The Lost Years (The Guardians Book 4) (16 page)

“That’s right, baby, I’m your Dina and I’m going to take care of you. Can you promise me you will stay here?” She repeated, still uneasy about him obeying her request.

“Yes, I’ll stay here, but I’m really hungry,” he answered.

Dina tried to convince herself that this was just the residual effects of his recent medical state. After he had some time to recover, he would return to the Raimie she knew.

“All right, I’ll go and get you something to eat; I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Dina added before turning to exit, giving him one last lingering look. Wrapping a scarf around her head to hide her new hair color, Dina slipped out into the night.

“Dina? Is that you?” She had only made it a few steps from the tombs when the voice called out to her.

Dina held her breath, turning hesitantly to see who it was. She did not recognize the girl with raven hair and dark skin. “I’m sorry— you must have me confused with someone else.”

Leaning forward, she pulled the scarf up to better conceal her face as she attempted to escape the unwanted company.

“Dina, it’s me. Don’t you recognize me?”

Dina paused, staring again at the young face before her, plagued by the fact she did not remember the girl. “Huh? Oh— of course.”

“Neru.”

The memory of where she knew her from came rushing back. It was one of her classmates. The girl had shared a couple of classes with Gabe, Raimie, and herself. She also recalled the trouble the girl had caused between Sophie and Gabe. Though the issues had not been any fault of the girl, it caused a feeling of annoyance to resurface in her. “I know who you are. What do you need?”

“What happened to your hair?” Neru asked, leaning forward.

“Nothing, don’t worry about it!” Dina snapped.

“I really like it.” She reminded Dina of a puppy, desperately seeking approval of its master.

“Great,” Dina replied while rolling her eyes. “I’m busy, do you need something?”

Neru looked over Dina’s shoulder, staring at the entrance to the tombs. “Nothing. I just saw you and wanted to know if you needed help with anything.”

Dina sidestepped, standing directly between the entrance of the tombs and the young girl’s body. “No. Anything else?”

“What’s in there?” Neru asked.

“Where?” Dina felt a rush of panic flood over her.

“There,” Neru replied, motioning towards the tombs.

“I don’t know, looks like their tombs of some kind. If I had to guess, a bunch of dead bodies, snakes, bugs, and all around creepiness,” Dina offered, hoping to discourage Neru’s curiosity.

“But I saw you come out of there.”

“No you didn’t!” Dina insisted.

“I did,” Neru argued.

“Drop it, there’s nothing in there. All right? Just leave it alone,” Dina growled, her rage visibly coming to a boil.

Neru took a step back, looking at the seething anger in Dina’s eyes. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything. I was just trying to see if you needed my help.”

“Well, I don’t!” Dina decided she needed to get rid of this girl once and for all. “Nobody needs your help. You already came between my friends’ relationship. Wasn’t that enough?”

“No, I didn’t do—”

“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say, little girl. I don’t want you around me. None of us want you around. Don’t you get it?”

Neru’s face twisted into a reflection of horror and rejection. “I—I—” she cried before throwing her hands over her face just before bursting into tears. Not waiting for any further abuse, she turned and ran.

Dina felt remorse that she had to be so mean to the girl. Once she had sorted things out with Raimie, she would go back and explain the situation to her. For now, she had to be certain her secret would not be discovered.

“No, I swear it’s her,” Sera insisted.

“That can’t be her,” Uri argued, shaking his head while staring at the figure moving amongst the crowd.

“I’m telling you, it’s Dina.”

“Don’t you think I could tell if that were one of my best friends? You can’t even see anything; she’s wrapped up in a scarf. And see— look there, a little bit of hair sticking out, it’s white. I told you, it’s not her,” Uri said, hobbling a bit on his injured leg.

“You really are thick headed, aren’t you?” Sera snapped before chasing after the figure. “Dina! Hey, is that you, Dina?”

The woman looked back over her shoulder before turning and pushing her way through the people more rapidly.

