Rising Above

The elevator stopped, the door opened, and Lilith nervously ran her fingers through her long blond hair as she opened the door to her living quarters, showing Gabriel in. The apartment was filled with the sophisticated opulence of their past; furniture, antiques, and art that all took Gabriel back to a rosier time with her.

After Lilith had left, Gabriel had ascended back to heaven for some time, leaving all the things they’d once owned together behind. That Lilith had collected and kept them meant so much to him. He smiled, embracing all the objects with his eyes, so glad to see that Lilith had not only held onto them for so many years but had also taken such meticulously good care of the articles from her past with him.

There was the pink and gold brocade settee that had sat at the foot of their bed in 1767 Paris, a Federal mirror with it’s peculiar convex glass, thick gold frame with the laurel leaves and eagle on the top from their Gettysburg farmhouse in 1863 hung over the blue and white marble fireplace front from their villa in Rome. On the fireplace mantle were Lilith’s ever present collection of snake figurines; some were lead crystal, others were Majolica pottery, some were bone china, a few were Murano glass, and while they were breathtaking in color and design work, Gabriel had always abhorred them. No matter where he and she set up house, during whatever year, Lilith always placed her collection of snakes on a shelf near his side of their bed, so that the first thing Gabriel would see each morning were snakes, and what he’d done to her. At one time Lilith must have had over one hundred snakes, but as he and she were prone to arguments, Gabriel had smashed several of them to bits on many occasions. He sighed, wishing he’d had the presence of mind all those years ago to totally wipe out her collection, for he was so tired of seeing those damn snakes.

However, he decided to not focus on the snakes any longer, for he was giving Lilith the chance to salvage their relationship and he couldn’t do it if he was worked up about some clay and glass snakes. He looked past the fireplace mantle, but hanging on the wall beside it was another sight that made Gabriel wrinkle up his nose.

He found himself staring at Jan van Eyck’s painting, “The Annunciation” from about 1425-30. Lily had found it one day in 1854 as they strolled through a Dutch museum, running over to him giggling and dragging him off to view his likeness with curly strawberry blond locks, beautiful flowing red robes, and a silly grin on his fair and womanly face; he looked just like someone’s darling little daughter, done up like the fairy queen. Gabriel had not been impressed then with van Eyck’s rendering, and was not now.

“You kept that?” He exclaimed, for a moment forgetting the crisis at hand.

“Of course I did, I kept a lot things,” Lilith answered, trying to settle herself for what she knew must come and wishing they could just get to it. “Besides, you didn’t want it, you said you hated it.”

“And I do! I look like Glenda the Good Witch!” He said with a spiteful growl. “That looks maybe like Simon, but definitely not like me!” He brought his finger to his lips, blowing on it and touching it to the painting, which instantly combusted and burned away, leaving everything else around it undisturbed. Now that the image was gone, Gabriel smiled, turning away from the smoking, charred wall towards her. “Now, I believe you have something to tell me?” He sat down on the remarkably well cared for church pew from the church he was Deacon of in colonial Williamsburg, crossing his legs, making himself at home, for so much of the furniture in the apartment had come from some place they had once called ‘home’ together.

“Gabriel,” Lilith began, not sure if she could continue as she moved towards him. She was so much at unrest with what she was about to do she’d barely even noticed he’d destroyed one of the most famous interpretations of The Annunciation in Western Art. She hadn’t stopped thinking of what she’d figured out the truth was since she’d impeded him from leaving. She knew what she must do, it had been a long time coming, but was she strong enough to admit that everything that had happened to her had been because of her and not him? She had to be. She tried to rest herself and breath deep, but her throat closed up. “Gabriel, I’m sorry.” She nearly choked.

“You’re sorry?” He repeated, a tinge of disdain in his voice, but he leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, deciding he would let her go on. “Okay, as that is something you have never managed to say to me before, the judges give that a 7.4 as an appropriate start. Go on, there better be more.”

He wasn’t making this easy, but then Lilith couldn’t say he owed that to her. She walked a bit closer, standing in front of him and crouching down, placing her hands over his. She looked up at the Tang Dynasty porcelain Palomino horse that sat upon the intricately hand carved Elmwood Qing Dynasty china cupboard from their excursion to the Orient sometime during the Victorian Age. The Qing china cupboard contained the beautiful collection of Cased Crystal in wonderful warm shades of emerald, sapphire, ruby, amethyst and amber that Gabriel had given to her on each of their “anniversaries”, despite how their house servants, neighbors, whomever, had always asked why he gave such beautifully etched and colored things to his blind wife with the dark glasses who could not see them. Gabriel’s answer to those who questioned his choice in gifts was always the same, “I give it to her because I know she loves it, and I love her.”

