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?

I whisper, but

plink, plink–plink of something dripping.

the voices are gone.

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

my mind, coiling around my heart and squeezing with a mania of isolation and fear. I try to move again, the chains rattling

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142 Usa Chained

I scream, the

my wrists. Pain sears through my arms, but I don’t care. I

my body, each one tearing out of my

can barely stand, the shackles forcing me to hunch over. My muscles burn from

Plink. Plink–plink.

inky blackness. Rough stone walls, a small window high above my head. The barest hint of moonlight filters through, only to be swallowed by clouds a moment later.

in a cell.

A fucking cell..

142 Lika Chained

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.

if mocking my S~ᴇaʀᴄh the Findɴovel.ɴet website

to rage

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

and

I hate this.

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

I wish desperately that he was here to tell

over this any day

he possibly find me when I don’t

142 143 Chalice)

know where I

sting my eyes, hot and bitter. I let them fall, too tired to fight them.

unwavering loyalty. She won’t give up on me.

be enough? Can they really go

don’t know anything about

I know is that I’m scared. I’m so fucking scared and I don’t know what to

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 to stop.

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

342 LISA Chamed

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

believe that. Because the alternative is too terrifying to consider.

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

a moment, I almost believe it.

Plink.

Bren’s face fills my mind and I can’t

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