Page 115 of Oh No! There's an Incubus in my Hot Spring
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 withonefated 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’sexactlywhat he did! Hebanished 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 wholetime. Your mother, too, and her mother. If I’d known…” He trails off and my heart breaks.
“You said shekilledyou. 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.”
