Suited for Luck Read online

  Luck’s Voice

  Book 1:

  Voice of Luck

  Daniel Schinhofen

  Copyright © 2020 Daniel J. Schinhofen

  No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form by an electronic or mechanical means – except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews – without the written permission from the publisher.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Copyright © 2020 Daniel J. Schinhofen

  All rights reserved.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  Chapter Forty-two

  Chapter Forty-three

  Chapter Forty-four

  Chapter Forty-five

  Chapter One

  Walking down the side of the empty road, John wondered what he had done in a previous life to warrant this one. Must have been bad, whatever it was, for so much to have gone so wrong for me. Snorting at the level of self-pity, he kept walking. Father Daniels always said each setback is just a trial by God to make us stronger, but that motherfucker never faced a tenth of what I did. If God came down here, I’d kick him in the nuts.

  The sound of a car driving up the road made him glance back. The night was pierced by twin bright lights, and John squinted against them. Knowing my luck, this guy will hit me and keep driving. Sighing, he stepped into the scrub beside the asphalt and kept walking, his boots and jeans protecting his legs from the dry weeds.

  The lights got brighter as the car sped closer. The sound of the engine, growling with power, broke the silence of the night. Sports car... so a rich asshole, John thought as he kicked a rock, only to stumble when the rock didn’t move.

  “Fuck!” John shouted. He hopped onto one foot for a second, his now broken toe radiating pain.

  The sports car went past him and almost knocked him down, the wind from it flying by shoving him sideways. John’s injured foot came down, making him grit his teeth in pain. He stood there, glaring at the car, which came to a sudden stop.

  “What, feel bad for almost knocking me down, asshole?” John muttered under his breath as he started limping down the road.

  The brake lights went off and the car began to back up. John stopped moving and waited for it, ready to give the driver a piece of his mind. When the car got closer, John couldn’t place it. There was no make or model on it he could see. The one thing that caught his eye was the license plate and plate holder. The holder had the entire deck of cards going around it, and the plate itself read LADYLUK. Snorting, John waited for the car to come to a stop beside him.

  The window lowered silently, and a college coed with strawberry-blonde hair looked at him with concern. “Are you okay?”

  John blinked. He certainly hadn’t expected this girl— he was sure it was going to be a man with slicked-back hair and a haughty attitude. “Um... yeah, I’m good,” John managed after a second of silence.

  “I didn’t expect to see anyone on this road,” the woman said. “Not the most traveled road, so I thought I could open it up a bit. I’m sorry if I startled you. Can I give you a ride to apologize?”

  “I’m good. Getting rides from strangers is a bad idea.”

  “Tell that to everyone who uses Super Lift or Fahrt,” the perky coed laughed.

  John took a second to really look at her. Twenty… maybe? Too young to have a car like this. Her blouse was expensive silk with the top button undone, giving him just enough of a view to know she wasn’t wearing a bra. That meant those firm high peaks were hers and not held up by help. Designer jeans clung to her legs like glue, and she was wearing silly fur-lined boots. She brushed blonde hair back from her face with well-maintained nails, each one showing a painted ace.

  “Well, the world is filled with fools,” John said. He was surprised that he wasn’t bitter that this woman seemed to have found all the luck he never could.

  “One born every minute, but that has to be offset by someone deserving being born occasionally, right? The universe couldn’t be that cruel, could it?”

  “Did you see that car a few miles back?”

  “Yeah, it looked rough… oh, was that yours?”

  “Mine. Bought it two days ago from a used car dealer in Vegas.”

  “Ouch… can you get a refund?”

  “All deals final,” John snorted. “That right there has been my life.”

  “Universe just keeps kicking you, does it?”

  “Forty-two years’ worth of kicking.”

  “I can give you a ride. It’s still sixty miles to the next town, and that’d take you forever to walk. Wait, why didn’t you call a tow truck?”

  “My prepaid phone ran out of minutes yesterday.”

  “Wow, you aren’t kidding about being unlucky.”

  “Unlike you,” John said. “Even your plate says you’re lucky.”

