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

Holy. Freaking. Fates.

He hadn’t been kidding. He was losing it.

I bolted from the kitchen.

Seconds later, he tore after me.

Fear pumped through me as I raced past the living room toward the entrance hall. Not just fear for myself, but for him. Even if he did catch me, touching my skin could kill him. Forces beyond our control were driving our actions, and I was terrified that one or both of us was about to die.

I was feet away from the front door when he snatched me out of the air. I screamed as he hauled me against him, growling like a beast who’d captured his prey. Reacting instinctively, I jabbed an elbow into his stomach, right where the knife had been.

I expected a roar of pain. A pause in his movements. Anything. But he ignored me completely, solely focused on dragging me to the side and pinning me against the wall.

“Lochlan. Lochlan, look at me,” I said frantically, latching onto his shirt. He easily pried my fingers loose and locked both arms above my head. I kicked at him, but he firmly pressed his thigh between mine. “You could die. Snap out of it, Lochlan. You don’t want to do this.”

“But I do want to,” he panted, trembling violently. “Your scent is everything. It’s a siren’s song I can’t ignore. I am powerless to resist, nothing but a slave. My control is gone. I have to . . . claim.”

Ice froze my insides as the shadows completely fell away, revealing the monster within. It was Lochlan, yet wasn’t. His skin was as dark as his hair, his eyes as red as rubies. And his teeth . . . two sharp fangs glinted in the hallway’s light. He opened his mouth wider and lowered his head, aiming for my neck.

“Lochlan, don’t!” I screamed.

21

The front door banged open with a powerful whoosh. Lochlan suddenly reared back and roared in agony. A force violently wrenched him away. He hit the opposite wall with a meaty thud, and a lamp crashed to the floor. Before he could fall, a towering dark form pinned him face first to the wall. Silver flashed high in the air, then slammed into Lochlan’s back.

He grunted this time and slumped unconscious. The dark form stepped back, letting him thump to the floor. I wordlessly clutched my throat, frozen in place. My eyes remained glued to Lochlan’s crumpled body, to the twin silver daggers embedded in his back.

I blinked.

Silver. Silver could kill vampires.

“Lochlan,” I gasped and flung myself forward, desperate to pull them out. I landed beside him and searched for signs of life. Was I too late? Was he . . . was he—

“Whoa, little Kenna. I wouldn’t touch those if I were you,” a familiar voice said, sounding way too flippant after what he’d just done.

I threw Kade a death glare. “He’ll die! I can’t believe you stabbed him.”

“Oh, he’s in excruciating pain, but he won’t die. I didn’t hit his heart. Those are just to weaken him while I—” He froze and sniffed the air. “Holy mother of Moses, it reeks of pheromones in here! Are you in heat? No wonder Loch called me. He was probably going out of his mind with—”

He paused to sniff again. “Wow, you both reek. I’m gonna open some windows and clear the air. This horniness is highly contagious, and Loch is definitely not the threesome type.”

My jaw dropped. Heat infused my already heated face. Did he seriously just say that?

Kade strode down the hall and, yup, started opening windows. Shoot me now. “Loch didn’t do anything, did he?” he called, too busy sliding the living room windows open to see my deer in headlights expression. “He’s a saint if he kept his hands to himself while this was happening though. Mating calls are potent.”

Wait. Mating call?

He sniffed again, whipping his head toward the kitchen, then to me. “Why do I smell your spilled blood? Did he hurt you?”

Remembering what happened between us on that kitchen floor, my mouth opened and closed like a gasping fish. When Kade’s expression switched to alarm, I quickly shook my head. “I—I cut myself. H-he tasted my blood though. Just a drop.”

His red eyes narrowed. “Before or after he called me?”

“Before. Why?”

“Just a theory. Is that when he lost control?”

My cheeks flamed hotter, and I flicked a glance at Lochlan’s unconscious form beside me. No, I almost confessed. That’s when I lost control. “Around that time, yes. But he’s felt off ever since . . . Well, earlier today, I tried to touch him. His skin, I mean.” When Kade’s brows hiked upward, I hurried to add, “I-I didn’t mean to. It just happened. But it set him off. He . . . he called me a witch.”

“Well, you are.”

Caught off guard, I sputtered, “E-excuse me?”

Kade cringed, shooting a quick look at Lochlan as well. “Whoops. Don’t tell him I let that slip.”

Okay, now I was thoroughly confused.

Before I could question him though, Lochlan muttered what sounded like, “You’ll pay for that.”

My body immediately responded to his voice. Relief poured through me, followed by an ache to be closer. My body didn’t care that he’d almost bitten me. It didn’t care that he’d wanted to steal my virginity. In fact, my body wanted him to take it.

A now familiar need spread through me like wildfire, heightening with each passing second. I reached for a dagger, determined to ease his suffering so he could ease me.

I had to have him. All of him. It was the only way to extinguish the flames trying to eat me alive.

The moment I touched the dagger’s silver hilt though, I was yanked away. A pair of arms banded around my midsection and hoisted me up.

“Scratch that,” Kade grunted, and stalked down the hall with me in tow. “Loch needs protection from you.”

I spluttered, twisting for one last glimpse of Lochlan before Kade marched me up the