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?

but

that erratic plink, plink–plink

the voices are

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

heart and squeezing with a mania of isolation and fear. I try to move again, the chains rattling

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142 Usa Chained

and I scream, the sound raw

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. “You can’t keep me

pull and twist, my skin tearing, blood trickling down my forearms. Sobs wrack my body, each one tearing out of my throat. It’s useless. The

fight draining out of me. I can barely stand, the

Plink. Plink–plink.

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

up in some vampire’s dungeon like a gothic romance heroine. Except there’s

1. am.

Plink–plink–plink.

up pace, as if mocking my S~ᴇaʀᴄh the Findɴovel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ

to scream again, to rage against the unfairness of it

human. There’s no magic or super strength hidden deep inside. I

and helpless against

I hate this.

to Kellan. I’d hated how he was always around. Hated his grim determination to keep us safe, at the expense

he was here to tell me I told you so.

smugness over this any day of the

How can he possibly

142 143 Chalice)

know where I

let them fall, too tired to fight them.

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

it be enough? Can they really go up against vampires

don’t know. I don’t know anything

I know is that I’m scared. I’m so fucking scared and

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

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

I don’t. I bite my lip hard enough to taste blood and focus on

342 LISA Chamed

that Kellan and Ava will find me. That Lucas and the Westwood pack will tear this place apart stone by

that. Because the alternative is too terrifying to consider.

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

for a moment, just a moment, I almost believe

Plink.

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

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 elevated it to good