The Painter Mage: Books 1-3

by D. K. Holmberg

  With a quick flip of my ankle, I linked the line with the ones I’d made only a short time ago. With a surge of power, I lashed the triangle I formed to the shifter. It wouldn’t have the strength to last long, but it might hold long enough for me to reach Taylor.

  The shifter snarled.

  The sound was sharp and piercing and unlike anything I’d ever heard.

  It tried to stand, but my binding held. It was a good thing it did. I had nothing left to use against it if it attacked.

  I reached close to the shifter and grabbed Taylor’s legs and dragged her back toward me. I was surprised to find her lighter than I expected. When we reached the edge of the power-infused triangle, I hefted her and carried her across so we didn’t disrupt the pattern. She stirred as we moved.

  On the other side, Devan grabbed her from me. “What are you thinking?” she demanded. “When your power sags and that thing crosses over, what do you think you’re going to do?”

  “It’s not going to hurt us,” I said, facing the shifter.

  Devan kicked me. “I know I might have said that, but you don’t have to test the theory, you big dummy.”

  We backed away from the shifter. It sat on its haunches, watching us with knowing eyes.

  I didn’t have much strength left to feed into the pattern. In another moment or two, I’d lose it and the shifter would be free to race away or attack. I wasn’t sure which it would do.

  When we reached the trees, my power sagged.

  The shifter stood, almost as if expecting this to happen. Its tail twitched and it looked at me with those deep, brown eyes that seemed to see through me, eyes I suddenly knew I had seen before.

  “Damn,” I whispered. With a quick motion, I flicked a cross of brown ink onto the ground and infused it with my remaining strength.

  “What is it, Ollie?” Devan stopped behind me, holding carefully onto Taylor.

  If I was wrong, I could be hurt. Bad. But if I was right, I had dozens of new questions.

  I stepped toward the shifter, reaching through the pattern.

  The energy I sensed was faint, but I was certain it was there.

  “Ollie!”

  I ignored her again and lowered myself down so that I was nearly at eye level with the shifter. Given the size, it didn’t take much. “Now I know why you were so interested in it,” I told it.

  It snarled and snapped its jaws, but I recognized an empty threat when I saw one. The shifter was powerful and dangerous, but he could have hurt me at any time he chose.

  “Why go through all this? Why not ask for my help? Or at least explain what you’re doing?”

  The shifter snarled.

  I reached the pattern anchoring it in place. With a quick kick, I disrupted it, erasing it. The energy infused into it dissipated, leaving me even weaker than before.

  “What is this doorway to you, Jakes?”

  Behind me, Devan sucked in a breath.

  There was a flash of power, a surge that was almost more than I could manage, even with focus, and Officer Jakes stood before me, naked.

  I wanted to glance over my shoulder at Devan. From the heat I felt behind me, I was certain she was checking him out.

  “You’re the shifter,” I said.

  He stared past me, eyeing Taylor.

  “Why did you attack last night?”

  He swung a heavy gaze toward me. Power practically snapped in the air. “You think I attacked, Morris?”

  I didn’t, not really. Had a shifter attacked, I suspected Devan would have been injured.

  “What do you want with her?”

  “She puts this place in danger.”

  I glanced back at Taylor. Devan held her carefully and leered at Jakes, eyes sliding up and down his naked form.

  “Maybe you should put some pants on,” I suggested.

  There came another flash of energy and he stood fully clothed, or at least with the semblance of clothes. Likely, with Devan’s abilities, she could see past his magic. He chose the form of jeans and a tight-fitting t-shirt. Pointed boots poked out the bottom of his jeans.

  “How does she put this place in danger?” I asked. With clothes on, I could look at him.

  “She intends to open the doorway. She cannot be allowed to do so.”

  I dropped my eyes to the stone doorway. “What is it you’re afraid of?”

  “You think the Elder hid this without reason?”

  Now even a shifter was referring to my father as the Elder. I wished I had known him at the height of his powers. Instead I was left with memories of his failed attempts at teaching me patterns and colors and the meaning of both.

  “I don’t know why my father hid the doorway. Or how she managed to dig it up. She says she came here to help find a friend of hers, but why are you here?”

  Jakes fixed me with a heavy stare. “I have always been here.”

  “Really? Because I seem to remember hearing about you going off to college.”

  “You misunderstand. We have always been here. The Guardians.”

  He made it sound official, like some sort of title. “What are you the guardians of?”

  He tipped his head toward the doorway. “We protect the gate. Until she came to Conlin, there were none other than the Elder who knew of its existence. Much time has passed since we faced that danger. Now that she’s unearthed the gate, she’s opened this place to new danger.”

  “What kind of danger?”

  Even as I asked, I suspected I knew. The kind that almost pushed through the plate. That was what she was doing the night she came—trying to open the doorway, but she didn’t have enough knowledge to know how. The same kind of danger that had grabbed Ash and pulled him through the doorway. The kind that had likely as not killed Hard. Two Masters of Arcanus, taken by some dark power.

  “The kind that must not be allowed into this world.” he said.

  “What happens if it is?”

