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

17:36

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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 nothing.

plink–plink of something dripping.

voices are gone.

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

sound slithers into my mind, coiling around my heart and squeezing with a mania of isolation and fear. I try to move again,

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2/8

142 Usa Chained

scream, the sound raw and

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

my skin tearing, blood trickling down my forearms. Sobs wrack my body, each one tearing out of my throat.

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

Plink. Plink–plink.

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

a

A fucking cell..

142 Lika Chained

laugh. I’m chained up in some vampire’s dungeon like a gothic romance heroine. Except there’s no dashing hero coming to save me. No one even knows where I

1. am.

Plink–plink–plink.

picks up pace, as if mocking my S~ᴇaʀᴄh the Findɴovel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of

scream again, to rage against the unfairness

hidden deep inside. I can’t shift into a

are weak and helpless against the

I hate this.

around. Hated his grim determination to keep us safe, at the expense of

desperately that he was here to tell me I

his smugness over this any day of the

How can he possibly find me when

142 143 Chalice)

where

I let them fall, too tired to fight

loyalty. She won’t give up on

really go up

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

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

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

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

hard enough to taste blood and focus on the pain.

342 LISA Chamed

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

to believe that. Because the alternative is too terrifying to

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

for a moment, just a moment, I almost

Plink.

my mind and I can’t stop thinking about him.

kink and the biting. Of how he wasn’t great at foreplay. Of the slightly–better–than mediocre sex