Angel with a Messenger Bag
A/N: These characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. The twisted tale I weave is something else.
This is a Jasper x Edward slashy fic. Slash is boy-on-boy. Adults only, please. Thanks for the encouraging feedback; I cherish every word.
We actually get a soupcon of slash herein.
Chapter 3. A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Within minutes, I deeply regret my rash decision to leave the safety of my invisible ledge.
Even with my eyes closed, I'd rate the experience of flying courtesy of Air Edward somewhere between harrowing and terrifying.
"Bone-chilling. Torturous. Excruciating." Edward offers his choices.
"We're not playing for the triple word scores here," I snap. From habit, I take a deep breath, and chant:
Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Mani Padme Hum.
"The Jewel and The Lotus, Jasper?" I nod uncomfortably, the rushing of the wind past my ears only emphasizing my predicament. "You are dead; the physical no longer need pose any threat," he gently reminds me. "Let go of your fear."
I open my eyes and hazard another look straight down. Stratocumulus form around 8,400 feet, and I'm looking at some right now.
"Those puffy clouds visible between your feet are two miles below us."
I may be a corporeal ghost being hauled through the air by a winged mythical creature who wants my ass, but motion sickness is a god-damned effective deterrent to wonderment. Closing my eyes just seems safest at present.
A small groan tells me I've managed to ruffle Edward's wings. "Caution, Jasper," he pleads. "Remember Moses and the granite-etched tablets."
Well, yes, I suppose this sojourn in purgatory could define the inopportune moment to break one of the Ten Commandments. I immediately regret the 'god-damned' and silently offer up an apology.
"Very good. She considers the resurgence in cursing to be one of the worst of modern-day evils." He pauses dramatically. "I expect another Moses with written clarifications any day now. Somewhere in the Middle East, a grubby, myopic scribe is engaged in auto-writing even as we speak. All he will need is an unemployed publicist or a YouTube account to get the message out. No miracles necessary."
Instantly, I understand 'SHE' to be the Divine Being that Western civilization has steadfastly refused to posit as anything but male.
"As one of Her Angels, I have an instant link to Her," he clarifies. "Ciao, bella," he says, opening the link.
"Can you ask Her anything?" I whisper. A personal link to the all-knowing, all-seeing, invisible Being must be rather like having a high-speed Internet connection, but with more reliable answers.
He snickers. "She says that's the best thing She's overheard all day." A brief pause. "I'm to bring you around sometime."
Holy Cow, Her Supreme Being wants to meet me? Jasper?
"Not really. Her version of a joke. Her presence would incinerate both of us, permanently. But She's a little happier for the exchange.
Meaning what? A carpet of flowers has burst forth from a formerly barren field somewhere in Africa?
"Thailand. And thanks for the idea."
He signs off, and I'm confident enough now that I'm peering through my fingers at the blue sky around us. Glancing down, I see we are detouring past long wispy streamers of Cirrus cloud formations. Translation: we are cruising at around 20,000 feet, lower than most jet travel.
"Flight paths can be brutal on Air Edward's wings. Although I will ascend to 36,000 feet if you wish?"
I shudder at the idea. "Completely unnecessary."
"Air Edward is much more reliable that modern jets," he opines, clearly enjoying himself.
Expecting an answer in the thousands or even millions, I ask, "So, how many of the recently Dead have flown Air Edward?" Anything to distract my thoughts.
After a longish wait, Edward finally offers up, "One."
Tightening his grip on me, perhaps in anticipation of a struggle, he clarifies with, "Just you."
Even a guinea pig in a cage has an expectation of free will. He can choose to mount his treadmill going nowhere or not. I was never offered the option of Edward or no Edward whisking me through the troposphere. He just popped up on my cloud after I died. Why?
"I'm your flight instructor?"
Dead or not, I can recognize a spur-of-the-moment lie when I hear one. "That's a rather modern term for an Angel with thousands of years on his treads, but not a single pupil under his belt." And just where are my wings and a halo?
"Too early for wings," is his cryptic reply.
We fall once again into the Valley of Silence. A million emotions wash over me, but anger and regret prevail. Why am I dead? Why don't I feel joyful or even peaceful in this transition to the Afterlife?
"Would you be less agitated if I were female, Jasper?"
Your idea, i tell him by way of a warning. Concentrating, I try imposing an image of Katy Perry over that of the bronze-haired, green-eyed actor I've been graced with in the form of Edward. Several minutes pass, but no pointy size C's are poking me in the back. Quite the opposite, unfortunately.
