Page 22 of Oh No! There’s an Incubus in my Hot Spring (Getting Cozy with Demons #1)

twenty-two

Ghost Hunter Help

I comb through my unruly hair and apply the heat of the straightener again. My hair uncurls for a moment, and as soon as it cools, it bunches back up again. I growl at my reflection and pass the heat over another section of hair.

“What’s wrong?” Apollo asks from the doorway.

“My hair,” I snap. “It refuses to obey.”

His chuckle irks me. “You look beautiful.”

“But not professional,” I retort.

“Why not?” he asks, stepping closer.

I put another clump of hair through the heat. “When my hair is straight, I’m a businesswoman. When it’s not, I’m not.”

“Why?”

“Because,” I hiss. “It’s just the way it is.”

“Sylvia,” he says in a calm, knowing voice that puts me even more on edge.

I take a deep breath and set the hair torture instruments down. He turns me around and lifts my chin to stare into my eyes.

“Your preconceived notions of what makes a ‘businesswoman’ are holding you back from happiness. This is a happy day. Your business is being reviewed by several important outlets.”

I take another deep inhale and nod my head.

“You are a businesswoman no matter how straight or curly your hair is,” he says, pushing a lock behind my ear.

“You are a businesswoman no matter how tall or short you are.” He taps my three-inch heels with his bare foot, drawing my eyes down.

He lifts my chin again, leaning closer. “And you are a businesswoman no matter what these newspapers and ViewTube personalities say about you.”

“But am I a good businesswoman?” I ask with a pout.

His arm slides around my back and he pulls me flush against his chest. “You’re good. Their words can’t change that.”

I drop my forehead to his shoulder and take one more deep breath. “Okay. So my hair is being stubborn and wild. Fine. I’ll be stubborn and wild too.”

I run back to my closet and kick off the heels in favor of my black, skull-patterned Doc Martens. I pull off my knee-length skirt and just rock my black leggings with an oversized orange sweater. It is spooky season, after all.

I turn to him with a huff. “There.”

He smiles. “Perfect.”

My phone rings and I send a quick prayer that it’s not my mother.

I let out a breath when I see it’s Irene.

I answer with a chipper voice. “Hey-hey.”

“Hey, hon, I’m on my way right now. I’m so, so sorry I’m not there already! Oh my gosh, my dad this morning, and then the diner called me again , and I just couldn’t get out the door.”

“Slow down, girl. It’s fine. This is a happy day. We’re all calm and happy here,” I say, smiling up at Apollo.

I hear Irene take a deep, cleansing breath. “Okay. Cool. Yeah, happy day. I’ll be there in thirty.”

“See you then. Drive safe.”

“Will do.”

She hangs up and I walk to Apollo, putting my arms around his shoulders. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” he says, stroking my long, unruly black hair.

My phone rings again and I close my eyes. I can feel it this time.

Yep. It’s my mom.

I answer. “Hey, Mom.”

“ Linda , how are you!” My mom starts off with a sweet endearment that makes me wonder just what bomb she’s going to drop on me.

“I’m good. Just getting ready for the press to start showing up,” I say, laying my head against Apollo’s chest as I fiddle with the hair at the nape of his neck.

“That’s great. I’m so excited for you. I know you wanted me to be there, and I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it out.”

“It’s okay, don’t even worry about it. You had to get your gallbladder removed and recover,” I say for the millionth time. She did desperately need it removed.

“I don’t want you to be all alone on this big day!” she wails dramatically.

“I’m not all alone. I have Apollo, Irene, and Charlie. Even Leonard might show,” I say.

“But those are new friends. They don’t know you,” she counters.

I beg to differ about Charlie, but okay.

“It doesn’t matter how new they are. They’re here for me. They care about me.”

“But don’t you want someone there who knows you?” she asks, and I feel her edging the point of the call.

Jason is still in town, the fucker. I’m not sure how he’s affording it.

I pull back from Apollo and stalk to the other end of the closet. “No, Mama, I don’t need him here. I don’t want him here, or to be part of my life, at all .”

“But, mija , he loves you.”

I grit my teeth. “I have to finish my makeup before the cameras arrive. Will you be watching the news?”

