by J. L. Myers
Of course, Michael would not have revealed his retaliation that could have ended Lucifer’s life. He would only have laid out the way Lucifer had attacked him. “Michael. Who else?” Though he longed to keep her touch, Lucifer rose up from his knees and paced. “He provoked me. Taunted me. I reacted badly, but his face…it will heal.”
“His face?” Gabriel looked utterly confused—and horrified—her hands still raised before her now tainted by his silver blood.
Lucifer gulped. Michael had not told her, he had not come here to paint Lucifer in a darker image than he already had been described in. But why?
“What did you do, Lucifer?”
Gabriel’s question deterred the growing suspicion that tumbled his insides like a spinning free-fall. “I had to get out. I had to come to you.” When he stepped forward to take her bloody hands, Gabriel rose up quickly and stepped back. He sighed. “Michael is fine. His flesh wounds were but a fraction of what mine are. But what he said…” Raising his eyebrows, his pleading eyes silently asked permission to come closer.
When Gabriel failed to deny him, Lucifer chanced a slow step, then another and another until he was close enough to gather up her hands with his own.
“You should not allow Michael’s taunts to provoke you.” Gabriel sighed deeply, her folded wings rising and then drooping. “And you should not be here. I do not deny anything. It was my choice to lock you away, and I loathed to do it, but I wanted to protect—”
“It is not you I need protection from. Without you, everything is meaningless.”
“Lucifer, stop. Please. You cannot speak these things. You cannot think them.”
“I could not stop even if I wanted to. And I do not.” His grip on her hands tightened as she went to pull away. The pressure sent throbbing pain from his raw palms up through his arms, but he refused to let her go. “We do not have long.” Proof of passing souls still lit up the atmosphere, but it wouldn’t last forever. “Please, I need you to hear me out.”
“Long?” Gabriel glanced behind her at the tree as if expecting someone to appear. “Why? What is going to happen?”
Seeing that she was fully ready to listen with her resistance to his touch easing up, Lucifer spoke fast. Once Michael came to deliver his death sentence, he would know Lucifer had escaped his cage, and this would be the first place he would come to find him—to deliver him to God for his ultimate punishment. But Lucifer planned to be long gone before then. “God acts below. The floods ride the land like a suffocating blanket. Humans perish. After what I did, my sentence is surely coming. Our maker has no indecision in wiping out his creations, whether bad, good, sinner or innocent. Almost all of mankind is being annihilated.”
Sudden guilt graced her pale face, but it didn’t last long. A line of confusion formed between Gabriel’s eyebrows. “What are you saying, Lucifer?” The murky water plunging down into the pond stopped, and total silence settled all around. Only the sound of his own heart beating in his ears was present along with the quickening breath from Gabriel’s lips. She had stalled the water, but she seemed not to even notice the change, her eyes widening as she came to the conclusion Lucifer already had himself. “No. God would never.”
“Women, children, babies that have not even had cause to sin.” Lucifer released her hands to cup her face, coming in so close it was torture not to taste her. “I am a sinner for all that I feel that is not free for me to feel. For all that I have done.” His piercing silvery eyes dropped to her lips, and Gabriel gasped. He so badly wanted to kiss her, to be connected with her in that way, but now was not the time. “My turn is coming. My extermination. Michael declared as much.”
“I will never let anyone hurt you, Lucifer. I will stop—”
“You have no power to change this. Not up here under the chains in which we serve.”
“What do you mean—not up here?”
Under the pulsing sky, Lucifer gave in to his needs for the briefest moment, brushing his lips against her rosy ones. Tasting her sweet breath on his tongue as he drew back, he pleaded with his eyes. “Leave this place. Leave the above for good. Come to Earth…with me.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
“I…I can’t.”
Those simple words hit Lucifer like being blasted out of the Realm of Light by God’s own almighty power. His hands flung back from her face like her touch had jolted him with zaps of lightning. He stepped back from Gabriel who stared up at him with sorrow. Sharp twigs and burned roots dug into the soles of his feet, but he didn’t feel it. The only sensation that resonated throughout his entire body was pain that felt like the blood in his veins had turned into fire. Knowing his life was to end, she had refused him. His voice broke and his eyes burned. “You condemn me to my fate.”
