The Curse: Touch of Eternity (The Curse series) (30 page)

“Go on… Open it up,” I said to Ryan.

“And if it’s them?”

“They’ll get us sooner or later, anyway. Just do it!”

With a quiet click, Ryan released the safety on his dad’s gun, and he quietly crept toward the door. Then he tore the door open in exactly the same way it’s always done on TV and expertly aimed the gun at the two tall men.

I let out a sharp shriek, as the world around me started to spin and my knees caved beneath me. Was Payton at my door, or was it just a dream?

Never had I thought seeing him again would shake me so much, but there I was, with tears in my eyes and words that just wouldn’t come out of my throat. All I could do was look at him. I wanted to let my inhibitions go. To touch him and feel his strong arms around me, which would make everything all right. But I did nothing of the kind. I didn’t move and didn’t utter one word.

So it was up to Kim to clarify what she had guessed by my reaction. “I guess that one of you must be Payton?”

Blair eyed his brother, who also seemed to have turned to stone. He nodded and pointed to Payton. “Good guess,” he said. “That’s Payton. And I’m his brother Blair.”

Payton’s whole body was trembling, and his sweet lips were pressed tightly together in a narrow line. He curled his hands into fists, pushed past Ryan and his gun, sank down to his knees next to me, and pulled me into his arms. A muffled sound of pain made its way to my ear, but I wasn’t willing to give up our embrace. It was too wonderful to feel Payton’s hands on my back and to inhale his familiar scent. I pressed myself tightly to him.

Only slowly did my brain start working again. A full mountain of questions swam to the surface of my foggy mind. And plenty of doubts. How had he found me? Was he working with the others? Was I safe? Or in the worst danger of my life?

Slowly, I raised my eyes. When I saw the immense pain in his face, I was terrified.

I couldn’t stop second-guessing everything. Was his expression because he was close to me, or because he’d come to finish me off? The poison of mistrust had mixed itself into my blood and I was fully incapable of freeing myself. I just plain didn’t know who I could trust anymore.

I stood up and pushed Payton away, crossing my arms over my chest to keep the warmth of his body with me for a moment longer.

“So what are you doing here?” It took every ounce of energy to keep the emotion out of my voice.

Payton looked surprised. “What? I had to see to it that you were safe.”

His voice touched my soul, but I struggled to build a barrier to protect myself. My heart was already in shreds, and I couldn’t allow him to hurt me again.

Payton took a tentative step toward me, but I shied away.

Ryan had been watching the whole scene quietly. He cleared his throat and motioned to the door with his weapon. “I guess you should go now. I don’t think you’re welcome here.”

The Scots ignored his remark. They hadn’t crossed the Atlantic to be given orders by an American high school boy.

“Sam, oh Sam,
mo luaidh, tha gràdh agam ort
. Please forgive me,
tha mi duilich
,” begged Payton.

He grabbed me by my shoulders and pulled me close. He whispered in Gaelic in my ear, while tears ran down his face. Being so close to me must have given him great pain. And though I didn’t know the words he spoke, my heart understood.

Still, I couldn’t trust him. Again, I pushed him away from me, and Ryan hurried to my side. He directed Payton and Blair to the door with his gun.

“I will not hesitate to use this if you don’t leave immediately!”

Then everything happened very quickly.

Payton hit Ryan hard, and Ryan sank to the ground. Blair picked up Justin by the throat, and Justin struggled to breathe, his feet dangling in the air. Kim shrieked and I just stood there.

“Sam, listen to me,” Payton pleaded.

“No! What are you doing? Are you trying to kill all of us? Do you always just strike down people who you are supposedly worried about?”

It was over as quickly as it had begun. Trembling, I knelt next to Ryan on the floor and brushed his blond hair away from his forehead. Blood was trickling out of a cut above his right eye. Blair let go of Justin, placing him back on his feet. Kim ran to him, crying quietly on his shoulder while he sucked in deep breaths and rubbed his sore neck.

I wasn’t scared, but I was very, very annoyed. Payton seemed destined to wreck my life. My cousin had been kidnapped; Ryan was knocked out cold with a gun in his hand; Justin nearly got strangled; and still, my treacherous body yearned for Payton’s touch. My brain, on the other hand, told me to get as far from him as possible.

“Oh Sam, please forgive me,” he said. “I need you so much, please, you must believe me. Please forgive me! I love you.” He moved toward me slowly, took my hands in his, and looked deep into my eyes. “You are always in my thoughts, my dreams, and in my heart. I see you in front of me, how you laugh, how you cry, how you reach for my hand. I can’t bear to lose you forever, having finally found you. Please believe me, I will never stop loving you.”

I knew he must be in incredible pain, but he didn’t move away. I could hardly breathe. He was so strong and invincible, and his words were full of passion and desperation.

Then I realized I hadn’t given him a chance to explain his side of things. I was the one who’d left him behind in Scotland. I didn’t move.

Payton looked disappointed. He shook his head and turned away from me. Right away I found it easier to breathe.

I got a damp cloth from the kitchen and dabbed the blood off Ryan’s forehead. I was glad for something to do, to distract myself.

Whispering in Gaelic, Blair and Payton stood with their heads together, occasionally throwing a worried glance in my direction. I quickly forced the thought away that the two of them might be plotting how to kill me. I was starting to hope that they really were here to help.

When Ryan came to a few minutes later, we helped him to a chair. Then we all sat down reluctantly, but at least peacefully, and talked about the situation. Blair and Payton had heard from their brother Sean that Ashley had been abducted, and they had also learned where she was and that she was doing OK, all things considered.

