RAGE**** Chapter One Reveal

Atalia

My blood boiled like hot lava, my skin was on fire, sweat fell in rivulets down my face, and my clothes stuck to me like a second skin. My breathing was heavy, mouth dry and vision blurry. The space between my shoulder blades ached like a hundred knives being plunged into the tender skin. I wanted—no, needed—to scream. The pain was unbearable. I rolled off the bed onto the Persian rug that adorned the floor. I almost rolled off it thinking I might burn the rug with my scorching skin. I crawled my way to the massive mirrored closet doors. I looked up and gasped. There were flames in my eyes, red, hot, angry flames, flames that, if let out, would cause too much destruction. My heartbeat accelerated in fear and a piercing sensation begun near my shoulder blades, my spine snapped at that moment and I let out a shriek…
“Atalia!”
I gasped and bolted up, the silk sheets clung to my sweat soaked skin as I looked around wildly. Akiv searched my eyes with worry and confusion. Of course he would be confused, Atalia Vladimir was never afraid of anything—let alone a dream.
“Are you okay?” his voice gruff from sleep.
I felt my forehead, it was clammy and my skin was still hot. I looked down at my oversized t-shirt and sleep shorts, they were drenched. It was as if someone had hosed me down with water. Boiling water.
I was okay.
It was just a dream.
“Just a really steamy dream between myself and Taylor Lautner, brother mine,” I grinned up at Akiv.
I swung my legs onto the floor and walked over to the mirror taking in myself. My hair was in tangles and my skin flushed. My large eyes looked drawn although it wasn’t something a little blood couldn’t cure. Akiv’s reflection entered my view and I noticed the similarities between us; lush dark hair with a tinge of red, quicksilver eyes—mine large, his almond-shaped, full red lips and perfectly proportioned bodies. The angles of our faces were different though, he was a lot like our father while I—I had no idea who I looked like. It definitely wasn’t Mycaia, the woman that called herself our mother. Akiv was all sharp angles and raw masculinity while I had soft features that were so feminine it tended to scare people when my face took on a menacing expression.
“Really? You had a wet dream about Taylor Lautner and that left you screaming for your life?” Akiv raised a brow at me. “You forget we’re twins, supernatural twins, which tends to take the ‘feeling what the other feels’ to a whole new level!”
I avoided his gaze and shrugged. “It was one hell of an orgasm.”
“I’ve had orgasms, Tia, I would know the difference between that and fear.” Akiv snorted. “I call bullshit.”
I sighed, turning the taps on in my rainforest designed shower. “Let it go, Akiv.”
Akiv clenched his jaw. He hated when I withdrew from him, but he also knew that I wouldn’t budge. “We’re patrolling for the Halloween street party tonight.”
“Yippee,” I said in fake enthusiasm, hopping under the steam and hot spray.
Akiv and I were part of a really old and powerful family. Antonio and Alejandro Vladimir were the first vampires created by an act of magic which has yet to be discovered, and due to a vampire’s excessive sex-drive, they ended up impregnating various women. Those women were killed off when the babies reached puberty and fed on their mothers. Gross right? Arianna and Alyssa Vladimir were the children of Alejandro. While Alexander and our father, Mateo Vladimir, were the children of Antonio.
I know it’s really confusing. Rumour has it that the four children they created were not the only ones out there, apparently there were more. No one tried looking for them and they didn’t come to Dramir so it was assumed as just a passing tale.
Samaire, Chavez, Dante, Akiv and I were the last bunch of Vladimirs’. Naturally, our parents hoped for us to carry on their legacy and pop out a few more Vlads. The vampire and human partners also added to the numbers of the Vladimir clan. We were a large family that lived in this massive castle looking thing in the very centre of the Dramir quarter. I always had a snide comment about the castle they tried so hard to make like the historical Dracula castle—they failed though. The ‘castle’ turned out to be a four story mansion surrounded by four ancient looking towers which served no purpose at all.
Dramir had been created as a solace for the supernatural contingent. Vampires, witches and werewolves convened in this city built on the coast of South Africa—the last place humans would think of finding any creatures that go bump in the night. There were more out there, but they weren’t our concern.
At least… they weren’t my concern.
The Draco had ruled this powerful land before the Vladimir's flocked here. Together they strengthened the boundaries and fought against the dark forces that threatened them at the time and next thing you know, Draco and Vladimir decide to make a pact and more than five hundred years later, we have Dramir. Sounds corny, my father and his accomplices weren’t all that intelligent now were they?
