by J Moon
A sensual wave of heat came over her the more she admired him from afar. Gabe’s chiseled ebony chest glistened in the faint light. His face a vision of masculine perfection. Large full pink lips, covered by the softest beard she had ever seen. So soft she could imagine how it would tickle her face if he kissed her burning lips. Damn Nia thought to herself as she bit her lip. A moan rushed from her lips and the archangel opened his eyes.
“Oh it’s you,” he said.
“You look so much better. Deadass,” Nia said as she walked from the corner.
The archangel thought to himself how striking she was with her hair kinky coils hair bouncing off her shoulders.
Nia grabbed his hands, he was still warm. His skin felt on fire. “Are you healing yourself?”
“I’m trying to,” he answered. “I’m meditating… it’s working but it will only last for a moment. Hellfire poisoning is nasty, almost like an infection or disease. I will still die if I don’t get it out of my system.”
“Don’t worry we will figure something out.”
The archangel cracked a smile. “I’m not worried dear, I have faith.”
Nia echoed his expression. “Well let’s hope it works out.” Her hand traveled up his arm until she felt his sweat drenched chest. Suddenly Nia jerked in surprise when she felt two rhythms stir. “What the hell?” Nia inched closer to him, her knee resting on his thigh. She pressed her hands on his chest and leaned in. “Do you have two hearts.”
Gabe snickered. “No,” He replied. He took her hand, “This is my heart and this,” he said as he moved her hand lower to his hard abs. “This is my grace.”
“Your grace,” Nia echoed with her eyes widened.
“Yes,” he replied. “Do you feel it?”
Nia closed her eyes and focused on the rhythm of the throbbing in his chest. No more than a few heartbeats did she feel it, all the emotions, joy, peace, and happiness flooded her mind.
Her hands trembled as a strange warmth filled her soul. It was an odd yet familiar sensation. It reminded Nia of being a child, of dancing with her mom, and going to Coney Island for the first time. An infectious joy that was immeasurable spread over her body like wildfire. “Is this what it feels like to be an angel. Is this what Heaven feels like.”
Gabe pointed his eyebrows. “Yes.” He said as he flashed his signature smile. “This is what it feels like to be in touch with the Creator, to walk in his light.”
Nia swallowed hard, “I never felt anything like this.”
“It’s in you too,” Gabe added. “The same grace granted to me had been given to you too.”
A flood of emotions brought tears to her eyes. Then a fit of laughter took over them both. Nia caressed the side of Gabe’s neck and swallowed hard. She had been fighting her desire for a long time but now it felt like a dam about to explode or cup that would over flow, the power of her emotions was strong enough to stir her to action.
Nia reached up with a soft hand and pit it across his lips. “I want to feel your grace inside of me. You are the most kind, handsome, and gentle man I’ve ever came across in my life. I want you to feel my body.
I want to remember this,
Make it a night I’ll never forget. You can do anything you like. Tell me how you want it and I can make you feel good. I may be young but I’m ready. I never felt anything so strong, so real like this. Just let me feel you.”
“Nia,” Gabe whispered in a moan.
His lips itched to protest, but Nia silenced him with a finger. A groan traveled through him as she stroked his wooly beard. His nipples ached as the pleasure made him swallow hard. The remarkable girl had no idea what she was doing to him. His touch soon became her wetness, and then evaporated to once again only be his dry palm. The barrier was maddening. Sweat soaked him as his stomach, his thighs, his buttocks, and back muscles clenched and released to the pace she set. “Nia, we can’t do this. It is forbidden.”
Nia cradled his face as she moved closer to him. “Why not? What’s so wrong with something so real? So natural? So beautiful? It’s alright.”
In one swift move she pulled off her top and straddled him. Never before would she do such a bold move. But she had been used to being with boys. Gabe was a man. More than a man, a warrior, a protector. God’s perfection. He was an angel. She whipped her hair to the side and lowered her mouth to take in his breath, and bathe in his scent. With her hair dangling over her perky breasts under the faint warm light from the table lamp from across the room, her brown eyes glittered with a fervor that was magnetic.
The archangel panted as he ran his brutish hands up her spine. She was tempting and causing an agonizing pain. A pain that distracted him from his wounds and built a pressure that lodged in his shaft. His sword throbbed so badly tears came to his eyes. Pain collided with unyielding passion making his body break out in cold sweats. Nia touched foreheads with his and the moment he felt her grab his bulging chest, he closed his eyes.
Nia’s lips hungered desperately for the archangel’s kiss, she could still feel his grace burgeoning deep within her. Just as she thought the archangel wouldn’t give in, he ran his hands over her round, tight behind, sealing the space between them and pulling her close.
His sensual touch drew breath out of her body, she arched her back and sighed out. Nia clutched the back of the archangel’s head and buried it between her chest. Softly he kissed each of her hard nips. Then he took the left into his mouth, and adorned the nipple with the delicate strokes of his tongue. A high moan rushed out of her lips. In the moment he was reminded of Queen Cleopatra, she was one of the archangel’s many companions on his most dangerous missions. She too sought to turn the archangel into a lover. Just like Nia she had come dangerously close to robbing him of his grace.
