Hollywood Demon (The Collegium Book 6) by Jenny Schwartz

active country, here.”
    “I know.” And by her tone, Doris wasn’t convinced or impressed. “Lunch in an hour. Come over to the house. You and I need to talk with Mark.”
    Clancy rolled her shoulders, stretched, but had to agree. She laughed, ruefully. “I thought coming home would be peaceful.”
    Doris kissed her forehead. “Peace or trouble, being home is what matters. I’m glad you’re here, honey, and I want you to stay. Settle into your room and don’t be in a hurry to move out.”
    The gesture and words warmed Clancy, and when her grandma bustled out the door, muttering something about window washers who needed watching, Clancy climbed the stairs up to her room.
    The cottage had a simple layout: a kitchen and living room downstairs with a laundry/mudroom, and upstairs Doris’s large bedroom with a smaller bedroom that had been Clancy’s, and a bathroom. The deep front porch, partly screened, added living space.
    She unpacked her clothes and few belongings, stowing them in the wardrobe and dressing table, and remembering the special twist the wardrobe door handle needed to close securely. She carried an armful of clothes into the laundry and put them into the machine to wash. Beside the machine, unhidden, was the trapdoor that led to the chamber beneath the cottage. The natural passage descended to a cavern that hummed with geo-power. It was the reason the cottage was built where it was. Responsibility for the chamber and its power had been her family’s inherited duty for generations. Doris mightn’t be a Collegium-trained geomage, but no one disputed that she was the chamber’s custodian.
    Clancy stared at the worn old wood of the trapdoor and felt the power of the chamber through the soles of sneakers. She sent back to it the tiniest thread of acknowledgement, an “I’m here”, before hurrying away from temptation and out to the porch. Sitting in the sunshine for a few moments to gather her thoughts would be a good move. She needed to decide her own priorities before she talked with Mark and Doris.
    Even with the demon around, her priorities had to be finding a job and a place to live. The place to live was sorted for the moment, but to get a job, she needed a car. Public transport didn’t run past the Yarren Estate.
    So, car first. Doris would offer to lend hers, but a car represented more than transport. It meant independence.
    I’ll get a car this afternoon.
    A raven distracted her, swooping down to stalk across the grass, intent on a hunt. It ignored her presence, its black feathers gleaming in the sun. Its confident strut made her fingers itch with the need to sketch it.
    After she bought a car, she’d hit an arts supplies store.
    And before she did any of those things…the knowledge of what she had to do had been waiting to sandbag her. Mark had said he’d phone the Collegium. Grandma had said she’d ask her friend the priest to check on Bryce. But with a demon possibly loose in Los Angeles, Clancy had a responsibility to use her contacts, too.
    She pulled her phone out of her pocket and scrolled through till she found the name of a guy she’d dated briefly, back when they were both new trainees at the Collegium. He worked on its reception desk, now. Thomas would know who to tell about the demon she’d encountered today. She’d just have to put up with his carefully hidden pity for her failure.
     
     
    Mark put down the phone, replacing the handset silently in the cradle, moving with the control of true anger. He’d done his duty. He’d informed the Collegium—again—about the demon in Los Angeles. If they refused to act, that was their decision. He would set his own plans in motion.
    “Lunch!” Clancy called.
    He glanced across the width of his study to where she hovered in the doorway.
    “Sorry to interrupt.” She gave an uncertain smile. “Grandma insisted I call you. She thinks we should talk, the three of us.”
    He found he didn’t much like Clancy looking uncertain.