"You may try again, but The Penis is Immutable."
Suspecting Edward well knows he's just mouthed the title to a gay porno I downloaded last week, I ask, "But must it be permanently erect against my back?"
"Isn't that a good thing?"
When I emphatically shake my head, Edward subtly adjusts us, and I no longer feel the good thing in such high relief.
"You think to reject me, and yet have no girlfriend or wife to mourn you, Jasper-the-beautiful. How sad. Unless your file was wrong?"
For the second time today, I grudgingly acknowledge his file on me is correct. Alice and I broke up more than a year ago, and I've been on my own ever since. I close my eyes in resignation; who knows what else he's read in my file.
Nodding in agreement, my novice Instructor seems completely at-ease once again. In spite of his wings performing double-duty while clutching me against his chest, he isn't the least winded.
"Practice. I swoop into the fields and gather the forsaken unto me. Builds upper-body strength."
At my gasp of horror, he clarifies: "Cattle. Destined for the slaughterhouses."
Perhaps emboldened by my sigh of relief, he feels the need to elucidate.
"They don't like heights and current breeding practices render them easily susceptible to heart failure. There's not much point in trying to resuscitate them."
Grotesque images of the poor beasts with their entrails ripped-out are shipped to Edward in spite of my hasty precautions.
"No, not that. I just drop them from 10,000 feet. "
I send up a silent prayer that I do not meet the same fate.
"Never, my Jasper. The view is awe-inspiring if you would but re-open your eyes."
No.
Unwilling to argue this point further with me, Edward opts instead for a platitude. "All in good time, my friend."
One minute, I am peaceably, blissfully unaware of my surroundings, eyes closed, Edward humming happily against my hair and sucking on the ends, I suspect. And the next? All hell breaks loose.
"Oh, Holy Mother, hold on," Edward shouts alarmingly into my ear before performing a maneuver that would make a Blue Angel squadron jealous. His wings are beating furiously now, and we are definitely headed down towards the rolling clouds several thousands of feet below us.
"What is it?" I bellow in terror at the supposed danger tracking us. A flying Devil with a flame-thrower? A soul-stealer? What could it be that has my Angel running for cover?
We don't make it.
Edward eventually slows, coming to a halt as his wings cease their frantic movement. "Pointless."
I mentally prepare for my second Death of the day.
"He's here. Act natural."
At this stage, I don't really have a point of reference for 'natural'—it's still my first day as a Dead man.
"Just don't try to bolt," he hisses at me.
Ah, right.
"Hail, mal'akh. So you found him," a stentorian voice booms from above us as the sound of wings accompanies a tall, swarthy-male drifting down to eye level. I watch carefully but only see the tips of his wings folding up behind him. This Angel is definitely not a ghost.
"Jasper is mine. It is written. Whence have you come, Jacob?"
"I saw his name on the Rolls of the Dead; curious about the timing." The powerfully built and completely naked creature has long dark hair that floats about his shoulders. It looks like a parlor trick, but may be natural. His skin is flushed and rosy from effort expended to catch up with us. He is several inches taller than my Angel and much more heavily muscled. He lacks any sexual organs. A Eunuch?
Edward shivers behind me; can this new being hear my thoughts, too? My protector assumes a defensive posture, leading me to believe it's anyone's game here.
"It is written," he stubbornly repeats.
"Perhaps he'd rather try his luck with me?"
Instinctively, this guinea pig leans toward the treadmill he knows over one that has my Angel trembling on his unshod feet. "I'm staying with Edward," I pipe up loyally, but can't help wondering if my new acquaintance has had more than one pupil.
"Thousands," Edward mutters. "And Jacob's still alone."
"Edward! Edd-warrd? Heh-heh—good one. Oh, well. And boys? Alone or not, at least I have my Brothers," my new acquaintance beams.
An Afterlife filled with scores of his Brothers is a sobering image.
"Too bad Edward found you first," he continues. "But I suppose it was inevitable, given your history."
"What history?" I ask, understanding something important is being left out here.
"You haven't told him yet, have you?" Jacob is definitely gloating over his discovery.
"He will know the truth at the proper time." Edward is once again on the defensive.
