Promises (Book One of The Syrenka Series) (2 page)

“
I thought that we weren’t
going to meet until tomorrow.” He shook his head. “You caught me
off guard and bested me.”

I was about to argue that
he had surprised me too, but when he turned around to face me I
froze. His tall, athletic build was just a fraction of what made me
catch my breath. The tanned skin and dark hair complimented the
sharp angles on his face and enhanced the mesmerizing green of his
eyes. Since the first day I met him, he could overwhelm me with his
smile. It was one of his best features. However, it was the way he
looked at
me
that
had captured my heart so many years ago. His laugh snapped me out
of my temporary paralysis.

“
Have I bewildered you
again, my sexy siren?”

I smiled and closed the distance
between us before he could speak again. We kissed for several
minutes, exploring every surface of our human forms. I lost myself
in him until reality came crashing back, knocking the breath away
from me. I pulled away so suddenly, I almost tripped over my feet.
Tears began to fill my eyes.

“
Eviana. What is it? What’s
wrong?” He bent down towards me placing both hands on my arms to
hold me up.

“
They did it Brendan! They
have made the arrangements, and there’s nothing I can do about it!”
I didn’t want to scream at him, but all of the emotion I’d pushed
aside during our swim came flooding back. I hated them right now.
“How could they do this to us?” I pleaded and slammed my arms down
against my legs. “They have no
right
!”

Brendan’s hands caressed my arms and
then he pulled me in to his chest where I could burrow in his
warmth. He sighed, kissed the top of my head, and rested his chin
there for a while.

A few moments passed before he calmly
and stoically replied, “We knew that this day would come sometime.
Now we will have to figure out what we are going to do about
it.”

“
What we’re going to do
about it?
What we’re going to do about
it
? We’re going to run away from this
place. So far away that they will never come after us. I will not
live without you and I will
not
marry Kain!”

“
You can’t leave your clan
Evs. Perhaps we could talk to them…”

“
Talk?
” I replied, sounding very immature as I cut him off. “Don’t
you think I already tried that? Marguerite will not listen to me.
She doesn’t care about my feelings. “
It is
your duty Eviana. You will marry Kain and breed for the good of the
clan”,
” I imitated in a not-so-good
impression of our leader.

There were not many merfolk left in
the world; therefore each clan would purposely arrange marriages
and partnerships in order to keep the bloodline strong and healthy.
Kain and I had been promised to each other since we were children.
He grew up on the northern east coast, so I would only see him once
a year during our gatherings. As we got older, he would visit
California more often, being sure to partake in our clan’s
hospitality each time.

In all fairness, he would not have
been a bad choice for someone. He was attractive, funny, and had
been in love with me since we were five. He came from a line of
leaders and always presented himself as such. Despite my subtle and
palpable attempts to encourage him to find someone else, he never
seemed to be interested in other girls. And my heart had always
belonged to someone else.

Brendan and I met when I was ten,
during one of my clan’s trips to Seattle. I had just experienced my
first transition and was still learning how to control my urges not
to live permanently in the sea. Therefore I was a bit…moody. During
the first few years, a young mermaid lives many lifetimes over
while trying to manage the changes, the perils of puberty, and
creating excuses for your friends as to why you can’t go to the
beach with them anymore.

My first years were hell. On this
particular trip, I was behaving badly and Marguerite had sent me
out of the house “until I knew what I was sorry for”. So,
undoubtedly, my walk lasted for hours. I’d finally found a path and
climbed down to the rocky beach, sprawling over top of a large
boulder. At some point I must have fallen asleep to the rhythmic
sounds of the ocean, because when I woke up, I was smothered by a
seal as large as me. His strange green eyes were right above mine
and he made no attempt to move away.

He had weighed so much that I couldn’t
push him off, yet I could still throw a punch. Hitting him right in
the snout, I felt a wave of satisfaction as I heard a whelp escape
the pup. He recovered quickly. So quickly, in fact, that before I
knew what was happening, he’d grabbed my leg in his mouth and
pulled me into the water with him.

For a few brief moments I panicked.
Not because I was under the water, but because I could already feel
my bones begin to ache. While dealing with the terror of my
impending transition and trying to disrobe underwater (which is not
an easy task), that wretched little seal kept darting over me. He
would slam into my shoulders, push against my back, and then swim
in a circle around me so that I was trapped in the swirl of his
wake.

But the moment I got my clothes off,
he stopped.

Intent on not being an embarrassed,
naked, prepubescent girl, I sunk deeper under the water and
stubbornly turned to face him. I focused on his eyes as I felt my
legs fuse and the scales appear, while trying to hide all traces of
my mental discomfort and physical anguish. His reaction appeared to
be humanlike, and I swear I caught him staring at my breasts. As he
began to slink closer, I held my ground. When he swam around
examining me like a freak show exhibit, I remained still. It wasn’t
until the moment that he circled back to my face that I struck.
Grabbing his neck and swinging my tail behind him, I wrapped my
arms around his body and dug my hands into his blubbery folds. Just
as I got a decent grip, he took off.

With my new tail, I was actually
longer than him but he was much faster. We swam around for miles,
jostling for the better position but never letting go of each
other. When it was time for a rest, he took me to a secluded beach
where we changed and talked for hours. We discovered what type of
creatures we both were, learning that we had more in common than
any of our friends could possibly understand.

