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

I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing. It wasn’t the bracelet, or the numerous unanswered questions. No, it felt like a piece of me was missing.

At around three in the morning, I finally gave up on sleep, whipping the bed covers back with a huff. My bare feet hit the cold floor and I shivered in my red tank top and cropped yoga pants. I needed to unpack my warmer sleepwear before the snow arrived, something I hadn’t seen in a few years while living down south.

Grabbing my sketchpad, I padded to the window seat and pulled back the curtains, letting the moonlight spill inside. Drawing always quieted my mind, similar to how a good book did. Like getting lost in a fictional world, creating something out of nothing distracted me from the stresses of reality. Sometimes, I painted with oil on canvas, but the soothing strokes of pencil on paper really spoke to me.

They allowed me infinite control over my subject. I was the master of their fate, in charge of each and every little dash and line.

Unconsciously, I flipped to the half-finished drawing of Lochlan. I squinted in the dim light, critiquing my linework. His nose was all wrong. It should be narrower and straighter. After fixing that, I studied his intense eyes for a while. The longer I stared at them, the more settled my body felt. Still happy with how they looked, I focused on his stern eyebrows, then brought out my eraser again. They should dip down over his eyes a bit more.

Sometime later, I jerked awake. This time, I managed to grab my sketchpad before it slid off my lap. A cold awareness skated across my exposed skin, alerting me to his presence before I caught the flash of red in my peripheral. I whipped my gaze to the window but was too late. The rooftop below was empty.

Oh, no you don’t. Not this time.

I snagged a hoodie from the end of my bed and sneaked out of the room. I paused at the bottom of the stairs to grab my boots before hurrying toward the back slider. Soundlessly slipping outside, I hopped on one foot to yank on my boots, then shot across the yard.

In no time, the woods loomed before me. A short while ago, I never would have run headlong into the darkness toward an unknown predator. I would have stayed safely behind locked doors where the possible serial killer couldn’t reach me. But I no longer feared the shadows. Not when I knew what awaited me inside.

I plunged past the treeline without hesitation, my breaths fogging the crisp air before me. Even with the bright moon lighting my way, the pine trees were thick, and it grew darker the farther in I went. The lingering werewolf senses I’d absorbed helped a little, but they were definitely fading.

Red glowing eyes failed to greet me. I knew he was here though. I could feel him, a dark caress against my neck and cheeks.

I slowed, straining to hear over the crunching of leaves and pine needles beneath my boots. Finally, I stopped, turning in a circle only to come up empty. I shivered from the cold, pulling the hoodie tightly over my thin tank top. Except for my breathing, the air was perfectly still. Not a single sound disturbed the night, not even the wind.

Doubt trickled in. Had I imagined I saw him? Was I seeing and feeling things out of exhaustion? The hair on my neck suddenly stood on end at the sensation of being watched. I swallowed, nervously searching the darkness. “Where are you?” I whispered.

“Here,” a voice whispered back in my ear.

I gasped and spun, but no one was there.

The hair on my neck raised again. I turned and choked back a scream as red eyes filled my vision. At the familiar shadows curling around his faint silhouette, I sighed in relief. “Were you trying to scare me or something? Because—”

“You shouldn’t be out here,” Lochlan cut in. “I could have been anyone.”

At the chill rolling off him, I shivered and crossed my arms for warmth. “I knew it was you.”

“How?”

Frustrated at the coldness in his voice, I threw my hands in the air. “I don’t know how to describe it. I can feel your shadows or something. I didn’t feel anything around Kade or that other vampire, so I just knew it was you. And for whatever reason, you’re feeling extra ornery tonight.”

He gave me nothing, not even a condescending snort. He simply stared in that unnerving way of his, stripping me bare with his eyes. Finally, he said, “You were drawing me.”

Wait, what? He saw? Freaking fates, shoot me now.

Heat scorched my face and I looked everywhere but at him. “I-it was nothing. I just draw whatever’s on my mind.” Whoa, I did not mean to say that. “In fact, I was going to draw Kade next.”

Silence.

“Anyway,” I continued, beyond flustered and embarrassed, “maybe you should stop spying through my window if you don’t like what you see.”

His response was to step toward me. Nervous butterflies erupted in my stomach, and I shuffled backward, only for a tree to halt my progress. Before I could inch sideways, Lochlan’s arms shot out, trapping me against the trunk. My eyes flew to his, and what I saw there stalled the breath in my lungs.

“I don’t dislike what I see,” he said, his voice a silky purr. “And I didn’t intend to spy on you. I only wanted to make sure you were feeling better.”

At his words, a thrill raced up my spine. I desperately dug my blunt nails into the tree, afraid my body would go rogue on me again. “You could have just texted,” I whispered.

“I don’t like texting,” he whispered back.

“A phone call then.”

“Not good enough.”

“Why?”

“Because I can’t sense your emotions that way.”

I dug my nails in harder. “And now? What do you sense?”

Danger, danger,