Hollywood Demon (The Collegium Book 6)

by Schwartz, Jenny

  “You seem to have set the agenda, today.”

  “Jeremy,” she began to appeal to him, but a blast from outside the house claimed both their attention. Through the window, she saw Mark stagger away from his car; the car that was over ten feet in the air.

  Not a bomb blast. Through the swirl of winter leaf litter she saw Faust.

  He can’t be here, that was her stunned thought. The demon lord had been banished. But her disbelief would have to wait. Mark was out there, alone, facing a pissed off demon lord.

  The counterspell! It must have started in Paris. Had it cracked an opening for the demon to manifest one final time? If it had, Faust wasn’t wasting his chance by attacking the gathering of Collegium mages. No, he’d come after Mark, the man who’d pursued him for seven years and ultimately defeated the demon.

  The Rocinante crashed down, a mangled wreck. Invisible forces buffeted Mark, tearing and shrieking while Faust balanced on the birdbath her parents must have placed in the central arrangement of the front yard.

  Faust would torture Mark, then kill him.

  “Where are your wards?” Clancy shouted at Jeremy over the hellish clamor, even as she ran for the front door. She hadn’t noticed any wards when she’d entered the yard, but had assumed Jeremy had granted her—and Mark—access.

  “They’re up.”

  She spared him one disbelieving, scathing look for such weak wards before dashing out the door. The demon’s power hit her like a tornado. Mark was about ten feet from the porch, but bowed over and struggling to stand his ground. He couldn’t advance against the power tormenting him. As she watched, his shirt tore and blew away.

  Faust danced a jig atop the birdbath. The demon looked less human and more like the older drawings of imps. He was ugly and wrong. Evil. Things like tentacles erupted from the back of his calves.

  She reached for the geo-forces seething underground. If she’d chased the demon off once, she’d do it, again. She had to hurry.

  The geo-power resisted. What the heck? Had Faust found a means of constricting her geomagic?

  Mark dropped to the ground and tried to crawl to her. Blood dripped from his face to the dirt.

  Clancy’s magic surged, breaking the resistance that had held the geo-forces back from her, and in that instant, she understood the source of the restraints.

  Jeremy hadn’t strengthened his wards, but he had taken the time before her arrival to bind and hold the geo-forces from her—and even with Mark about to become the victim of a demon’s fatal revenge, her brother hadn’t released that power to her.

  And Faust had known! The demon had counted on her brother’s pride and jealousy to contain her.

  They were both deluded idiots.

  As she gained total mastery of California, claiming all of the territory and its geo-forces thundering to her, the demon ceased its victory dance on the birdbath. The uncanny wind that had been torturing Mark died away. Complete stillness held the yard in a breathless moment.

  Then Faust gestured, and the wreck of the super-car cannoned toward Mark.

  The Earth seemed to respond instinctively. Clancy certainly couldn’t have thought through the multiple and immediate activities: the ground swallowed Mark, sheltering him; the car wreck careened into Jeremy’s house, the front wall breaking and falling, the corner of the roof collapsing; and Clancy, herself, jumped off the porch and landed on the Earth, that welcomed her with a violent, terrifying joy.

  All of the Earth’s power flowed through her, rose with her pointing arm, and aimed itself at Faust. The demon did not belong in this realm. The Collegium demonologists had banished him, but he’d taken the sliver of opportunity in the weaving of the counterspell to manifest. Very well. She would ensure that never again would Faust walk the Earth.

  But the demon hadn’t just come for a final revenge against Mark. It wanted to punish Clancy, also. As her geomagic thundered to vanquish it, the demon dived off the birdbath at her.

  Faust mashed his lips to hers and vomited what felt like fire into her mouth.

  The inferno raged through her body even as her geomagic triumphed and flung Faust out of Earth’s realm and forever barred him from it. Through her agony, she felt that ultimate lock, but her satisfaction was lost in blazing panic.

  Her magic cascaded through her, but seemed only to intensify the inferno. It was hellfire, truly Hell on Earth, and if her geomagic was antithetical to Faust’s demon nature, that remained true for this final curse from him. Her geomagic couldn’t vanquish the hellfire. If anything, the inferno blazed fiercer for the battle.

