Touched

by Allegra Skye

  touched

  (book #2 of the Shadow Vampires)

  allegra skye

  Also by Allegra Skye

  SAVED (Book #1 of the Shadow Vampires)

  Copyright © 2011 by Allegra Skye

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the author.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover model: Margaret Miller. Cover photography: Adam Luke Studios, New York. Cover makeup artist: Ruthie Weems. If you would like to contact any of these artists, please contact the author.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  “We are constantly invited to be who we are.”

  --Henry David Thoreau

  CHAPTER 1

  Keira Blaine ran through the rain, clutching Cooper’s hand as they raced across the street to the diner. They burst through the doors, dripping wet, and all the locals turned and stared. They slowly made their way to a booth by the window.

  As they sat, the rain slashed against the windows, as if trying to warn them of something. But Keira loved it. It felt fantastic sitting there, only a thin windowpane keeping them from the tumultuous waters. Keira felt as though it was washing them clean.

  They stared at each other dazed and uneasy. Everything had happened so fast, like a streak of lightening. Neither of them had had time to process anything that had gone on. They’d been attacked by the Shadow Vampires and vanquished every last one of them. Keira knew that Cooper was still in shock about it. He had no idea how she did it, where her sudden power came from. Neither did she.

  The waiter, a tall, awkward kid that Keira recognized from school, shuffled over and took for their order. He seemed afraid to look at them directly in the eyes.

  “Hot chocolate,” Cooper said somberly.

  She was hungry, famished from the battle. The encounter hadn’t taken her energy though. It had made her stronger, ready to take on the world.

  “A vanilla shake,” she said to the waiter.

  Cooper lifted his eyes and looked at her oddly. “How did you do it?” he asked. “Who are you anyway?”

  Keira smiled. “The energy came and filled me completely. It poured through me. It went wild. I don’t know anything else. I don’t remember.”

  Cooper sat straighter. “I’ve only seen something like this once before. It was one of the Indigo Children,” he said. “Are you one of them?”

  Keira shook her head slowly. She had no idea what he was talking about. “I don’t know.”

  “From the second I saw you, I knew there was something different about you, but I didn’t know what,” he said.

  For some reason it was hard looking at him now. They were in a completely new situation. When the fierce energy had poured through her and she’d destroyed the last of the Shadow Vampires, everything had changed. They had to stay together now–there was no way she could return home. Cooper had to realize that.

  She looked up for a moment and saw him staring at her, bewildered and amazed. It was obvious that he had no idea how she’d done it, or who she really was. She didn’t either.

  She did know one thing though: this battle with the Shadow Vampires had changed the feelings between her and Cooper. He was uneasy now, suddenly more distant again, drumming his fingers on the table. Oddly, she felt nervous with him as well. How did he view her? Did he think she was a monster of some kind?

  Keira wanted to reach across the table and touch his hand. She wanted to feel the crystal smoothness of his skin, take in his warmth. She needed reassurance that everything was still all right. She started to move her hand towards his, but then quickly pulled it back.

  That bothered her. Cooper sat before Keira now, stark, fragile, statuesque. He was everything she had ever wanted and more. She felt that without him she was no one, would never again belong anywhere. She had to lift his spirits now, remind him what they’d accomplished. They’d been completely victorious over the Shadow Vampires. They were extinguished. There was nothing left to get between the two of them again.

  “It’s okay now,” she said to Cooper. “They’re all dead.”

  “Temporarily,” he whispered, in a scruffy tone.

  “Temporarily?” Keira looked out the window at the rain pounding the diner and the town. Wasn’t it telling them that the forces of nature were on their side?

  “The Shadow Vampires have been extinguished. How can death be temporary?”

  He leaned closer to her. For a minute it felt like it had before, exciting, close, connected. Then he retracted and that old emptiness filled the space between them again.

  “Think a minute, Keira,” he said. “The Shadow Vampires are not human. They reconstitute themselves quickly. They rise from ashes and re-form. Soon they will be back.”

  “No, they won’t. Never again.”

  “They cannot be permanently extinguished,” he continued, “they’re not made of real flesh and bones. They are shadows.” His voice grew higher and shriller as he spoke and as the light of the day was fading.

  The waiter interrupted them then, bringing the food they’d ordered. Cooper pushed his hot chocolate away.

  “It’s my fault that they found us,” he muttered. “I never messed up like this before.”

  “You didn’t mess up,” Keira objected. “You were wonderful. You came for me at the dance. You brought me with you. You saved me.”

  She thought of the remains of the Shadow Vampires tossed on the floor. They had seemed like threads of cord, or clusters of thick, gnarled dust that had become entwined. Basically, they were nothing, empty. Shadows of dust that could never harm them.

