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

Frowning, I set the box down on the coffee table and grabbed the charm, studying its key shape with new eyes. Hmm, I wonder . . .

I slid the key into the lock and twisted.

Click.

My heart skipped a beat. I withdrew the key and slowly lifted the lid.

Isla gasped and peered over my shoulder. “How did you do that?”

“My charm. It fit into the lock. Must have been a coincidence . . .” My voice died when I caught sight of the box’s contents. There, right under my very nose, was a photo of my mom and dad.

“That is definitely not a coincidence,” Isla said in hushed tones.

A shiver of dread ran up my spine, and I was half tempted to slam the lid shut. Instead, I swallowed with difficulty and picked up the photo. Underneath were a few more and I collected them all, staring in shock at one of my mom holding me as a baby. I’d never seen a baby photo of me before.

“Kenna,” Isla whispered when I continued to stare for an undetermined length of time. “What if . . . what if your parents used to live in this house?”

I blinked, unable to fully grasp the ramifications if that were true. Instead of replying, I peered into the box again. An ornate, silver knife not much longer than a letter opener lay on top. I shuffled it aside and gaped anew when I spotted an exact replica of my bracelet, identical charm symbol and all.

“This is creepy,” Isla breathed, and I couldn’t agree more.

At the bottom was a rolled-up bit of parchment, yellowed with age. I carefully unrolled it, pressing it flat against the table.

“What does it say?” Isla crawled up beside me to better see. “It’s like a poem or something. Ah, that’s too bad. There must have been a water leak down here. The ink is smudged along the bottom half.”

Squinting at the sharp cursive writing, I read the top half aloud:

“Three dark princes, monsters were they.

Cursed in their true forms, they must pay.

Bound to the night, along with their kingdom.

‘Til the hundredth year, or a cure can free them.

Beyond that time, the curse remains.

But night becomes day, a monster to stay.

Only one can free all, before it’s too late.

An elusive maiden, with a touch that slays.”

After that, the ink was smeared and I could only make out the final three words: for an eternity.

But it was the first three words that had stolen my attention. I barely registered the rest, too busy wondering if this was the story Reid had been trying to tell me about before Lochlan had intervened.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Isla said in disbelief.

I nodded woodenly, whispering, “Three dark princes.”

Out of everything we’d just discovered, this poem might be the most disturbing of them all.

* * *

Curled up on my room’s window seat, I stared at the half-finished drawing of Shadow Man and flipped the page to a fresh one. I knew exactly what my fingers were itching to create. I shouldn’t though, most definitely shouldn’t. But the pencil I held began to move anyway, outlining the shape of his dark eyes.

While I drew, I couldn’t stop thinking about my newest discovery. The urge to confront Aunt Tess about the jewelry box was still overwhelming, even hours later. In my imagination, she spilled her guts and told me everything. But in reality, I knew that pretending as if I’d never found the box was my only option. Thankfully, she wasn’t home yet, or I might have given in anyway and finally had it out with her.

Those photos of me and my parents must mean that my aunt had been to this house before, right? Could Isla be right that my parents had once lived here? If so, why had my aunt moved us back here?

The questions burned on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t dare expel them. I’d have to be subtle about getting the answers I needed from her, which meant no snooping through her stuff, no matter how tempting. With my luck, she had her room boobytrapped for intruders anyway.

As soon as Isla had left though, I’d brought the jewelry box up to my room and hid it in the armoire. The box’s contents felt like they belonged to me and I was loath to part with them.

Somewhere around midnight, while thinking about the story of the three dark princes, I dozed off. Startling awake at the sound of my sketchpad thumping to the floor, I set my pencil down and rubbed my gritty eyes. A cold awareness skated across my skin, and I stiffened, squinting into the darkness outside. With my bedroom light still on though, it was hard to see anything. At the thought of Lochlan out there, peering up at me, I reached for my curtains.

But before I could shut them, something red on the windowsill caught my eye.

I flinched back. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered, scowling at the rose as if it had personally insulted me. Knowing that Lochlan had left it didn’t bring me any comfort. In fact, I was more at ease with his alter ego than with him at the moment.

But a rose wasn’t the only thing he’d left me this time. A note and a knife also adorned the windowsill. A freaking knife. Fates, he could have slit my throat while I slept and be done with me once and for all. As for how he got up here, I simply added flying to the list of things a vampire could do that humans couldn’t.

Unfolding the note, I was both surprised and disappointed at its contents. In a rather elegant handwritten scrawl, the note said:

McKenna. I will honor my promise to provide you with a tool that can protect you. As for your question, anything silver will weaken us, causing immense pain. But a silver object lodged inside our hearts for too long will eventually kill us.