  Then, Mark was there. Cool human lips sealed hers and he drank the hellfire from her. She tasted him, his blood, and the desperation of his kiss. The hellfire left her—and entered him.

  He flung himself from her. “I can survive this,” he gritted out the reassurance against the pain-wracked contortion of his muscles. He collapsed to the ground, raising an urgent hand to ward off her magic. “I’m not…geomage. It’ll be…less…for me.” He lay full length on the churned up dirt of the front yard, his body spasming as if tortured on a medieval rack. “My lack…of magic. Hellfire will…die faster.”

  Not fast enough for Clancy as she watched his agony and knew he suffered it for her. She knelt beside him, unable to touch him for fear her magic would make his torment worse.

  “You need to clean this up,” Jeremy said.

  For an instant, his meaning didn’t penetrate her worry for Mark. Then she understood. “Why?” she asked, disinterested.

  Mark held her gaze as if it was a lifeline as he grimaced and fought not to reveal how much he hurt. Blood seeped from a wound near his left eyebrow and two gashes on his chest. His hands were rigid, fingers outstretched, muscles rigid. Then they relaxed before the next spasm hit.

  Her lungs labored. Her geomagic had already healed the damage the hellfire had done to them, but her anxiety for Mark was its own iron band.

  “The neighbors!” Her brother teetered on the edge of the hole she’d instantly excavated to save Mark from the careening wreck of his Rocinante. “Clancy, the scary demon is gone. Mark will recover. Now, you’d better hide your mess from the street.”

  “You are unbelievable.” She maintained eye contact with Mark. Was this spasm less severe, briefer? But her scorn and impatience was all for Jeremy. “No one saw or heard anything, Jeremy. Your wards aren’t good for much else. They couldn’t keep out Faust. But you obviously set them for privacy. There are no sirens or people gathering in curiosity. No mundanes sensed what happened.” That she had battled Faust, and won.

  Or that she’d wrested California from Jeremy.

  And that was the real issue. Her brother was trying to boss her around because the bottom-line was that he knew he couldn’t.

  “You said.” His voice cracked. He tried again. “You said you wouldn’t challenge me for California.”

  Her control broke. The Earth rumbled. The hole that had saved Mark re-filled. “Faust used your attempt to contain my geomagic to attack Mark. He thought you’d succeed in controlling me. You thought you would. You set me up.”

  “I am not in league with a demon.”

  She waved aside Jeremy’s indignant denial. “Not that. You set me up, calling me here, to your home, to try and ambush my magic, to wrap it so tightly that I couldn’t successfully challenge you. You didn’t trust me or my love for you.”

  “Sis—” It might have been belated remorse in his tone.

  “It’s too late. When I needed my magic to save Mark from Faust, you still tried to contain it. I can’t forget that. I can’t forgive it.”

  Jeremy stalked off, into the house. He slammed the front door and a tile fell from the damaged corner of the roof.

  She exhaled waveringly. “I claimed California.” Disbelief made her breathless. She felt lightheaded.

  “Congratulations?” Mark’s voice was raw.

  But the attempted tease made her smile—in relief. “Are you…is it easing?”
/>   “Better.” He fumbled for her hand and gripped it. “A few more minutes.”

  His muscles no longer cramped from hellfire raging through him. She sat and he lay in the ruin of the front garden, and they listened to the distant LA traffic, the sounds of a bird, and a crash as another three roof tiles slid off.

  “I should get you to a doctor,” she said, unsure what a doctor could do for hellfire internal burns, but sure that Mark’s cuts, bruises, and possible bone fractures had to be treated.

  He was way ahead of her. “I don’t need a hospital or an ambulance. I know a healer who’ll come out to the estate, if we can get there.”

  “Ah.” She studied the wreck of the Rocinante. Insurance didn’t cover demonic attack and a tow truck driver would ask questions. A problem for another day. For now, she had to get Mark home. “I’ll call Grandma. She’ll collect us.”

  “I have friends who—”

  She shook her head. “Better Grandma sees exactly what happened, here. She can help convince my parents of why I took California from Jeremy.” She winced because that would not be a fun conversation. But she wasn’t returning California to him. Her brother was the one in the wrong. It would be up to him to make amends.