“And from the way he sounded on the telephone, I wouldn’t be surprised if our Sean has noticed your cousin’s beauty. Perhaps he’s getting some feelings back, too,” said Blair.

That remark provoked an evil look from Ryan, who was obviously not happy with these invading Scotsmen, who seemed to do whatever they felt like with whomever they pleased.

Thanks to Sean, we now knew where to find Ashley. But we still didn’t have any idea how to proceed. Still, we knew that working together was our best chance.

“We can charge the building,” suggested Ryan, who still seemed to be itching to use that gun.

“No. Are you crazy?” Kim said. “The best thing would be for us to call the cops.”

“Silence!” Blair’s clear order interrupted the chaos. “Cathal and Nathaira are after Sam. I also presume that they will realize soon that Ashley is not a Cameron—if they haven’t already. That means that she is not a danger to them. If we now offer to bring Sam to them in exchange for Ashley, they should agree to that.”

“No!” Ryan objected loudly. “That’s absolutely out of the question. Who knows what they would do to Sam. Forget it!”

“It’s OK, Ryan,” I said. “I actually think Blair is right. They want me, not Ashley. The first thing we should do is get her to safety. Then we’ll take it one step at a time and figure out what to do next. And I wouldn’t go there alone—Payton and Blair would come with me.” The thought of meeting up with Alasdair again had my stomach in knots, but I knew it was the right thing to do.

“Sam, please, you can’t go!” begged Kim, whose fear for me was written all over her teary, blotchy red face.

“Kim, it’s our only option! If we don’t go to them, then they’ll come here. This way, we at least have the element of surprise on our side. I also think there’s a chance that everything can be cleared up if I can just talk to them.”

“You don’t have to do this, Sam,” said Payton. “You need to understand this is dangerous.” He gestured to his brother. “Blair and I can go alone and free Ashley with violence if we have to.”

“What for?” Blair said. “Cathal gave us his word that he wouldn’t harm Sam. We can just go and clear everything up.” The McLean chieftain was clearly less than enthusiastic about the idea of using violence against others in the clan.

“How much is Cathal’s word worth? If he’d been intending to stay true to his word, he would have stayed at home in Scotland!”

“Payton, you are wrong! You can trust Cathal!”

“Yes, Cathal maybe, but I don’t trust Nathaira, or Alasdair! And I am not going to give Sam over into their hands just like that.”

“What do you mean, into their hands? We’ll be there to protect her.”

“Then we should all go there with Sam,” Ryan said.

“No, you stay here. We can’t look after you, take care of Sam, and protect ourselves.”

“I’m the one with the weapon. A weapon from this century, I might add. And I don’t trust you two as far as I can
spit. So forget it. Either you take us with you, or I’ll inform my dad. He happens to be the chief of police.”

Oh boy. What a mess! I wished I could slide under the kitchen table and dissolve into the floor. But I knew that I had to face my destiny, if not for myself, then for my ancestors. Just as Vanora had foretold it. And this terrible discussion was only wasting time. I wanted to get everything over with.

To make things worse, Uncle Eddie could turn up any moment to pick Ashley up, and he’d be pretty alarmed if she weren’t here to claim. Until then, we had to somehow ease the situation.

“Now listen, everybody.” I was yelling now. “We are all going to do exactly what I say. First of all, I am going. Secondly, you are all coming with me.”

I banged loudly on the table, so hard the ball of my hand was throbbing and I hoped I hadn’t broken any bones. As inconspicuously as possible, I rubbed my hand under the table and waited for opposition. Incredibly, there was none.

The pendant was burning hot on my skin. I wanted to laugh. Like I needed a warning sign of the impending danger!

W
e took two separate cars to the motel. Payton, who refused to leave my side, was sitting in the front next to me, with Blair in the car, too. Ryan was following us with Kim and Justin. We had agreed that the three of them would wait for Ashley in the parking lot; if it should prove necessary, they would call the police.

The last thing I wanted to think about was any kind of escalation. I couldn’t really think, anyway, because being so close to Payton completely threw me off balance. After I rebuffed him at my house, he had hardly said a word. His face was tight, and the warm glow had disappeared from his eyes. It was as if a Scottish wall of mist had pushed itself in front of his feelings. He didn’t even seem bothered to be sitting close to me. Either the pain he felt near me had gotten weaker, or he had become accustomed to it. I knew that I was getting used to my pendant; I could hardly feel the burning sensation anymore.

I so wished I could go back to the beginning, when Payton and I had first met. Before all the doubt and distrust. Just the dizzy excitement and rush of new love. When I didn’t know he was deceiving me—that he had followed me, spied on me, to find out who I was. I sighed. Looking back,
it seemed to me that it was only my feelings for him that had been so strong—not his for me. I closed my eyes and tried to bring back the memory of that magical night at the beach.

We were on the same road as the day before. But we hadn’t seen anything unusual then at the motel we were driving up to now.

I asked myself whether Blair had been right. Was Sean feeling attracted to Ashley? They were both good-looking and, as I had experienced firsthand, Sean was a real charmer. Somehow, the idea made me feel happy for Ashley. Maybe this terrible, scary night could have a good side.

But there was still the question of what would happen to Sean—and Payton—if the curse were lifted. Could it really be that they would all just drop dead, or would they only lose their immortality and grow older, like the rest of us? Or could it be that nothing at all would happen? That Payton and his family would carry on living exactly as they had up until now, because neither I nor anyone else was actually capable of influencing the curse? There was, after all, nothing in my grandma’s book about the Camerons being destined to lift the curse.