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

“I was attacked by a vampire last night,” I blurted. Isla jerked her head back to gape at me. “Also, Lochlan and Kade are vampires. Also also, Lochlan is a big jerk.”

Isla’s lips formed a large O.

I stepped back to pace again, fiddling with my bracelet. “Just in the last two days, Lochlan has ripped off a head, picked up my car, and split a quartz countertop in half.”

Isla squeaked. “Are you okay? Is that why you have a scratch on your cheek and a bandage on your wrist?” The blood drained from her already pale face. “Did one of them bite you?”

I stopped pacing to reassure her. “No, I’m fine. Physically, anyway. Lochlan stopped the vampire from biting me. But the guy said something weird about my blood. And the other day, Kade said something weird about my touch. I was looking for answers today when Lochlan went all jerkwad on me. I’m seriously over his whiplash personality.”

She sank onto a high-backed armchair. “So, the vampire thing aside, they followed you here for a reason. Something must have drawn them to you. We need to figure out what you are to them before someone decides to kidnap you or worse.”

Now it was my turn to gape. “How are you staying so levelheaded about all of this?”

“Oh, I’ll properly freak out about it later,” she replied with a toss of her pink-tipped hair. “But I want to focus on you right now. We need to find out why vampires are interested in you before anything really bad happens. Have you told your aunt?”

“What do you think?” I deadpanned.

“Okay, dumb question. Have you searched her things?”

“What? No. Privacy is sacred to her.”

She arched an eyebrow. “And why do you think that is?”

I huffed and resumed my pacing. “You’re starting to sound like Lochlan. He told me to search this house if I wanted answers.”

“And did you?”

I made a face. “No, but—”

Knock, knock, knock.

“Pizza’s here.” I hurried to open the door before remembering the tip. “Come on in. I’ll just be a sec,” I told the pizza guy, turning to find my wallet.

“That’s okay. I’m fine out here,” he said in an amused tone.

I found my school bag in the dining room and quickly rummaged inside for some cash. Returning, I held out the bills and accepted the ham and mushroom pizza. “Thanks.”

“Have a nice evening, Miss Belmont,” the guy said, his voice practically a purr. Surprised that he knew my name, I looked at him fully. In the waning sunlight, his handsome, albeit sharp angular face was cast in shadow, including his eyes. A baseball cap kept his jaw-length, inky black hair behind his ears.

He was maybe a couple years older than me, but I’d never seen him before. He could have picked up my name from when I’d ordered online, but it was still strange that he remembered.

“You too,” I murmured so as not to appear rude. With a crooked smirk, he tipped his hat at me. When he turned to leave, a ring on his left pinky finger caught the light, flashing a dull red. Frowning, I watched him saunter to his car.

First off, why was a person with a car like that delivering pizzas? Must have been a graduation present from mommy and daddy dearest. And secondly, his gait was familiar, which didn’t make any sense. How could the way someone walked be familiar?

I shook my head and closed the door. “That was weird,” I said to Isla, but she was no longer sitting on the armchair. “Isla?”

A scream came from somewhere in the house and I almost dropped the pizza. Dashing toward the noise, I set the pizza box on the dining table and skidded around the corner.

“Isla?” I yelled, when I didn’t find her in the kitchen.

“Down here,” she yelled back. From the freaking basement. Great. I grimaced but descended the rickety stairs. When I was halfway down, she said, “Why is there a chicken’s foot dangling from the ceiling? You guys trying to ward off evil spirits or something?”

“Uh . . . it was there when we moved in. Why on earth are you down here?”

“Searching your house for you,” she called flippantly from somewhere inside the cavernous depths.

I inwardly groaned, grateful for her willingness to help but wishing she hadn’t started with the creepy basement. At least there was electricity now.

“Check this out,” she shouted from the far back corner. As I navigated the stacked moving boxes and piles of unused furniture, I kept my eyes peeled for a freezer. Isla was poking at some dusty old boxes when I found her. “See? Isla, PI is on the case. This is why you need me.”

“Careful,” I said, pointing near her feet. “Rodent droppings suggest there’s a nest of mice or rats inside one of those boxes.”

She stiffened, then threw me a glare over her shoulder. I smirked unapologetically. Dust puffed into the air when she opened one, sending us both into sneezing fits. These boxes definitely didn’t belong to me or Aunt Tess. They hadn’t been touched in several years.

I ended up bringing down the pizza and pulling over a scuffed coffee table so we could at least eat while Isla rifled through the junk. The first couple of boxes only had shoes and clothing in them. The third did too. I was about to call the search a bust when Isla sunk her hand to the bottom of the last box and released an excited whoop.

“Look what I found!” Cramming her pizza into her mouth, she pulled out an ornate mahogany and silver jewelry box. “It’th locked. Lemme thee if I can find a key,” she mumbled around her food and handed me the box. She dove into the clothes again.

While she rummaged, I studied the jewelry box. It was less than a foot long, a handful of inches in height, and heavier than I expected. I stared at the keyhole for a moment, unconsciously turning it toward my charm