Beyond the Shadows by Deirdre O’Dare, Amber Quill Press www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/bio_ODare.html  (all the stories in the series are shown in my backlist titles)

Blurb:

First year Border Patrol officers Rhys Davis and Liam Malone have been friends since second grade. When their new assignment puts them on the front lines in tracking down a vicious and inhuman killer along the southern border, they must call on every resource at their disposal.

The most potent of these turns out to be memories from a life they shared two thousand years ago in the British Isles, one in which they were partners in every way, forming an eternal bond that allowed them to defeat this same enemy in that life. Will crossing the line from friends to lovers in this life destroy their friendship or build on it?

Excerpt:

Set Up–both men have dreams in which they experience episodes from a previous life they shared. This paves the way for them to admit the attraction they feel and also to drawn on the past for the strength they need to vanquish a scary enemy!

Rhys twisted, fighting to free himself from the tangled, sweat-soaked bedding, caught midway between asleep and awake, still mired in a dream too realistic to ignore.

* * * *

In the dark, he fumbled for his crutch, pushed by the urgent note in the voice of the lad who had awakened him. “They’re coming. We’ve got to get to the woods, away from the village. Hurry, hurry!”

It was the coldest, darkest part of the night, those power-filled moments just before the first hint of dawn. He ducked out of the low doorway of his stone-and-wattle hut, straightened and cast his senses around, seeking how far away the danger was. Has the enemy reached the village? Which way do they come? Do I need to warn anyone else who is maybe still here?

He caught a vague scent of sweat and fear on the thin breeze drifting in from the coast, less than a league away. Perhaps they’d come by water then, this latest group of the invaders that had plagued his clan for two seasons. Leaning on the crutch to take some of the burden off his left hip, wounded in the first invasion six moons ago and slow to heal, he scuttled for the nearest arm of the forest. The shelter of trees seemed like a haven while the soft duff beneath them cushioned even awkward steps and muffled their sounds. If he got that far, he’d be safe. He was not ready to die at the hands of the strangers. His people needed him and his growing Druidic skills… He was their priest and healer, their connection to the gods and the future.

* * * *

By dint of sheer willpower, Rhys jerked himself free of the dream and back into the present. Small wonder he’d dreamed of death and danger after the horrific night they’d spent guarding the mangled corpse and the crime scene until law enforcement personnel arrived about three o’clock. The miasma was enough to mess with anyone’s mind, but why did he dream of a totally different place and time, a dream that seemed too vivid to be less than a memory? He could still feel the coarse fabric of his robe and the smooth wood of his crutch. He smelled the musty smoke of smoldering peat fires and the odors of sweat, fear and blood hanging in damp air, air touched with the perfume of the sea. Nothing was at all like the high desert he’d known his whole life, yet, uncannily, it all seemed familiar.

He heard Liam across the hall, turning and muttering in his sleep. Sounded like he was having nightmares, too, but he never admitted to them the next day, claiming he did not dream or, if he did, forgot them before he awoke. Rhys shook his head. Damn stubborn Irishman. Temper to match his hair, too, but he couldn’t help liking the guy, loving him if he told the truth.

He kept telling himself Liam was just the brother he’d never had. Rhys’ father had disappeared when Rhys was barely out of diapers, and his mother had been hurt too badly to try again. She’d always said her students were her family. Rhys was just one of the bunch, lonely without realizing it until he met Liam that first season at Window Rock, Liam and Billy. He couldn’t imagine life without them. But somewhere deep inside he knew there was more to it, knew Liam was the other half of his very soul. He not only loved Liam, he wanted him with a gut-deep hunger that scared him to death. Especially when he was sure Liam did not feel the same way. So he took the other man’s friendship, which had to be enough.