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

erratic plink, plink–plink

the voices

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

slithers into my mind, 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

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142 Usa Chained

scream, the sound

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 out. I have to find Ava. “You can’t keep me here!” a

trickling down my forearms. Sobs wrack my body, each

the shackles forcing me to hunch over. My muscles burn

Plink. Plink–plink.

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

in a

A fucking cell..

142 Lika Chained

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

1. am.

Plink–plink–plink.

website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest

I want to scream again, to rage against the

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

weak and helpless against

I hate this.

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

desperately that he was here to tell

smugness over this any day of the week.

how? How can he possibly find

142 143 Chalice)

know where

eyes, hot and bitter. I let them fall, too

her fierce determination and unwavering loyalty. She won’t give up on me.

Can they really go up

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

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

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

out every other thought. It’s maddening, the irregularity of it. I want to scream, to beg for

taste blood and focus on the pain. It

342 LISA Chamed

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

Because the alternative

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

a moment, just a

Plink.

until Bren’s face fills my mind and I can’t stop thinking about

biting. Of how he wasn’t great at foreplay. Of the slightly–better–than mediocre sex and then the aphrodisiac that had elevated