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?

I whisper, but

that erratic plink, plink–plink of

the voices are

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

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

scream, the sound raw and

my arms, but I don’t care. I have to get out. I have

body, each one tearing out of my throat. It’s useless. The chains hold

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

Plink. Plink–plink.

try to force my eyes to adjust to the darkness. Shapes slowly emerge from the inky blackness. Rough stone walls, a small window high above my head.

a cell.

A fucking cell..

142 Lika Chained

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

1. am.

Plink–plink–plink.

mocking my S~ᴇaʀᴄh the Findɴovel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels

to scream again, to rage

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

Humans are weak and helpless

I hate this.

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

desperately that he was here to tell me I told you so.

smugness over this any day of the

how? How can he possibly find me when I don’t

142 143 Chalice)

where I am?

my eyes, hot and bitter. I let them fall, too tired to

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

enough? Can they really go up against vampires and

don’t know. I don’t know anything

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

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

thought. It’s maddening, the irregularity of it.

taste blood and focus

342 LISA Chamed

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

Because the alternative is

around me, his

just a moment, I almost

Plink.

fills my mind and

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 and then