Page 104 of Oh No! There's an Incubus in my Hot Spring
He freezes, eyes wide with horror. “I thought a small lie would be better for all of you.”
I sob, hugging him tightly. “You’re the best.”
He holds me back, relaxing into the embrace.
“And that’s my cue to leave.” Irene grabs her backpack from the couch and heads toward the door.
“Hey,” I call to her and she stops. “Thank you so much for everything. You’re the best, too.”
“I know.” She grins. “See ya tomorrow.”
When the door clicks shut, Charlie quacks at me pathetically.“I thoughtIwas the best.”
“You are too, buddy. Swear it,” I say, grabbing him from the table and petting his little rubbery head.
Apollo guides me to a chair.
“You need to finish your delicious meal.” He walks to the laptop and opens it. “And I need to show you this video I found of cats chasing their own tails.”
twenty-seven
Week One
As Apollo promised, I call my mother in the morning and help guide her through the process of buying tickets to the closest airport. We open the front doors, set out our signs, and make sure everything is in tip-top shape before the start of business.
The cold front blowing in has me bundled up at the reception stand, but it’s great for business. We have at least a dozen walk-ins on top of the five scheduled appointments, and while it’s not Mark’s numbers—which he commented on my Instaframe post about—I’m still proud. The Boogle ads are doing better, and with Halloween coming up soon, we’ve booked up the second floor to ghost hunters that whole weekend.
Tuesday is much the same, except Leonard comes in for orientation. It’s a brief tour of the place since he’s pretty muchfamiliar with it, and I show him where we hid the industrial washer-dryer for towel rentals.
Wednesday feels like we’re hitting a groove as the temperature really drops and townsfolk flood in for a soak. We close and I find myself wandering to the Heart to look at the status of our place. The beating thrum of the geode puts me at ease, so I close my eyes and listen for a while.
Claws scrape across my neck as Apollo gathers my hair. “Have something on your mind?”
He plants gentle kisses below my ear and I smile, leaning back into him.
“We’re going to run out of space soon,” I say.
“We can fix that. Your magic is overflowing,” he murmurs, nipping where my neck meets my shoulder. “If you don’t release it regularly, it can come out unexpectedly.”
“What are all these new rules cropping up? You didn’t prepare me well enough for this witchy stuff,” I say, glancing over my shoulder at him.
“I’m preparing you now,” he says, smiling as he drags his teeth along my shoulder.
“Well, we can’t just have a new room appear overnight. It’ll look way too suspicious. We’ll have to have some kind of ‘Construction in Progress’ sign blocking off the space, and then we’ll have to fake actual construction. What a pain,” I mumble.
He kisses back up my neck to my jaw. “It’ll be fine. There’s another cavernous space adjacent to ours we can tap. The passageway won’t take much. We can say we had a bit of seismic activity that opened it.”
“Seismic activity?” I ask, incredulously.
“Yes.” He pulls back on my gathered hair, exposing my throat and making me gasp. “I fucked you so hard we shook the foundation of the mountain.”
The geode pulses faster.
“Hey, guys, I finished the laundry so I’m off for tonight!” Leonard calls from the entryway, and I jump out of Apollo’s grip. I rush into the office and grab some random papers off the desk before leaning in the doorway.
I smile at him, trying to hide the flush of heat in my cheeks. “Thanks so much for working a full day today. I’m sure Irene appreciates the time to spend at home with her dad.”
Apollo leans against the frame behind me, placing his hand on my hip. Leonard glances down, catching the motion, and grins. “No problem. I’m glad I was able to get more online classes. I have to go in for the rest of the week, but I’ll be back Saturday morning. Got hours for me?”
