Shadow Touched (A Touch of Vampire, #1)

by Becky Moynihan

“Your time is up. Come with me now or you’ll be putting them all in danger.”

“I’m not Loch’s anything. Just because he stares at me like he hopes my clothes will miraculously disappear doesn’t mean we’re together.”

“Good goddess,” Isla breathed beside me. “He’s totally screwing you with his eyes. I think I just got pregnant.”

“There’s this story my dad told me when I was a kid. I thought it was just a fairy tale, but when Lochlan and Kade explained yesterday why they were here, I remembered that it was about these three dark princes who were cursed. And the only way they could break that curse was by finding a—”

“You might be our ruin,” he replied after a thoughtful pause. “Or”—his lips suddenly curled into a devilish smile—“you might save us all. And I’m personally betting on the latter, McKenna Belmont.”

Vampire. I needed to hear it out loud.

“Girl, tears are like Drano. They clear the emotions clogging your body. It’s healthy to pour those suckers out once in a while.”

“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.”

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. I’m entrusting this silver dagger to you as a gesture of goodwill. —L

“A Syphon.” He nodded. “A rare subsect of witch, so rare that you’re currently the only one living of your kind. You don’t possess your own magic, but have the ability to absorb and use the essence of any supernatural being or object. A long time ago, Syphon witches were nearly hunted to extinction. Ambrose, the vampire king, put a bounty on their heads. They were all marked for death.”

Tears just mean you’re tired of fighting. Of staying strong. There’s no shame in taking time to heal.”

“The previous Syphons. ‘As one follows another, but never two.’ For nearly a century, there has always been one living Syphon, but never two at once. When she dies, a new one is born. Thus the cycle repeats itself—until the curse is broken or the one hundred years are up.”