“See, it is her, and she doesn’t want to talk to us apparently!” Sera yelled back to Uri who was struggling to keep up.

“You are crazy. Why on earth would Dina be avoiding me? You’re probably freaking out some poor refugee,” Uri said as he hurriedly limped to catch up to Sera. She was now closing in on the fleeing target.

“Please, Dina, I know it’s you, will you wait up?” Sera pleaded.

Realizing she could not escape, Dina decided her best course of action would be to lead them away from the tombs. She wasn’t ready for anyone to see Raimie, not yet, not until she could be certain he was back to normal. Making a sharp turn, she darted towards the nearby tree line, never slowing her pace.

“That is her!” Uri exclaimed in disbelief. “Hey! Stop! Where are you going?”

Finally, Dina slowed before coming to a stop and facing the pair. Seraphine reached her first, but simply stood there, silently looking her up and down, attempting to figure out the girl’s odd behavior.

Uri caught up at last, bending over to catch his breath and shift his weight off of his injured leg. Though the wound was nearly healed, thanks to the clerics, the depth of the injury caused severe phantom pains to linger. “What is going on with you?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean,” Dina answered, trying to act casual.

“Well, for starters, you took off running when we called after you,” Uri groaned, standing upright at last.

“I didn’t hear you,” Dina answered.

“Fine, then what’s up with the hair?” Uri pushed.

“What about my hair?” Dina avoided the question as she tried to think of a plausible answer.

“Umm— even with a scarf, I can see it’s white,” Uri pointed out sarcastically.

“Oh, that. I’m just trying something new,” Dina said.

Without a word, Sera reached up and tugged at the scarf, causing it to fall to Dina’s shoulders. “That is not trying something new.”

Dina pulled away, annoyed that a complete stranger dared to confront her in such a way. “My boyfriend’s sick; pardon me if I want to do something drastic to my appearance in order to distract myself.”

“I know I don’t know you very well, but I do know that you didn’t do that to your hair,” Sera confronted her, not allowing the comment about Raimie to stir the sympathy within her as Dina had intended it to.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dina replied, looking away.

“What are you talking about?” Uri questioned, the only one who seemed to truly not understand what was going on.

“I’ve seen this sort of thing before. Your hair, it’s from doing some pretty powerful dark magic, isn’t it?” Sera pushed.

“What? How dare you?” Dina shouted while backing away. “You don’t know me! I want you two to leave me alone.”

Sera reached out, taking hold of Dina’s arm. “What have you done?”

“Sera, maybe you should back off,” Uri suggested, uncomfortable with the way his new found love was accusing his longtime friend.

“She’s lying to us, Uri. Tell him, Dina. Did you do something to Raimie?” Sera continued.

Pulling away, Dina did her best to appear shocked. “Are you going to continue to let her talk to me like this, Uri?”

“It’s Raimie, I can feel it,” Sera interjected.

“You’re crazy!” Dina exclaimed. “You can feel it? Who says stuff like that? What were you thinking, Uri, hanging out with a nut job like this?”

He looked back and forth between the two girls. The conviction in Sera’s eyes was as unwavering as the guilt on Dina’s face. In that moment, he suddenly understood. “It’s ok, Dina, you can tell us. What’s happened? Maybe we can help.”

“Uri! I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Are you actually taking her side?” Dina gasped in disbelief, all the time hoping her outrage would be enough to cause her friend to drop the questioning.

“I’m your friend. Please, tell me the truth.”

Dina wanted to turn and run without a word. She knew things with Raimie were not as they should be, but she had no more answers. She felt her world collapsing in all around her. As her heart ached, she could feel herself drowning. “Fine! I did do something. I knew I shouldn’t have—”

“What happened?” Uri interrupted her.

“You have to swear not to tell anyone, not until I’m ready,” she offered.

“I’m not comfortable doing that,” Uri answered nervously.