The memory fleeted away from his mind as Nia massaged his head and directed the pleasure of his kisses. Each of her soft cocoa nibs on his lips, and in his face were conjuring sensations between his thighs, mirroring the sweet nectar that dribbled out of his hard shaft. “You foolish young girl, you don’t understand the consequences.”
She looked him in the eyes. “But I would risk it all. All to be with you.”
Nia stripped his breath with her words, and paralyzed him with her intent gaze. The archangel knew the girl meant everything she said. Somehow he had awoken something deep her. What terrified him the most was that she did the same to him. This danger was more peril than anything a demon could ensnare him in.
Cool beads of sweat crept between Gabe’s shoulder and chest until they united into a silent trickle down his washboard eight pack. The archangel could feel panic bubbling within him, and he had never been the kind of man to outright freak about anything. But this seduction, an attack on all fronts, was scaring the hell out of him. His next action took his fear over the edge. He kissed her with not only passion but with tender affection as he held her close. It was earth shattering, mountain moving, and incredibly powerful.
With his chest heaving, Gabe breathed slowly to subside the rising passion building in his flesh. He had to think calmly. “There have been many women who have sought to rob me of my grace. Most of them queens of legendary kingdoms, others noble women, actresses, models, heiresses, and debutantes. Right here and right now I have never been so close to fall into this folly. I beg of you…. please grant me this sweetest mercy and end this temptation. Trust me I look good for my age but I am too old and too wizened. Nothing must stop the mission.”
“Nothing will, because I want to help you. I have never felt anything like this coming from where I’m from. The slums, ghetto and hard life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m Brooklyn to the death of me. But the life I live has robbed me of my dreams. When I am with you I feel like I can dream again. I’ve never felt like this before.”
Nia closed her eyes and threw her head back and began grinding on him again. The erotic rhythm of her hips quaked him, and every motion made him beg her to stop. “Please just love me. I need to feel your grace inside of me
,” she moaned, her tone urgent and desperate just like the movement in her hips. Nia allowed the sensation of him being inside her to enthrall her mind. She could feel his sword begging to be released from sheath and pierce her deeply.
Gabe’s hand continued to stroke her back, tracing the deep curve that went to her firm, soft bottom. It felt like the softest place on earth to the archangel. He grabbed it firmly, roughly, without the elegance or courtesy he had given with the initial touch. The whimper made her shudder and seek the archangel’s mouth to kiss her gently.
As small passionate breaths separated the two lovers, the temptation was too much for the archangel. There was too much on the line to risk it all. Suddenly he threw her off of him. “Stand back Jezebel,” he spat. “Nothing must come between me and the mission.” He said huffing. “I will not let anything compromise my grace.” His voice quieted down and he erupted into a nasty coughing fit. Bits of silver and phlegm came out of his mouth.
A hard silence strangled the room as Nia looked at him in awe. For a moment, a split second she saw something in the archangel she hadn’t seen before. Wrath. A fury.
She covered her breasts, snatched her top and went back into Zora’s bedroom. Nia walked away with the silhouette of her path being traced by the light on the table and etched by the wind that blew from the open window filtering between the curtains.
The pain took him over and the archangel fell back to sleep. All he could remember before the sleep swept over him, was his incredible desire.
Chapter Seventeen
The next morning Nia woke and apart of her dreaded facing the archangel after last night. A part of her was so embarrassed that she got carried away, honestly she didn’t know what came over her. But the archangel’s grace, tapping into it unlocked so many feelings she had long buried within her heart.
Nia walked out into the living room to see Zora caring for him. When he saw her, Gabe frowned for a second, as Zora pulled back his bandages, and his face burst out into one of his sudden dazzling smiles. “Good morning Ms. Carter,” he said in a forced voice that sounded weak.
Zora dabbed his forehead with a clean cloth. “He’s not getting any better,” she said without looking up.
“I will need a shaman,” Gabe stammered. Hellfire is a poison and I’m badly infected. I need to get the poison out my system to heal.”
Nia looked over to see Langston looming over her shoulder. “I don’t know a Shaman but I have heard of a good root doctor. If there is a way to cure the archangel then Dr. Miracle will know.”
“Where is he?” Zora asked.
“They say he lives all the way in Bayside. So I would have to leave right now.”
Josephine walked into the room, clutching a robe. “Does this root doctor have a phone number? Can’t you call him up. That’s what you do for doctors right?”
Langston wanted to laugh. “No, he doesn’t give out his number. But I have an address. I’ll head out now and be back before sun down.”
“Good I’m coming with you.” Nia insisted.
“Then who will stay with him?” Langston asked.
“I will.” Zora said as she pulled out her last cigarette and lit it. “I’ll take good care of him.”
“And me too,” Josephine rounded the corner in a silk robe.
Gabe grabbed her arm. “No, you are our way in. We have to get into the Cotton Club.”
“One of my good girlfriends is supposed to get me a gig there while I’m back in town. I can sneak us in, but I have to go to the rehearsals this afternoon.”
Gabe released his grip on her arm. “Go then. The mission is all that matters.”
