Chapter 5
Dina

 
The girl dropped to her knees and pressed the fingertips of one of her hands over her mouth. She would have thrown her arms around him, but she was afraid with all of his wounds she might hurt him even further.

"D..." She said as she helped him sit down on the marble path again. "Stay here, I'll get the nurses." Her voice was passive and steady and she had an almost motherly tone as she spoke to D.

"No... No more nurses." He said. "I'll be ok."

"You sure?" She took a seat behind him and pulled down the damp, tattered shoulder of the robe to see the wound the beast had inflicted on the dhampire. Along with blood, the sickly, green ooze was coursing through his veins as well. "D, you're infected!"

"It'll pass in a few of days."

She reached a hand around and pressed it against his forehead. "You're running a fever and your skin is red. Have you been outside all day?"

He groaned. "...I fell asleep."

"This isn't good. You're lucky you didn't catch heat syndrome. You should be inside resting. We need to clean this wound too. Come on." She stood and he reached up and grabbed her wrist with his unharmed arm and looked up at her. Her features were not too distinct from his. She was tall for a woman. Long, wavy, brown hair. Fit with a thin waist. Pale skin. She was a dhampire too. On her right arm she had a miniature bow for launching many small arrows.

"Dina..."

"Hmm?"

"Please... Don't worry about me."

Dina put a hand on her forehead, almost slapping it in a 'that's ridiculous' like gesture. "I'm your sister. It's my job to worry!"

He was too tired to argue. The dhampire let her help him to his feet and she led him through the room he was in earlier, and into the connected bathroom. She sat him on the closed toilet and began to wash his shoulder wound with a cloth damp with warm water. They didn't talk to each other for a few minutes, until she stopped and began to gaze at D's face.

"What are you doing?" D asked a little uncomfortably.

"Sorry..." The female dhampire said. "I just thought I'd never see you again."

"Honestly, I wasn't planning on coming back... ever." D said looking away from her.

"Why?"

He didn't answer.

"Well, I'm glad Father's plan worked..." She continued to clean, shaking her head at the smell of the bacteria in D's body. "Did you two fight?"

"Not a real fight. He just wanted to test my strength. If he really wanted me dead, I would be."

"...Did you want to kill him?"

".....I got a little jumpy, I guess."

"That's surprising." She laughed. "You're so bland. You've been that way since childhood."

D frowned. "It was your idiot renege boyfriend who—."

Dina shoved the cloth into D's cut causing him to cry out in pain. "I didn't know he was one of them at the time!" She said through clenched teeth.

D turned his face as far away from her as he could, barely able to keep his usually blank expression.

Dina exhaled. "I'm sorry..." She said. "If there was anyway I could have changed..."

"There wasn't. You were too ignorant."

She lowered her head. "....I missed you, D. I missed you a lot. Me and Father both."

"......I know."