niphileim, as well as the means to remain off-the-radar after. Of course, Niphileim was a personal vendetta for me," I said, not without an edge to my voice.

"Naturally. You, me, this enmity..."

"When and why did you get that oculus," I said, hastily trying to change the subject.

"The last full moon. And I got it because I decided to come to find you. Here. In New York, the one place I was sure you would be. This is my 25th day of searching."

I realized that we had somehow reached my home. I had not walked far off when Zikorrah saw me, so I must have subconsciously walked back.

"So this is where you stay?" she asked, curving her arms around mine. I quickly disentangled, then looked at her.

"You can touch me?"

"Once I can see you, your existence erasing spell is null and void. Did you not know this?"

"No. Apparently, the force was willing to shortchange me here. Not unexpected from them - they are only upright when it comes to their affairs."

We were standing in the sitting room, looking at each other.

"When did we become enemies?" Zikorrah asked.

"Now there's a topic I don't wanna discuss," I said, tossing her a beer which she caught.

"When did we?" She asked again, coming closer. I only just noticed that she smelled of lavender, a fragrance I loved, and her eyes were back to normal. I deactivated Incognito.

"When you went off to Brazil with Mardin."

"Oh, yes. the self-styled master of the dark arts whom you later killed. You always felt he was a bad person."

"And guess what? I was right! This is why I was right to ask you not to follow him. But you just had..."

"Don't tell me you're still feeling sore about that, Arthur." she teased.

I looked away, taking a big swig of beer and sighing.

"Arthur, that was a phase where I was trying to be free. We were both out of The Academy, and you already had these boring dreams of joining The Force and becoming another Celestis like all the other guys. I...wanted something different, Something less cliche. Something more."

"And I guess hanging out with bad guys really did it for you, huh? I later figure out the Force was bullsh*t, and I left. But you, you'd already gone far too deep with Niphileim."

"So you destroyed them to get me out."

I could feel her breath on my chest as she stood right in front of me, her brown eyes staring right into mine. The aura around her was intoxicating, and every second that passed in this position brought me closer to the cliff of no return.

"N-no, I..."

"You did not want to bring me down. You purposely left me and went after Mardin even though you were not affiliated with the Force and you had no qualms with him. It wasn't about any other thing but for me. You let me go, so that somehow, someday, we'd be together where neither The Force nor no one could come between us. Arthur, I dare you to say this is not true," she said, her arms akimbo.

"I..."

I couldn't.

Bringing her face up a bit, I crushed my lips into hers and savored her squeal of surprise as she held on to my neck and wrapped her thin legs around me. Ss we crashed on the sofa, I refused to disengage as we kissed like long lost lovers, enjoying the sweetness and remembering the times we did it before.

Tongues intertwined, I reached around and removed her hair ribbon, letting her silky hair free as I disengaged to gasp for air.

We both knew what we wanted,

Buttons were ripped and clothes quickly became rags as we quickly removed our clothing, naked as the day we came into this unforgiving world.

Looking at each other, there was a mutual need to throw foreplay aside, I lifted her and roughly placed her on the sofa. One look into her eyes was all I needed to enter; the carnal need in them called out to me, and I answered with a thrust which she matched with one of her own, moaning as we rocked into a realm of pure ecstasy.

When I was done, I laid beside her as she lazily rubbed my chest, drained of all energy.

"Think I was worth it?" She asked.

"Worth what?"

"Destroying Niphileim and declaring yourself Enemy 1?"

"For you? I'd do it a thousand times over!"

******

@Hanzell definitely took its time but it's here!!!