He felt a gentle pressure on his face; warmth from an exhaled breath. The cool, silken kiss of her hair caressed his cheek. Her scent enveloped him as she gently brushed her face against his, first one side then the other. The tip of her tongue probed the corner of his mouth and he couldn't help smiling. She kissed him, then sucked his bottom lip into her mouth and carefully held it between her teeth. He stretched and turned over onto his back. She moved with him, tucking his arm under hers and straddled him with one leg between his. He put his arms around her and pulled her closer.

"Tell me, show me what you like," she said, her voice a soft, throaty purr in his ear. "I will do my best to please you."

The ferocious desire that coursed through his body had him gasping for breath. Ashamed and embarrassed at the force of his sudden arousal, his face burned with a blush that went to the tips of his ears. She jerked to one side and drove a knee into his groin. He swung at her – andmissedDAMMIT – then rolled to one side and curled in on himself around his outraged bladder.

"The gods damn you, woman," he bellowed. "Play fair!"

Her deep rolling chuckle rang out from the darkness. "Never."

He concentrated on the pain of his wounded body and ego so he could drive out the seductive memory of her voice and touch. As he folded his hand into fist he focused on the movement of each finger, then struck the floor as hard as he could. Nausea swept over him and he rested his forehead against the cold stone until it passed. She had paid him back for every pain he had visited on her twice over, even the least of them.

Finally he was able to stand and limp to the makeshift toilet. Once he was done, he walked over to one of the horses and leaned against it to catch his breath. Gone was the frightened girl who had clung to him in the night against the cold and the dark. He had made the mistake of forgetting she was a rogue foremost was what it boiled down to and he had no one to blame but himself.

The horse shifted to one side, interrupting his wool gathering. They needed to be on the move again. He went back to the bed and found his coat neatly folded on the floor. Shrugging into it, he realized that all this time he hadn't heard anything from her nor had seen her moving about in the small room. He frowned at the thought of packing up by himself then set to work.

He pulled his horse out of the straw and began to put its tack back on. There was a rustling on the other side of him and May brought her horse closer to the fire. When he had his horse ready, he started cleaning up their dishes without a word to her. She went about doing her share with an easy grace but every time he got near her, suddenly she was out of reach.

He took one last look about the room and turned to motion to her to move out but she was already on her way. He stomped out the last of the fire and followed her up the slope to the outside. She was kind enough to hold the flap open for him and helped replace the rocks that held it down.

"We have a visitor," she said softly as he positioned the last rock. He glanced up at her and she pointed with her chin at something behind him.

He carefully turned around, thinking she meant a small animal he wasn't to frighten, and instead saw the white horse watching them. Fear tore through him, rendering him as still and as mute as a block of stone. He had touched the dying charger, giving it his scent but nothing could have followed them through the blizzard with so little. Did the Alliance paladins call forth demons to serve them as he had? It had to be an unnatural creature! It had somehow not only lived through the storm but had also been able to find them. A wild, hysterical thought had him wondering if the damned thing was part hell hound.

It stood regarding them for a bit, then growing more agitated, trotted towards them only to bolt, turn and repeat its strange display. Their horses nervously danced and tossed their heads. He didn't know whether to try to out run it or not. On the battlefield the chargers had been their masters' right hands and he knew this one would kill his horse to get to him. It might even kill May. Finally the charger reared, screaming, then turned and ran out of sight.

He wasted no time in mounting his horse and kicked it into a fast trot in the opposite direction. Finally he could stand the jolting gait no longer and pulling his horse to a halt, half fell out of the stirrups to the ground. Face down in the snow, he fought waves of nausea but quickly lost that battle and got up on all fours to vomit. He heard footsteps crunching towards him and then May was pulling his hair back from his face.

"Come now," she said her voice lilting with suppressed laughter. "I didn't hit you that hard."

He got to his feet and spat a few times, then wiped his face with the back of his glove. "Yes, you did, you idiot."

"Well, I didn't mean to," she said, frowning, and he realized that was all the apology he was going to get from her. "Why did you take off so fast?"

"Alliance charger, horde paladin," he said, pointing at his chest. "They aren't just mounts. I don't know how they're trained to kill; maybe by sight, maybe smell. I do know it will try its damnedest to kill me and maybe you too since you've been around me for so long."

Her eyes widened at that, then that sharp assessing gaze focused on him. "Talk about best intentions going bad," she said, her mouth twisting in anger. She looked back down the way they had come. "I have something for nausea but it would put you to sleep. Anyway, I don't see it anymore so best we get moving."

He nodded at the unspoken question and pushed past her to his horse to gingerly climb back in the saddle. "We should be in Unu'pe before noon," he said and kneed his horse into an easier ground covering gait.