The Promise (The Coven Series) (5 page)

“No.”
 

“Then
where were you?”

“I
went to visit Emily.”
 
I reopened the
fridge.
 
“I’m gonna make a sandwich.
 
Do you want one?”

I
replaced the
Lunchable
and started pulling out
everything I needed.
 
Just keep him
talking, I told myself.

He
grunted and sat down at the table.
 
I
peeked at him from the corner of my eye.
 
He frowned and ran a hand through his reddish brown hair, his eyes
suspicious.

“You’re
sure you didn’t go to the meeting tonight?” he asked, his voice hard.

“No,
Dad, I never go, same as you.”

I
slathered the sub buns with mayonnaise and piled on our favorite fixings.
 
“Is NC State or LSU winning?”

“LSU,”
he said in disgust.
 
“Seven
to nothing.
 
Damn fine coach they
got themselves.”

I
nodded and set his plate down in front of him.
 
“I need to do some homework.
 
Is
there anything else you need?
 
A Coke or some water?”

“Get
me another beer.”

I
cringed.
 
He so did not need another
beer, but I knew better than to argue with him.
 
I took one out of the fridge and handed it over.
 
Hauling up my bookbag, I started to get my
own food when he stopped me.

“Sit
down, CJ.
 
I want to talk to you.”

I
eyed the doorway and contemplated escape.
 
Instead, I picked up my plate and sat down across from him.
 
I took a bite of the turkey sandwich and
waited.
 
He seemed uneasy.
 
He was drunk, but it was more than that.
 
He looked almost…afraid.
 
Nervous eyes scanned the room and he drummed
the fingertips of one hand on the table.
 
His other hand shook as he took a drink.

“Do
you go see Emily a lot?”

I
swallowed hard.
 
I hadn’t expected that.

“I
do,” he continued.
 
“At
least once a day.”

“I
didn’t know that,” I whispered.
 
Maybe he
wasn’t as drunk as I thought.

“I
lost her, CJ.
 
I can’t lose you too.”

“You’re
not going to lose me, Dad.
 
Why would you
think that?”

“You’re
almost eighteen,” he said.
 
“They’ll be
pestering you to start coming to the meetings soon.
 
You can’t go.”

“Why
would they…”

“You’re
almost eighteen,” he interrupted.
 
“Don’t
go near them.”

“Why
does it matter how old I am?” I asked, confused.
 
“They always pester me to go and I
don’t.
 
It’s all just a bunch of
nonsense.”

“Doesn’t
matter if you believe in it or not,” he shook his head.
 
“They’ll try and get you there one way or
another.
 
Don’t do it.”

“Why?”
I asked.
 
I didn’t understand.
 
Why didn’t he want me to go?
 
He’d been a loyal Coven member for as long as
I could remember.
 
After Emily’s accident
he’d stopped going, but I’d figured it was because he was in pain.
 
She loved everything about the Coven and I
thought the meetings had reminded him too much of that.
 
Now, I wasn’t so sure.
 
He looked frightened at the thought of me
going to one of them.
 
“What’s wrong,
Daddy?”

He
grabbed my wrist in a death grip, his fingers crushing.
 
“You will never go near the Coven, Cassie
Jayne.
 
Do you understand me?” Anger
boiled in his voice.
 
His eyes turned
black in their rage.
 
He scared me.
 

“Dad,
you’re hurting me,” I cried and tried to pull my hand away.
 
All I managed to do was wrench not only my
wrist, but my shoulder as well.
 
Pain
shot all the way up my arm.
 
He let go of
me, his expression a little crazy.
 
I
rubbed my wrist. Ugly red marks decorated it. That was going to bruise.

He
looked at me with wild eyes.
 
“You don’t
understand.
 
You’re almost eighteen…”

“Roger.”

Our
heads whipped around.
 
Mom stood in the
doorway, glaring holes into Dad.
 

“What
do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, blue eyes flaming with anger.
 
She took one look at my wrist and her face
paled.
 
“Roger, what did you do?
 
CJ, are you okay?”

“I’m
fine, Mom.”

Dad
was staring at my wrist.
 
He looked
horrified at what he’d done.
 
“CJ…”

“
It’s
okay, Dad.
 
You
didn’t mean to do it.”
 
I knew he hadn’t
meant to hurt me.
 
No matter how drunk
he’d get, he’d never lifted a hand against me or Mom.
 
Ever.
 
No, it was fear that had caused him to lose
control.
 
But fear of
what?

“No,
it’s not okay.”
 
Mom slammed the top of
the freezer shut.
 
She wrapped the ice
pack in a dish towel and handed it to me.
 
“Put that on your wrist, honey.
 
It’ll keep the swelling down.
 
Why
don’t you go to your room?
 
Your dad and
I need to talk.”

“Mom...”

“Upstairs,
Cassie Jayne.
 
Now.”

Uh-oh, the MOM voice.
 
I grabbed my bookbag and left without another word.
 
Upstairs, I dropped my bag on my bed and
changed into some pajamas.
 
I let the ice
sit on my wrist for a few minutes before checking it.
 
Sure enough I could see the faint tinge of
purple that heralded the onset of an ugly bruise.
 
It hadn’t hurt all that much until I looked
at it.
 
Now it ached up my entire arm and
my shoulder pulsed with pain from where I’d wrenched it trying to get
free.
 
How was I going to explain this at
school?