Brendan was a selkie. A shapeshifter
of sorts, like me, but belonging to a totally different line of
them. His transitions occurred when he placed the seal skin on his
body and became one with it. Although he claimed that he didn’t
feel quite the same intense call to the ocean as myself, he did
admit that he needed to shift on a regular basis or risk getting
sick. That’s why he’d been in the sea that day. It had been too
long since his last transformation and he was feeling
weak.

Brendan’s father lived in the Pacific
Northwest, and although he was only three years older than me, he
would be left to fend for himself in another couple of years. When
I tried to understand why he would leave is home so young, he moved
on questions about me and my family.

That beach became our world for a few
hours. And that world contained just the two of us. My earlier acts
of disobedience had led me to my first selkie, my first kiss, and
my only true love.

Over the next several years, we would
write letters, send emails, talk on the phone, and make plans about
our future together. When our families were visiting nearby, we
would arrange to sneak out and spend hours together. Sometimes we
would swim. Sometimes we would just lay in the sun and
talk.

Our lives molded together so perfectly
that we simply tried to forget about our birthrights and duties and
pretend that we could make this work. I wasn’t the only one
promised to a life of breeding. Selkie men are required to seduce
and impregnate human females since their species cannot reproduce
amongst themselves. It was a life Brendan despised.

But the merfolk are different. We are
incapable of breeding with humans, and therefore, are trapped in
arranged marriages and intolerable obligations. This was a burden I
had never wanted to bear.

“
Puh-lease. Your mother
doesn’t sound anything like that.” Brendan’s attempt at humor
brought me back to the present.

I tried to smile at him, but the grin
barely touched the corners of my mouth. “Yes she does.” I pulled
away from him to look into his beautiful green eyes. “What are we
going to do?” I could hardly control the tears threatening to burst
their dam.

“
You will return to your
home and family and…” he placed a finger over my lips when I
started to protest. “And we will pretend that we’ve accepted our
fate. We will continue living our lives as though we are content.”
He arched an eyebrow and smirked. “Well, you will continue to act
as you normally do, and harass everyone to death.” Before I could
take a bite of his finger in response to his jab, he quickly moved
it away from my lips.

“
And then what?” I asked
indignantly.

“
And then in one month, we
leave.” He was so sure. So secure in this declaration that it took
me a few seconds to believe what I was hearing.

“
Really?” I pleaded, this
time allowing more excitement to filter into my question. “Please
tell me you mean this.”

“
I will not live without
you Eviana. I cannot.”

I launched myself into his arms and
wrapped my legs around his waist kissing him at the same time. “I
love you Brendan, but please promise me that you will
go.”

He hugged me close and whispered into
my ear, “I promise.”

Two

My swim home was too quick. I was lost
in the elation of Brendan’s promise and thinking about what I could
take with me when I left my home. Maybe one suitcase and my iPod;
we could always replace what we couldn’t carry. Would we fly or
drive? Where would we go? Brendan had promised to make all of the
necessary arrangements soon, but I didn’t know if I could wait to
hear his plan.

Night was nearly here and the
silhouette of my house looked bleak and menacing. When I reached
our backyard stretch of beach, someone was waiting for me. I sighed
and picked up my scattered clothing without acknowledging my
guest.

“
You are in so much trouble
this time,” a whiney, nasally voice taunted.

“
Shut up, Marisol and mind
your own business.” I began walking briskly back to the stairs,
trying to ignore my sister, but she followed closely at my
heels.

“
I don’t understand what’s
wrong with you. This is what we were born to do and Kain is super
rich and totally gorgeous.” She tripped on one of the steps and
stumbled into me. I turned with a glare so evil that she stepped
away. “He doesn’t deserve you.”

The words were sharp but I knew that
they rang true. Kain didn’t deserve someone who couldn’t love him.
He was too good and too nice. My sister was right, but that didn’t
mean I had to let her know it.

“
You don’t even know what
you’re talking about
Mars
,” I snapped at her, using the
childhood nickname she loathed. “Just mind your own business for
once and leave me alone!”

Stomping up the stairs was probably a
mistake. Although I managed to lose one nagging voice, two more
were waiting for me at the top. I looked into my parents eyes and
could see their growing disappointment. The dark wood deck wrapped
entirely around the raised first floor of our house, and was large
enough to hold a hundred people. But there were only two of them
standing there now. They were leaning against the railing on the
far side with my father holding my mother in front of him in a show
of support and unity. I rolled my eyes.

“
Told you,” chirped Marisol
as she dodged out of the way of my swinging hand.

“
Eviana Anne Dumahl. Do not
strike your sister.” My father’s harsh command sent chills through
my body. I really hated it when he was this mad at me. “And put
some clothes on.”

I was standing before them completely
naked and soaking wet. Succumbing to the grueling glares, I
reluctantly pulled on my blouse using my arms to secure it to my
body rather than button it up.

“
Where did you go?” my
father asked in a lighter tone.

Before I could answer, my
mother cut in, “You were with
him
weren’t you?” She pulled away from father’s arms
and walked towards me with determination. Her long dark hair flowed
around her perfectly smooth face. The grace and confidence with
which she moved still astounded me. Without looking into her eyes,
I threw back my shoulders and stood my ground. Anything to defy
her.

She literally sniffed me. Her nose
moved around my neck, my hair, and even my hands. There was no way
that I could deny who I’d spent the last few hours with, and I
wouldn’t try to anyway.

“
I want to be with him. Not
Kain.”

My mother tsked at me in disgust and
grabbed my face with her hands. She was slightly shorter than me,
but her domineering personality was still intimidating. Plus she
was squeezing my cheeks pretty hard.