Chapter Twelve

Dawn had locked her door after he left her room but when he was in spirit, physical objects meant nothing to him. He knew she slept with her clothes on, so he transformed into his angelic form and stepped through the door. She was sound asleep, but her brows were furrowed and her historical romance novel was thrown across the room, in a broken heap on the floor.

He wasted no time getting to work. Reaching into her memories, he found a time where she was forbidden again to leave her home. She treasured freedom, but it was always out of her reach because she was young. He inserted a fresh new memory into her mind.

"Shut up, Azarel!" Dawn yelled, throwing the couch pillow at his face.

"You're not going out! I don't care how much you want to, how much you need to, you're not stepping out of this house!" Azarel bellowed.

"Fuck you! I'm old enough to take care of myself!"

"Old enough? Don't make me laugh," Azarel said. "Your parents are gone for the weekend and they put me in charge, so I call the shots around here now. You're not putting one fucking foot out the door, get that in your empty head!"

"You're supposed to be on my side! What's gotten into you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"It was me and you against my parents. You always took me out in secret, and we had so much fun over the years - "

"It was never us against them, don't you get it? I've always been on your parents' side. Not yours. I listen to them, not to you. Why would I listen to some teenager?"

Dawn stared at him with hurt in her eyes, her lips trembling.

"All those times I snuck out with you, your parents knew about it. We planned that together so that we could get you to behave better. You're fucking acting up all the time, so we did something about it."

"You don't mean that."

"Do you know what it's like to put up with someone as annoying as you are? What were we supposed to do? Just let you send us to an early grave?"

"Azarel!" Dawn yelled as tears poured down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry to tell you this, but I never saw you as a friend. You're just the troublesome child my best friends had."

Dawn wiped her tears away in silence.

"You know what, Dawn?" Azarel said. "I'm sorry you saw me as a friend. Because we never will be friends. You're not my friend. Not even close. Do you know how tiring pretending to be your friend was?"

"Fuck you…" Dawn whispered.

"In fact, I've been wanting to say this to you for a while. There is only one reason why we aren't friends. And that's because of who you are. And we all know for a fact that you don't have any friends, do you, Dawn?"

"Fuck you! I won't ever forget this, I swear!"

The memory was firmly in place and Dawn tossed and turned in bed violently, her hands fisting her sheets in anger. He weaved strong emotions into that memory, making sure that she would remember it forever. After he was done, he left her mind and retreated from her room to his. Sitting on the edge of his bed, he pictured the ensuing fallout from his actions.

And a tear left his eye.

❃❃❃

Dawn bit into the wrap, but this time she was seated on the other far end of the rectangular table. He was on the facing end, and staring at her as he bit into his own wrap. This distance was good for her. He was truly glad she made the decision. And that decision could have only come from one place. She remembered the memories he put into her the night before. Those horrible memories that told her he was not someone she should consider romantically, but only platonically.

"Can I head to the mall today?" Dawn asked him.

"No," Azarel said right away. "You're staying home." That caused her to frown.

Yes, just like that.

"I've been thinking about sending you back to school," Azarel revealed to her. She gawked at that. "But not yet. You're not ready at the moment."

"I don't ever wanna go back."

"I'm considering getting you homeschooled instead," he said carefully, making sure she heard every word so that he could arouse the full extent of her fury. It was a total lie. She was still having panic attacks, hell if he was going to put her through school at this difficult phase of her life.

"You and my parents always did like to lock me at home," she said absent-mindedly, taking another bite of her wrap.

"Well, this is where you'll be safe. Freedom is overrated."

Silence.

"So did you have any dreams last night?" Azarel asked her.

She raised a brow at him. "What kind of question is that?"

"I'm just making conversation. Don't read too much into it."

"I did have a dream," she said with another frown.

"What did you dream about?" Azarel asked, preparing himself for a fight.

"We were fighting about you not letting me out the house. And it got pretty heated. You said a lot of mean things. That dream felt like a nightmare."

"What did I say?"

"That we weren't friends," she said. "That I had no friends. That last one hurt a lot."

"I hope you see how things should stay between us, Dawn. I'm your guardian, no more and no less."

"Yeah, I'm giving up on you."

He let out a huge sigh. "Thank God."

"That's what you want me to say, right?"

He paused, looking at her closely. "What do you mean?"

"I was actually leaving to see a boy from school that night, and you stopped me. There were some rumours floating around about him sexually assaulting a few girls at school, but I didn't care. I can't help but think you knew about that, and you wanted to protect me from him."

He neglected to pry that much into her memories. Now, he was thoroughly regretting it.

"Dawn - "

"I'm just kidding," Dawn said. "I was lying."

He froze, staring at her. Should he let himself into her mind now? He sure as fuck wanted to.

"Dude," Dawn said. "Chill for a second."

"Look - "

"I know I've always been difficult," she said. "And you probably meant those words that night. But that happened a long time ago, and I'm not holding those words against you. I used to be petty like that, but after spending time with you, I'm learning more about doing good things without expecting anything in return. I've grown as a result of knowing you, and you can tell me all you want that we don't belong, but it's not going to change my feelings one bit, you got that?"