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 there’s nothing.

erratic plink, plink–plink of

voices are

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

my heart and squeezing with a mania of isolation and fear. I try to

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142 Usa Chained

scream, the

at the manacles, the metal biting into my wrists. Pain sears through my arms, but I don’t care.

wrack my body, each one tearing out of

the shackles forcing me to

Plink. Plink–plink.

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

in a cell.

A fucking cell..

142 Lika Chained

bubbles 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.

1. am.

Plink–plink–plink.

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

I want to scream again, to rage

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

weak and helpless

I hate this.

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

was here to tell me I told you so.

take his smugness over this

can he possibly find

142 143 Chalice)

know where I am?

I let them fall, too

and unwavering loyalty. She won’t give up on me. She’ll tear this world apart to find

really go up against vampires and win?

know

fucking scared and I don’t know

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

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

to taste blood and focus on the

342 LISA Chamed

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

that. Because the alternative is too terrifying to

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

for a moment, just a moment,

Plink.

face fills my mind and I can’t

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