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

that erratic plink, plink–plink of something

voices are gone.

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

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142 Usa Chained

scream, the sound raw and

my arms, but I don’t care. I

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

barely stand, the

Plink. Plink–plink.

the inky blackness. Rough stone walls, a small window high

in a cell.

A fucking cell..

142 Lika Chained

escaping in a strangled laugh. I’m chained up in some vampire’s dungeon like a gothic romance heroine. Except there’s no dashing hero

1. am.

Plink–plink–plink.

the Findɴovel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to

to scream again, to rage

no magic or super strength hidden deep

Humans are weak and helpless against the supernatural.

I hate this.

hated how he was always around. Hated his grim determination to

desperately that he was here to tell me I told you

his smugness over this any day of the

possibly find me when

142 143 Chalice)

know where

let them fall,

Ava, of her fierce determination and unwavering loyalty. She won’t give up

be enough? Can they really

I don’t know anything about this

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

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

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

bite my lip hard enough to taste blood and focus on

342 LISA Chamed

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

believe that. Because the alternative is too terrifying to

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

a moment, I

Plink.

mind

just 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 the aphrodisiac that