"Wish I could stick around to see it. But I'm on patrol. Sightings on the Northern perimeter. We were friends once, Jasper. I'd like to revisit that, sometime." And then he unfurls what must be the longest wings I've ever seen in my limited experience of same, and with a fury of sound and dazzlement to mine eyes, Jacob turns and sweeps away from our position. I watch in amazement as his form shrinks to a small point of light that disappears completely from sight in less than a minute.
If there's a good explanation for this, I want to hear it from Edward's ruby lips.
"All in good time," he again attempts to placate me.
That was a rather incredible trick that Jacob pulled off, disappearing like that, I muse.
"I possess many talents those of the inferior Powers Choir do not share."
"So Jacob is a member of a rival Angel gang named the Powers, eh? What's the name of your gang, Edward?" I mentally place elegant, graceful Edward astride the new Ducati Diavel, with its sleek style and dollops of Mediterranean passion. But Jacob and his band of brothers running patrols? Husky-owners, I decide, especially the off-road models.
"The Choirs are not like rival motorcycle gangs, Jasper."
Another Belief shot to hell. "You've heard of the Hell's Angels, Edward?"
"Your confusion is understandable, I suppose." He hesitates, reluctance obvious before continuing, "But in truth, I form a Choir of the Dominations."
Domination? Is he serious? "Do you and your boys understand the current associations of your tag?"
"The perversion is a constant thorn in our side. No less than H'Aro himself has sought an explanation for it. We believe it to be the Devil's work."
"So there's a hierarchy among Angels?"
"As among the Human living, yes."
"Why did Jacob say 'we were friends, once'—was he speaking to me or to you?"
"Accuracy and honesty demands that I advise you: both of us."
"Does this have anything to do with reincarnation?"
After another interminably long pause, he decides. "Perhaps your visit to St. Peter is overdue after all," regret straining his voice. "I cannot answer most of your questions."
I'm actually intrigued by the idea of meeting St. Peter of Pearly Gates fame, the biblical celebrity, the lying Peter of 'before the cock crows three times' notoriety.
Edward interrupts me with, "Umm, Jasper, those Pearly Gates that open to the sounds of birdsong and clang shunt? Prepare to be disappointed."
I take the news in stride. I'm just recently Dead. What more can the Afterlife throw at me?
"Worse, I'm afraid, sweet Jasper. You'll be stripped forever of the memory of your corporeal flesh. It is a necessary precaution before entering the Kingdom."
Before I protest the decision that requires I sacrifice the memory of my mortality, Edward interrupts again with, "I'd like to kiss you now. Just one, before the opportunity is forever lost to us." A look of undeniable longing passes over his features, one I recognize as wanting someone who doesn't want you back.
Still, I hesitate; I've not kissed anyone since Alice. But after a year devoid of passion, and now facing the rest of eternity without it, Edward may not be my first choice, but he will have to do.
"Just keep it G-rated," I admonish, and he nods meekly. I close my eyes and prepare to think of English actors I once admired.
As Edward's beautiful ruby lips weave a delicate trail up the side of my neck and skim along the line of my jaw, I relax into the sensations evoked by his gentle explorations. His warm body is a balm to my nerves, his embrace once again a welcome haven on this first day of my Death.
Unexpectedly, tears prick the corners of my eyes at the sudden knowledge that this is what it means to feel cherished by an Angel.
Amazed, I turn to face him, and meet eyes blazing with an unearthly fire. "O, Jasper, expectavi diu te," he whispers. My sigh is lost in his soft welcoming kiss that seems to go on and on, a sweet and blissful entanglement unlike any other in my life, and I want more. His fingers trace soothing patterns over my back and along my sides, radiating love. I've never felt more exalted.
The perfect melding of our imagined bodies stirs an elusive memory, no more than a spark, but it is enough.
"I do know you!" I murmur in astonishment.
"You are mine, and I am yours, forever. It is written," he affirms, his cheeks flushed with happiness and desire.
Hmmm. How does one tell an enamored Angel, 'I like you, but I'm not quite ready for that yet' without risking being dropped from 10,000 feet?
It appears I'm about to find out.
A/N: Even in the Afterlife, Jacob wants what Edward has. Thanks for reading. xoxo
Mal'akh: Hebrew for Angel or Messenger
An Angel hierarchy: Seraphim—Cherubim—Thrones-Dominations (Edward)—Virtues-Powers (Jacob)—Principalities—Archangels-Angels (Guardians)—ranging from most God-like to most Human.
expectavi diu te = long have I waited for you (an approximate translation)