  “All right.” Mark rolled to his feet, accepting her helping hand. “Phone Doris. I’d like to go home.”

  Doris took in the devastation that was Jeremy’s front yard and house, then her angry, worried gaze returned to Clancy and Mark, who sat on the edge of the porch, their arms around each other. “Don’t you worry what your parents will say. I will phone them.”

  Jeremy had come outside, bringing two blankets, which Clancy and Mark accepted although they refused to go inside the house. He flinched from Doris’s accusing glare. “Grandma, it all got out of hand.”

  “Save your explanations for Neville,” she snapped.

  Jeremy crossed over to the wrecked super-car and kicked it. He could have been five years old and sulking.

  Clancy helped Mark up and into the passenger seat of the SUV. Doris had been smart. She hadn’t driven her tiny car, but had borrowed Mark’s warded SUV. Clancy climbed in the back. She had nothing to say to Jeremy, who turned and watched them leave.

  “He does feel bad,” Doris said.

  Clancy stared out the backseat window where she sat behind Mark.

  Doris sighed and concentrated on getting them home.

  Mark’s healer, a man in late middle-age who resembled a hippie—there were beads in his long gray hair—waited at the gate, and on sighting Mark, wasted no time in healing him. He literally climbed into the backseat of the SUV to begin immediately. Waves of healing power brushed past Clancy. By the time the small group reached the kitchen of the main house, the deep lines of pain engraved in Mark’s face had eased.

  “Three broken ribs, hairline fracture of the tibia, cuts, bruises.”

  Doris nudged Clancy out of the way and set her working, making hot, sweet and milky coffee.

  Clancy’s hands shook as she stirred the drinks. Mark had had broken bones as the hellfire twisted his muscles, grinding the fractured bone against itself. He’d suffered it for her, without making a sound.

  “Done.” The healer announced half an hour later. He crouched back on his heels, then braced a hand on the coffee table before standing. The session had been intense.

  Mark looked up at the man from where he sat on the sofa. “Thanks.”

  “No problem.” The healer packed up his belongings and departed; a man of few words. However, Mark’s cuts had healed without a scar and his broken bones and bruises had similarly vanished.

  “He is amazing,” Clancy said.

  Doris had headed out, probably to phone her son and daughter-in-law; possibly, the Collegium as well.

  Clancy wanted to ignore all of that. She could focus on what claiming California meant after she’d—

  She punched Mark.

  “Ow!” He rubbed his arm. “What was that for?”

  “For being a hero and scaring me.”

  He stared at her. “What do you think it did to me, seeing Faust dive at you?”

  “You were scared?”

  “Terrified.”

  She scrambled off the sofa where she’d been curled against him. “Come on upstairs.”

  First, he kissed her in the living room, but they were both aware that Doris could return any time. They climbed the stairs to their bedroom, closed the door, and stripped off their clothes. There wasn’t any playing or teasing. They made love tenderly, reverently. With kisses they anointed each other’s bodies.

  Clancy kissed Mark’s skin where she remembered the marks of flowering bruises. He threaded his fingers through her hair and guided her mouth higher, to meet his. The memory of hellfire vanished to the reality of his coffee-flavored kiss. He rolled them, settling between her thighs, stroking her intimately to confirm her readiness before he entered her.

  Then the world was finally right.

  “Mark.”

  “I’m here, baby. Always. I couldn’t be anywhere else.”

  They rocked together gently, then with increasing power, until her climax demanded his. He thrust strongly, chasing his satisfaction as she drifted in her own, urgent for him to find it.

  “Clancy!”

  She rippled with the victory of his roar, aftershocks of pleasure confirming her happiness. “We survived,” she whispered, awed, and finally able to believe they were safe.

  It was as if her comment summoned the response. Mark’s phone rang.

  He muttered, but answered it, grabbing it from the nightstand.

  Gilda’s voice came through strongly. “The counterspell is done. A complete success. We had a few minutes’ trouble.”

  So did we, Clancy thought.

  “But I thought you’d want to know that all is well.”

  “That’s great.” Mark made big eyes at Clancy.