Gabriel’s hands were the ones to come together now, palms joined in pleading. “No. Never. It is not too late to mend this. Repent and God will grant you his forgiveness. I know he will. Please, Lucifer. I cannot turn against God and my devotion to Him. I am an archangel. His messenger. My life is not my own. Not now and not ever.” A steady stream of tears forged torrents down her beautiful face as she said the words. The pain in her glassy eyes broke his heart into a million unfixable pieces. “I belong here, not down there. As do you.”
Lucifer roared his frustration and desperation, filling the silent scorched landscape with the sounds of his torment. “You are wrong. So tragically wrong.” He had been so sure she would come with him, that she would stand by him as she always had. He had been so sure of what they shared. Had he been wrong all this time? Had everything between them been distortedly one-sided and he’d merely been too blind to see it?
“Do not do that, Lucifer.” Gabriel was before him in an instant. Her wings quivered as she clutched for his hands that he tugged away from her. “Do not think what you are thinking. It is written all over your face. I see it. All of it. Do not let this taint who you really are. Don’t let it change you.”
Lucifer stared at her, the pain of his emotions crippling his expression and making his words sharp. “I am already changed. And I am an outcast. Soon I will be no more, and you will remain, knowing I stayed because of you. For it is true, I cannot live without you. I will not. I would rather kneel before His almighty presence and accept my total obliteration. I would rather die than live knowing I can never be near you. That I can never have you.” He struck out fast as lightning, clutching her shoulders in a punishing grip. The tears that fell faster down her face doused his ire like rain over a blazing fire. His hold on her softened, and he pressed his lips to her forehead. “Forgive me, Gabriel. I never want to see you sad or hurt. I never want to be the cause for your tears, yet it seems I cannot control it. I have tried, so hard I have tried. I wanted to be good. I wanted to be worthy.” Despite her usual resolve, Gabriel leaned in close to him. Lucifer laid his forehead against her own, sliding his hands along her shoulders then neck, causing her to tremble before arriving at her wet cheeks. Where the heel of his palm grazed the side of her neck, he felt the erratic racing of her pulse. It was as fast as his. “I…I am in love with you, Gabriel.”
Gabriel gasped, jerking her face back out of his hands. Her tears stopped. “You…?”
The smallest of smiles tugged at one corner of Lucifer’s mouth. He could not deny his confession. What would be the point? He nodded in answer of the remaining words she seemed unable to utter. “With all my heart and soul.”
Lucifer expected her to step away from him, to tell him his feelings were wrong and unnatural. He feared she might laugh or declare him obscene or ridiculous for feeling such things when he was a heavenly creation of God’s own machinations, a pure being. Except, she did not do a single one of those things.
Catching Lucifer’s hands that hung in the air from where he’d held her face, she stepped so close to him that there was no space left between their bodies. The only separation that remained was her white robe and his war clothes. Staring up into his eyes that narrowed with confusion, she laced h
er long, delicate fingers through his larger, calloused ones. With her chest rising and falling faster and faster, pressing and relieving her breasts from his pecs, her lips parted. “I feel it too. My heart…it races at your presence, at your touch, at your…”
Lucifer hissed when her gaze fell to his lips, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it would soon burst through his ribs. He caught her face in his hands, bringing his lips so close to hers. With every ounce of restraint, he denied himself the taste of her blushed lips, feeling her faster breaths pant across his own mouth and chin. “Tell me you do not feel the same. Tell me to stop. Tell me—and I will.”
A sound of anguish escaped her waiting mouth, her eyes searching his as if seeing into his very soul. Her hand gently snaked around his neck. Gabriel moved ever so slowly as the look in her eyes intensified. Arching up on her toes, she brought her lips closer to his. “I…I can’t.” Lucifer pressed his lips to hers, kissing her with emotion that mirrored in her eyes right before her lids squeezed shut. And then it was all over. Lucifer’s worry for the future, his fear of losing her, his last remaining resistance to control his actions, it all melted away, leaving nothing but a desperate hunger that ignited in him with a force that could never be doused. She loved him, Lucifer the outcast, the angel that brought shame to God’s archangels. She…loved him.
