Rules of Engagement

“Well that was mortifying,” I mumbled as I stepped out of the drizzling autumn rain and into the dorm building.

It was well past midnight and I was utterly exhausted. I had completed my latest mid-term easily enough, and I’d actually been a little ambivalent about this one but I’d pretty much demolished it. I attributed a small part of that to how relaxed I was going in; say what you will, but getting laid on the regular can do wonders for your mood.

That wasn’t the problem, the problem was that, as I had suspected, Roseluck hadn’t been able to keep her mouth shut. One thing that had not changed since high school was that she, Daisy, and Lily were the most incorrigible gossips in forty miles, and from the moment I’d realised who it was that had seen Aria and me in the computer lab, I knew I'd been made.

Fortunately, Rose hadn’t recognised Aria from that distance, and it had then gotten around campus that I had hired a hooker to eat me out in the lab.

Which then led to my having to speak with the Dean about inappropriate conduct.

Which in turn meant I had to spend several hours arguing about how, no, I had not solicited sex on school grounds, and how that had just been my… ugh… I’d needed to tell them something, so I had called Aria my girlfriend.

The school had not been happy about my activities but, given my otherwise stellar record, multitude of scholarships, and excellent grades, they had kindly given me a pass on it this time, although they had stressed the words this time.

No more sexytime shenanigans where people have to do their work. Which I got, really I did, it wasn’t exactly sanitary.

I glanced at my phone as I slumped through the lobby of the building towards the bank of elevators that would take me to my floor; thanks to the hours-long conversation with the Dean I'd had to scramble to do everything I needed to today, and as a result, it was one in the fucking morning. Good thing my midterm tomorrow wasn’t until four in the afternoon, I’d just skip my first two classes and sleep in. I was already way ahead of the material anyway.

“Ahem.”

I froze at the noise, then very, very slowly, turned to see Adagio Dazzle sitting in one of the lumpy lobby chairs, grinning at me.

“Good evening, Sunset,” Adagio said with a beatific smile. “Or, morning, as the case may be.”

“Shit,” I muttered, before raising my voice into false cheer. “H-hey, Adagio, what's up? Got any more blackmail for me?”

Adagio rolled her eyes and laughed, Written’s Quill but that was a lovely sound. “I wasn’t trying to blackmail you, Shimmer, I was trying to get just enough leverage over you to ensure you wouldn’t try and make the lives of I and my sisters difficult.”

“That sounds suspiciously like blackmail,” I replied dryly. “What do you want?”

Rather than answer, Adagio stood up, gestured for me to follow her, and she walked a little way down the hall and into the office that belonged to the floor manager. I raised an eyebrow as she fitted a key to the door, unlocked it and gestured for me to go in.

“How…?” I began, and Adagio smirked.

“Let’s just say your manager has a few bad habits he’d rather not be brought up to the police,” Adagio said with a venomous smile. “I told him I needed the use of his office, and if he did so I’d forget about it all.”

I coughed slightly, staring at Adagio with growing wariness.

“I was lying of course,” Adagio continued as she nudged me into the room, following me in and closing the door with a muted ‘click’ of the lock. “Filming young women without their knowledge is rather illegal and rubs me, specifically, the wrong way.”

“W-what?” I felt a knot of horror snare up in my gut.

“Don’t worry,” Adagio said with a matronly smile. “I’ll ruin his life tomorrow, I’ve got business with you, for now.”

Swallowing back my questions on our skeevy floor manage whom I’d always found kind of creepy anyway, I nodded. Adagio slid behind the desk of El Skeevo and settled into the chair, gesturing for me to take the chair opposite her.

“So… what’s up?” I asked again as I sat down.

“What is ‘up’,” Adagio parroted, “is that I am worried about you, Sunset.”

I blinked. “Uh… beg pardon?”

Adagio rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you and Aria think you’ve been quite subtle, but really… my sister wouldn’t know subtle if it bit her on her bony ass.”

“Her ass isn’t bony!” I said defensively, then clamped my lips shut as I realised what I’d said. I must be more tired than I thought.