Come to think of it, I hadn’t ever cared to find out whether all this stuff they conveyed to us was true or not. Hell, the only reason I even believed in the supernatural world was because I grew up around them and I had a craving for blood all the time. My parents were not people you would call affectionate.
Dramir was basically set up into a battle ready city.
The Vladimir mansion was situated in the heart of Dramir. It seemed like a crazy idea that the city’s most powerful family lived right in the centre of the main quarter. Right?
Wrong.
It wasn’t. The Vlad mansion was surrounded by the main quarter which consisted of fancy pubs, thrift stores and various establishments owned by the witches of Dramir. A thirty story Drake tower housing more than five hundred Draco was directly behind the Vlad mansion. The element of surprise was the area of MoonRock.
MoonRock was filled with valleys, hills, gorges, waterfalls, forests and so much of wildlife. It was situated at the very end of Dramir. After all, when the city was in trouble, the werewolves needed clear access to get into the main quarter. I always made fun of that arrangement though, pointing out that the werewolves would get there after battle was over. After making that comment, I was held down by a particularly angry wolf so suffice it to say, I learnt to voice my opinions when I was battle ready.
The humans walked around clueless. They had no idea we lived among them and paid no attention to the fact that their mayor, Mateo Vladimir, hardly made any appearances during the day. They looked the other way when large beings flew about in the sky and neither did they question the howl of wolves coming from the MoonRock area. It was all part of the hex the high priestess, Saranya, cast on the city.
It was the reason Saranya was the most protected witch in Dramir, if she died then her spell lifted with her death and we’d pretty much be screwed. I still thought we should eat everyone and be done with it. No one was on board with that idea though.
Back to present events. I slid on my usual tight dark jeans, red tank and black leather jacket with biker boots. I pushed my ass-length hair back with a headband and brushed on some mascara and rimmed eye-liner around my eyes. The thin line of the black liquid brought out my quicksilver eyes. It did not help my cause that my eyes were large. I wasn’t getting dressed for the Halloween street party especially since Halloween was actually on Friday and today was only Monday. I would know because I had the misfortune of being born on Halloween.
“I don’t get why the mayor agreed to have weeklong celebrations for Halloween,” I grumbled to Akiv as we headed down the stairs.
Akiv chuckled. “The humans believe that every night during the last week of October supernatural creatures walk among them. By the way have you forgotten that the mayor is our father?”
“Nope, but I do try,” I said sweetly.
“Little do they know that we’re everywhere,” Dante said with a fake Romanian accent. Dante was a dark haired, fully muscled guy much like Akiv. He was Alexander’s son and his mother was a human that died when Dante was born. With his mischievous bright blue eyes, Dante charmed the panties off women all over Dramir. He was relentless in his pursuit of women. Our playful cousin happened to be almost nine hundred years old, but I still had the privilege of creeping him out. “Do you still hate on my poor uncle, Atalia?”
I snorted. “Dante, I hate everyone.”
“Except a certain Draco, no?” Dante grinned looking pleased with himself.
“No,” I agreed. Did I really just agree by saying no? Or am I just confusing myself and taking you with me? oh
That certain Draco shall not be spoken off until later. I often wondered that if Draco was what we called all of them collectively, what would we call them singularly, Drac? They had adapted the name Drake as a surname so maybe I could call one Draco a Drake? Or maybe I should stop hurting myself and just stick to Draco. As we walked through the mansion passageways to get to the entrance many of our family members passed us; wives, husbands, staff and even the human feeders that were actually our domestic workers. The women of the family frowned at me, nothing new there.
The Vladimir family dynamic was that the men fight and protect while the women stay at home and keep house. Very old school if you ask me, which no one did and that resorted in to me rebelling and becoming one of the toughest fighters my father had on his city security detail. I don’t think he trusted me enough to protect him; I’d probably help the person trying to off him. True story.
“I wonder how long the women in this house will think they actually look attractive dressed like Scarlett twenty four seven,” I mumbled.
Each and every woman with the last name Vladimir dressed in these vintage period dresses with tons of ruffles and corsets pushing up their chests. Being dressed regally gave them a strange personality complex—they actually believed that just by wearing the regal clothes they became something sort of important. I doubt they had any idea that the only reason Mateo put them on the council was to show equality he did not feel.
Dante snorted. “You should take that up with the council, I’m sure you’d make a few fans out of our clan.”
“Hah! The only reason father even let Atalia on the security detail is because he doesn’t really care what she does. If it was any of the other women he would have a fit. He believes women should know their place.”
Dante and I fell silent. Akiv winced and quickly opened his mouth to apologize I was sure. I held up my hand preferring not to hear it.
“Let’s just get this over with,” I said and we headed out into the cool night.