For the first time, Holland realized that their eyes were almost a mirror image. Where his black eye was on the left, Kells was his right and for some reason there was something he liked about that detail.

"Mm, I could. But we both know if I did, it would just make things worse. For all they know I could be trying to kill you," he murmured as his body moved on its own accord to gather the younger man closer against him, nosing into his red hair and breathing in the sweet scent of the Red.

"When the reality is quite the opposite at the moment," he breathed and even more tension bled out of his muscles, "I'll keep them out."