Nia looked over at Gabe, who was unusually tense. He seemed troubled and was looking carefully at everything, weighing it up. Nia brought him back to the present. “Don’t worry Gabe, we will save you.”
Gabe smiled.
Langston stepped into the coat closet and grabbed his fedora hat.
“Come on Nia. I don’t believe the archangel has any time to waste.”
They left the apartment together, a little after ten thirty a.m. Langston led Nia through the winding streets of Harlem towards the subway. The sunlight dazzled down on them, making Nia squint as she followed behind Langston. A bright early morning walks through Harlem reminded Nia she was in the 1920s. At first it all seemed to be some vivid dream, but it was all too real. The people were different, along with the neighborhood, and even the air.
Langston thought for a second and said, “Gabe looks terrible. I’ve only heard vague things about Dr. Miracle, stories about how he cured some of the ailments from people all over New York.”
Nia shrugged, “If he is the only shot we got then we have to take it.”
They turned past the theatre and walked onto the main street. Nia knew this Harlem vaguely. The streets were packed with shoppers and she could tell it was a Saturday morning by the number of families walking the street. A small part of her wanted to break out and explore the city, but she didn’t have the time. The archangel needed her. He had saved her once and now it was time for her to return the favor. Once they walked two blocks off Main Street, they went into the subway.
Far fewer negroes lived in Bayside than in Harlem. The whole ride there they got uncomfortable stares from white passengers once they rode past the usual negro stops. Some of these passengers stood and asked were they lost or had they forgotten their stop. Throughout the train car people gawked at them. At four different times white men went out of their way to ask them where they were going. These weren’t offers to help him get there. They were attempts to make them uncomfortable.
Nia was becoming more tense and pissed each moment. It took everything for Nia not to lose her cool. She wanted to swing on everyone in their cart. Her acid tongue was burning hot in her mouth. Never before had she experienced such blatant racism. She was used to this type of behavior coming from the cops that patrol her neighborhood, stopping black kids for no reason, but she didn’t witness the behavior from a whole community. When they finally reached their stop, Nia couldn’t be even happier. A bevy of eyes followed them as they got off the train.
Once they got off, Langston pulled out the scrap of paper in his pocket with the address. For a few seconds he studied the address and led the way to the house. Nia was shocked. Queens of 1920 looked totally different from what it was now.
“Are you familiar with the area?”
“Hell no,” She snapped.
“But I thought you said you were from Brooklyn. You’ve never came out to Queens?”
Nia sighed, “I’m from the other side.”
Langston raised an eyebrow, “The other side.”
Nia smiled uncomfortably. “Would you believe me if I told I was from another time?”
Langston stopped walking as he considered it. Then he nodded his head. “Yes actually.”
Nia was taken back. “Really?”
Langston nodded. “I’ve been around Gabe twice before and I know nothing ever makes sense with the archangel.”
“What do you mean?”
“When we first met Gabriel. Zora and I were in Tennessee. It was during our road trip down south. Our car caught a flat, and we were stuck somewhere out in the boons. When we thought the night couldn’t get any worse, a car pulled up filled with four white men. There was something off with these men. We thought they might be racists, and I was prepared to handle that but it was more to them. They were demons. All of them had black eyes. Soulless and pure evil. Just when we thought we would be on our way to glory, Gabe showed up and smite them all. He even helped change the tire.”
Nia smiled. “That’s amazing.”
“How about you?”
“The same thing. He showed up, turned up and saved me. This all happened so recently and I’ve been with him ever since.”
“Yes, like I said nothing ever makes sense. He also saved us from this weird shape-shifting monster made of goo, which was killing people. We were trapped at a speakeasy one n
ight in Manhattan. So what time are you from.”
“2019.”
Langston snatched his cap off. “Get out of here!”
“Yeah and everything is totally different. Well some things stay the same but you would love it. There is so much to tell you.”
Langston grabbed Nia. “Wait... wait. I’ve read enough books to discern that knowing too much about the future can bring problems to the past. Something about a butterfly effect, but I’m still very curious to know. So how about this, tell me three things about the future. Don’t tell me about my death because that’s something no man wants to know. Tell me about our people. Are things better for us? What do we become?”
Nia started. “Well yes and no. For starters we had a black president.”
“No, you don’t say.”
“Yes.”
“Wait,” Langston said as he winced. “How many black presidents do we have?”
Nia shrugged as she hunched her shoulders. “Only one, his name is Barack Obama.”
“Oh. Well it only took a hundred years. I honestly thought it will never happen so I’ll take it.”
“And we have equal rights. There were these two famous leaders Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Then there was this whole civil rights movement in the south. Where black people boycotted, and we got our voice heard in the 60’s.”
Langston beamed. “Well I hope I’m around for that at least.”
“And that brings me to one of the biggest things. Your work means so much to our culture. You become one of the biggest writers not just for African Americans but in history.”
Langston froze. “Wow. You’ve got to be kidding me.” He looked to Nia with tears swelling in his eyes. “ To realize you have a place in this world and to know your art has meaning,” the notion of it all began to overwhelm him. “Well what do I—” Langston caught himself. “Don’t tell me anymore. You’ve told me a plenty Nia and I thank you. You’ve given me hope.”