“Yes, yes, of course. I want you to look beautiful! I can’t wait to see you.” She makes many kissy noises and I make them back and say goodbye.

I whirl back to Apollo, who’s crossed his arms and legs, leaning against the doorjamb.

“What?” I declare.

He shakes his head innocently. “Nothing.”

I stalk toward him and point at his chest. “You’re thinking something. I can see it.”

He chuckles. “I’m thinking your mother loves you very much.”

“And?” I poke him.

“And…” He wraps his arms around me and presses his face into my hair. “If he comes here, I might disembowel him.”

I laugh but know that somewhere in him is a monster who would go that far to protect me. It’s a little scary, but also kind of exhilarating.

“You don’t need to murder him,” I say, looking up at my sexy demon.

He grumbles. “But I want to. No one hurts my witch.”

“He hurt me before I was your witch,” I say, tapping his nose.

His eyes glow like ice lit by the northern lights. “You’ve always been my witch; we just didn’t know it.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask what he means when there’s a heavy knock at the front door.

I jump, yelping as I extricate myself from his hold. “They’re here! My makeup,” I whine, clapping my hands to my mostly bare face. I’d only managed some eyeliner and mascara before throwing a tantrum about my hair.

“You’re a businesswoman,” Apollo says as he grabs my hands and pulls them away from my face. “And you’re perfect.”

I bob my head several times, making myself hear him.

I’ve got this.

I’ve got this.

I march toward the stairs and call out, “One moment!”

I cross the living room and pull open the door to see a kid in his early twenties wearing more crystals than even my mother. His brown hair is a little greasy, and he’s wearing a baggy band T-shirt with ripped jeans. There’s a boy behind him chewing gum with his mouth open.

The lead boy nods his head at me. “Hey, I’m Ghost Hunter Gabe.”

I reach out for a shake. “Sylvia.”

He takes my hand like it’s a foreign object and I shake twice before releasing him.

“So, this place is haunted, right?” he asks.

I glance at Apollo and nod for him to disappear back into the bedroom. He knows his role in this. “Yep, it sure is. We call it enchanted, but there’s definitely some kind of presence here.”

The Gum Boy pulls up a camera and hits a button to start recording.

“Uh-huh. We’ve heard that. We came all the way from Denver for this, so it better be good,” Ghost Hunter Gabe says.

“Well, the presence appears most in the morning and at night, so we better be off,” I say, gesturing toward the main building.

They walk through my home instead of going back out to the front entrance. Gum Boy whirls around, pointing the camera in all directions.

“This is your digs?” Gabe asks.

“Sure is,” I say, praying there are no random panties lying around from Apollo’s ruthless orgasm giving.

Gabe gestures toward the door and I move in front of him to open it. The camera falls on me and I feel compelled to say something.

“This is the main building of the Enchanted Sylvan Springs,” I say, opening the door.

Gum Boy goes first, holding a blacklight in front of him.

“Ghosts will sometimes leave plasma behind on the walls that only ultraviolet can pick up,” Gabe says when he sees me looking at the light.

“Oh, interesting,” I say, watching the light swing from side to side, making flecks of minerals in the wall change colors and glisten.

Gabe grabs something that looks like a walkie-talkie off his backpack before he steps in. “EMF meter,” Gabe says off-hand. “It’ll let us know when we’re close to something.”

He flicks it on, and the light on the top instantly goes red, giving off a high-pitched tone.

Gum Boy whirls around and they exchange an excited look. “Oh, yeah, baby. Motherload.”

Gabe clicks off the machine and stuffs it in the backpack, then retrieves another very similar-looking device. “This one’s an EVP recorder. If there’s chatter, we’ll get it.”

We reach the lobby and Gum Boy stops his smacking for a second as he takes in the crystal wall behind the reception stand. He drops the light and just pans over the area in a slow sweep. I might not even need the other news outlets.

Gabe steps in behind him and says something quietly. Gum Boy swings the camera down the long, dim hallway toward the locker rooms. “Hello?” he says, his voice cracking. He raises his blacklight and starts walking that way.

I smirk to myself. This is going to be too easy.

