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

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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?

I whisper, but

plink, plink–plink

the voices are gone.

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

a mania of isolation and fear. I try to move again, the

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142 Usa Chained

I scream, the sound raw and desperate.

go!” I yank at the manacles, the metal biting into my wrists. Pain sears through my arms, but I don’t care. I have to get out. I have to find Ava.

Sobs wrack my body, each one tearing out of my throat. It’s useless. The chains hold

I can barely stand, the shackles forcing me to hunch over. My muscles burn from the awkward position.

Plink. Plink–plink.

hard, I try to force 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

in a cell.

A fucking cell..

142 Lika Chained

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

1. am.

Plink–plink–plink.

if mocking my S~ᴇaʀᴄh the Findɴovel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access

again, to rage against the unfairness of it

There’s no magic or super strength hidden deep

weak and

I hate this.

was always around. Hated his grim determination to keep us safe, at the expense of our freedom.

here to tell me I

this any day of the week.

how? How can he possibly find

142 143 Chalice)

know where I am?

sting my eyes, hot and bitter. I let them

She won’t

be enough? Can they really go up against

know. I don’t know anything

that I’m scared. I’m so fucking scared

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

the irregularity of

taste blood and focus on

342 LISA Chamed

and Ava will find me. That Lucas and the Westwood

have to believe that. Because the alternative is too terrifying

I close my eyes and picture Kellan’s face. I imagine his arms around me, his voice in my ear telling me it’s

just a

Plink.

Bren’s face fills my mind and I can’t stop

and the biting. Of how he wasn’t great at foreplay. Of the slightly–better–than mediocre sex and then the aphrodisiac that had elevated