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

She stepped closer and the moon bathed her dark complexion in pale light. I blinked. Was that . . . ?

“Are you bleeding?”

She swiped at her chin, barking a mirthless laugh. “It’s not my blood.”

“Oh.” I cleared my throat, uncomfortable with the keen way she was looking at me. “Is it part of your costume? I can’t really tell what you’re supposed to be.”

“I’m not wearing a costume, Kenna,” she snapped, her eyes flashing a bright yellow. Shocked, I stumbled back a step, but she only pursued me. “This is all too real, thanks to you. I shouldn’t even be here tonight, but I don’t want to give up my life because of this. It’s not fair. I wish it had been you that got attacked, not me.”

“I—I . . .” I held my hands up when she came too close, but she batted them aside. “Peyton, you’re freaking me out. Calm down.”

“That’s the thing. I can’t. I’m always angry. Always one second away from exploding. This is all your fault!” Fear sucked the air from my lungs as she reached for me. Her nails were wicked long and sharpened to points. I pulled away but she was faster, latching onto my left wrist.

Peyton suddenly shrieked and yanked her arm back. One of her nails caught on my bracelet and, with a sharp tug, I felt the chain snap. I clutched my bare wrist to my chest, gaping at Peyton. Before I could say anything, she burst into tears.

“I . . . I ate Twitchy,” she wailed and curled forward, sobs racking her body. “My sweet rabbit. I ate him, and . . . and I liked it. He was so warm and fresh. I’m a vegetarian, Kenna. Vegetarian.”

She fell onto her hands and knees, moaning loudly. Torn between running away and helping her, I remained frozen in place, wide-eyed.

“Please, no. I can’t do this again,” she whimpered. “I’m scared. I’m scared that my parents will find out what I am. They’ll freak and disown me. I’ll never see my family again.”

“Peyton, where are you?” someone frantically yelled from across the football field.

She whipped her head up and fixed those eerie yellow eyes on me. “Don’t tell him I’m here,” she pleaded in a broken whisper. “Please.”

“Peyton!”

I recognized the voice now. Reid’s.

Worried and utterly confused, I crouched a few feet in front of her. “I don’t understand,” I whispered back, alarmed at how hard she was trembling. “Is he hurting you?”

“Y-yes,” she stuttered, then shook her head. “I mean, no. He only wants to help, but it still hurts. I have to get out of here. Help me, Kenna.”

I knew I couldn’t deny her, despite her strange behavior. She wanted my help. This was my chance to finally make things right between us. As running footsteps drew near, I whispered, “Take my hand. I’ll hide you.”

She flashed me a wobbly smile and accepted my hand. When our skin touched though, her smile slipped. I tried pulling her up, only to be yanked down beside her.

“Peyton, what—” I felt it then. A rush of warmth where our hands touched. No, not warmth. Heat. I yanked my hand back but couldn’t break free of Peyton’s ironclad grip. “Peyton,” I hissed when the heat became white hot. “Peyton, let go.”

“I . . . I can’t,” she panted, a look of pure terror on her face. “I’m changing. It’s happening. I can’t stop it.”

I winced as her deathgrip practically crushed my bones. I pried at her fingers, then gasped at the sight of our hands glowing a bright ruby red. Panic exploded through me. “Peyton, let go!”

She screamed, in fright and pain. Something dark rippled up her arms, something that looked a lot like fur. What the crap was happening? When an unearthly howl erupted from her, chills whipped up my spine.

“Peyton!” Reid skidded to a halt beside us and pulled at our linked hands. When he jerked away with a sharp hiss, I looked up at his frightened face. Freaking fates, his eyes were yellow too. I silently begged him to help us, unable to speak as the fiery heat consumed my every thought. “I-I can’t. I can’t touch your skin,” he said weakly, and despair filled me.

He was suddenly gone, whisked away on the wind. A dark form swallowed up the space where he’d been. I was too delirious from the heat to react, and Peyton was still screaming, all but breaking the bones in my hand. The red glow had grown brighter, consuming our hands completely. And then, faster than I could blink, our touch was severed.

I fell back, gulping in much-needed air as the heat slowly dissipated. Peyton stopped screaming. I stared at the dark form hunched over her collapsed body.

“Is she . . . Is she—?” Reid said in a panicked whisper.

“She’s alive, just unconscious. I’ll watch over her. Now leave before you wolf out,” a familiar voice said.

Kade.

Pain abruptly ripped through my body and I gasped, curling forward to clutch my stomach. Before the agony could subside, hands encased in cold leather were cupping my cheeks, tipping my face up.

“Were you bitten or scratched?”

He spoke, the person I loathed. And missed. Crap, I had truly missed him. I could only stare at Lochlan’s blazing red eyes, in too much pain to answer. He bent his head and breathed in deeply before saying, “You’re not bleeding.”

Then he plucked me off the ground as if I weighed nothing.

“She fully triggered the change, Kade,” he said, pulling me tightly to his chest. “You know what’ll happen. I’ll handle this alone.”

“Yes, drothen,” Kade replied, before a new spasm tore through me.

I was too disorientated to resist as Lochlan carried me away. Or rather flew, shooting across the field at lightning speed. No problem. It wasn’t like I needed to breathe anyway.

Seconds later, he stopped. A car door opened and I was placed inside. The