  “You don’t know the world you’ve stepped into,” Cooper spoke sharply, as she drank her shake. “I don’t know it fully either. But there are ancient rules and if you break them, there’s ordained suffering. Terrible suffering. Nothing like you can imagine. There’s a horrible price to be paid for infractions. Everyone who comes into your life comes for a reason. Including you. I have to know more about you. What you are doing here?”

  Keira stopped sipping her shake and looked up at him. What more did he want to know? She didn’t know herself who she was anymore. She had no idea where these strange powers were coming from.

  “You always lived with your family?” he said, his eyes narrowing, staring right through her.

  “Of course.” She was taken aback. What was he thinking? That she’d been an orphan? Was adopted? “I was born a few minutes aft
er my sister Amanda. A twin. We were raised together.”

  “Sometimes it happens like that,” he mumbled.

  “She was the beautiful one. I was ugly.”

  At that he flinched. “You’re the beautiful one,” he said matter of factly. “You always were, but you never knew it. You’re far more beautiful than you can imagine.”

  Keira’s heart started pounding. He had no idea how important it was for her to hear. He had no idea what it meant to her. For a moment the tension between them eased and they looked at each other as they had before, softly, with love. But then his shield flipped back up again. His eyes glazed over with that urgent stare.

  “When did these powers actually begin?” He needed to know every detail. It was as if his very life depended on it.

  Keira’s appetite disappeared. She pushed her shake away. It was all a blur. She had to think carefully.

  “I only noticed the powers after the accident,” she said. “That’s when I first saw the indigo light. And I also saw you, near the ambulance, looking at me from the side lines. I knew you were there to look after me.”

  “And that never happened to you before?”

  “Not like that.”

  “An accident can do that,” he said. “Re-arrange the brain, awaken dormant abilities. It can restructure priorities. Sometimes a mission is revealed. Abruptly.”

  Keira suddenly felt the warmth and love for him that had flowed in the past. It almost seemed as though it had all taken place in another era, not only several weeks ago. She knew he needed reassurance and information. She wanted to give him whatever she had.

  “I never belonged anywhere, or fit in,” she continued. The words spilled out one after another. “My sister was popular, smart, good with people. I was on the sidelines. My mother couldn’t stand me. The kids in school always thought I was weird. Tell me more about you now. You don’t seem at all like a Shadow Vampire.”

  I’m not completely a Shadow Vampire. I’m a mutant,” he repeated. “A half breed. Dangerous in my tribe. Hybrids are considered unstable from the moment they manifest. My father, Senica, is one of the heads of the Shadow Vampires. He kidnapped me right after I was born, snatched me from my mother, Ilyana. I don’t remember her at all.”

  Keira was filled with sorrow for Cooper. His deep sense of loneliness arose and swept around her.

  “My mother was from another Vampire Tribe, the Torches. Torches are good Vampires, dedicated to sowing light, uplifting the human race and destroying all forms of darkness. They have ancient objects in their midst, treasures which help them channel in the light. My mother had a ring, an incredible ring.”

  Keira wanted to hear more about it, but Cooper could barely breathe after he’d spoken. She couldn’t remember him ever saying so much. “The Shadow Vampires and the Torches’ are rivals. Enemies. During a battle between them, my mother and father met and fell in love. They mated. It was unheard of. Then he stayed around and grabbed me a few days after I was born. Even though I don’t remember her, I feel her with me. I have to find her now,” Cooper breathed. And for the first time ever, tears filled his eyes.

  Keira breathed deeply. This was why Cooper escaped from his father and from the Shadow Vampires, she realized: to find his mother again. And that was why he couldn’t stand hurting anyone, the way the Shadow Vampires loved to do. His mother’s spirit had been calling him.

  Cooper stared at Keira as he spoke. His eyes opened wide, as if rivers and lakes were flowing in them. His eyes were begging her to understand.

  “I understand completely,” whispered Keira. And she did.

  “I also have to find my people,” he went on, “see where I come from. First I came to Everstock to get a sense of humans, who are closer to The Torches than the Shadows ever will be. Torches live among humans easily. Even though they’re not allowed to mate with them, they help them. They uplift their hearts, strengthen their spirits, spread power and light. I was only going to stay in Everstock for a few days…but then I saw you.”

  “And?”

  “And I couldn’t go.”

  Keira gasped. She had no idea she’d made such a big impression on him. It was wonderful to know that

  “I was so drawn to you.” Cooper went on. You magnetized me. Then I knew you were part of the plan. But I didn’t know how, or what it could be.”

  “I don’t know either,” Keira breathed. She felt wanted, needed, alive again.

