Shadow Touched: A Paranormal Vampire Romance (A Touch of Vampire Book 1) by Becky Moynihan (great reads TXT) 📕

As if they’d heard my approach, both Reid and Peyton stopped talking and turned my way. They froze for a moment, then Peyton gave me a forced smile and headed toward the school at a fast clip. I stared after her, confused and a bit hurt. Not that I didn’t deserve the cold shoulder. I just hadn’t expected that reaction from her. Was she mad that I’d left her all alone in the woods? Maybe she’d seen who’d rescue me and knew I hadn’t told anyone about him.

Crap.

But why was she hanging out with Reid? Yeah, he had been the one to find her, but she knew he’d been stalking me lately. Reid was bad news. He was up to something, I just knew it. Maybe he was planning on taking her wherever he wanted to take me Friday evening.

Nope. Not going to happen.

I screwed things up for Peyton this weekend, so the least I could do was protect her from Reid Zimmerman.

Shoving aside my nerves, I marched over to him and jabbed a finger at his chest. “Stay away from Peyton. Whatever beef you have with me, keep my friends out of it.”

He grimaced, looking everywhere but at me. “It’s too late for that. Look, I can’t be seen near you anymore. Let’s make a deal—stay away from me and I’ll stay away from you. Sound good? It’s what you wanted anyway.”

Not waiting for a reply, he grabbed his backpack from the truck bed and edged around me. He made it several feet before I came to my senses.

I charged after him. “No freaking deal—not after what you pulled this weekend. If you’re going to stalk someone, it’s going to be me, not Peyton. It’s my fault she’s in this mess, and—”

He rounded on me, stopping so abruptly that I almost plowed into him. “You’re right, it is your fault,” he growled in my face. Stunned by his sudden outburst, I didn’t react, even when he grew more agitated. “I didn’t want this responsibility. I was finally getting the hang of things, then you showed up. If you had just stayed home, none of this would have—”

“You have three seconds to back away before I ram my fist down your throat, Zimmerman,” a male voice said directly behind me. “Three . . . two . . .”

Barely glancing at the newcomer, Reid released a frustrated growl and stalked off.

I stared after his retreating back, still reeling from the angry way he’d spoken to me.

“Little Kenna,” the newcomer crooned, all traces of seriousness from seconds ago gone. He sauntered around me and I blinked up at an amused Kade. The golden highlights in his caramel brown hair practically sparkled, and his white V-neck tee showed off a powerfully-built chest. He and Lochlan couldn’t be more different, I realized. They were day and night, both in looks and personality. “You’re trouble with a capital T, you know that? Always keeping us on our toes.”

Without thinking, I glanced over my shoulder.

“He’s not here today.”

I turned back to Kade with a frown. “What?”

“You were looking for our boy Lochie,” he explained with certainty. “Sorry to disappoint, but it’s just me today. I’m not doing too bad of a job though, right?”

My face further wrinkled in confusion. “Huh?”

He chuckled, then walked backward toward the school. “I’m protecting you from the big bad world,” he said, jerking his chin for me to follow.

I did, because I wanted him to keep talking. “I don’t need protecting,” I said, catching up to him.

“Oh, little Kenna, but you do, more than you know.”

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, then what do I need protection from, Mr. Cryptic?”

His look turned gleeful. “I like you,” he suddenly announced. “And it’s not my place to say. Ask Loch.”

At the mention of Lochlan, my stomach did a weird flutter. I shook my head, preceding him into the building when he opened the door. “I’m guessing he told you about our little encounter in the woods Friday evening?” When he didn’t reply, I glanced over to see that his eyes had widened. “I was on his property,” I explained. “He ditched me just as the sun went down.”

Kade’s expression immediately smoothed. “It’s technically our property. I live there too. And of course he told me. We tell each other everything. If he ditched you, then it was for a very good reason.”

I snorted, navigating the busy hallway as I aimed for my locker. He leaned against the locker next to mine while I spun the combination. “So are you two brothers or something?”

“Or something.”

I gave him a peeved look and he laughed.

“Let’s just say we’re brothers in every sense of the word except for our birth parents.”

I wrinkled my nose in confusion. “So you’re adopted?”

“No, but close.”

“You avoid questions exactly like my aunt,” I muttered, shutting my locker. The warning bell rang and I headed for my English Lit class.

“I assure you,” Kade said, his long legs easily keeping pace with mine, “I’m usually quite forthcoming. But you’re Loch’s business.”

Annoyed, I snipped, “I’m not Loch’s anything. Just because he stares at me like he hopes my clothes will miraculously disappear doesn’t mean we’re together.”

Kade roared with laughter, not caring in the least that dozens of heads whipped our way. “I’m telling him you said that,” he gasped out and wiped a tear from his eye.

“Go right ahead,” I grumbled, pausing at my classroom door. Before we parted ways, I couldn’t help but ask one more question. “Why did you two move here anyway? Why Rosewood?”

His smirk grew a mile wide. “Why Rosewood, indeed,” he said with a mysterious wink, backing down the hall and out of sight.

7

Lochlan wasn’t in school the next day.

Or the next.

When Friday rolled around and he still hadn’t shown up, I couldn’t shake the irrational feeling that he was avoiding me. When I’d not-so-subtly asked Kade this morning where he was, his reply had been, “He’s taking a mental health break.”

Um, okay.

Not that I