The Promise (The Coven Series) (4 page)

“What
in the world are you doing, CJ?” Emily laughed when she barged into the
bathroom.

I
looked at her curiously from underneath a mountain of makeup.
 
Mom had finally relented and said I could
start wearing makeup.
 
So of course I’d
rushed into Emily’s room and confiscated her huge makeup case.
 
She had every color imaginable and I was in
heaven.
 

“What
does it look like I’m doing, Emily?
 
Mom
caved and said I could wear it!
 
Kay’s
been wearing it for over a month now.” I gave her a huge smile, my eyes
shining.

She
arched a brow.
 
“Well now, let’s see if
we can’t show you how it’s done, little sister.”

For
the next two hours she’d shown me how to put my face together.
 
I’d learned how to apply lipstick, blush, and
eye shadow—if it could be put on the face, we’d tried it.
 
She’d never once laughed at my clumsy
attempts.
 
It was one of the best
memories I had of her.

“Slumming, Cassie Jayne Bishop?”

My
head whipped around and there he stood, watching me.
 
Damn, he was going to give me a serious case
of whiplash if he didn’t stop sneaking up on me.
 
My eyes roamed over him.
 
He’d changed into a pair of faded jeans and a
red, Hard Rock Café tee-shirt.
 
The wind
blew his hair into his face and I sighed with the need to run my fingers
through those wayward locks.
 

“What
are you doing here?” I blurted in a breathless voice.
  

“I
could ask the same of you.”
 
He gave me
that devilish smile I was coming to love.
 
“You won’t come tonight, but you’re hanging out in a cemetery?”

Great.
 
He thinks I’m
some kind of weirdo.

“I’m
visiting.”

His
gaze flickered to the headstone and lingered.
 
He gave me a curious look.

“My
sister,” I told him softly.

“I’m
sorry.
 
I didn’t mean to intrude.”

“No,
it’s
okay,” I said in a rush, afraid he’d leave.
 
“I was about to head home anyway.
 
I just wanted to talk to her for a bit.”
 
Brilliant, CJ, I groaned as the words came
out.
 
Now he probably thinks you’re even
weirder for talking to a headstone.

He
nodded as if that made perfect sense.
 
He
came over and sat down across from me, our knees just centimeters apart.
 
He looked into my eyes, searching.
 
I had the distinct feeling he could look into
my soul with those piercing gray eyes.
 
I
shivered in response.

“You
were close?” he asked me.

I
smiled.
 
“That’s putting it mildly.
 
We were inseparable.”

He
took my hands into his own.
 
I marveled
at how dainty they looked wrapped in his larger ones.

“You
still miss her don’t you?” he whispered.

“Every minute of every day.”
 

“I
know how much it hurts to lose someone you love,” he told me.
 
“It never really goes away.
 
You just learn to live with it.”

I
looked up into his smoky gray eyes and my breath caught.
 
They were full of a sadness I knew
intimately, a wound so deep, time would never touch it.
 
This boy, this stranger, understood my pain better
than anyone I’d ever met.
 
Better than
Kay.
 
How could that be?

“So,
what are you doing here?” I asked him softly.
 
I couldn’t take my eyes away from his face.
 
He was staring at me with such a tender
expression that I had the sudden urge to cry.
 
His eyes told me he felt my pain and was sorry for it.
 

“I
was taking a shortcut and saw you sitting up here,” he told me, shifting our
conversation to something lighter.
 
“The
opportunity to talk to you alone was too good to pass up.”

“Were
you heading over to the Hall?” I asked him, feeling suddenly shy,
a
first for me.
 
His
thumbs started to stroke my hands.

“Yeah,”
he nodded and leaned closer.
 
“So tell
me, Cassie, were you up here confessing your undying love for me?”

“Certainly
not,” I replied tartly.
 
“How can I
confess my undying love for you when I don’t even know you?”

“That’s
easily fixed.”
 
He stood and pulled me to
my feet.
 
“Come with me tonight.
 
We can get to know each other better.”

I
sighed.
 
He had to put it like that
didn’t he?
 
“Do you really believe in all
that?”

He
shrugged.

“I
can’t,” I told him.
 
I’d debated about
it, but in the end, I just couldn’t.
 
I’d
promised Emily I’d stay away from the Coven and I wouldn’t break my word to
her.

“Sure
you can,” he smiled.
 
“It’s as easy as
putting one foot in front of the other.”

“I
have stuff to do.”
 
I tried to pull my
hands out of his, but he pulled me closer instead.

“Like
what?” he purred.

My
mind went completely blank staring into his eyes.
 
“Stuff.”

“You
already said that, Cassie Jayne Bishop,” he whispered, leaning even
closer.
 
“What kind of stuff?”

“I…I
have to wash my hair!” I blurted, and then died of embarrassment.
 
Wash my hair?
 
That had to be the lamest excuse ever.
 
Could I be any dorkier?
 
What was
wrong with me?

He
laughed outright and the sound vibrated through me.
 
“So washing your hair is more important than
getting to know me?”

“Yes…NO!”
 
Crap.
 
He had me tongue-tied.
 
Dammit!
 
No one had ever managed
to do that to me before.

“No?”
He arched a brow suggestively.
 
“Then
come to the Hall with me.”

I
really, really, really wanted to, but I just couldn’t.
 
“No.”

“Why not?”
 
He looked
genuinely confused.
 
