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 there’s

erratic plink, plink–plink of something

voices are gone.

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

my mind, coiling around my heart and squeezing with a mania of isolation and fear. I try to move again, the chains rattling like mocking laughter. Frustration rips

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142 Usa Chained

and I scream, the

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

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

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

Plink. Plink–plink.

the inky blackness. Rough stone walls, a small window high above my head. The barest hint of moonlight filters

a cell.

A fucking cell..

142 Lika Chained

a strangled laugh. I’m 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.

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again, to rage against the

strength hidden deep inside. I can’t shift into a

and helpless

I hate this.

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

that he was here to

over this

can he possibly

142 143 Chalice)

where I am?

sting my eyes, hot and bitter. I let them fall,

think of Ava, of her fierce determination and unwavering loyalty. She won’t give up on me.

they really go up against vampires and

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

scared. I’m so fucking scared

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

every other thought. It’s maddening, the irregularity of

and focus

342 LISA Chamed

on. I have to believe that Kellan and Ava will find me. That Lucas and the Westwood pack will tear this place apart stone by stone until they

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

I imagine his arms around me, his

a moment, I

Plink.

mind and I can’t stop thinking about him.

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 elevated it