Giving in to every desire he had ever harbored for her, Lucifer kissed Gabriel with total abandon. Twigs snapped and dead foliage scraped under his feet, but Lucifer didn’t care. Her body against his melted and her lips opened for him, inviting him inside. When her hands released his, he almost expected her to shove him away. But she didn’t. Instead, her hands speared up into his golden hair, pulling him closer as her tongue swept into his mouth, dancing with his own. Their breaths were hot and fast, and they only quickened as Lucifer dared to curl his tense fingers around her waist. Sliding one hand around her back, he lifted her from the scarred ground, pressing her body to his. Gabriel gasped, no doubt able to feel the hardness that had overtaken him below. Lucifer lowered her back down quickly, fighting his hunger for her to release her waist from his trapping arm. “I am sorry. I—”
“Shhh…” Gabriel raised a finger to his wet lips, stilling his apology. “There is nothing to be sorry for. Not now and not ever. What I feel for you, it has always been there, begging for release. I tried so hard to be strong, to remain pure. But I cannot do it any longer.” Her fast breaths quickened as a stray smile brightened her face. “I am here. With you. I…” She laid a hand against his chest, biting down on her bottom lip in a way that made Lucifer groan. “I want this…”
Stunned into total stillness, the gentle kisses she planted against his collarbone above the strap of his leather chest covering woke him back up. Daring to move, he reached up and took hold of the silky material that draped from her shoulders. Waiting for her reluctance as she stared up at him, he found none. The biting of her lip again only showed her nervousness that lacked any refusal.
Barely able to contain his breathing, Lucifer gently, slowly edged the material from one of her shoulders. The flesh that was bared burned his eyes with his intense staring as if he were looking at the sun. Like her face and neck, her skin there was flawless and pale. Sliding the material off the other shoulder, the cover lost its ability to drape from her slight frame as it fell in a heap to the blackened ground. Lucifer hissed at the sight of her small round breasts and their blushed peaks that hardened under his stare. His head felt airy as his perusal of her stunning form continued down the gentle curve of her waist to her stomach and hips. The glimpse of what was nestled between her legs almost brought him to his knees. “Gabriel, I…” He could not speak another word. His tongue tied in his throat. The reality that this was actually happening, that she was standing before him bared naked and watching him, not with fear or uncertainty, but with need, was almost too much to bear.
Gabriel stepped closer again, cupping her hand to his cheek. “I know. I feel it too.” Rising up, she kissed him slowly and sweetly. Her other hand unhooked the strap over his shoulder, before doing the same to the opposing side. Lucifer’s leathers fell in a heap, the last pieces falling from his waist with a tug at the lower binding—and then there was nothing left to separate them. Their naked bodies kissed, coming together as if they had been made to fit one another. As if they had been fated from the very beginning to join together and become one.
Lucifer’s arms curved around her again, pressing her to him as he kissed her hard. Everything he felt and feared he may never experience again drove him on. He imprinted the taste of her to his memory, along with the feel of her breasts as they pressed into his ribs, and his hardness that throbbed against her in barely contained restraint. With her hand on his waist and the other gliding down the peak of his chest to the ripples of his abdomen, Lucifer felt more alive than he ever had before. He felt invincible and starved at the same time. Keeping one hand around her back to hold her close, he slid his other to the gentle curve of her waist, his touch rough but slow moving as he shifted up. Each rib slid under his fingers, feeling her skin becoming damp with sweat as he too began to perspire. Even with the heat between them, Gabriel’s porcelain skin prickled as if feeling a sudden chill. Lucifer extended his wings, cocooning her naked body and sealing in their body heat. Kissing her harder, he reached her breast. Lucifer’s touch softened, cupping and kneading, and then pinching.
Gabriel gasped against his lips.