  “I let my Shield down too far, though. The Shadow Vampires sensed it and found us.”

  He bit his lip so hard, Keira feared it would bleed. Cooper was still dwelling on danger, frightened of having feelings for her again.

  “But we vanquished them,” Keira said proudly.

  “For now,” he breathed. “We can’t stay here long, though. They are reconstituting even as we speak.”

  Strengthened by his feelings for her, Keira threw her head back, tossed her long, blonde, golden hair over her shoulders, as she used to do in school. Cooper had said We. Keira took it in. We. He wasn’t leaving without her. She belonged to him now. He was taking her with him.

  “Of course,” she whispered. “Where will we go?”

  “I remember something from childhood,” he said. “My father once told me there was a letter waiting for me, with directions to my people and my fate. He didn’t mean to tell me, it slipped out after a mission he’d been on. He’d fed for hours and was in a good mood. The letter is around a cottage in the woods, near Lake Michigan. Not so far away. He mentioned the name of the road and the county.”

  “Let’s go,” said Keira.

  “But this is temporary, Keira.”

  What was temporary? Their relationship, being together? Or the defeat of the Shadow Vampires? She had to be clear.

  “What is?”

  “Everything,” he answered sorrowfully. “Temporary and forever.”

  This was no time for speaking in riddles. Her life depended on being with him and she knew it. She had odd powers she didn’t understand, they were growing daily. She had to find out who she was. Where in the world could she go alone? With him everything would fall into place.

  “Where you go, I go,” she spoke in a rumbling voice that suddenly erupted from the center of her being and terrified her. It rose up like thunder over a dark mountain.

  “Remember this though,” he said firmly. “There is no place for us. This mad world cannot hold us. We don’t belong to it in the way you think.”

  He was right. They had stepped outside the limits of every world. She had no idea where she belonged but, at this moment, being with him was everything. It was all she needed right now.

  “We can do it. We can find your mother and your people. I know they are waiting for you.”

  As if snapped out of a dream, the color in his face returned. He sat up tall, and sparkled as he always did.

  “Yes, we can.”

  “And I can help you,” the words flowed through Keira by themselves.

  He reached out and took her hand, and she knew, right then, that they would take this journey together.

  CHAPTER 2

  They left the diner and raced into Cooper’s blue car, to take the ride to the cottage where Cooper felt the letter was buried. It was wonderful being with him again, thrilling to be taking this drive together across the countryside. The weather had turned cooler, but there were still flashes of autumn leaves on some trees, although most of them were bare by now. As they headed north, the wind grew crisper.

  Keira knew that the strain of what he’d been through was easing up and he was more himself again now. As Cooper sat beside her, driving, she felt his powerful energy and a surge of longing gripped her. She wanted him to hold her again, kiss her the way he had before. She wanted their bodies to intertwine.

  “Cooper,” she murmured, filled with desire.

  He leaned over and kissed her lightly on the forehead. The feel of his lips thrilled her. They awoke energy and love inside. She stretched out her arms to h
im, and he took her hand in his. She could feel his strength and caring. His touch also calmed her anxiety that this could not last.

  Keira feared that sooner or later he would leave her. This was too wonderful, too perfect. What had she done to deserve it? And Cooper was not even part of the human race. – She had to keep reminding herself of that. It didn’t make sense, though. She felt more connected to him than any human she’d ever met. What could that possibly mean? Keira wanted him to talk to her now.

  As if reading her mind, he said, “Time is short. We have to get there. They’re reconstituting. Soon they’ll be after us again with more vengeance than ever. They live off vengeance, they’re dedicated to revenge. It gives them power.”

  Keira felt no fear. An odd kind of peace had enveloped her. She felt a huge sense of calmness and ease.

  “And besides, we’re not even sure where we’re going,” Cooper continued, pressed.

  “Who is ever sure of anything?” she replied softly.

  Cooper laughed. They understood each other, gave each other courage.

  “Who are you, Keira?” he asked lightly. “Every day there’s a new surprise.”

  “I have no idea who I am,” she said. “Neither does anyone else. Humans pretend to know, but they do not. They pretend to be someone important and special, but deep down underneath, they’re all scared.”

  Cooper grew silent, taking it all in. Keira knew that he craved to know all about humans. He’s only lived with his father all these years. Keira thought of her own father for a moment, and felt a deep pain in her heart. They’d left on such horrible terms. Would he always hate her? Would she ever see him again? Was he wondering now where she was, searching for her? It was too much to think about, though.

  As she thought about her father, Cooper reached out and took Keira’s hand. It gave her strength and hope to be hand in hand. It was a strange kinship between them, Keira thought. Not only did they share similar feelings, they knew just what the other felt and thought.