  She smothered a giggle in his shoulder.

  “Yes, well.” Gilda disconnected abruptly, perhaps disconcerted by his evident lack of interest.

  Mark threw the phone aside. “I need a shower. Come and wash my back?”

  Clancy smiled at his hopeful grin. “Yes, but then we have to deal with a few things.”

  Chapter 13

  Clancy hugged her mom and dad, a bit shocked to see them walk into the kitchen at Mark’s house. He was at work at the games studio. She’d been sitting on the sofa, sketchbook on her knee, just doodling. Now the sketchbook was on the floor and she was surprised how glad she was to see her parents. “But what are you doing here? Oh, Grandma phoned you.”

  “Mom sure did.” Gary, her dad, grinned ruefully.

  “Did she know you were flying home?” Because she could have warned me.

  “Doris probably guessed.” Clancy’s mom, Melinda, picked up the fallen sketchpad, smoothed its pages, and placed it and the pencils on the coffee table. “This didn’t seem like something that could be worked out over the phone.”

  Gary landed in an armchair. “We’ve seen Jeremy.”

  Of course they’d stopped in to see her brother first. It had been twenty one hours since Clancy last saw Jeremy. A lot had happened in that time. Jeremy would have brought her parents up to speed with his version of events.

  Her dad hitched forward on his chair. “We’re proud of you, honey.”

  Melinda smiled and nodded, gripping Clancy’s hands. “We’ve always been proud of you. You’re capable, independent.”

  Clancy stared at them, but they were serious. “I never thought…” She tried again. “I thought you thought I drifted. I know you love me, but I was never focused like Jeremy.”

  “Searching out your place in the world isn’t drifting.” Her mom released Clancy’s hands and sat down. “Uh. I hate flying. The ground feels wobbly.”

  Clancy winced. “Actually, the ground did wobble a bit, just here. Like me.”

  Her dad smiled, some pride showing. “The new geomage of California. The Collegium won’t know how t
o handle you.”

  “Warily,” Clancy said. Neville had already demonstrated that he was treading carefully. He’d visited that morning. Mark had left for work soon after Neville’s departure.

  “Good,” Melinda said definitely.

  There was a moment’s awkward silence. She was only geomage of California because she’d taken the territory from her brother.

  Gary forged into the difficult area. “We understand what you did and why. Jeremy is sorry.”

  Clancy nodded tightly as she sat down near her mom. She knew Jeremy was sorry. He’d told her that himself, in a phone call. It was probably better that Jeremy didn’t encounter Mark at the moment. Mark, restored to full health, had the energy to be furious with her brother for yesterday. Clancy, however, for the sake of family harmony and because she did love Jeremy, had forgiven him. Well, she’d ninety percent forgiven him, and was working on that final ten percent.

  “We came here to tell you that we completely support what you did,” Gary said.

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  But her family had a pattern, and her parents soon reverted to it. Her dad stood. “We’ll have a family dinner on Sunday. Mark is invited, if he’d like to come.” Which was an oblique acceptance of her new relationship. “Now, Melinda and I have to get back to help Jeremy pack.”

  Melinda shook her head in disapproval. “The Collegium is kicking Jeremy out of his house immediately now that he’s no longer the geomage of California.”

  “Neville is cranky.” Clancy heard her own apologetic tone, and was annoyed. She firmed it. “Jeremy was his star pupil. Neville’s disappointed.”

  Melinda sighed.

  Gary was tougher. “Understood. But Jeremy needs help. Yvonne has left him.”

  Yvonne who? “His girlfriend? Already?” Oh, that wasn’t tactful. Clancy saw her mom’s frown. “Sorry, but, really?”

  “Apparently, it was Jeremy status and lifestyle, not himself, that she loved,” Melinda said tartly.

  “Wow.” Okay, maybe I forgive Jeremy one hundred percent. He’d taken an emotional beating in the last twenty four hours. “But Jeremy still has his academic career, and I’m fine with him practicing geomagic in my territory.” Other geomages did. She’d felt someone in Sacramento attempting to create a volcano. It was probably a rebellious kid testing his or her new geomagic talent, but Clancy would need to have a word with them.