The Sun of Apollo

Chapter 15

A/N I will say life is crazy right now. Graduate school is more time consuming than I predicted (though that should've been obvious). Sorry for the delayed updates. They will come out slowly but surely. 

"Are you planning on staying the night?"

We never ended up finishing the movie. Instead, we ended up nursing Helix's wounds and moved him to a spare room on the second floor. He had been unconscious basically the entire time, only murmuring indecipherable phrases from time to time.

"Yeah, I told Joseph I'd be out all night." Apollo gave me one of his disapproving looks. The one where his frown lines deepen and his wrinkles actually show a hint of aging.

"You know how I feel about you lying to him..."

Naturally, I rolled my eyes in response. "I'm pretty sure learning about all of," I paused to wave aimlessly in the air, "this, would overwhelm him to the point he has a heart attack."

He purses his lips, clearly holding back from what he wants to really say. "Just promise me that you are staying safe, okay?" His words came out stern, but I could tell by his darting eyes that he was more timid than he was letting on. He wanted to discipline me, be a father figure, but he also felt awkward about it. He had become my friend first, and it was a weird transition.

I nodded, turning my attention towards Helix, whose wounds were pretty much already starting the healing process. Apollo had explained to me that his wounds just needed help healing, then his body could take control and finish it up. Some things still didn't make sense to me, though. For starters, why was Helix's blood so red when mine was golden? We are the same combination of genetics, except for my addition of the wolf gene, but that shouldn't make my blood golden.

"I'm heading up to bed. You might wanna check on Helix one more time. He'll probably be gone by the morning and you'll never get to fix his dressings. Get some sleep after, please..." his words trailed up as he studied me for a second. He hesitated, and it was my turn to study him before he decided to pat me on the shoulder awkwardly. "Goodnight."

Once he trotted down the stairs, I turned back to the room where Helix lay sprawled out on the couch. As I walked closer to him, I was surprised to notice his eyes were slightly ajar. I stood still, trying to figure out if he was actually awake.

"I'm not dead just so you know," he snickered, stretching out his arms, wincing a little bit as his wound tensed.

My feet tentatively took another two steps forward so I loomed over the couch. "I knew you weren't dead. Witchy magic, remember?"

"Hmm..." he sat up, continuing to wince as he moved. "So you are a witch?"

My mouth didn't open as I moved to sit down in a chair across from him. "Do I look like a witch?"

He pondered that for a second. "No, you look like an incubus." I placed my finger on my nose, just like he had done to me earlier in the evening.

"If you are an incubus, like Apollo said, how can you do witch magic?"

My eyebrow raised as I leaned back in the chair. "You don't have to be a witch to wield power. Many incubi are quite powerful if they can manage to channel their energy."

"And you can? Channel your energy?"

"Yes."

"How exactly? I'm a demigod and cannot even begin to fathom using magic as you have." He leaned forward, as if he was changing the conversation to be an interrogation.

I snorted at his comment. "Training. Practice. I didn't learn to do blood magic overnight."

"So what you did is called blood magic? Are you sure you aren't a witch? You don't smell like an incubus. Or anything really."