Touch of Eternity(78)
“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!
CHAPTER 26
We 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.