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?

whisper, but

plink–plink

the voices are

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

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142 Usa Chained

and I scream, the sound

me 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

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

stand, the shackles forcing

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 moonlight filters through, only to be swallowed by

in a cell.

A fucking cell..

142 Lika Chained

laugh. I’m chained up in some vampire’s dungeon like a gothic romance heroine. Except there’s

1. am.

Plink–plink–plink.

website

again, to rage against

magic or super strength hidden deep inside. I can’t

are weak and helpless against the supernatural.

I hate this.

I’d hated how he was always around. Hated his grim

was here to tell me I

smugness over this any

can he possibly find me when

142 143 Chalice)

where I am?

I let them fall, too tired to fight them.

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

really go up against vampires

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

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

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

It’s maddening, the irregularity of it. I want to

enough to taste blood and focus on the pain. It grounds me, keeps

342 LISA Chamed

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

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

Kellan’s face. I imagine his arms around me,

for a moment, just a moment, I almost believe it.

Plink.

until Bren’s face fills my mind and I

biggest concern just 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