Bubbling laughter spilled out of Adagio, and I swear that somehow she managed to make every sound that came out of her sound like music.

“My, my, she really has her hooks in you,” Adagio said with a smile. “And understand that, under normal circumstances, I’d be completely fine with it, but these are not normal circumstances because you,” she pointed at me and her tone suddenly sharpened, “are not normal, Sunset. You’re part of a magical WMD that could make my life and lives of my short-sighted sisters very hard when things go wrong.”

I scowled. “What do you mean ‘when’ things go wrong?”

Adagio leaned back in her chair and stared across at me, and for a moment I could see the weight of the years she’d lived settle behind those brilliant, almost raspberry colored eyes of hers.

“Aria is a romantic plague, my dear,” Adagio began, her voice low. “Trust me when I say that I’ve seen it before.”

“And maybe this time is different,” I shot back, but as I did I could hear how weak that sounded. “I… I mean, you three are different now, right?”

Adagio shook her head. “It’s never been about our Siren nature, Sunset, trust me… if Aria had been born human, Nodens forfend, I suspect she would have been just as toxic.”

“I don’t think she’s that bad,” I said, feeling a small well of anger building in my chest. “I… I like being with her, I enjoy it, I…”

I swallowed the last words I was going to say, burying them back in my heart. I wanted to say them, badly, but I couldn’t. Not just because my whole-ass brain was fighting me on admitting that, but because I didn’t want the first person I said it to, to be Adagio fucking Dazzle.

Aria deserved better than that.

“They all think that, at first,” Adagio said quietly, and I saw a hint of what I thought was actual pity in her eyes. “Aria is a fire, her name isn’t hyperbole you know…”

Her words put a tiny pebble of doubt in my heart; like a stone stuck in the bottom of your shoe that you just can’t ignore.

“Let me guess,” Adagio continued, “she follows you around, she seduces you wherever she pleases, makes you feel better than you’ve ever felt, and when you’re with her you feel like you could fly?” She didn’t let me answer, she just kept talking. “You think about her wherever you go, you let her treat you basically however she likes, oh you’ll argue but it won’t change anything, and slowly but surely she starts to take up more and more of your thoughts.”

“I…” I didn’t like how accurate that sounded, even after only a week and a day that was alarmingly accurate.

I had spent practically the entire day thinking about Aria. I had told her this morning that I wasn’t going to be able to go to her performance, but I hadn’t been out of the house an hour before I’d been seriously considering it. I hadn’t gone, but I knew it was only due to the fact that I’d had to defend my academic standing.

Had it been up to me… I would probably be in Aria’s bed at this very moment.

“Do you feel like you love her?” Adagio asked quietly, and I froze, poleaxed in place by the question. “Is there a part of your mind that fancies a day when you’ll be together forever?”

My breath rattled on the way in and I grit my teeth. “What’s the point of all of this?”

“My point,” Adagio said in a gentle tone that conveyed a century of sadness, “is that this will not be the first time that Aria has burned a lover to the ground in the flames of her passion.”

Obviously, I knew that… she was over a thousand years old and if her skill in bed was any indication she’d clearly had plenty of practice. Intellectually, I knew that but… hearing it out loud still hurt me a lot worse than I’d been expecting. What made it worse was that Adagio wasn’t giving me some enigmatic look of a master manipulator, I wasn’t having any trouble reading her at all.

She just looked sad. She looked sad for me.

“My sister,” Adagio continued, “leaves behind ruin wherever she swims, she was once known as the Ravager for the ruin she would wreak, and for good reason.”

Sighing, Adagio placed her fingers on her temples and massaged them. “I know precisely what will happen if this… relationship, you two have continues. It will be exactly the same thing that happened the last time, and the time before that, and the time before that, ad nauseam. The difference here is that the humans she scorched into metaphorical ash before were not friends with people who had access to powerful magical artifacts.”

“So you’re afraid of reprisal,” I said grimly, feeling that well of anger open up as something dark rose out it. Maybe I didn’t know all of Aria’s past but I didn’t like being judged by her other lovers. “I’ll tell them to lay off if anything happens, okay? No problem.”