The reaction urged him on further, and he withdrew his hand from her back, sliding it down over her backside and then forward to reach between her legs. She was ready for him, moaning as he touched and rubbed her wet, heated flesh. Her breaths panted harder, her soft moans becoming louder. When she edged up on her toes, lifting one leg, it was a signal Lucifer could not refrain from acting on. He grabbed ahold of himself, sliding the thick tip —
Gabriel’s sudden rigidness stalled him in motion, freezing his directing hand between her thighs. At first, he thought she had changed her mind, that she was rejecting him. But then he felt it: the growing vibration of someone else’s presence. They were no longer alone. This moment, this sacred exchange between them that would never occur again had been interrupted.
Stolen from them.
Lucifer’s wings curved tighter around Gabriel in his arms, shielding her bared body from sight. Over the cover, he glanced out, knowing who had arrived through the tree even before he caught sight of him. The red-faced angel stood with his arms crossed over his chest and the angel sword in easy reach at his side. Pure disgust ruled his features, while every visible muscle over his formidable frame bulged and twitched. “Michael.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Gabriel dropped into a crouch within the shelter of Lucifer’s great, white wings. Her heart drummed wildly in her chest, and a wave of tingles attacked her suddenly chilled skin. Gathering up her robe, she stabbed her arms through the holes, covering her naked body as if doing so could erase the fact that Michael had walked into her garden and caught her in Lucifer’s arms. Caught naked. Caught touching, kissing, inviting of Lucifer and his exploring hands.
Oh, dear God. What had she done?
She had been so strong, so refusing…until those six words had left his mouth. Six words that she could not deny the reciprocation of her returned feelings. I am in love with you.
“Your pure as snow wings cannot hide your sins, Lucifer,” Michael grated with such disgust that she imagined the severity of his expression and felt the threat of malice in his voice. “Nor can they remove the stain you have cast upon our heavenly sister.”
Kneeling at Lucifer’s feet, Gabriel saw every muscle along his legs pop with tension. Glancing up while trying not to look at his ready hardness, she saw his fists clench into weapons of punishment. “Your black-and-white view on how we should live is the only thing that is wrong here, Michael. What Gabriel and I share can never be wrong. This feeling…”
Snapping her eyelids shut, Gabriel tugged Lucifer
’s fallen leathers up as he flung his shielding wings open wide. She wasn’t fast enough. Gabriel knew it as Michael growled his anger at the sight of Lucifer below the waist. Still, she continued on fumbling to refasten the covering around his waist as Lucifer’s rebuttal continued.
“…that I have for Gabriel, my eternal and undying love, it could never be wrong.”
Michael freed the angel sword and strode forward. He pointed the blade at Lucifer as hatred raged in his eyes. Shocked at Michael’s callousness, Gabriel froze—until Lucifer swept her behind his back, keeping her from harm as Michael poked the deadly weapon at the underside of his jaw.
Michael’s teeth clenched, his seething words escaping with only the movement of his lips. “We are angels of God. The first and purest beings after Him.” He stepped closer, his wild eyes flicking over Lucifer’s shoulder down at Gabriel. She recovered from her shock and tried to pull free, but Lucifer’s hands grabbed hold of her arms behind him as Michael’s rant continued. “Free of the downfalls and trappings of human emotion. It is our duty to lead the many on the right path. To not scorn our purity for mortal longings.” He returned his glare to Lucifer who tightened his hold on her arms. “Yet you have done precisely that. You have defiled yourself and your heavenly sister with your selfish desires. You are a disgrace. Unworthy. A sinner.”
“Let me go.” Gabriel tugged harder.
“Never.” Rather than attempt to remove the pointed blade from his flesh, Lucifer leaned into it. A trail of glittering silver slid down the gleaming length. “Then you have come to deliver my damnation. My annihilation?”
Michael’s smile was cruel and something Gabriel had never seen grace his face before—a kind of deadly anticipation. “Though I long to remove the threat you cause to us all, no. I am not here to end you, Lucifer. I knew you would come. I knew where you would go and what you would do. You think the damage I caused to your prison was accidental?”