Gabe hangs back with me. “I usually like to send just the cameraman up first. If there’s anything good to see, he’ll get it before anything is scared off.”

“Smart,” I say with forced awe.

“We’re the best in Denver for a reason,” he says with a sniff.

“And I wanted the best,” I say, giving him a smile.

Gabe blushes. “You called the right guy.”

“Tell me more about how this works,” I say, following him down the hall when he moves. I know he has a body cam on somewhere. Irene and I researched this guy before calling him. He has millions of monthly subscribers and just so happened to be close enough that it wasn’t a hassle to put him up in the local hotel.

“We’ll find the area where your presence has taken root and set up to capture some sound. If we can get a clear message out of them, it might be as simple as doing what they want to send them on their way. Sometimes it’s more complicated than that. Sometimes, all they want is…” He trails off, turning to me dramatically.

I let my mouth fall open, rounding my eyes. “What?”

“A host.”

I gasp and let my lower lip tremble. Maybe that was over the top.

He puffs himself up. “Don’t worry, there’s things we can do if they’re a malicious force.”

I nod and we continue on. Gum Boy starts heading into the locker rooms and Gabe stops him.

“That’s the ladies’ room, dude,” he says.

I’m just about to tell him that no one’s here and it’s fine, but then I remember Apollo is lying in wait up on the second-level patio. Anything I can do to hasten them up there, I suppose.

They poke around in the private baths, getting great footage of the place on several different spectrums of light. It highlights just how gorgeous the spaces are, and it makes me smile.

We spent hours infusing the walls with different-colored crystals and lining them with LEDs to make them glow. The second bath has a wall of succulents that I painstakingly installed, and treated wood canopies over the reclining benches wound with fairy lights and snake plants.

They take a few minutes to listen for sounds on the EVP machine, and when they’re satisfied the rooms are clear, we head up the stairs. The second-floor sitting room is bright with colored light. Crystals hang on thick wires in front of the windows and shine brilliantly across the space. It’s considerably warmer with the sun’s heat being captured up here too.

“Do you feel that?” Gabe asks Gum Boy as he puts his arm through a pillar of light.

Gum Boy does the same. “Yeah, what do you think? Orb?” he asks.

Gabe nods. “Maybe an IP.”

Perfect, let’s get this over with.

I tug on my earlobe a few times and feel Apollo’s presence move behind me, dragging claws across my butt. I try not to yelp, but it comes out of me anyway.

Gabe whirls around. “What is it?”

“I…I felt something,” I say, my face flushing.

Gabe nods. “Okay, let’s set up here.”

Gum Boy sets his pack down and they start unpacking gear. Within moments they have an entire computer set up with several machines plugged into it, including the EVP reader. The glass windows of the patio doors start fogging up. I pretend not to notice, turning around and keeping my gaze averted.

“Oh, shit, dude. Look,” Gum Boy exclaims, slapping Gabe’s arm. He points at the doors as a finger drags through the steam, making a curvy “S.”

“Holy…fuck.” Gabe pulls out his own camera and starts recording.

A “T” comes next, and then an “AY.”

“Stay,” Gabe whispers.

The message goes on and I try not to smile.

“Stay a while…” Gum Boy says.

Gabe jumps up and throws open the door. The mist instantly clears, revealing the beautiful patio with fresh wood flooring and wicker canopies over the recliners, all decorated with Halloween-themed goodies. He pans around the area, then looks into the first big pool. He follows the bridge over to the second one and looks in.

“There’s no one,” he says, coming back to the computer.

“Bro,” Gum Boy whispers, his voice high with fear.

I follow his pointing hand to the corner beside the stairs where two blue eyes glow in a fog of darkness. They disappear just as quickly, and then a feminine voice comes from the computer speaker. “Water’s warm,” it says, and the EVP meter spikes. “Stay a while.”

“Holy fuck!” Gabe shouts, his fingers dancing over the keyboard. “There’s definitely a presence here. This is incredible. Most action we’ve seen in months.”

Do I feel a little bit bad for pranking these guys for views?

No. No, I don’t.

