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

that erratic plink, plink–plink

voices are gone.

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

incessant sound slithers into my mind, coiling around my heart and squeezing with a mania of isolation and fear. I try to move again, the chains rattling like mocking laughter. Frustration

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2/8

142 Usa Chained

the sound

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

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

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

Plink. Plink–plink.

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

a

A fucking cell..

142 Lika Chained

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

1. am.

Plink–plink–plink.

pace, as if mocking my S~ᴇaʀᴄh the Findɴovel.ɴet website

scream again, to rage against the unfairness

or super strength hidden deep inside. I can’t shift into a wolf

and helpless

I hate this.

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

he was here to tell

this any day of the

How can he possibly find me when I don’t

142 143 Chalice)

where I am?

let them fall,

of her fierce determination and unwavering loyalty. She won’t give up on me. She’ll tear this world

really go up against vampires and

know anything about this world.

so fucking scared and

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

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

focus on the pain. It grounds

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

to believe that. Because the alternative is too

arms around me,

a moment, just a moment, I

Plink.

face fills my mind and I

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 it to