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

1/8

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?

but there’s nothing.

plink, plink–plink

the voices are

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

mind, coiling around my heart and squeezing with a mania of isolation

17:36 – )

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142 Usa Chained

chest and I scream, the

but I don’t care. I have to get out. I have to find Ava.

Sobs wrack my body, each one tearing out

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

Plink. Plink–plink.

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

in a

A fucking cell..

142 Lika Chained

up my throat, 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 coming to save me. No one even knows

1. am.

Plink–plink–plink.

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

rage against the unfairness

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

weak and helpless against

I hate this.

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

desperately that he was here to tell me I

smugness over this any day of

possibly find

142 143 Chalice)

know where

and bitter. I let

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

really go up

know anything about

so fucking scared and I don’t know what

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

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

focus on the pain. It grounds me, keeps me from slipping

342 LISA Chamed

to believe that Kellan and Ava will find me. That Lucas and

the alternative is too terrifying

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

just a moment, I almost believe it.

Plink.

least until Bren’s face fills my mind and I

biggest concern 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 had elevated