Tangled

142 Lisa: Chained

The sound of water dripping is the first thing to break through the darkness of my mind.

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

It’s an erratic rhythm that leaves me uncomfortable.

The voices come next, soft, sibilant whispers. Evil. Whoever they are, they’d be the villains in any story.

Eventually, I realize the darkness is really just pain. Pain that throbs and aches in half my face. But why?

Vampires.

That’s why.

My eyes fly open when I finally remember, and I struggle to sit up, blinking into the darkness.

I can’t see anything.

Are my eyes open?

My hands won’t reach my face, yanking against

17:36

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142 Lisa: Chained

something cold and hard around my wrists.

Manacles?

Swiping my hands around, I can feel the heavy, rusted chains holding me down, bolted to the floor.

Fuck.

This is…

Really not good.

Ava. Is Ava here?

whisper, but

erratic plink, plink–plink of something

the voices are gone.

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

slithers into my mind, coiling around my heart and squeezing with a mania of isolation and fear. I try

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2/8

142 Usa Chained

the

go!” I yank at the manacles, the metal biting into my wrists. Pain sears through my arms, but I don’t

my skin tearing, blood trickling down my forearms. Sobs wrack my body, each one tearing out

the shackles

Plink. Plink–plink.

my eyes to adjust to the darkness. Shapes slowly emerge from the inky blackness. Rough stone walls, a small window high above my head. The barest hint of moonlight filters through, only to be swallowed by clouds a

a

A fucking cell..

142 Lika Chained

chained up in some vampire’s dungeon like a gothic romance heroine. Except there’s no dashing hero coming to save

1. am.

Plink–plink–plink.

if mocking my S~ᴇaʀᴄh the Findɴovel.ɴet website

rage against the unfairness of

deep inside. I can’t shift into a wolf or melt

and

I hate this.

thoughts drift to Kellan. I’d hated how he was always around. Hated his grim

was here to

take his smugness over this any day of

he possibly find

142 143 Chalice)

know where I

let them fall,

fierce determination and unwavering loyalty. She won’t give up on me. She’ll tear this world apart to find

they really go

don’t know. I don’t know anything about this

I’m so fucking scared and I don’t know what to do.

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

maddening, the irregularity of it. I want to scream, to beg for it to

and focus on the pain. It grounds me, keeps me

342 LISA Chamed

that Kellan and Ava will find me. That Lucas

to believe that. Because the alternative is too terrifying to consider.

imagine his arms around me, his voice in

a moment, I

Plink.

my mind and I

a while ago was his weird breeding kink and the biting. Of how he wasn’t great at foreplay. Of the slightly–better–than mediocre sex and then the aphrodisiac that had