Adagio raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think you’re properly appreciating how much damage my little sister can wreak on your heart, my dear,” she shook her head and sighed. “Let me be perfectly and painfully frank with you, Sunset… my sister will never, ever love you the way you think you love her.”

And there goes my heart.

“T-that's… I don’t…” I stammered, working my jaw uselessly. I was a pretty good liar but I don’t think anyone is that good. To my shame and anger, tears started to form in my eyes. “W-why? Why are you saying this to me?”

“To spare you a much greater pain later on,” Adagio said softly. “Believe what you like, Sunset, but the truth is this: I actually like you… I admire your strength and your charisma, your ambition and your fire… I think you would have made a spectacular Siren,” inching forward in the chair, Adagio reached across the desk and put a hand over mine, and I realised I was shaking. “I don’t want to see you burn and self-destruct the way the others did. Aria could give them everything they wanted, but never what they needed, and they were addicted to her like the worst kind of drug.”

“B-But…” I felt the tears fall, and Adagio’s hand gripped mine a little tighter. I must have been really needing it because I squeezed back.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the things Aria had said to me.

‘So if you want something normal? You’re not going to get that from me.’

Aria had warned me of exactly the same thing that Adagio was here to talk to me about herself. She had told me, full stop, exactly what she was and what to expect from her, and I had dismissed it because I… I wanted it to be more.

“She will never be what you need, Sunset,” Adagio said quietly, I let out a tiny sob. “She won’t be able to take care of you,” I blinked at that, suddenly thinking of the night before, and of this morning, “she won’t be there for you,” that… that didn’t sound right. “She won’t even kiss you.”

My tears stopped and I pulled my hand away, and Adagio furrowed her brow as she became aware that something had clearly changed in my demeanor.

I wiped away my tears and looked up at Adagio who had narrowed her eyes like she was re-evaluating me.

“What is it?” Adagio asked quietly. “I said something and you… stopped, what was it?”

“You said she’s had a lot of lovers, right?” I asked, my voice low and a little raw.

Adagio examined me for a moment before nodding. “I’m not sure I’d say ‘a lot’ given our lifespans… Aria is very selective. One or two every half-century or so, I’d say, but they always go the same way, they die in fire, metaphorically speaking… well, usually just metaphorically.”

“What’s she like with them?” I asked, and I could see the wheels turning in Adagio’s mind. She wanted to ask me why I was fielding these questions. “Please, just… I need to know.”

Sighing, Adagio shrugged. “I assume you’ve heard the term: Sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll?”

I nodded.

“They coined that phrase for Aria,” Adagio said dryly. “She is an ungentle creature, and her relationships reflect that in the extreme.” Adagio waved her hand dismissively, “she takes control of them, not with her magic but with good old-fashioned lust, and then takes their soul for a joyride. Narcotics, ever-increasing sexual perversion, self-destruction, they don’t eat, barely sleep, and as a Siren, she can withstand that sort of thing… humans, though? Not so much.”

“She doesn’t make sure they eat and take care of themselves?” I asked, raising an eyebrow, and Adagio let out a bark of laughter.

“What?” Adagio asked with a bubbling chuckle. “Nodens, no… she gives them a brief taste of what it means to be a Siren and then lets them crash and burn. I’m not certain what her criteria for lovers are, but its always creatives… the brilliant or the mad… artists and the like.” Adagio grimaced as she tapped her chin as if coming to a realisation. “I wonder if it's their sensitivity that makes their self-destruction more… volatile… more delicious.”

“Delicious?” I asked, my face screwing up in a scowl.

“Oh, yes,” Adagio said with a nasty grin. “I suppose to put it in context, that sort of relationship is essentially Aria going on a bender… it’s an awfully loud affair, which is why I’m glad I've only had to put up with it twice a century at most til now,” Adagio chuckled again, “I suppose it’s fortunate that she’s something of a fickle bitch and possessed of a terribly short attention span for you humans, otherwise it would probably happen more often.”

“Why doesn’t she kiss them?” I asked finally, I’d wanted to ask Aria that, but I got the feeling she wouldn’t answer. “On the mouth I mean.”