The colored crystals gave Lilith strength, and she looked up at Gabriel, then away again, realizing it was silly to keep avoiding his eyes when there was nothing in them she hadn’t already concluded anymore. “I know what you’ve wanted me to know for so many years. I think I’ve known for quite awhile; maybe if I wasn’t a creature so full of fear I would have better accepted all of it by now. I know you never meant to hurt me, I know you feel so much guilt for what happened, and I also know it was not your fault. It was mine. I didn’t have to listen to you, and I could have reached a compromise, instead of being so stubborn with Adam.”

Lilith was surprised by how accurately her mouth formed the words. Even more unexpected was how she began to feel like a great weight had been lifted, making a strength she’d only associated with her soul flow forth again. She thought Gabriel would jump all over her confession, taunting, laughing, or maybe just angry that it had taken so long to hear those words finally spoken; but he was silent.

Gabriel had never expected her to say that everything was her fault. Where did she get that? He was stunned. “Is that what you think?”

“It is what is.” Lilith answered, afraid of the lack of reaction from him.

“Lily,” Gabriel shook his head, taking her under the chin and again aligning their eyes. “Look at me, Lily, please! There is so much that you must know, and so much I can do!”

“No.” Lilith again twisted away from him, but not in panicked urgency like every time before this. “I know what I must know, and you have to allow me that. I’ve existed for so long blaming you for everything, and I can’t do it anymore, I can’t do it to you anymore! Please don’t try to tell me or show me any other interpretation of this than my own, because if you won’t allow me to finally take responsibility for myself and the choices I make, I will never have any real control of myself.” She begged, dropping to her knees in front of him, trying not to cry again, resting her forehead against the Seraph’s knee. “Please Gabriel, oh please! I ask this of you, as you are the Archangel of God, let me have myself back! Perhaps then I can lose this paralyzing fear and become something more worthy of you!”

Gabriel was hardly touched by anything anymore, he’d done too much, seen too much, but he’d never foreseen this. What she’d said had struck him, for no other creature knew more about what it was like to want it’s ‘self’ back. He understood, and he marveled at Lily just as much now as he had while watching her creation, thinking again how she reminded him of the white lilies he loved so much, for white lilies were peace flowers, and all Lilith wanted now was peace, peace with herself, and peace with him. She was so beautiful and so brave, she always had been. “Lily, you could not be anymore worthy of anything I could give you,” Gabriel whispered, stroking her hair. He remembered when her hair was red, like flames, glowing and shining tresses, as windswept as wildfire, the same way Lilith was. “Raise your head, you do not have to beg anything from me.”

Lilith didn’t move, she felt exhausted, liberated, but exhausted. She felt tears start to flood her eyes again. These damn bloody tears were another curse; particularly when she was kneeling and starring down into the hand tufted and knotted wool Edenton Carpet she’d managed to preserve since it laid on their dining room floor in 1905. Besides, Gabriel hated crying. However, she couldn’t risk ruining an antique rug, Gabriel would have to deal with her tears if they flowed. She hoped she’d said enough, and that Gabriel understood. “If I do raise my head and look at you, please tell me it will not be for the last time.”

“If I were going to leave, Lily, I’d have been gone by now,” Gabriel said coolly. “And if I had truly wanted to leave, you never would have been able to stop me, either.” He added.

Lilith blinked back her tears, none had fallen yet, and she looked up at Gabriel. “So, you’re staying?”

He leaned down even closer to her, his face, his lips, only an inch from hers and took her hands in his. “Do you trust me?”

Lilith trembled out of habit, but was able to settle herself. The hypnotic gaze was not in the Seraph’s eyes any longer, she’d asked him not to interfere with what she’d finally been able to construe, and he wasn’t trying to. She’d admitted that she had the power to make her own decisions, and now there was no reason for her not to trust him. She smiled.

“Yes, Gabriel. I trust you.”

Gabriel thought he’d never hear those words from her, and they set off in him a rush of mercifulness, devotion and salvation that he was sure he would not ever know again. He didn’t smile, or laugh or cry, but instead closed his eyes and let her words further stir the feeling of blessedness which swirled within him, softening his features to something that was truly angelic and full of gentleness, grace and beauty. Perhaps that was what Jan van Eyck had been trying to capture, and perhaps Gabriel had never seen it because he’d thought he’d lost those qualities.

