Hollywood Demon (The Collegium Book 6) (19 page)
Read Hollywood Demon (The Collegium Book 6) Online
Authors: Jenny Schwartz
“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.”
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 to 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.
Her dad bent and kissed her forehead. “We’ll see you for Sunday dinner, if not before. And you can call us any time.”
“Any time,” Melinda stressed, hugging Clancy. “But Jeremy needs us right now, and you have Mark.”
Clancy smiled. “I do.”
Her mom tucked a strand of Clancy’s hair behind her ear. “You’ll be happy, honey. You have the strength and joy in you.”
And then, her parents were gone, but she didn’t feel abandoned or that they’d chosen Jeremy over her. They were right. He needed them.
“Was that your parents’ car?” Mark entered the kitchen, hands behind his back.
“You have perfect timing.” She got up, smiling, to hug him.
He brought his hands around from behind his back. He held a puppy. A floppy-eared, wriggling, licking golden retriever puppy!
Clancy froze. Her gaze went from the pup—
adorable
—to Mark’s face.
He smiled, hopeful, happy and just a little bit nervous. Tall, blonde and handsome, Hollywood gorgeous, and hers. He cleared his throat. “You came home, wanting an ordinary life. You got an extraordinary one, instead. But you can still have all the things you dreamed of—a home, a family, a dog. Pup, here, needs a name, but he’s yours.” He handed the dog over to her carefully. A frantically excited puppy licked her throat and whined. “If you’ll have me, I’m yours, too.”
“M-Mark.” She had to gulp back tears of joy, overwhelmed. “I love you. Yes! Yes, to whatever you’re asking, offering—”
He kissed her, the puppy burrowing between them until they broke apart laughing.
“Yes,” Clancy said once more, just to be sure that all of this happiness was hers.
He put his arm around her as they watched the pup scamper around his new home, exploring. Mark tipped his head against hers. “Love you, baby.” She turned her head, and he kissed her. The Earth rumbled approval. “Wanna make the Earth move?”
She burst out laughing.
The Collegium
series is great fun to write, and I hope you’re enjoying the journey with me. Each novel is a stand-alone story.
Demon Hunter
and
Djinn Justice
both star Fay and Steve, but after that, the books feature new couples.
Have you read all of
The Collegium
series? They’re stand-alone novels.
Alchemy Shift
If you’d like to chat with me about my books, I haunt my
Facebook page
and I’m on Twitter
@Jenny_Schwartz
, or you can contact me on
my website
.
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Till next time,