Adagio raised an eyebrow, and I thought it reminded me awfully of Aria. I guess they really were sisters, though.

“Because a kiss, to a Siren, means more than it does to a human,” Adagio answered finally. “We do breath air, I should mention… in our true forms, underwater, I mean. Our magic converts respiratory by-products back to the necessary oxygen so we don’t have to surface, but to kiss is to share that air, the product of our magic so it’s... culturally meaningful, I suppose is the best phrase.”

“I see…” I said quietly, sitting back in my chair. “So what would it mean if I told you that Aria kissed me?”

Adagio stared and the unflappable expression on her face cracked a little as her eyes widened and breathing grew heavier.

“I assume…” Adagio said in a thin voice, “this is hypothetical?”

I shook my head.

“LIAR!”

Adagio slammed her hands onto the desk, rattling it as she spat the word. Her eyes were blazing and her face twisted into an angry rictus as I let out a terrified squeak and staggered back. The rolling chair didn’t like that one bit and rolled over on me, sending me spilling to the ground.

Moving around the desk, Adagio towered over me for a moment before leaning down, grabbing me by the collar and hoisting me into the air with surprising strength.

“You’re lying, Shimmer,” Adagio hissed. “My sister did not share her air with you, you are not that important.”

I stared down into Adagio’s eyes and suddenly I felt similar to how I did when Aria had begun ranting. I felt small and young. I felt like a child faced with a rising tsunami, staring at the impossible glory of something so huge and so powerful, and so utterly destructive. Every inch of softness I’d seen in Adagio’s body seemed to harden as she held me up, I saw her shoulders tense with a surprising amount of muscle, and her arms cord the same way.

Underneath that soft, curvaceous facade, Adagio had forged a body of steel and violence, and I knew without a doubt that it was specifically to protect her sisters.

“I’m not!” I gasped out, scrabbling at her grip. “I s-swear! She kissed me that night in the lounge, and then tracked me down at the lab a week later, she s-said she couldn’t eat anything but me!” I tried to pull at her hands but they were implacable. “A-and then I collapsed, I hadn’t eaten in a while, and she took me back to my dorm a-and fed me, and c-clothed me, and-”

“-bathed you?” Adagio whispered, the violence fading from her eyes. She relaxed slightly, lowering me to the ground. “Did she wash your body?”

I nodded. “This morning, we took a shower together because the hot water doesn’t last, and… yeah, she did, why?”

Adagio chuckled a little wanly and stepped away from me like I was some kind of pariah, holding up her hands almost defensively. “I see… that’s… interesting, I did not expect that… no, I did not expect that at all when I came here.”

There was an odd light to her eyes like she was terrified of something.

“Adagio,” I said, a little worried at the sudden change as I massaged my neck, “talk to me, what's up?”

“Sirens are a species of war and consumption,” Adagio said quietly. “Gluttony and death are our watchwords… so understand that concepts like ‘love’ and ‘friendship’ are… not our way,” she spoke as if she were trying to work around to something, and I nodded for her to continue. “We do not… wed, per se, nor do we fall in love, precisely, but… we do, ahem… court…”

My jaw slid open as I started to follow her, but then she shook her head, waved a hand.

“No, no, that’s not right… that’s…” Adagio grumbled, then swore in a flowing, serpentine language I didn’t understand. “There isn’t a word for it in the human tongue,” Adagio said angrily, “humans are pack creatures, social by nature, you can’t understand the nature of a Siren, but if I were to say that Aria has simultaneously declared her affection for you, sworn a blood oath against you, and declared war on you, that would not be disloyal to the meaning of the Sirenic word for it.”

“Okay,” I said quietly, nodding along, “so what does that mean in the practical?”

Adagio sagged a little and leaned back against the desk, staring over at me with narrow eyes.

“It means, my dear,” Adagio said in a low, threatening voice, “that my sister has found her mate and she will either have her, or she will kill her.”