  Jakes took a step toward me and stopped in front of Devan, staring down at Taylor’s unmoving form. “They once roamed this world more easily, but we have held them in check. Places like this where the crossing is easy have been guarded. Powerful magi like the Elder have secured them.”

  “You’re talking about hunters. But if they were on the other side of the Threshold, I would have known. Devan would have known.”

  He nodded. “You call them hunters. They are devourers of power. Ancient and hungry. They are like nothing you could imagine.”

  “I have a pretty good imagination,” I said. “You didn’t answer the question.”

  “You didn’t ask a question.” He fixed me with a hot stare, his eyes filled with power. “You’ve been on the other side. You know the power that exists. Don’t you think it exists for a reason?”

  All I knew was that there was a magical battle on the other side, one that had waged for a long time. By that, I mean centuries. Millennia. For a while, I had played a part.

  Jakes touched a finger to Taylor’s head. A surge of power flowed from him, shooting through her. Her back arched and she gasped before I could do anything more than watch.

  That didn’t mean I did nothing.

  A charm flew into my hand and I jerked toward Jakes, already starting to squeeze. As I did, he twisted, moving almost casually, and grabbed my wrist with more strength than I thought possible. Pain froze me in place and I dropped the charm.

  “Pay attention, Morris,” he said.

  Wincing, I looked over at him. My other hand was still free and I grabbed a different charm, not so much to stop him, but really more because I wanted to be defiant. It suited me. Jakes must have known what I intended because he jerked on my arm, pulling me forward.

  “The gate is safe now,” he said.

  “And it wasn’t before?”

  He fixed his hard, brown eyes on Taylor. “It has been in danger since she arrived.”

  * * *

  We sat at my house. The two halogen lights hummed with soft light. Jakes stood, pacing befor
e the window, again wearing his uniform. I think he simply shifted into it rather than actually changing clothes. An ability like that would be useful.

  Taylor rested in the circle in the middle of the room. She breathed easily and I tried not to notice the way her chest rose and fell with each breath. Lying as she was, it was hard to notice anything but how attractive she was. Something about the blue streaks in her hair. Or maybe it was the way she so easily disarmed me with her painting. What can I say? I have a weakness for strong women.

  Devan crouched outside the circle with her eyes locked on Jakes. No longer did she watch him with that wide-eyed hunger like when she’d first seen him. Since leaving the park, she’d given him a wide berth and kept a pair of figurines clutched in her hands. She whispered softly under her breath, but I couldn’t make out what she said. Possibly she spoke in her native language. It wouldn’t be the first time she did that around me.

  When I was comfortable that Taylor was fine, I turned to Jakes. “What did you do to her?”

  He faced me with his arms crossed over his thick chest. “You think I did this to her?”

  “You attacked her the other night. So, yeah, I’m pretty sure I think you did this to her.”

  “You’re a fool, Morris.”

  “Call me Oliver,” I said. “And what did you do if you didn’t attack last night?”

  His arms relaxed to his sides and his eyes slipped past me to rest on Taylor. “You brought her to this place. The Elder considered it a place of safety. It is why we protected it for as long as we did.”

  “We?”

  He shifted his gaze to me. “You think me alone in guarding the gate?”

  There were others.

  Holy hell, what kind of power resided in Conlin? And how had Taylor found it? That was the reason she’d come here—chasing the shifters—but how had she learned of them when I’d heard nothing?

  I had thought I was coming back to a peaceful small town, that I’d see nothing more exciting than a heavy snow and maybe a snowmobile accident while getting the chance to study my father’s work, hopefully learn enough to keep me and Devan alive, but if there were shifters here—and my father knew about them—that meant there was more to this place than I ever suspected.

  “Why would you care if I brought her here?” I asked.

  “The key to the gate has resided here since the Elder placed it. Without the key, the gate would not open. As long as the gate remained closed, the hunters could not come.”

  “You keep saying that, but there have been hunters here before. That’s why painters hide. They fear the night, they fear the coming of hunters.”

  This time, a smile actually turned on Jakes’s face. “They fear the memory of hunters. They don’t know real hunters.”

  “But…”

  When was the last time I’d actually heard of the hunters taking a painter? Not during my life. It had been long enough that even the Masters spoke of it in the past tense, though they still feared the night. Long enough that doubted whether the hunters were even real.

  I had no reason not to believe Jakes. Whatever he is, his power far exceeded what I could manage.

  “Why? Why create fear?”

  Jakes’s eyes skimmed past me to Taylor lying on the floor as he spun to look out the window. “That is not mine to tell. Ask the Elder.”

  “He’s gone.”

  “He will return. He has always returned.”

  I shivered. How much did Jakes know about my father?

  “Let’s say he doesn’t,” I said.

  “Then we must seal the gate. Already she’s tampered too much. Doors that were meant to stay closed have opened. Darkness that has not been seen in this world for many years threatens to push through.”

  “That’s what I saw near Agony.”

  Jakes tensed when I mentioned the statue. “She nearly released them the night she came. She knew of the gateway and tried opening it.”

  “Yeah, and then I showed up.”

  “Had you not, we might already have seen their return. I don’t think she even knows what she does.” He turned from the window and drew in a deep breath, seeming somehow even more massive. “Ignorance is no excuse. That is why the Elder contained those unable to refrain from interfering.”

