The Promise (The Coven Series)

   
The Promise

Book
One of the Coven Series

By
Apryl Baker

Copyright
2012 by Apryl Baker

http://apryl-baker.blogspot.com/

Kindle
Edition

Kindle Edition, License Notes

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Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

********************

Dedication

For
my Gran who taught me what family really is.

********************

Chapter
One

Why
does it always happen to me?
 
What did I
do to piss off the Fates so badly?
 
I
stared down at my puke-
covered
 
Mary
Janes
and winced.
 
Eww
,
 
gross
.
 
So
much
 
for
my brand new shoes.

“Come
on, Kay, let’s get you home.”
 
I pulled
my best friend up and put my arm around her.
 
She smelled like stale beer and vomit.
 
Rancid breath.
 
I should leave her here, I thought spitefully.
 
I hadn’t even wanted to come to the stupid
party to begin with.
 
It was just another
one of their attempts to get me into the fold, but I had no intention of
getting involved in any of that nonsense.
 
Just look what it had gotten me tonight—Jeff hit on me yet again…ugh…
and then my shoes were ruined.
 
So wrong.

“S-s-
sor
-
ry
,” Kay slurred as she
focused on putting one foot in front of the other.
   

“Where’s
your car?” I asked as I scanned the vehicles parked too close together on the
fringe of the lake.
 

“Jess.”

Perfect,
I groaned to myself.
 
I’d seen her sister
earlier arguing with her loser boyfriend, but didn’t know she’d already taken
Kay’s car and left.
 
I used my cell to
try and call her, but wasn’t surprised it went straight to voicemail.
 

Just fabulous.
 
It’s
not like I could even call Kay’s boyfriend.
 
His parents had cornered him into some kind of family night.
 

I
searched the mass of bodies looking for someone who’d loan me their car.
 
The raucous laughter of teens filled the air
as they danced around the mummy of the headless horseman they’d built, his
pumpkin head ablaze, to usher in the month of October and the ritual of
Samhain.
 
Bonfires decorated the shore to
welcome our most celebrated holiday.

The
haze from the bonfires made it hard to see anyone.
 
Jeff caught my eye and waved.
 
I could ask him, but Neighbor Boy would think
I owed him.
 
Uh,
definitely not.
 
He was one of my
best friends, but he had a serious crush on me.
 
Loaning me his Jeep would equal a date in his eyes.
 
Not gonna happen.
 
I didn’t see anyone else that I knew well
enough to ask.
 

Kay
made a horrible retching noise and threw up all over my shoes again.
 
Why me?

“Looks like we’re walking.”
 
Thank the Fates she didn’t live far.

I
half dragged the semi-conscious girl away from the lake and toward the
outskirts of New Salem.
 
I still couldn’t
believe I was stuck hauling her drunken ass home.
 
She owed me big time.
 

It
was dark, but I knew my way through the woods.
 
I’d spent enough time in them growing up to be able to walk through
blindfolded.
 
Kay, however, made it more
difficult.
 
I had to stop every few
minutes to let her throw up.
 
By the time
we finally reached the first house on our street, Gallows Lane, I really was
ready to leave her.
 

She
groaned and pitched forward, dragging me with her.
 
Now I could add scraped knees to my list of
things that had gone wrong tonight, I thought as I fell.
 
Fingers curled around my arm and yanked me
backward before I could hit the ground.
 
Kay fell flat on her face.
 

I
turned around to say thank you, but the words froze in my throat.
 
I looked up and up.
 
The light from the street lamp illuminated
hair the color of rich, dark chocolate.
 
It swept down almost to his shoulders in a perfect mess that framed a
face of sharp angles and strong features.
 
Sculpted perfection was my first thought.
 
Gray eyes that reminded me of the fog
swirling over the mountains after a rain, stared steadily down at me.
 
My mind focused on one fact—he was absolutely
gorgeous.

“Are
you okay?” he asked.
 
His voice was deep
and gravelly.
 
I liked it.

I
nodded, not trusting my own voice.
 
I was
in full ogle mode.

He
looked down at Kay and sighed.
 
He lifted
her into his arms and turned to me.
 
“Where does she live?”

“Just
up the lane,” I told him, grateful my voice didn’t crack while I admired the
way his muscles rippled under the tee shirt as he shifted his hold on Kay.
 
“Thanks.”

He
nodded and motioned for me to show him the way.
 

“I’m
Cassie Jayne Bishop,” I told him as we walked.
 
“CJ.”
 

Crap,
why I had I told him my full name?
 
We
were taught at an early age not to tell strangers our full names.
 
To us it was the ultimate taboo.
 
Oh well.
 
It’s not like I believed in that nonsense anyway.
 

“Ethan
Warren,” he said and quickened his pace.
 

Okay,
so maybe he didn’t want to talk to me.
 
Or he could just be in a hurry to get away from the stench of dried
vomit and beer.
 
I hoped it was the
latter.
 
Then I remembered my shoes.
 
I probably reeked too.
 

