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

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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 there’s

that erratic plink, plink–plink

voices are gone.

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

squeezing with a mania of isolation

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142 Usa Chained

the

my arms, but I don’t care. I have to get out. I have

and twist, my skin tearing, blood trickling down my forearms. Sobs wrack my body, each one tearing out of my throat. It’s useless. The chains hold fast, unyielding.

I can barely stand, the shackles forcing

Plink. Plink–plink.

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

in a

A fucking cell..

142 Lika 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.

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

again, to rage against the

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

and helpless against the

I hate this.

he was always around. Hated his grim

that he was here to

smugness over this any

how? How can he possibly find me when I don’t

142 143 Chalice)

know where I

I let them fall, too tired to fight them.

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

enough? Can they really go up against

know. I don’t know anything about

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

Plink.

Plink–plink.

Plink.

irregularity of it. I want

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

342 LISA Chamed

Lucas and the

that. Because the alternative is too terrifying to consider.

eyes and picture Kellan’s face. I imagine his arms around me, his voice in my ear telling me it’s going to be okay.

a moment,

Plink.

face fills my mind and I can’t stop thinking

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 it to