My
stomach growled and I let out a frustrated groan.
 
My food was still on the kitchen table
downstairs and I was starved.
 
No help
for it now.
 
Homework, I thought.
 
I’d try to do some homework.
 
AP chemistry, however, did not take my mind
off my aching wrist or my dad.
 

I
couldn’t stop thinking about it.
 
He’d
been almost fine one second and then the next,
bam,
he’d turned into a lunatic.
 
His eyes had
scared me.
 
I’d never seen him look like
that before, not even the night Emily died.
 
He’d flipped out then, too, but nothing like he’d done tonight.
 
He’d never hurt me before.

I
knew he didn’t mean to do it.
 
I’d seen
the shock and disgust at what he’d done on his face.
 
It was the thought of my going to the Coven
meetings, I realized.
 
That’s what had
sent him over the edge.
 
But why should
he care?
 
He was a member or at least he
used to be.
 
Dad had been the Coven
Master until he’d stepped down after Emily’s accident.
 
He’d always been proud of the Coven, that his
family took such an active role in it.
 
What happened to change that?
 
He
didn’t want me near it.
 
Why?

I
remembered Emily’s whispered words.
 
Don’t go near them, little sister.
 
Stay away.
 
Promise me you’ll stay
away!
 
They echoed in my mind.
 
I’d never questioned her request before, but
Dad’s odd behavior made me start to rethink the whole situation.
 
Did he and Emily know something I
didn’t?
 
What, though?
 
It had to be important for them to warn me
away from the one thing they both loved.

There
was a soft knock on the door and Mom came in.
 
Emily had always looked so much like Mom.
 
They had the same facial structure, the same
blue eyes, and the same smile.
 
She set a
fresh sandwich and a Coke down on my desk before settling herself beside me.

“Honey,
I am so sorry.”
 
She took my hand to
examine it.
 
Mom was a nurse for the ER
department at the hospital in Statesville.
 
She ran her fingers over my wrist and up my arm before she let out a
small sigh.
 
“It looks like you’re going
to have a pretty bad bruise.”
  
She
wrapped it in the Ace bandage she’d brought up.
 
“This will help with the swelling.”

“Really,
Mom, it doesn’t even hurt that bad,” I lied.
 

“So
I guess you don’t want the Motrin I brought up?” She pointed to the bottle
sitting beside the plate.
 

“I
wouldn’t go that far,” I smiled at her.
 

“Sweetheart,
your father…”

“Didn’t
mean it,” I cut her off.
 
“I know he
didn’t, Mom.”

She
sighed.
 
“He’s just been under a lot of
pressure lately and with the fifteenth coming up…I…”

“Mom,
please, can we just forget about it?”

She
stared at my wrist and I knew there was no way in hell she was going to forget
about it anytime soon, but she nodded.
 
“I heard what you’re father was telling you when I came in,
 
and I think you should at least go to one
meeting before you decide to completely write it off.”

“Mom,
you know I don’t believe in any of that stuff.”

“I
know, but I still think you should at least give it a chance.
 
It’s a part of your heritage, honey.
 
You owe yourself the opportunity to see where
you come from.”

I
frowned.
 
This was beyond bizarre.
 
First Dad was screaming at me to stay away and
now Mom was urging me to go to a meeting?
 
What was going on today?

“Can
I ask you a question, Mom?”

“Of
course,” she smiled.

“What
did Dad mean about me being eighteen?
 
What does that have to do with anything?”

Her
eyes became hooded, guarded.
 
“Absolutely nothing.
 
I think it’s just because of Emily he’s gotten so paranoid.
 
She was eighteen when she died.”

“No,
I don’t think so…”

“Emily’s
death hit him hard, CJ.
 
She died coming
back from a Coven meeting.
 
Of course he
doesn’t want you near it.
 
It’s as simple
as that.”

No,
it wasn’t that simple.
 
There’d been no
Coven meeting the night Emily died.
 
Mom
knew that.
 
My stomach gave a queasy
little flip.
 
Why was she lying to
me?
 

“Just
think about going, please?
 
I want you to
have the same experiences your sister had.
 
She loved the Coven and everything it represented.
 
Don’t you think you owe her that much?
 
To go and see what was important to her?”

Mom
was right about that.
 
Ems had loved the
Coven, treasured everything about it.
 
I
needed to know why she’d changed her mind.
 

“I’ll
think about it, Mom, okay?”
 
I told
her.
 
I saw the relief in her eyes.
 

“Good.”
 
She kissed my forehead and stood to
leave.
 
“Try to get some sleep, honey.”

I
would think about going.
 
Something was
going on and I intended to find out what.

Chapter Five

I
drummed my fingers against the wood surface of the chemistry table and watched
the clock.
  
Would the last bell never
ring?
 
With each second my agitation
grew.
 
I would see Ethan soon.
 
Maybe.
 
Just the thought of his smile caused the
butterflies in my stomach to start flying up into my throat.
 
The anticipation of seeing him again had my
hands sweating and my breath coming out in short gasps.

I
still couldn’t believe he’d asked me out on a date.
 
It was usually the other way around.
 
Guys couldn’t believe I’d asked them
out.
 
What was different about
Ethan?
 
Why did I feel so nervous?
 
This was new territory for me.
 
I wasn’t sure I liked it, but at the same
time, I loved the way he made me feel.
 
I
felt extremely confused.