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

plink–plink of something dripping.

voices are gone.

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

isolation and fear. I try to move again, the chains rattling like mocking

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142 Usa Chained

chest and I scream, the

my wrists. Pain sears through my arms, but I don’t

blood trickling down my forearms. Sobs wrack my body,

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

Plink. Plink–plink.

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

vampire’s dungeon like a gothic romance heroine. Except there’s no dashing hero coming to save

1. am.

Plink–plink–plink.

website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels

want to scream again, to rage against the

There’s no magic or super strength hidden deep inside. I can’t shift

Humans are weak and helpless against the

I hate this.

hated how he was always around. Hated his grim determination to keep us safe,

here to tell me I

his smugness over this any day of the

can he possibly find

142 143 Chalice)

know where

bitter. I let them fall, too tired

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

be enough? Can they really go up against vampires and win?

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

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

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

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

my lip hard enough to taste blood and focus on the pain.

342 LISA Chamed

have to hold on. I have to believe that Kellan and Ava will find me. That Lucas and the Westwood pack will

to believe that. Because the alternative is too

arms around me, his voice in my ear telling me it’s going to

just a moment, I almost believe it.

Plink.

my mind and I can’t

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