“It’s who you are.”

“No,
it’s not.”
 
I shook my head and tried
again to pull away from him.
 
His
touching me was not helping me to resist the urge to give in and go.
 
“I don’t believe in any of that.”

He
frowned, puzzled.
 
“Don’t your parents…”

“Mom
goes to Coven meetings religiously,” I cut him off.
 
“Dad hasn’t gone since the day we got the
news about Emily.
 
I never wanted to go.”

I
saw him struggle with a question in his eyes, but he forced himself to ask
it.
 
“And your sister?”

“She
was the Junior Coven leader and she loved it.
 
I don’t.
 
End of story.”

“You’re
serious, aren’t you?
 
You really don’t
believe in any of it?”

“No,
I don’t.”
 
Why did I have to live in a
town where everyone believed in witchcraft?
 
I hated having to try and explain to people why I didn’t share their
beliefs.
 
There were days I wished I
lived in a nice, normal, average town, a town where there wasn’t a Coven.
 

He
sighed.
 
“Come on, I’ll walk you
home.”
 
He let go of one of my hands,
grabbed my bookbag, and started down the hill.
 

Dad
was probably good and drunk by now.
 
I
did not want him to see that.
 
In my
panic, my words came out harsher than I’d intended.
 
“No, that’s okay.
 
You’ll be late for the meeting.
 
I can get home myself.”

“You’re
mad at me again,” he grinned ruefully.
 
“But it makes you look cute.”

Mad?
 
Hell no, I just didn’t want him to see the
drunken mess waiting for me at home.

He
frowned.
 
“What are you thinking?”

“Nothing.”

“Did
you know your bottom lip quivers when you lie?” His free hand came up and he
traced the outline of my lips with a finger.
 

“It
does not,” I whispered, my senses on overload.
 

“Tell
me what you’re thinking, Cassie,” he urged me.
 

“Honestly,
I figured you were more interested in Kay.”
 
I moved the conversation to something safer than him walking me
home.
 
“You were asking a lot of
questions about her last night.”
 

“I
don’t particularly like stick thin drunken girls.
 
I much prefer redheads with a little bit of a
curve to them.”

WOW.
 
My mouth fell open.
 
He saw his opportunity and took it.

His
lips came down and I gasped at the softness as they brushed over mine.
 
It was quick and left me breathless.
 
The boy sure knew how to kiss.
 
I wanted to kiss him again.

“Sure
you won’t change your mind and come tonight?” he asked, looking down at me out
of his too bright eyes.

I
started to nod yes and caught myself.
 
“No, I’m sorry.”
 

He
sighed again.
 
“Let’s get you home.”

“Really,
I can take myself home.
 
It’s not even
dark yet.”
 
I actually managed to pull my
hand free.
 
It protested the loss of his,
but I ignored the need to touch him.
 
“You really will be late.
 
Kay
gets pissed when people are late to her ceremonies.”

“Kay?”
he frowned.

“She’s
the Junior Coven leader,” I explained.
 
“So you should go on.
 
I can find
my way home.”

He
nodded and gave me a wicked smile.
 
“Can
I take you out for a bite to eat tomorrow after school?”

My
eyes went round.
 
Did he just ask me on a
date?
 

“Umm…”

“No?”
he cocked his head.

“Sure.”
I took a shaky breath.
 
His eyes swirled
with laughter.
 
Did he have to look so
yummy?
 
He robbed me of speech when he
looked at me like that.

“Good.”
 
He leaned down and gave me another quick kiss
before handing me my bookbag.
 
“It’s a
date, Cassie Jayne Bishop.”

I
stared, dumb-founded, as he walked away.

A date.
 
I’d just
agreed to go out with the most gorgeous boy I’d ever met.
 
And I’d let him kiss me?
 
I never kissed a guy until at least the third
date.
 
Something was definitely wrong
with me.
 
Or I really, really, liked him.

The
wind picked up and howled around me, mirroring the confusion I felt
inside.
 

“I
know, right?” I said to the wind.
 
I
could still feel his kiss.
 

Sighing,
I picked up my bookbag and headed home, my dad forgotten, as I thought about
what to wear.

Chapter Four

I
crept around to the back of the house and slid in through the kitchen
door.
 
It was quiet.
 
I heard the muffled roar of the TV coming
from the direction of the living room.
 
With any luck Dad would be passed out by now and I’d get upstairs
without notice.
 
Mom had made herself
scarce so it must have been a pretty bad fight.
 
I looked in the trash can and winced.
 
Grandma’s crystal vase lay in shattered ruins.
 
It was Mom’s most prized possession.
 

I
grabbed myself a Coke and a
Lunchable
from the
fridge.
 
I had a ton of homework to do
and I needed to figure out what to wear to school tomorrow.
 
Ethan said we’d go eat right after school.
 
I still couldn’t believe he’d asked me out on
a date.
 
Just…wow.
 
I figured I’d have to do some unobtrusive
hinting first, but no, he’d shocked me, and asked me out.

“Where
the hell have you been?”

I
closed my eyes and took a deep breath before turning around.
 
Dad stood in the doorway, a beer gripped in
his hand.
 
His golden eyes were bloodshot
and he looked furious.
 
Not a good
sign.
  

“I
had some stuff to do.”

His
eyes narrowed and he stepped closer.
 
“Did you go to the Hall, CJ?”