Page 30 of Oh No! There’s an Incubus in my Hot Spring (Getting Cozy with Demons #1)

thirty

Familial Ties

“ O fficer Rosa, please stop and let us out,” I say.

“Sorry, no can do. Mark pays me a lot to be his eyes, ears, and sometimes chauffeur. And I need that money.” She sighs, then mumbles, “No way to get out of this damn town otherwise. Fuckin’ trap.”

We stop at a red light, and I pull on the handle, but of course it’s locked. We’re in the back.

“You should let us out,” Apollo says, the menace thick in his tone.

Officer Rosa straightens in her seat. “Y’all will be fine. He just wants to talk.”

“This would not be hard to rip through,” Apollo says as he drags his extended claws across the metal grate separating us.

I grab his hand and pull it down to my lap. “Let’s save all that anger for the Turd, shall we?”

She snorts. “You call him the Turd?”

“He wears turtlenecks all the time. Turdleneck.”

She full-on laughs. “Fuck. You are a riot.”

We turn onto the road for Silver Mountain Resort, and Officer Rosa lets us out at the front door.

Apollo stands much too close to her as he gets out, his eyes hard as ice. “I don’t like you.”

She shrugs. “I don’t really like me, either.”

“Maybe you need more time in our hot spring. Get that magic back that you’ve been missing,” I say.

She smirks at me. “Maybe I do.”

I grab Apollo’s hand and turn for the resort. As long as he’s with me, I can face this prick. As long as he holds my hand, I can do anything.

The lobby is empty this early, and instead of being calming, it’s creepy. There’s soft jazz playing from the overhead speaker, and it’s dark despite the orange glow outside. It almost feels like the start to a zombie apocalypse movie.

“Come to my office, please,” Mark’s voice blares through the speaker.

“And what if I don’t want to?” I say, hands on my hips.

“Then why did you come in?”

I sigh. Got me there. I do want to know just what the hell this turd wants with us after all this harassment. Seriously, can he not just get over his ancient family drama?

“Well, where is it?” I ask to the empty room.

“To the right, up the stairs.” The speaker cuts back to jazz.

Asshole.

Apollo grabs my shoulders and turns me to him. The look in his eyes is intense, and pained. It makes my heart ache.

He cups my cheeks. “No matter what he says, please know that I love you, that I only love you, and always will.”

“I’m waiting ,” Mark’s voice blasts through the speaker.

Apollo kisses my forehead, then takes my hand.

I swallow hard and turn for the hall to the right. We walk past fake plants and awards for “Best Hot Spring in Tri-County Area,” along with pictures of Mark and his family. The stairs are dim, and I feel like Mark could’ve turned on the fucking lights for us. Dickhead. He wants me scared and off-kilter. Well, fuck him. I’m tired, and hungry, and I have a headache to rival all headaches. I’m not off-kilter. I’m pissed.

I don’t knock on the door with his name plate, throwing it open instead. He’s sitting at a large oak desk at the end of a long room that has several full-length windows overlooking the springs and the mountains. It’s honestly kinda gorgeous.

No, fuck that.

I march through the room and stop in front of his desk. He swivels around in his chair and looks at me, and then at Apollo.

He smiles coldly. “So, you finally found your mate, Great-grandfather.”

The silence that passes between us after Mark’s declaration settles on me like an icy blanket.

“What?” I sputter.

Mark looks at me. “He didn’t tell you? He and my great-grandmother spent many nights together—”

“Enough!” Apollo shifts, dropping his guise. “She knows of this already, but I cannot produce offspring with anyone but my mate. You are mistaken.”

Mark pushes his executive rollie-chair back and straightens to his full height, close to that of Apollo. “And who told you that?”

“My maker,” Apollo says, confidently.

My stomach sours.

If his maker was lonely and wanted more beings to entertain him, why would he make it so his creations could only have offspring with one fated mate?

Mark smiles at me. “She’s grasped it already. Smart cookie. I knew I liked you.”

“Prove it,” I say, though my heart seems to already know it’s true.

“Of course,” Mark says, pulling on his turtleneck.

He rolls his head around his shoulders and suddenly there are little horns poking out from his dark hair. His skin has turned a sallow gray, and his fingernails are long and sharp. He rips off his shirt and flexes his shoulders forward until two tiny wings pop out from his back and keep growing and growing.

Apollo’s hand clenches mine so hard it starts losing feeling.

“This can’t be,” he whispers.

“Well, it is,” Mark says, his upper fangs showing.

It all makes sense now.

“You think he abandoned your great-grandmother to bear her children alone,” I say.

“That’s exactly what he did! He banished her! ” Mark points at Apollo and tears gather in his eyes.

“That’s not what happened.” Apollo releases my hand and takes a tentative step around the desk.

“Don’t!” Mark yells, brandishing his claws.

“Mark, stop! Listen to me,” I say, and I catch both men’s eyes. “Apollo didn’t make her leave. She killed him.”

“That’s a lie!”

“It’s not, please,” Apollo implores, reaching forward. “Please listen to my side.”

Mark’s chest expands and falls in huge, angry breaths. His blue eyes dart between us, and I nod at him hopefully.

“Fine. What?”

Apollo drops his head. “I’ve only ever wanted a family, the one thing my maker made me for. I’ve been seeking my mate for centuries so that I can have it, but then here you are, this whole time. Your mother, too, and her mother. If I’d known…” He trails off and my heart breaks.

“You said she killed you. Then how are you here?” Mark asks, seething.

“It lets me leave the confines of the mountain.” Apollo pulls the necklace out from under his shirt. He looks at me with admiration. “She made it for me.”

“What does that mean?” Mark asks angrily.

Apollo takes a deep breath. “When Elizabeth declared her love for me and I told her that I cared very much for her, she couldn’t stand it. She couldn’t stand the thought of me loving another, and never her. She cursed me…

“I’d been helping her grow her magic and make the springs more rejuvenating, more powerful. She really was a wonderful witch,” he says with a sad smile. “But then she used that power to get retribution against me, against what I would do to her one day.

“In a panic for survival I tied myself to the heart of the mountain, something we created together to foster the magic of the springs.”

My jealousy is completely unwarranted, but I feel it anyway.

Apollo looks at me with a soft smile.

He loves me.

I breathe that knowledge deep and he goes on.

“I never meant to hurt her, and I never knew of her pregnancy,” Apollo says, lifting his hand higher. “I want to do right by you. How can I?”

Mark shakes his head. “You can’t.”

My chest aches with heartbreak for Apollo. I grab his arm and pull him away. “Come on. Let’s go.”

Apollo staggers beside me, his head hanging low. “I’m so sorry.”

I look back at Mark as we leave his office. He’s still horned and sallow skinned, his wings tucked behind him. He’s Apollo’s great-grandson…and he thought Apollo abandoned his great-grandmother.

I know Apollo. I can feel the pain coursing through him. I know that’s not what he would’ve done. He would’ve cared for Elizabeth and her child, despite her not being his mate. He would’ve stayed by her side. He could’ve even forgone his quest to find a mate because all along, all he ever wanted was to have a family.

And he thought he needed me for that.

But he didn’t.

I walk with him out into the chilly morning and call a rideshare. We stand silently on the sidewalk as we wait, my hand tightly clasping his. He’s stoic. Stony. Unblinking. I want to ask him what’s going on, but I know he needs time. Mark needs time, too.

I can fix this…

I’ve fixed so many things.

I can fix this, too.