My eyes flew wide at that. “M-Mate?! Uh… w-we’ve only been, like, doing stuff for a few days tops! How could-”

Adagio jerked her hand in a cutting motion, silencing me. “Length of time is something that concerns you mortals, not us, not Sirens, understand?” she scowled and crossed her arms under her breasts which did interesting things to them. “Even normal Sirens could live a millennium or more, and our minds are made to withstand the passage of ages, we do not become traumatized but nor do we… particularly grow. We simply exist, whether the timespan is vast or minute is irrelevant, we are what we are until violence takes us which holds true even as we are now.” Sighing, she put a hand over her face and groaned. “It takes us all of a second to decide what we want and when we want it, maybe it’s a predator thing… I don’t know, I don’t pretend to understand a mayfly species like yours that can’t manage to keep its mind intact past a single measly century, so I don’t expect you’ll grasp ours.”

“Is this really a bad thing, though?” I asked, reaching a hand out to place it on Adagio’s shoulder. “I mean… what if-”

“What if you’re wrong?” Adagio asked grimly, and I froze. “What if you’re not in love with her? What if you grow tired of her? Because, believe me, Aria can be exhausting… what if you fall in love with someone else? Someone human, someone like you?”

I swallowed hard. I hadn’t really considered that, which seems awfully short-sighted of me now, but Adagio had a fair point. Hadn’t I just said it? We’d only been doing our thing for a few days. It was intense and passionate but… what happened if it faded?

“Siren’s are creatures of hunger, passion, and, yes, to a certain extent madness,” Adagio said quietly. “I suggest you think long and hard on what you want, Sunset Shimmer, because if that’s not Aria and you string her along then there is nowhere you’ll be able to flee to escape her.”

“I… I don’t think she would ever hurt me,” I said honestly.

Adagio sighed, and this time I heard genuine remorse in it.

“Of course you don’t,” Adagio said after a moment. “After all, you’re only human.”

Standing up, Adagio rolled her neck and took a deep breath, then stepped out of the office and began walking towards the exit. As she did she glanced over her shoulder at me, shooting me something like a pitying glare.

“I followed Aria here, by the way,” Adagio called out as she reached the door and opened it, letting in a breeze of night air, “I imagine she’s up in your room waiting for you.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised,” I replied, and Adagio let out a huffing laugh.

She stood, silhouetted in the doorway for a short time before turning back to me with a strange expression on her face.

“Answer me in honest, Sunset,” Adagio said, her expression unreadable. “Do you love my sister?”

I swallowed hard, seriously considering whether or not I wanted to answer Adagio’s question at all. I wanted to say it to Aria, I wanted to say a lot of things to her actually, but… I could hear the note of pleading in Adagio’s voice. She needed an answer.

“I… I think so,” I said sincerely, “It's early... so maybe I'm just riding the high, and I know it hasn’t been long," then I sighed and admitted, "also I might be one of those people who fall in love a little too easy… but… yeah.”

“I see,” Adagio said softly. “Then I will pray for you.”

With that, she vanished into the night and, I’ll be honest, that offer to pray for me probably unsettled me more than anything else. She wasn’t wrong in that I had no idea what I was getting into with Aria, and maybe this was the same insanely reckless side of me that thought jamming a magical crown on my head and making an army of zombie teenagers was a good plan, but that kind of made me want to try this crazy thing more.

I turned on my heel and went back to the elevators, riding it up in silence as I considered Adagio’s words. She was worried about her sister, obviously, and I understood that much at least. She wanted Aria to be happy, and I think that’s why she decided not to interfere with whatever was going on here, but she also didn’t want me to die, which I appreciated.

I'm also a fan of not dying, that’s pretty much been a thing for me for a while now, though. Real passionate about that pursuit, actually.

So why was I walking into my apartment that I knew contained a Siren whose sister had literally just warned me was entirely capable of and willing to kill me if she couldn’t have me.

My useless-ass brain was just giving me an emphatic ‘shrug-emoji’ to be perfectly honest. I recalled reading somewhere that humans are pretty bad at long-term thinking, and I was apparently the poster girl for it tonight.

