Page 1 of Born into Darkness
Prologue
Talia
“Are you finally ready?”
I run the brush through my hair one more time before turning to face my best friend. Alina, or Allie as we all call her, is sprawled across my bed in a dramatic heap because apparently I’m taking way too long to get ready. She’s the type of person who’s perfectly content to just pull her blonde hair into a ponytail and put on whatever clothes were last thrown on her floor before walking out the door. She’s also beautiful enough to get away with it.
Making her wait a few more seconds, I add another coat of mascara before finally turning around to face her. “I’m ready.”
“Finally,” she groans while pulling herself from my comfortable bed. “You’re aware we’re just going to the beach for a bonfire with our families, right? It’s not like we’re on our way to a hot date.”
She gives another dramatic sigh and says, “I’m never going to get my hot date, am I?”
I laugh and wrap my arm around her shoulders. “Yes, you will. Men already drool every time they see you.”
She huffs out a breath, managing to make that small sound carry years of pent-up frustration. “Yeah, you mean from a distance and through the line of bodyguards we’re forced to surround ourselves with?”
“It’s for our own protection,” I tell her, reciting the line that we’ve both heard since birth. My dad and two uncles run the Medvedev Bratva, but Allie’s dad has been working for them since long before either of us were born. My brothers and cousins have joined the ranks, and even though that means more freedom for them, Allie and I are still guarded at all times. It’s an odd upbringing, but I trust my family. If they say it’s important, then I believe them.
“I’m twenty-three,” she grumbles as I lead her from my room. “I’m going to die a virgin. That’s probably what they’ll put on my headstone.Here lies Alina Petrov, daughter of Andrei and Svetlana. She went very unwillingly to her grave as a virgin.”
I laugh and shake my head at her dramatics. “Don’t forget I’m in the same boat you’re in.”
“You’re only twenty-one. I’ve got two years of spinsterhood on you. I can feel every minute of sexual frustration aging me.”
I give her a supportive side hug, even if I am laughing while I do it. I feel her pain, though. We’re surrounded by walls of tattooed muscle, but none of it counts when it’s your relatives or men who are old enough to be your dad. I don’t mind age gaps, but I’m just not personally into it myself.
As soon as we reach the living room, Wallace, my border collie, jumps up from where he’d been lying by my oldest brother and runs over to me, tail wagging and eyes lit up with excitement. I immediately squat down to wrap him in a hug. He licks my face, so happy he can barely sit still. When I’d turned sixteen, my dad asked me what I wanted, and instead of picking a car like most sixteen-year-olds, I’d asked for a dog. What’s the point in getting a car if I can’t ever go anywhere alone anyway? Besides, Wallace is a thousand times better than a car could ever be.
“Such blatant favoritism,” Dmitri says from the couch, watching the way Wallace is sitting and staring at me like I’m his entire universe. “My feelings are hurt, Wallace.”
At the sound of his name, two dark ears perk up, and he gives my brother a quick glance before putting all his focus back on me. I laugh and shoot Dmitri a smile. “Don’t be jealous, Dima.”
Allie snorts out a laugh and plops down on the couch next to him. “As if you don’t have enough people drooling all over you.”
Dima nudges her with his elbow. “Now who’s being jealous, Allie cat?”
“Hey,” she says, laughing at the nickname he gave her when we were kids. “I could have groupies, too, if I was ever allowed to leave this fortress.”
“What fortress?”
We all turn at the sound of my dad’s voice. He walks into the kitchen with my mom, both of them smiling like they’ve been up to something that I definitely don’t want to know about. He grabs my mom a drink from the fridge before getting one for himself. Kissing my mom on the head, he asks, “Do you know what they’re talking about,zolotse?”
My mom smiles up at him and shrugs. “No idea, but I know they can’t possibly be talking about this gorgeous house and forty acres of beachfront property that anyone would be thrilled to call home.”
Allie smiles over at them. “You know I love it here, Uncle Vasya. It would just be nice to venture off the property every once in a while.” She quickly adds, “Please don’t tell my dad I said that.”
My dad laughs. He’d built Allie’s parents a house on the property after they got married, along with his two other top men, Ilya and Nikolai, so we’ve always been right down the road from one another. We loved it when we were kids. She was always over here playing. Along with Yulia, my Uncle Valeri’s daughter, and Sitka, my Uncle Volodya’s daughter, we’re the only girls. We’ve always been as close as sisters, and we have nothing but happy memories here, but now that we’re grown, we’re getting a little antsy. Well, most of us are all grown. Sitka was a late-in-life surprise for my Uncle Volodya and Aunt Maddie and is still only sixteen.
“You make it sound like you’re prisoners,” my dad says, wrapping an arm around my mom as they walk into the living room. I’m not at all surprised when he takes a seat and then pulls her down onto his lap. They’ve always been affectionate, my uncles are the same way, but I know they’re not always like this. I may live a sheltered life, but I’m not an idiot. I know what my family does for a living, and I know they didn’t get to where they are by being nice. It’s hard to picture my dad and uncles as being violent, though. Just because I know it’s true, doesn’t mean it’s something I can easily envision. Despite all the tattoos and muscle, I just see my family when I look at them—the men who have always taken care of me and filled my life with unconditional love.
“We know we’re not prisoners,” I tell him while giving Wallace a good scratch behind the ears. “It’d just be nice to have some of the freedom the guys have.”
Dima laughs and points a finger at Wallace. “Then you should’ve asked for a motorcycle like I did instead of a dog.”
I wrap my arm around Wallace and kiss his furry head. “Ignore him, boy. He’s just jealous that I’m your favorite.”
My brother shrugs. “I am kind of jealous about it. Maybe I should get one too. Wallace would have a friend, and I could be someone’s favorite.”
