Free Hollywood Demon (The Collegium Book 6) by Jenny Schwartz Page B

honey.”
    Half an hour later, Clancy craned her head around the back of the sofa to smile at seeing her grandma all kitted out in a bright purple Western shirt, skirt and purple boots. Her red hair was tied up in a jaunty ponytail. “You look great, Grandma.”
    “This old thing?” Dangling crystal earrings flashed light as Doris winked and smoothed her shirt. “Good night, hon.”
    “’Night, Grandma.”
    Doris’s car faded into silence. Clancy switched off the television. It wasn’t holding her attention anyway. She walked out to the front porch. From there, she could just see the main house over the roof of the garage. There were lights on in a top floor room. Mark’s bedroom?
    She turned away. The demon’s possession of Bryce had brought her and Mark closer than she’d ever anticipated. Current danger and old childhood acquaintance had allied them. Temporarily. She didn’t think the demon was a big danger to her or Doris; who had to have decided the same if she was going beyond the warded estate at night for line dancing. The demon’s danger was in Mark’s obsession.
    She picked up a blank canvas and balanced it on the easel. Tomorrow, she’d begin a surrealist painting she’d been thinking of on the cross-country drive. A flat Earth with stars waterfalling up from it.
    If you got trapped in your past, you couldn’t build your future. She hoped Mark worked that out, too.
     
     
    “Mark’s gone,” Doris said.
    Clancy had barely made it downstairs and was still thinking of that first, all-important coffee of the morning when her grandma made her startling announcement. “Gone where?” Clancy kept shuffling toward the coffeemaker. Priorities. She hesitated a moment, the old-fashioned coffeepot suspended in mid-air. “Did the demon get him?”
    Doris tsked. “No.”
    Clancy poured the coffee.
    “He got a phone call from Teresa, his grandfather’s wife. The old fool tried to go chasing a coyote last night, fell and broke his leg.”
    “Why was he chasing a coyote?”
    “Apparently, it stole his dentures.”
    Clancy choked on her coffee.
    Doris giggled. “George and Teresa were camping. Anyway, Teresa phoned to let Mark know, and he realized she’d need help getting George home from the hospital and settled. The man is a terrible patient.”
    “I can imagine.” Clancy wouldn’t want to nurse the autocratic George Yarren, semi-retired Hollywood movie investor. He tended to ask for the moon—and get it.
    “Mark will probably be away a few days. Texas might even do him good. Distract him from his focus on the demon.”
    “Grandma, it’s been his obsession for seven years. I doubt a few days away will help.”
    Doris frowned at the toast she was buttering. “It’ll give us time to sort out a few things.”
    Clancy popped two more slices into the toaster. “Like what?”
    “How extensive was your training at the Collegium?”
    Clancy stared at her.
    “Not your use of geomagic. Your general training in magic.” Doris sat at the table and waved a piece of toast impatiently. “Mark’s been collecting books on magic for years. With him away, I think you should look through them.”
    “For what? And he’ll know I’ve been snooping.”
    “Not snooping. Cleaning!” Doris smirked triumphantly. “He employed you to help me. Well, it would help me if you worked out what he was thinking and planning.”
    “Or we could just ask him,” Clancy mumbled, snagging her toast and sitting down opposite Doris.
    “Like he’d tell us!”
    Clancy sighed. Her grandma might sound like a teenager, but she had a valid point. Mark wasn’t about to confide his demon-related plans to them. He intended to keep them ignorant and safe. “I’ll start after breakfast.”

Chapter 5
     
    Mark had a fascinating collection of books on magic. Centuries-old grimoires rubbed spines with cheap paperbacks on New Age mysticism. Clancy took the books off the shelves in his study, stacked them, wiped clean the shelves,