I’m not entirely sure how Aria got into my dorm room because I’m certain I locked it and I know she doesn’t have a key, but the door was unlocked when I got there. I glanced over at the coat rack and, sure enough, there was a black denim jacket and a lime green ballcap hanging from it. I put my own black leather jacket next to her denim one, kicked my shoes off, dropped my keys in the bowl on the counter, and went into the kitchen.

I don’t drink crazy-often but, on occasion, I’ll crack open a cold one, specifically ale, I like ale… and mead. It reminds me a little of home, I think. Earth pony mead is something special and I miss the hell out of it.

Opening the cupboard above the fridge, I pulled out one of the bottles of sweet mead I kept on hand, pulled out the bottle opener, and cracked it open. Aria was nowhere in sight which meant I knew precisely where she was and that she would wait the few minutes this took me. I stared at the mead bottle for a moment, really thinking hard about what I was about to do.

Then I shrugged again, stopped thinking, and lifted the bottle to my lips, taking a long pull.

Out of another cupboard came a pair of wine glasses, and I filled them both with the golden, sweet-smelling alcohol, before popping a cap on the rest of the bottle and putting it back.

A moment later I thought better of it and pulled it back out, tucking the bottle under my arm before picking up the glasses and moving to my room.

It was dark but I could see the shape underneath the covers and hear the soft breathing that I’d come to recognise.

For a moment I just stood there, leaning in the doorway and staring at the slender figure that was taking up my bed, and I took a sip of my mead.

“Well, Sunset, let’s do this,” I muttered to myself, then nudged the door shut, walked in, and set both glasses and bottle on the stand beside the bed.

Aria stirred as I pulled my clothes off and tossed them in an unruly pile on the floor next to the bed with hers. She rolled over slightly, her sleepy eyes fluttering open as I pulled the covers back and slipped into bed, slinging a leg over her until I was straddling her. I didn’t speak, I didn’t say a word, I just pulled the covers a little closer over us and leaned down to press my lips against that delicious cupid’s bow.

Neither of us said a word, we just kissed, and I felt Aria’s hands trail up to caress my thighs and up to my sides, then to my breasts. Quill, she was so warm… so perfectly soft… I could see how someone could get addicted to her.

Was I addicted to her?

Probably.

As we pulled apart, Aria glanced to the side and spotted the mead. Her face split into a grin and she reached out, but I pinned her arm to the bed prompting her to glared up at me. I just shook my head silently, then sat up, reached out, and picked up one of the wine glasses, then stared down at her as I swirled the bright golden wine in my grip.

Aria met my stare for a moment, her amethyst eyes burning with desire as she began to straightened slowly with her face angled up at me expectantly, a small smile growing over her face.

Aria knew what I was doing, she knew what I expected, and I knew that she wanted it, so I obliged her by pressing the rim of the glass to Aria's gorgeous lips and tipping it gently forward. She sipped slowly, never taking her eyes off of mine, and I watched in mute fascination as her lovely throat moved, swallowing each gulp of the honey wine down until the glass was empty.

Then it was Aria’s turn to sit up, and she pulled herself partially out from under me as I shrank down a little, still meeting her gaze with half-lidded eyes, licking my lips, and Aria smirked as she picked up the second glass. She took a sip of the wine, then leaned in and pressed her lips to mine, and I taste the mead flow from her mouth, past my lips, and across my tongue as we kissed.

It felt like there was something unspeakable in the air, something primal and perfect… I don’t know what it as about Aria that always drew my mind to the divine, but it was there nonetheless. Maybe it was her immortality, maybe it was her timelessness and her wild abandon that made me imagine old pagan gods cavorting around incensed bonfires on the tops of mountains, but I couldn’t feel normal around her.

Aria pulled slowly back, and a moment later her lips were replaced by a cool, smooth chill as she pressed the rim of her glass to my lips. Aria tipped it back and I drank slowly and with care, and I swallowed every drop until the glass was empty, and I was full of a deep, buzzing warmth that emanated up from my belly. The second empty glass joined the first as she reached up to caress my cheek which was getting more than a little feverish.

