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Chapter 10

He started teaching her and quickly found himself pushing to keep up with her. She was incredibly intelligent; she'd just never had an opportunity to learn. It was criminal and with every little bit of information she let slip he got a little bit more angry at whoever had done this to her. She was criminally unaware of her own worth, convinced that what she'd been given was right and normal.

But he came three times a week to teach her, bringing her books to read. History and geography, helping her know where exactly she was in relation to the world. Every time he came, she relaxed a little bit more in his presence. She was always grateful to him, and never seemed shy about expressing it, even though he was continually reminded that she was uncomfortable in his presence.

One day he came, and she wasn't there. He was met at the door by Patty. "She went for a walk; she finally got the wound vac off her foot."

"Should I wait for her out here?" Vajra asked, shifting the bag on his shoulder. "Or should I call today a wash and come back next time?"

"Probably just come back." Patty held out a hand. "You can leave the books if you want, she probably won't be back until dinner."

"Alright," he handed the bag over. "I brought her some fiction this time. We've been doing law and I thought she might like a break."

"I'll give them to her when she gets back." Patty closed the door in his face and Vajra couldn't help smiling and huffing out a laugh. Patty's dislike of men was pretty well known so he wasn't insulted. He walked away from the door, maybe he'd take a walk too. It was a pretty day even if it was freezing.

He got in his car and drove down to the beach. He'd walk from here to the boardwalk, get a little exercise in before he went back to his writing. He was deep in planning a plot twist for his newest novel when he heard a sharp, shrill scream. He knew without knowing how that it was her, and that she was in trouble. He took off running down the beach, trying to get to her before something terrible happened.

What he found was his sister, standing over a collapsed Ardala. Evie was holding her strange cloak away and it suddenly all made sense. Evie was awful and her current flavor of the week was animal rights. Ardala's cape was made of fur.

He hurried over, looking at Ardala's tear streaked, pleading face made him want to hit his sister. Instead, he yanked the cloak from Evie's arms. "What the hell Evie?" He yelled at his sister, in lieu of hitting her like he wanted to. "Do you get off on scaring people you don't know?" He pressed Ardala's cloak back into her arms and went to help her up. She scrabbled away from him, so much fear in her face that he was surprised it wasn't leaking everywhere. "Hey, it's just me. It's ok-"He reached to touch her, to help her up, to stave off the panic that he saw in her face.

She shrieked, a sound of pure, unadulterated terror and fled down the beach as fast as her legs would carry her. He watched her go before rounding on his sister who had a tiny evil smile on her face that he very much wanted to slap off. She turned to him, smile turning prim. "Fur is murder." She said in that airy, superior voice that he hated.

"You," he pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to will away the urge to shake her. "First of all, it's an antique. Second of all you just undid weeks of hard work to get her to trust anyone. Third, you really ought to get out of my sight before I give in to the urge to hit you for being a pompous asshole."

Evie stiffened, looking at him with a shocked expression. "Fine, but I'm telling daddy you were awful to me."

"As long as you go away, I couldn't give less of a fuck." He pointed back in the direction of his place. "If you're still there when I get back from trying to find her, I'm calling the police and reporting you for assaulting strangers."

He turned from her as she huffed indignantly and stormed off. That was one less problem on his plate. He'd been trying to get her to go home for weeks. He started off down the beach, pulling his phone out of his pocket to call Francis. She should probably be the one to approach her, she was the one that Ardala had he most rapport with. But he was here, and he might be able to calm her down enough that she could wait until Francis got here. Francis didn't answer but he left her a message telling her what happened and where he thought she'd gone and that he was going to try to find her.

He stuck his phone back in his pocket and kept walking down the beach following her footprints and hoping she hadn't injured herself trying to get away from Evie. And him. That shouldn't hurt, the fact that she was still so scared of him. He'd thought they were building something like trust, but she'd fled from him and he had practically smelled her panic. He'd examine that thought later, for now he had to make sure she was ok.

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