“Christ, woman, watch it with those branches. You damn near took my eye out!”

      “Sorry!”

      Eileen was glad Casey was behind her and couldn’t see the little smile upon her face. She always did enjoy a bit of payback and this was just a way to give him the back of her hand without raising a finger.

      He hadn’t stopped flirting with her the entire trip. Not that she minded flirting; it was the begrudging manner of the man. Like he couldn’t help it. Like he’d flirt with anything with breasts. Like he knew he had her hot and wet with just the sound of his voice.

      Was he also a Terran Singer? She’d learned more about their power since her experience when Ethan Clark had enlisted her help. She grimaced. No, Casey wasn’t a Singer. He was just a smooth-talking, good-looking Irishman.

      Just like her ex-boyfriend. 

      Maybe that was the reason she was so irked with Casey. He reminded her of Timothy.

      Damn him.

      The fellow was just being friendly. She braked to a stop.

      And Casey ran directly into her.

      “Lord, are you trying to do me injury?”

      He’d grabbed her instinctively and she twisted now in his arms.

      “Leave off! I’m not one of those women who fall into your arms.”

      Casey released his grip, staring at her glowering face. “Where the bloody hell did you come off with that line?”

      Eileen rubbed her arms and Casey cursed aloud.

      “Christ! I’ve hurt you!”

      He ran his fingers through his hair, then slammed his fist against a slim birch, shattering the bark from its trunk. He gaped at his clenched fingers as though they belonged to another man.

      With a stifled groan, he sank to the ground, resting his head in his hands.

      Eileen knelt next to him and placed her hand on his shoulder.

      “Casey, I’m sorry I reacted so crazy to…well, to everything. You didn’t hurt me just now and you didn’t insult me in the car.”        

      She leaned her head against him and she felt his warmth against her hands.

      “Please, Casey. Get up and come with me. We’re almost at the cave.” She rose, waiting for his response.

      Casey looked up at her. “I can’t control it. I killed half a dozen men without blinking an eye. I burned them to ashes.” He gazed at his hands. “I didn’t even have to touch them. I just pointed my hand…” He ran his left hand over his right, then turned his hands palms up. He fisted them, his nails biting into his skin, his knuckles white.

      Eileen crashed back down and grabbed him.

      “Stop it! Stop it, right now! Unclench your hands, you stubborn Kerryman! It’s not your fault! Get up off your ass and follow me! You bloody fool, if you’re so worried about what you are and what you can do, you’d be better off coming with me, then lamenting like a baby unable to tie his shoes!” She bent and kissed the deep crescent nail marks on his unfurled palms. “You fool, you’ll learn. That’s why you’re here.”

      Casey glanced down at Eileen’s bent head. Tears glimmered in his eyes and he took a deep breath.

      “His name was Lark.”

      She raised her head, dropped his hands and lowered herself down to the ground. “What?”

      He sighed. “No. Who. The reason why I lost it. Why I torched those men.” He waited a beat. “They killed the man I loved.”

      Eileen remained silent.

      Casey shifted, moving back against the birch tree he’d damaged. He took a deep breath and let it out before he spoke again.

      “I don’t fecking understand it. For most of my life, I was after the girls like a fox after a hen. Then I met Paddy Larkin last year and…and.” He paused and looked at Eileen’s quiet face. There were no signs of disgust or disdain, just a calm sense of acceptance. Encouraged, he pushed his sweat-dampened hair off his forehead and continued.

      “He had the ugliest mug you could curse on a guy. He looked like he could slice your ear off and never blink an eye. He’d scared half the men in my unit at the end of his first day after they’d transferred him to us. By the end of the first week, he’d gotten into so many fights, I hauled him into my office to ask why the hell they’d made him my second-in-command when the men were either afraid of him or wanted to prove they weren’t.

      “He didn’t say a damn thing at first, then he looked at me and smiled. The first time I’d seen him smile the entire week he’d been with us.”

      Casey’s voice broke. Eileen longed to reach out and comfort him, but kept her hands still in her lap, fearing that he’d stop before he’d had his say.

      Casey closed his eyes his arms limp at his side as he continued.

      “His smile transformed him. I never knew that something like that could happen. His smile…his smile was gentle, self-deprecating and cocky all at the same time. He laughed, then grinned full out.

      “He said, ‘I figured to let them get it out of their system. I’m thinking I’ve one or two with some fight left in them, then we can go on once they realize I won’t kill them, only beat them to a pulp.’ He looked me in the eye. ‘You can’t respect a man or follow his orders if you don’t know that he’s stronger than you, but knows his limits. The men don’t know me from a rat’s arse. They need to be sure I deserve to be the one to turn to if anything happens to you. You need to know that you can depend on me to cover your back.’”

      Casey opened his eyes and stared, unseeing, into the forest.

      “I fell in love with him that day. I’d never known a man like him before. I couldn’t handle what I felt for him. Christ, he’d make me tremble when he’d slap me on the back when we’d come back from a successful mission. I tried not to be alone with him, and it was driving me crazy because that was all I wanted to do.” He swore under his breath. “He made me hard. I couldn’t figure it out. I called up every female I knew when I was off-duty. I’d take them back to their flats and fuck their eyes out.” His mouth slashed to a razor sharp line. “What the hell was going on with me? How could I swive these women and yet, want to do the same thing with Paddy? Then, one day, it didn’t matter why I felt this way, because I found out that Lark felt the same.”

      He smiled, a weak, feeble thing. “It was like something out of a bad porno flick. After a long, hot day training with new equipment, I was in the officers’ shower. Water pounded in my ears and I didn’t realize I wasn’t alone until I felt a calloused hand on my hip and felt a lathered bar of soap running down my backside. I started and whirled around to see Lark standing naked in the stall with me. His short hair was plastered to his skull and water dripped off his broken nose. Drops of water beaded his eyelashes.

      “I couldn’t bring myself to look any further down until he told me to.

      “‘Look down. Look at what the hell you do to me, Casey. Look at what the fuck we do to each other.’”

      “I forced myself to look and I found my gaze riveted. He did feel exactly like I did.”

      Eileen couldn’t tear her eyes away as Casey visibly shuddered.

      “‘Now what?’ I said.

      “Lark smiled. ‘Now, you let me fuck you; let me make love to you, and then…you do the same to me.’”

      “It was that easy. Lark was the most bloody…he was the most generous…” Casey’s eyes begged for her understanding. “I loved him, damn it! Then he got his bloody self killed! How can…how can I want you now? Why do I find you desirable?” He laughed. “Why did I tell you what happened?” He shut his eyes and scowled.

      Eileen moved next to him and squeezed his shoulder.    

      “I can tell it’s been eating you up inside. I won’t say a thing to anyone if you don’t want me to, but listen to me, Casey. The best thing you can do is focus on something outside your realm of experience. Meet with Dagda. Learn about your heritage.”

      Casey nodded. “It’s what I promised Lark I would do. It’s the only way I can show what he meant to me.” He rose to his feet reeling like a drunk after a weeklong binge and leaned against the tree. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”