I leaned into her touch, letting my senses drown in everything that was Aria Blaze; the feeling of her long, slender fingers, her soft skin, the scent of lavender and mint, the sound of her breath, and the taste of her lips.

Aria slipped her hand around the back of my head and pulled me down, not to kiss her but down and down until we were tangled together in the bed, and only then did she start kissing me. Our hands wandered wildly over each other's bodies, exploring and touching as she ground herself against my leg, leaving trails of wetness on me, and I did the same to her.

Eventually, our hands found one another’s cores and, with almost perfect synchronicity, we slipped fingers inside one another. I felt her tightness, and how her hot, wet walls clenched around my fingers, and I wanted more. I pumped my fingers slowly at first, letting her moan into my mouth as we kissed; I wanted to know where and what Aria wanted, how she wanted it… I wanted to feel every inch of her, know each of her sensitive places, so I went slowly.

She already knew all of mine, and I shuddered to orgasm over and over as she plied her expertly skilled fingers inside me. I was no slouch though, and I felt her hit her peak moments later, and then a moment after that my hand was drenched with her pleasure.

Without pausing, I pulled my hand up and ran my tongue over my fingers, and I saw her eyes widen at the sight, and her breath came out in a shuddering wave. Abruptly, Aria pulled my hand away from my face and kissed me, hard and fast, her tongue sliding in to tangle with mine, and let out another soft moan as I pushed harder against her.

I felt something shift inside me, like a switch almost, clicking into place, and a growl slipped past my lips as I tightened my grip around Aria.

This was why Aria had reduced so many of the others she'd been with to so many emotional cinders.

It was because they were always chasing her, chasing the ever-burning dragon that was Aria Blaze. Pursuing the uncatchable thinking that if they could just catch her then they could have her.

But that’s not what Aria wanted. After all, no prey in their right mind chases a predator, the rabbit doesn't pursue the wolf. If Aria was a predator then she needed prey who could make it worth her time to catch them.

And, oh yes... I wanted to be chased.

Snarling, I gripped Aria’s wrists and pushed her down to the bed, pinning her underneath me, and I saw the belligerent anger erupt into life behind her eyes. The burning fury of a Siren, an immortal, staring down a mortal who had the sheer gall, the unbridled hubris, to touch her in such a manner.

“You’re never leaving me,” I hissed, staring into her eyes, and Aria froze. “Never… I won’t let you, not now, not ever.”

Amethyst stars burned into my eyes, and for a moment I saw myself reflected in those perfect gem-toned orbs. I saw something I barely recognised as me. Eyes that reminded me of nothing so much as the clear blue sky on the hottest imaginable summer day. The sort of day where the air is choking and dry, and the light burns at the back of your neck, and the sky is so, so, agonizingly blue, without a hint of a cloud in sight to offer the most meager promise of shade.

Chase me, Aria, and let’s see if you can keep up with Sunset goddamn Shimmer.

“You think you can you keep me?” Aria snarled back, her mouth split wide in a teeth-baring shark’s grin.

I towered over her, staring down with abandon as sweat trickled between my shoulder blades and between my breasts, and I ground my hips against her, pressing my dripping cunt against her and riding her for several moments, dragging out gasp after gasp of tortured pleasure from the both of us.

“You’re mine, now,” I growled, “all mine, so chase me, or I’ll burn you like the fucking sun if you look anywhere else.”

Aria’s eyes clouded with lust and let out a musical cry, I felt her fluid splash against my thighs, and I shuddered in pleasure at the sensation. I loved feeling her cum, it was intoxicating.

Speaking of which.

I reached out and grabbed the bottle, which was still mostly full, then ripped the cap off, lifted it to my lips, and took another long pull.

Swallowing, I took another smaller mouthful, and then set the bottle back down and leaned down to press my lips to Aria’s. We shared the honied wine, and I felt her moan softly against me.

If she was going to try and burn me alive with her passion then I’d just have to burn hotter than that first. We’d share a sky and I would fill that endless searing blue with auburn fire and who knows? Maybe we’d walk out of it together.

Or maybe I’d burn the both of us alive.

So long as it was with Aria though… I don’t think it really mattered.