He took Lilith’s hand to his mouth, lightly rubbing her fingertips against his soft lips, opening his eyes slowly, feeling something else begin to awaken within him as he took in her form. His passion and desire and need for physical stimulation soared as he looked at her long blond hair, full red lips, elegant neck, sumptuous bosom, trim waist and the sultry camber of her hips. She’d always aroused him like nothing else, but now, knowing she trusted him, having heard her say that she did, made him almost powerless with lust for her. He parted his lips, sucking two of her fingers into his warm mouth, desperate for some taste of her as his big cock jerked, got hard, tried to stand out from his body, but was confined by the leather of his pants.

Lilith moaned as his tongue stroked her fingertips, she rose up higher, her body sharing some type of telepathy with his, for she knew what he was feeling, and she felt it too, just as urgently. With her other hand she reached out and began to unbutton his white shirt, stroking the skin that was exposed with her fingers, and subtly rocking with the rhythm he sucked her fingers to. He lightly and gently bit her digits before he withdrew them from his mouth and kissed them tenderly, again looking down at her.

Again Gabriel stroked her hair and her face with so much gentleness and tenderness it made Lilith halt her exploration of his body in order to beg more of such a delightful touch from the Seraph. Gabriel smiled. “Do you know what kind of power you give to me?” He whispered.

“I could ask you the same question.” Lilith whispered back, so jubilant that he was not leaving her, and also that the long struggle between them was finally over. There was no more resentment of him inside her, and while it had left a gaping hole, Lilith could feel the void quickly filling with something else.

Gabriel stroked her cheek, looking down into the false violet eyes that stared back at him, wanting, needing, to see past them. He would make no more attempts of showing her what lay within his eyes, Lilith knew what she needed to know, and he respected that. However, he still felt the need to have those counterfeit eyes removed. Carefully he slid his thumb against the white part of the contact at the corner of her eye, slowly and delicately drawing the thin lens off of her eye, the deep orange color and black slit of a pupil of Lilith’s true eye revealed to him.

She hadn’t resisted him, but had wondered why he was removing that which blocked out something she’d always blamed him for. Hadn’t they finally settled this? Why did he want to be reminded of what had happened? She held still while he removed the other lens from her other eye, for the first time ever feeling a bit naked in front of him. “Gabriel, why—“

“Shhh,” he responded, his finger against his lips, and then put his hand back against her face, closing both her eyes with great care. Softly the Seraph ran his thumbs over her eyelids, then leaned forward, pressing a gentle kiss upon each of them, then touched his soft palm to her forehead, saying something Lilith couldn’t completely hear let alone understand. He slowly removed his hand from her head and sat back against the church pew again, Lilith opened her eyes, and Gabriel looked into them, smiling a radiant and merciful smile.

“What was that?” She asked, confused, for Gabriel had never touched or kissed her eyes before; and why had he blessed her like that?

Gabriel still just smiled, leaning forward again to kiss her, only touching his tongue to hers briefly, raising his head again, still with that smile as he again looked at her. “Nothing, I just want you to know I am sorry.”

Lilith placed her hand on his cheek; Gabriel leaned into it and kissed her palm “You don’t have to be anymore.” She whispered to him.

Gabriel smiled another smile she didn’t understand the meaning of. He lightly traced the arch of her eyebrow with one fingertip. “I know,” he whispered, and kissed her again, opening his mouth wide around hers and charting her lips with his tongue.

Lilith moaned again, undoing the rest of the buttons of his shirt, pushing it and the black coat off of his shoulders, exposing the perfect muscle tone of his chest to her hands. There were many human men who were bigger and stockier than the Seraph, but none of them were as hard, strong and lean as Gabriel, and Lilith worshipped that about him with her smooth hands, finding his nipples and rubbing her fingers around and around his areola until Gabriel had to break the kiss he shared with her to groan and gasp for a breath. Lilith raised up higher on her knees, pushing him back against the church pew and bending her head to his chest, eager to suck at his nipples, anxious to see, hear and feel the pleasure it would bring him. Just basking in his sexual aura brought excitement and pleasure to Lilith, even more so now that they had something to celebrate. “I’ve never wanted you like this before, Seraph.” She whispered as she kissed his body.

“Because I’ve never been like this before.” He whispered back, leaning down and kissing the part in her hair. She trusted him, it made him feel complete, but he knew not to overstep too many of the boundaries Lilith had always put on their sexual life. He was not about to assume her fear and memories and of what Adam had done to her in the Garden had vanished just because she now trusted him; but he would see that she overcame that fear, no matter how long it took, even if it meant being shredded by her teeth and claws again.

