Promises (Book One of The Syrenka Series) (6 page)

I sat up so quickly that I got caught
in the covers. Making a fool out of myself, I tried to detangle my
legs and nearly fell out of the bed. I had temporarily forgotten
about our sleeping situation, and now my shenanigan’s had woken him
up.

“
You okay?” His voice was
groggy with sleep and I had to close my eyes when he rolled onto
his back and stretched out in front of me.
Stop looking. Stop looking. Stop looking.
I chastised myself. The tan, muscled chest kept drawing me in
and when I tried to move away, I fell with a thump to the
floor.

“
Eviana!” Kain cried out. I
was on my back with my legs stuck in the covers hanging over the
side of the bed looking up into his concerned face and striking
blue eyes. What could possibly be any more embarrassing?

“
Ow,” I moaned and tried to
assess if I’d injured anything more than my pride. Nope, just my
pride and any coolness I may have had. And as soon as I realized
this, I started laughing and couldn’t stop.

Kain stared down at me for a few more
seconds before joining me with his own amused laughter. We stayed
like that a little while longer until tears were coming out of my
eyes. Finally, he reached for me and I gave him my hands. In one
swift motion, he pulled me back up onto the bed. Although I think
he underestimated his strength because I ended up completely on top
of him in the center of the mattress. I could feel the heat
radiating off his chest and my heart pounded.

“
Um…thanks,” I said, unable
to make it much more than a whisper.

“
Anytime,” he smiled up at
me and caught my gaze. I felt his hand push back a piece of my dark
hair from my face and suddenly I couldn’t think about anything
else. “Why were you trying to get away so quickly?”

The lump in my throat and the
butterflies in my stomach made it difficult for me to understand
his question. “Bad dream?” I couldn’t remember what had freaked me
out earlier. What was wrong with me?

His body shook with another laugh
while he wrapped his arms around my back. We had never been this
close together before and I had never been like this with anyone
other than Brendan. Suddenly, Kain kissed my forehead and gave me
another tight squeeze. “Well, that’s what I’m here for. To protect
you from bad dreams.”

My muscles tensed with guilt and fear.
Guilt because I was thinking about Brendan and fear because I
didn’t know why my body was responding to Kain like this. He must
have sensed it too because he gently pushed me off to the side and
rolled out of bed.

“
Time to get up anyway. I’m
sure it’s going to be a long day.” Walking gracefully to the
closet, I watched him select his clothes; a pair of khaki pants and
a light weight button up shirt. The top was sky blue and I knew how
handsome he would look in it. I also really needed to get control
over my feelings right now.

He bounded into the bathroom with
clothes in hand and I heard the shower turn on. I decided that it
was too much trouble to bath myself again, so I threw on a long
blue sundress and pinned back the sides of my hair. After adding a
little makeup and some deodorant, I was ready to go. Yet I still
sat on the bed for another ten minutes waiting for Kain to emerge.
It was clear to me who the female was in this relationship. When he
stepped out of the bathroom through a wall of steam, I couldn’t
help but tease.

“
Finally,” I sighed
dramatically. “I thought that I was going to have to tell everyone
that you fell in. Did you get everything plucked and primped just
right?”

He looked at me and the side of his
mouth curved up with a smirk. “Hey, don’t hate me because I’m
beautiful. Do you think this hair styles itself?”

All I could do was shake my head.
“What time do we have to be there?” I asked.

“
What time is
it?”

I pulled out my cell phone from my
purse and noticed that I had a couple of messages. They were from
Brendan and I hadn’t even checked my phone this morning. Another
surge of guilt raked over me. “Almost nine,” I finally
answered.

“
Well then we should go
now.” He threw his pajama bottoms on top of his suitcase and
slipped on a pair of shoes. Holding out his hand he asked, “Shall
we?”

I really wanted to talk to Brendan, or
at least look at his messages, but I didn’t want to make Kain
uncomfortable again. So I just smiled, took his hand, and prepared
myself to play the role of fiancée for the rest of the
weekend.

As soon as we walked outside, someone
yelled for us. I turned towards the far end of the dock to see a
young couple hurrying in our direction. They must have come from
the boat house at the end. When I looked around, I could see that
there were six different houses along the dock in varying styles
and sizes. It was so quiet that I assumed everyone else was already
at breakfast.

“
Kain, wait up!” The guy
was yelling at us and towing the girl, who must have been his
girlfriend, behind. She was having a hard time keeping her three
inch heels out of the cracks, but not once did she give him a dirty
look.

“
Hey Vance,” Kain said and
shook the guy’s hand when he arrived. “Good to see you
again.”

“
Yeah, man. It’s been what?
Like two years by now?” Vance was tall and handsome, as most
merfolk were. He had brown shaggy hair that was streaked from the
sun and stubble around his lower face indicating that he didn’t
shave this morning. Dark sunglasses were covering his eyes and the
shorts and tee-shirt were in stark contrast to Kain’s more polished
look. It was also very different from the girl standing next to
him. She was wearing a one shouldered silver top with a pair of
short black shorts. I am an average five foot six inches and she
was probably a little shorter than that considering we were at eye
level with her heels on. Vance smiled down at me. “I’m betting that
you’re Eviana.”

I looked towards Kain with a
questioning glance, but before he could respond, Vance picked me up
in a bear hug and shook me from side to side. “It’s so great to
finally meet you.” He put me down but didn’t let go of my arms.
“This boy talked about you constantly when we met. I’m glad to see
that you’re finally here with him.”

He pushed me aside and pulled the girl
closer to both of us. “This is Brinsley Kennedy. My fiancée.” His
face beamed with such pride I had a momentary feeling of sadness.
Vance was so excited about their relationship and it wasn’t hard to
tell by the way she looked at him, that she was just as much in
love.