“Then I am not telling you,” Dina affirmed.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake. We won’t tell anyone, all right?” Sera snapped.

“I want to hear it from Uri,” Dina insisted.

Uri hesitated for a moment and looked at Sera. Nudging him, she raised her eyebrow as if to instruct him to agree. “All right, fine. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

“So, what’s going on?” Sera followed up.

Dina considered how to explain what she had done. She wasn’t sure how to put it into words, so instead she suggested, “I think it’s best if you just follow me.”

The trio made their way along the back of the property line to the entrance of the tombs. Dina stopped, turning to look at the other two. “Before we go in, I think I should at least tell you something. I don’t want you to flip out.”

“Will you quit being cryptic and just tell us what’s going on?” Uri blurted out, his frustration was evident.

“All right,” Dina began with a huff. “It’s about Raimie. I was talking to Calysta—”

“The oracle from Rampart? When the hell— no— why would you—” Uri stumbled through his words.

“It’s hard to explain, and this is not about her. Will you just be quiet and let me tell you what’s going on!”

“All right, we’re listening,” Sera attempted to calm the girl.

Dina snarled, “Excuse me? I don’t know you. Honestly, I’m not even sure why Uri is so smitten with you, but I suggest you keep your mouth shut if you want to stay.”

Sera did not get defensive; she could understand where the girl was coming from and instead chose to stand silently.

“Calysta said something to me once about the witch, Madame Laveau,” Dina continued. “It wasn’t like she was telling me I should seek her out or anything. In fact, she warned me against finding her.”

“I’m sure she did,” Uri added smugly.

“I went and saw her; she offered me a spell that could fix Raimie.”

“Saw who?” Uri asked to clarify.

“Madame Laveau.”

“You took a spell from the crazy old witch? What in the hell were you thinking, Dina?” Uri questioned, raising his voice.

“You can’t trust witches, Dina, they use black magic,” Sera added.

“You don’t think I know that? It’s Raimie, what was I supposed to do?” Dina argued.

“So, what happened?” Uri inquired.

“I came back here and performed the spell; it ended up knocking me out. When I woke up, my hair was white. I don’t know why,” Dina explained.

“Because the kind of magic you used comes at a price. If I had to guess, in order to help Raimie, it took a piece of your life force,” Sera explained.

“Gee, thanks for that informative insight. And by the way, I would give all of my life force to save Raimie. That’s what I do for the people I care about,” Dina growled.

“Will you give it a rest already— what happened with Raimie?” Uri asked.

“He woke up,” Dina replied flatly.

“What? Are you serious? That isn’t possible— they said he was gone.” Uri exclaimed.

“I know, but he’s awake,” Dina replied.

“Is he all right?” Uri asked, adrenaline rapidly rushing through his body.

“I don’t know,” Dina hesitated, and then lifted a bag of food into their eyesight for a moment. “He’s clearly not himself. He kept telling me he was starving, so I ran out and grabbed this.”

“Well, that’s a good sign, right? I mean, having an appetite. That has to mean that he’s doing pretty well,” Uri offered optimistically.

“Not necessarily,” Sera muttered as if she knew something else.

Dina glared at the girl for a moment before deciding to let the comment drop without a response. “I can’t explain it, Uri. It looks like him and almost sounds like him, but there’s just something that doesn’t feel right.”

“Can I see him?” Uri paid no attention to Dina’s warnings, barely able to contain his excitement at the thought of seeing his friend again.

“Yes, of course. But I’m not kidding about something being off. He’s different.”

“Damn it!” Uri snapped. “Of course he’s different; he’s been to hell and back. What do you expect? Out of everyone, I never thought you would be like this.”

Dina stared at him, speechless, in total shock from his words. She now began intensely questioning her doubt and wondering if her guilt had her looking for a problem.

“Uri! You should apologize,” Sera commanded.

“Me? I’ll do no such thing. She’s supposed to love him more than anyone and now that he’s going to live, she’s questioning him.”