They love it, and their audience will too. Everyone will be coming here to try to get a glimpse of what they’re seeing right now. Just to keep it interesting—as long as Apollo’s still around—I’ll ask him to make an appearance every great once in a while so the hype stays high and people go home with an awesome story.

“What’s happening?” I ask, doe-eyed.

“Shh,” Gabe hisses. “I’m crafting a message back in their frequency.”

I peek over his shoulder to see him typing commands into a program I’ve never seen. He writes out, “What do you want?” and hits send. There’s a sudden, sharp noise that’s just barely at the top end of my perception. I wince, holding my ears.

The message ends and we all hold our breath. Gabe pans his camera around while Gum Boy holds a metal rod out toward where Apollo’s glowing eyes had been.

“I’m lonely,” the computer says. “Stay a while. Water’s warm.”

“Did you kill the man here years ago?” Gabe says as he types.

The high-pitched noise comes again, and I really just wish we’d get this part over with.

“Weak heart. Fell,” says the computer, and my soul aches a little. Poor Apollo, having to relive this for others. But the record will be set straight, at least for the ghost hunter community.

“He was pretty up there in years,” Gum Boy says. “If he’d stayed a while because the water was warm…oh, man.”

Gabe’s fingers flash over the keys. “It’s not your fault. Don’t let guilt tie you to this place.”

My stomach squeezes and I hope Apollo is listening. Really listening. Also, Gabe is kind of a sweetie to ghosts.

“Thank you,” is the only reply from the computer.

They wait several long moments before Gabe types. “Are you still here?”

No reply.

Gabe turns on the EMF meter and the light sits silently on green. He does several passes through the room and out to the pools, as does Gum Boy, until they finally come back together and high-five.

“We set a ghost free!” Gum Boy exclaims. They do a little celebration dance, and I smile quietly as I stand off to the side. Apollo’s nails drag over my backside again and I manage to swallow back a gasp.

They chatter while packing up, and then head for the stairs. I’ve become invisible.

Finally, when we get back to the lobby, Gabe addresses me. “This is a powerful place. You’ll probably get more presences coming to hang around. If you do, you can definitely call us back.”

I nod. “You’ll be the first.”

He’s grinning like a fool and it makes me smile too. “Sick. Okay, well, enjoy your no-longer-haunted springs. For now.”

I realize he’s trying to sound ominous so I give him a little gasp and nod, eyes rounding. He and Gum Boy walk out the main entrance and head to their beat-up van, chattering avidly the whole time. Adorable.

I close the door and Apollo mists into existence. He wraps his arms around my waist and whirls me away into the hall to the apartment while I giggle.

“How did you do that?” I ask.

“Do what?” he says between planting kisses on my neck.

“Make the machines work like that,” I say.

“People like them have been here before, and their machines are easy to fiddle with. They’re already quite far from chaos, so using magic to make them sing my tune is simple.”

I turn in his arms when we reach the apartment. “I was wrong about you. You’re not an incubus.”

“Oh?” He tucks some of my wild hair behind my ear.

“You’re a little imp.”

He licks one of his fangs. “Let me show you just how much mischief I can cause under your sweater.”

I giggle as his hands slide up my sides, his claws dragging deliciously over my sensitive skin. He groans against my neck, laving me with attention while his hands find my bra. He fingers the clasp, and I jump back.

“Channel Nine will be here in two hours.”

“Oh, my dear, sweet little witch.” He pulls me back into his embrace with a feral grin. “Two hours is more than enough to make a mess of you.”

The bra snaps free, and the door bangs open at the same time. I take a long step back from Apollo as Irene comes in with a big box, a flurry of words pouring from her. “I’m so sorry I’m late.” She looks up and grins, then clears her throat. “Looks like I should’ve been a little later.”

I reach behind my back and secure my bra. “You’re right on time. Channel Nine in two hours.”

She blows a raspberry. “That’s plenty of time. I’m gonna go run back to town for a coffee. Be back in forty-five.”

And then she’s leaving, giving Apollo an exaggerated wink and a thumbs up.

I cover my face as my cheeks burn.

Apollo yanks me back into his arms and his teeth tease my neck.

“Now, where was I?”