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 there’s

that erratic plink, plink–plink of

the voices

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

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

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142 Usa Chained

chest and I scream, the sound

Pain sears through my arms, but I don’t care. I have to get

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

shoulders slump, the fight draining out of me. I can barely stand, the shackles forcing me to hunch over. My muscles

Plink. Plink–plink.

eyes to adjust to the darkness. Shapes slowly emerge from the inky blackness. Rough stone walls, a small

in a

A fucking cell..

142 Lika Chained

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

1. am.

Plink–plink–plink.

pace, as if mocking my S~ᴇaʀᴄh the Findɴovel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the

I want to scream again, to rage against the

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

weak and helpless against

I hate this.

his grim determination to

desperately that he was here to tell me I

this

he possibly

142 143 Chalice)

where I am?

let them fall, too

loyalty. She won’t give up on me. She’ll tear

will it be enough? Can they really go up against vampires

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

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

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

my head, driving out every other thought. It’s maddening, the irregularity of it. I want to

blood and focus on the pain. It grounds me,

342 LISA Chamed

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

to believe that. Because the alternative

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

for a moment, just a moment, I almost believe

Plink.

face fills my mind and I

was his weird breeding kink and the biting. Of how he wasn’t great at