She kissed, licked and sucked her way around each nipple, finally flicking her tongue over one and then the other. She leaned against his body to get a better angle, kneeling between his legs as Gabriel lay back, eyes drifting closed and his cock trapped pleasantly between Lilith’s ribs and his thigh. She rolled one of his nipples between her thumb and forefinger as her tongue slowly dragged around the other, licking up against the hard pink peak as if she meant to lap it off of his chest. Gabriel’s body jolted, she’d always enjoyed how sensitive his nipples were, and always gave them several minutes of attention. She encircled his entire pink point with her lips, letting her tongue trace the hard tip as she sucked and sucked, her fingers pinching and pulling at his other nipple.

Gabriel’s back arched and he growled from deep in his throat. He thrust his body up against hers, rubbing his hard cock against her breasts from behind the leather of his pants. “Come on, give me some teeth.” He gasped, hardly sitting on the church pew any longer, one well muscled and defined arm stretched almost straight behind him, braced on the back of the bench as he forced his body against hers.

Lilith took his nipple between her teeth, lightly biting down, chewing and tugging his pink flesh. Both of them had always been a bit rough with each other; it came with the territory of being beasts of such sexual natures as they each were. She dug her nails into his other nipple, feeling a great schism of wicked pleasure wrack his entire body. Gabriel cried out then tore her head away from his chest, for he’d nearly orgasmed. He looked down at her and smiled, still gasping for breath. “This is leather,” he explained, pointing to his pants and laughing a bit, so did Lilith. He leaned close and kissed her again, cupping and squeezing one of her breasts. “Take me to bed Lily!” He leered.

“I’ve always loved it whenever you say that!” Lilith smiled as she rose to her feet, taking Gabriel’s hand. He stood with her and she began to lead him to the bedroom she never allowed anyone else into, for Lilith had always treated it as a type of shrine, to her and Gabriel ever since she’d left him. “And it will be so good to have you in our bed again!”

“Our bed?” Gabriel questioned, excited by what she could have meant. They now stood in the doorway of the bedroom, and Lily flipped on the soft and romantic sconce lights, revealing the massively huge Victorian bed, carved of solid mahogany, with the seven and a half foot tall headboard. The bed was hardly to be considered a piece of furniture, it was a sculpture, deep and intricate carvings of cherubs were in the center of both the foot and head boards, which measured six and a half feet across, and on the foot board, which was five feet in height, there were wonderfully engraved urn finials at the ends on both sides. The vast thick mattress was easily four feet off the ground, giving the bed an even bigger and grander appearance. The bed had been purchased for their summer place in Southern England in 1872, but Lilith and Gabriel both had loved the bed so very much, they’d taken it everywhere they lived after that. There had never been a more fitting, beautiful and celebrated nest for two creatures so sexually active to achieve their expertise and share their hunger for one another within. It had gotten so that just the sight of their bed made them both have to rip off their clothes and dive into it, and one another.

Gabriel had an appreciation for the bed that Lilith couldn’t share. The seven and half foot tall headboard was nine inches thick, and a wonderful place to perch in the mornings, for as an angel, Gabriel was very fond of places which allowed him to look down at things. Many a morning he would crouch on the top of that headboard, looking down on Lilith, watching her sleep, thinking how beautiful her body was, how beautiful she was, and when he became more turned on than he could handle, he’d jump down from the headboard onto the mattress, shaking the bed violently and waking Lilith with a start. He’d made it a point each Christmas morning to awaken her from his high perch with a friendly, but mischievous, and always startling “Good Morning!” then leap down laughing as a pillow was generally tossed at him.

“Oh yes, Lily!” Gabriel sighed in a passionately aroused awe as he took in the bed. He turned to look down at her, going for the buckle closures of her dress, unfastening them as quickly as he could, Lilith helping him. “Some part of me understands what a musician feels when playing at Carnegie Hall while I’m fucking you in that bed!” His body thrilled at the memories of the poundings he’d given her in that bed, though she was always above him. The last buckle of her dress, the one at her hip, would not come open, Gabriel was too provoked to be patient, and he ripped the garment from her body, leaving Lilith’s incredible naked figure before him. His hands roamed her body, petting her soft skin, tracing the curve of her firm breasts, dragging over her flat stomach and down to the heaving smooth mound between her legs that Lilith had always shaved clean of the red curls he knew grew there. She made him so hungry. “You always have looked extraordinary for dust and clay!”

Ready for more? Thank you again for reading! If you like it, please let me know! I'm working on a sequel, so tell me what you think! It's the only way you get more to read!:-)