I laid on the gravel in my robe, my hands and knees scraped and bloodied, and my heart beating out of my chest. I was still reeling from the fact that I'd nearly been kidnapped, and it did not escape me that Holden was standing in the sun perfectly fine, but what flooded my mind at that moment was the scene of brutality I'd just witnessed my lover was capable of. He walked over to me and grabbed me off the ground.
"Here, let me help you," he said. As I held my footing, he bit into the palm of his hand in an attempt to rub his blood on my wounds and heal me.
"No," I said.
"Charlotte, you're bleeding."
"Plenty of people have healed just fine with antiseptic and bandages." Holden let out a smug chuckle.
"A bit stubborn, aren't we?"
"No, but considering I just watched you murder a man, I