  “My father didn’t contain anyone.”

  Jakes turned a curious glance on me. “Are you so confident in your understanding of the world, Morris, that you are willing to disagree with everything I say?”

  Damn him, but he was right. Apparently I knew nothing about the world, especially about the small town I thought to call home. “They opened a doorway in Arcanus. That’s why this happened?”

  “That one remains closed. But this one she unearthed and attempted to open. We need to see it buried once more.”

  Taylor stirred, her foot dragging across the ground. “No. If you do that…”

  Jakes frowned at her. Power emanated from him. “The gate will be protected.”

  “But they will be lost,” she said. Her head twisted to the side and she tried rolling back, but couldn’t.

  Jakes watched her. “They are already lost. The hunters will have claimed them.”

  Tears filled Taylor’s eyes. “They can’t be lost. He can’t be lost.”

  “Who is he to you?” I asked.

  She hesitated, looking away from me as she swallowed before answering. “He is my father.”

  10

  Devan looked over at me, pocketing her figurines as she did. “We need to move, Ollie.”

  “Why?”

  She tipped her head toward the door. “Something is out there. Different than before.”

  Jakes frowned. With a surge of energy, he shifted, the giant wolf form now standing in my living room. Any other time, I might have laughed at how ridiculous it was, but I heard the anxiety in Devan’s voice. Whatever she sensed was serious business.

  The massive wolf sniffed the air and then swung his head toward me. Fangs as long as my finger flashed from beneath his mouth. Dark brown eyes—Jakes’s eyes—studied me.

  His mouth rippled. That was the only way I could describe what he did. “What did she do?” he asked. His voice sounded like Jakes, but deeper, rougher. With Jakes, there was the sense of a gentle giant when he spoke. When the wolf spoke, it was a terrible, commanding sound.

  He studied Taylor.

  “What’s he talking about?” I asked her.

  Her head rolled back so that she faced the ceiling. I’d stared at it a time or two myself. There wasn’t anything to see other than the spiderwebbing cracks worked through the drywall.

  I crossed the circle carved into the floor and knelt next to her. “Taylor—”

  A low howl from outside my house cut me off as I said her name.

  I jerked my head around, looking to Jakes. “What was that?”

  He snarled, his snout rippling back into place. “That is what you call the hunters.”

  The howl came again, low and steady. Closer.

  “How many?”

  The wolf shifted back into Jakes, who grabbed for the door. “There is one, but if they learn the gate has opened, there will be more.”

  “How? I thought you said the gate wasn’t opened?”

  Jakes looked over his shoulder at Taylor. “Ask her.”

  Taylor lay unmoving. “I wanted to reach him. To give him some sign that I searched. He needed to know that I hadn’t given up.”

  “What did you do?”

  She sighed and rolled toward me. “A page. Nothing more than a few notes. After I borrowed the book—”

  “You stole it,” I said.

  “—I made a note for him. If the doorway wouldn’t open for me, at least I could push it through.”

  Jakes snarled again. It sounded different in his human form, but no less angry. “Your note created a map for them to follow. That is how they search. Others will be here soon unless we seal the gate and bury it.”

  “How do we do that?”


  He fixed me with eyes that no longer appeared warm. “I don’t know. The Elder had buried it.”

  I grabbed Taylor’s arm and turned her toward me. “How did you find the gate?” Typical of those from Arcanus to act without thinking of what might happen. The painters there might be powerful, but they were ignorant of the magical world around them. That was the reason so few true artists remained.

  Another howl came. Jakes pulled the door open and shifted, racing out into the dark.

  Devan simply went to the door and pulled it closed. “Whatever is out there is big. Powerful.”

  “You sense it?”

  Her forehead wrinkled as she considered. “It’s not like with him.” She pointed toward the door. “Captain Muscles doesn’t trigger anything for me.” I arched my brow at her and she pounded her fist to her chest, basically giving me the finger. “Whatever’s out there pulls power. A lot of it.”

  “Not something you’ve seen?” I asked.

  Devan’s skin glowed for a moment as she pulled power. “Not that I’ve seen, but Father has kept me from the front.”

  He’d kept me back as well, always claiming that I wasn’t ready. I was finally beginning to believe him. “Can we stop it?”

  Devan shrugged. “I’m not sure, but we have to try.”

  “He said he was a Guardian. Seems like that’s his job, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah, but he doesn’t put off any magical energy. Had it not been for her,” she waved an annoyed hand at Taylor, “we probably would never have known he was here. If what’s out there is the hunters you’ve always feared, then it’ll be drawn to power.”

  Not so much to me. I’m only a tagger. But Taylor… she was an artist. Almost a Master.

  A hunter would be drawn to her.

  “We need to get her out of here.”

  Taylor managed to sit up and shook her head weakly. “Where do you think you can take me? This is the home of the Elder. What safer place is there than this?”

  Had she asked me only a few nights ago, I might have said none. But since then, I’ve seen what a powerful painter and a shifter can do when they attack, with my home stuck in the middle.

  There came a loud, angry snarling followed by another howl. This was close. Too close.