Sacrifice by Mayandree Michel Page A

power of a Chameleon weredragon will provide our empire with the strengths needed to battle any entity in the Underworld. Why would you gamble with our future?”
    There was a long pause before he finally answered.
    “I felt like a prisoner, Delia. Like a child being babysat. I don’t feel like an Ischero or a ma, for that matter. I want to be an equal,” he said somberly.
    Victor was cocky, therefore, I appreciated his honesty. I felt his heart racing and his emotions were at their peak. I felt his fear of losing Evangelia. His thoughts were of his sister’s safety and shame. Victor wanted to be my equal almost as badly as he wanted to be my lover.
    “Victor, you have to control your desires. You can’t run off into the night and leave yourself vulnerable to whatever entity might just be sitting around waiting. We don’t know what’s out there anymore. We haven’t come face-to-face with all the demons Hades has fortified. How do you know that you can defeat them all?” I asked as Victor pondered my question for a brief moment.
    “You talk as if I have powers. I’m still vulnerable to a housedog. My powers were unparalleled to whatever’s out there, Delia.”
    “Look, I want to make sure that you and Evangelia are safe and prepared for what may be coming our way, but there is only one way I can do that,” I said. “And that’s by both of you lowering the burning flame within you.”
    “I get it,” Victor said, reaching for my hand. I had to pull away. I couldn’t touch him, not now, not ever or I may never let go.
    “Evangelia needs you and regardless of what you’ve engrained in her naïve head, she needs the empire – us. Are you ready?”
    “Of course I am. I was about to leave a minute ago when the giant–”
    I put a finger to Victor’s lips and felt the pull toward him immediately. Oh gods, he was irresistible. I looked deeply into his steel gray eyes as the heat intensified within me. My bolt shot out of my eyes, penetrating his. His body reacted by trembling uncontrollably. Victor’s temperature rose and a glow took over his entire body. The glow was a bright shade of crimson at first,  then it shifted to a rich, deep shade of violet, and finally reverted back to crimson. I’d never seen anything like it. We all had an inner glow, but it was usually white or red. I’ve never known any Ischero’s glow to be violet.
    He opened his mouth and flames reached out and grazed my cheek. The weredragon was awake. I wasn’t burned; instead, I felt the power of his heat. After a few seconds, he finally allowed the heat to subside and he began to control it. I extinguished my bolt about the same time he extinguished his flame. We stood face-to-face for a moment, just a few inches apart, and  knew all too well that our souls were forever entangled in Zeus’ well-woven web.
    “This is incredible. Do you realize that this is the first time that we are both with power at the same time?” Victor asked. He was right. I had taken away his power when I regained mine.
    He took another step closer to me, erasing inches. I could tell by the playful and dreadfully sexy smile that spread across his face that he could feel my emotions. He knew the truth about how I felt for him.
    “We both had power right before I took yours away,” I said, and took a couple steps backward.
    “You did what you had to do. Now things will be different between us. They’ll be right between us,” He said, taking my hand in his.
    Warmth coursed through my entire body, starting at the hand he held. I closed my eyes for a second, maybe two. It was as if I had never really breathed before – as if the air had never flowed through my lungs. The scent from the numerous bouquets of flowers, arranged around the room, intensified as if my nose was pressed up against them. Every sound in and around the house – the ticking on the grandfather clock, the blustery wind that whipped through the trees right outside the closed windows,