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?

but

plink–plink of something

voices are

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

squeezing with a mania of isolation and fear. I try to move again, the chains rattling like mocking laughter. Frustration rips through

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142 Usa Chained

the sound raw

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

down my forearms. Sobs wrack my body, each one tearing out

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

Plink. Plink–plink.

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

a

A fucking cell..

142 Lika Chained

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 where I

1. am.

Plink–plink–plink.

Findɴovel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the

to rage against the unfairness

just a human. There’s no magic or super strength hidden deep inside.

weak and

I hate this.

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

that he was here to tell me I told

smugness over this any day of the week.

how? How can he possibly find me when

142 143 Chalice)

where

bitter. I let

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

really go up against vampires and

don’t know anything about this

I’m scared. I’m so fucking scared

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

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

I don’t. I bite my lip hard enough to taste blood and focus on the pain.

342 LISA Chamed

and Ava will find me. That Lucas and the

have to believe that. Because the alternative is too terrifying

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

a moment, just a moment,

Plink.

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

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