We
reached Kay’s house in record time.
 
His
long strides ate up the sidewalk.
 
I
found myself running to keep up with him.
 
He had to be at least four or five inches over six feet.
 
I barely reached his shoulder.
 

Fate
decided to forgive me.
 
Her Dad still
wasn’t home.
 
Neither was Jess.
 
I opened the back door with the spare key
they kept buried in the gravel.
 
I turned
around to take Kay, but he was already entering the house.
 
I led the way upstairs to her room so I could
open the door for him.
 
He dumped her on
the bed.
 
I pulled her shoes off and
tucked a throw around her.
 

“Come
along, Cassie Jayne Bishop.
 
I’ll walk
you home.”
 
He turned and headed out the
door.

I
stared after him.
 
Who was he?
 
I found him waiting at the back door when I
came down.
 
After locking the door and
pocketing the key (hey, he’d seen me take it—how was I to know he wouldn’t come
back?) we started up the lane toward my own smaller, more meager house.
 

“Why
weren’t you drinking?” he asked me as we walked.

“You
were at the party?”
 
I looked up,
startled.
 

He
nodded.
 
“Yeah.
 
I saw you and Drunk Girl arrive, but I never
saw you drink anything all night.”

“No,
I don’t drink.”
 
And I didn’t.
 
I’d seen what it did to my dad.
 
Watching that train wreck was enough to deter
anyone from ever wanting to touch the stuff themselves, including me.
 
My dad was great, except when he drank.
 

Then
the impact of what he’d asked sunk in.
 
How did he know I didn’t drink anything?
 
Had he been watching me?
 
I peeked
sideways at him and felt my mouth go dry.
 
It was indecent the way his tight, green tee-shirt hugged his abs.
 

“Interesting,”
he said after a moment.

Interesting?
 
What did that mean?
 
Did he assume I was like Kay and drank myself
into a stupor on a regular occurrence?
 
Please don’t think I’m that much of an idiot, I begged silently.
 
Why did I even care what he thought anyway?
 
It wasn’t like he was interested in me or
something.
 
Was he?
 
Did I want him interested?
 
Oh, yeah, you bet your ass I did.
 

Guys
tended to notice my best friend, Makayla Martin, first.
 
It didn’t bother me, though.
 
I had just as much confidence in myself as
she did.
 
I always got anyone I
wanted.
 
Kay and I were the same in many
ways, but we were also as different as Gucci heels were to a pair of Payless
stilettos.

She
was tall with dark, onyx hair that glowed like black fire.
 
Her eyes, always full of life, shone like the
hazel eyes of a cat.
 
An olive complexion
gave her an exotic look.
 
Guys fell all
over themselves for the chance of a smile.

Me
now, I was a bit of a different story.
 
I
was short, petite, and full of the fire that is inherent in a redhead with an
Irish ancestry.
 
My hair stood out.
 
It wasn't auburn or even that ugly orange
shade some red-heads ended up with.
 
No,
my hair was blood red like a Coca-Cola can.
  
My golden colored brown eyes flashed with the same confidence of Kay’s.
 
I could turn heads just as easily as she
could.
 
And I knew it.
 

Our
personalities were just as different.
 
Kay had this insane need to be the center of attention.
 
She was literally a force of nature.
 
I was usually content to be the fashionable
sidekick with the kickass shoes.
 
I
didn’t need every single person clamoring for my attention just so long as I
got the attention of the person I wanted.
 
Like the boy walking beside of me.
 
And I would have him.
 
Maybe.
 
The stench
could be a hurdle.
 
Kay was so gonna get
it tomorrow.

My
mind flashed to my sister and for a second, her face danced in front of my
eyes. If only she could see me now.
 
She’d be laughing herself silly.

“This
is my house,” I told him as we came to the old yellow Victorian home.
 
It was just a bit run down, but I still loved
it.
 
He followed me up the steps and stopped
under the porch light.
 
“Thanks for
walking me home.”
 

When
he didn’t say anything, I looked up to see him staring at me.
 
A smile flirted with his lips.
   
Dimples.
 
He had dimples.
 

“Don’t
worry about it.
 
I figured you might need
some help when I saw you staggering away from the party.
 
Does she always get that drunk?”

So
he did look at Kay as possible girlfriend material!
 
Of course he would be worried about her
getting drunk all the time.
 
I sighed
with irritation.
 
This could be a
problem.
 
There were times I really hated
my best friend.
 

“No,”
I lied, my BBF skills kicking in despite my irritation.
 
Kay did get drunk a lot.
 
I coped with problems at home by writing in
my journal.
 
She coped with her problems
by drinking.
 
I frowned, a thought occurring
to me.

“Wait,
you followed us?
 
A bit
stalkerish
don’t you think?”
 

He
grinned.
 
My knees turned to butter.
 
“Yeah, that’s why I decided to follow you and
only give you some help if you needed it.
 
You’re a tiny bit of fluff.
 
I’m
surprised the Amazon didn’t bowl you over before you reached the lane.”