Kain gave her a hug. “Brinsley, it is
a pleasure to meet you.” Turning to Vance he added, “You finally
got her to agree to it, didn’t you?”

Vance laughed and punched him in the
shoulder. “Told you she wouldn’t be able to resist me.” He nodded
in my direction, “And apparently your charms finally worked as
well. Congratulations man.”

Kain blushed a little bit and smiled
at me slightly. I think it was more of an apologetic look. Or maybe
it was a “please play along” request.

“
Brinsley, I’m Eviana,” I
held out my hand but she gave me a hug too. They were very
touchy-feely, these two.

“
It’s nice to meet you
Eviana. You’re from California, right?”

“
Yes, around the Santa
Barbara area. You?”

“
New York. Or really
Montauk. Though you’ve probably never heard of it.” She smiled and
I realized how beautiful she was. Her long, straight brown hair
fell nearly to her waist and her perfect features were only
enhanced when she beamed at me or Vance.

“
I have. It’s nice down
there,” Kain added and she looked at him with surprise. “I grew up
in Boston,” he explained. “Sometimes we would vacation on the
island.”

In the distance there was a sound that
reminded me of a dinner bell. Vance shook his head and
sighed.

“
We better get going. Can’t
be late on the first day.” Then he added in a mocking voice,
“Punctuality is essential in a leader.”

Kain and Brinsley laughed while we
started walking towards the main house. I ran to catch up with
Vance. “Have you been here before?”

“
Yeah, Brinsley and I came
last year.” He waved his arms around with fake excitement. “It’s a
blast!” Brinsley giggled again and took his hand in hers before
looking over to me.

“
It’s not that bad. Just
try to be patient with all of the hoopla. The first day will seem
overwhelming, but they’ll relax a bit once they see that you’re
trying to learn.” She beamed at me again and I instantly felt more
relaxed.

Shaking my head, I dropped back to
walk with Kain. “Does she do that to you too?”

He chuckled and wrapped his arm over
my shoulder. “Yeah, she’s got a special talent for mesmerizing
people. It’s a characteristic of her family’s bloodline. Merfolk
with that much skill usually end up in powerful positions. She’s a
great catch for Vance.”

They did seem to be truly happy with
each other and I didn’t think it was only because of her power over
him. Kain thought she was a good catch. I wondered if anyone would
ever say that about me. My thoughts were interrupted by another
ringing bell and we all picked up the pace to begin our first day
of Cotillion.

Five

We were the last ones to arrive at
breakfast, and judging by the looks we received, it wasn’t the best
way to make a first impression. The large open room boasted windows
on three sides and a high ceiling with decorative lantern-like
chandeliers hanging above us. Four empty seats dictated our
arrangement at opposite sides of the table. Kain and I sat down in
the closest chairs and tried to make as little noise as possible.
In front of us on the dinner plate was a hand printed itinerary of
the weekend’s events. The gold flecked paper was thick and natural
and the calligraphy writing was beautiful. I didn’t even want to
touch it, but once I started reading the schedule I couldn’t help
but snatch it off of the plate.

“
Ridiculous, right?” the
boy sitting next to me whispered with a smile. “I thought this was
supposed to be fun.”

From sunrise to sunset each day, every
hour was planned. Today did look like the worst one, just as
Brinsley had warned, but I didn’t really see that it got much
better through the weekend. Listings for interviews, manners,
public speaking, and strategy filled the paper and I suddenly felt
overwhelmed and incredibly homesick.

“
No kidding,” I replied.
Turning my head to see who was speaking to me, I saw a guy around
my age but even more primped than Kain. He had short auburn hair,
large brown eyes, and a cute smile. Something about him seemed
gentle and I was instantly drawn to his presence. “I don’t even
know what half of this stuff means.”

“
Me neither, but I heard
some of the others talking earlier. Apparently we are here so they
can teach us how to be perfect little soldiers.” He pointed to one
of the lines on my itinerary. “This here, in the
interview
sessions, they
make you answer all kinds of questions on the spot with a
microphone just like Miss America.” Twirling his hand around in the
air, he giggled. “I’ll be good at that one.”

“
I won’t,” I mumbled.
Public speaking was definitely not for me.

“
And this one that
says
manners
means
you learn proper etiquette for having business dinners and
entertaining other important families.” He was practically leaning
on me at this point.

“
When do we get to go
swimming?” I asked.

“
Oh, that’s right there.
Each night at dusk for two hours.”

I looked back down at the paper where
he was pointing and wrinkled my nose. “But that says physical
fitness.”

“
Yep,” he smiled then held
out his hand. “I’m Daniel Zane by the way.”

I shook his hand. “Eviana
Dumahl.”

“
Nice to meet you, Eviana,”
he said with a sincerity that was natural and comforting. Daniel
and I were going to be friends by the end of the weekend no doubt.
But before I could say anything else, someone cleared their
throat.

“
Welcome to Cotillion
syrenkas. My name is Pegotty Moranis and I will be heading this
year’s ceremonies.” Pegotty was an older lady, perhaps in her
sixties, with long graying hair that curled from her shoulders to
her waist. She wore a velvet green gown that had black lace
trimmings over the bodice and down the front of the skirt. I
couldn’t imagine how hot she must be in this Florida
humidity.

“
Our activities will
commence in twenty minutes and on your itineraries you will find
the locations of each session. We expect you to be courteous and
prompt. Punctuality is essential in a leader.”

I caught Vance’s eyes across the table
as he mouthed the words “Told you” and smiled. Shaking my head to
hide my reaction, I looked around the room. There were about twenty
of us in here, both first and second year syrenkas. The group was
evenly mixed with males and females and it was obvious who the
novice students were. We were all wearing a look of fear and
distress, anticipating the worst.