  She let out a light laugh as her cheeks darkened a little. “Well, a bit. I’ve had troubles of my own, though. Why don’t I give you a ride to town and we can trade stories?”

  John paused, feeling as if a chasm was opening under him. She could be a deranged serial killer, and she’ll take me out somewhere and kill me… John looked around at the dark empty desert. Ha, yeah right. Possibly, she’ll claim rape when we get to town, and then I’ll end up as the unwilling partner to a very big man named Bubba… okay, that’s also unlikely... that leaves me with she honestly means it.

  “Sure,” John said, opening the door. “I appreciate it.”

  “Goody. It’s been so long since someone wanted to know about me. People always just want something from me.”

  “Well, honestly,” John chuckled, “that’s the opposite for me. You can call me John.”

  “John?” the coed laughed as she put the car into gear. “Really?”

  John winced, “It’s short for Johnathan.”

  “Oh, a Johnathan. You could call me Lilly, then, John. What’s your full name?”

  John looked away, not wanting to say it, but he told her anyway, “‘Johnathan Doc Henry’ is what my birth certificate says.”

  Lilly frowned, then began to laugh, “After that ‘Doc?’”

  “I can’t be sure. My mother died in childbirth, father unknown,” John shrugged. “Like I said, the universe likes to kick me.”

  “It certainly didn’t do you any favors with that name,” Lilly agreed
. “Could be worse. Your last name could have been Holliday.”

  “That’s what I tell myself, too.”

  “Great minds,” Lilly smiled as she shifted into second gear. “So you’ve never had any luck?”

  “Oh, plenty of luck,” John snorted, “just all of it bad. You know those old soulful blues songs, the ones about how the singer is having a bad time? Wife leaves him, dog dies, that kind of thing? Those fuckers have it good.”

  Lilly frowned. “Well, that sounds pretty rough. What was your worst day?”

  “I had one person I really liked in life. A foster parent, Theresa Goldman. She didn’t have much, but she cared and did all she could for me. I was sixteen when she was talking about formally adopting me, was taking the steps to. I was finally going to have a family, a mother…” John trailed off as the old pain hit him harder than he expected. Tears formed in his eyes and he forced them back. “She died in her sleep the day before everything was final.”

  “Wow, that’s—” Lilly began as she shifted into third gear.

  “Wait, it gets worse,” John said, closing his eyes. “I called for an ambulance. Did you know that cops will show up when you make an emergency call? I didn’t expect it. The medics took her and the cops started asking me questions. If we had fought, things like that. Theresa bruised easy and she wasn’t the most graceful person. Add in my record of being aggressive with previous foster parents, and you can see where that went.”

  “Gods, that’s—”

  “Turns out Theresa had a son; she never spoke of him. I found out later why... he was worse than shit. He had her cremated while I was waiting to see a judge. She wanted to be buried, even had a plot in the local cemetery with everything already paid for. He took a refund on that and cleaned out her house, including my meager belongings, and left while I was waiting to see the judge. I never got to say goodbye to the woman I considered my mother.” His throat was tight by the time he finished.

  “John, I’m so sorry.”

  “Not your fault,” John coughed as he choked back his emotions. “That’s the worst I can think of, but most days normally end with me wondering why I’m still here.”

  “Yet you’re still here,” Lilly said, shifting into fourth gear hard. “You never once gave in to despair.”

  “It’s Theresa’s fault. She always told me that the only true weakness was the inability to keep going forward, no matter what came.” John smiled softly, “I honor her by doing what she would have wanted of me. I shrug off the bad and put one foot in front of the other.”

  “No matter what?”

  “No matter what,” John replied. “What about you? We were going to trade stories, I thought.”

  “We are. I have a question before that. What would you do if your luck changed for the better? Would you help those around you, or would you use it solely for your benefit?” The question came as the car glided through the dark night as she shifted gears again.

  “Guess it depends,” John said. “If I was okay, I’d like to think I’d help those experiencing the same shit luck I’ve dealt with. I honestly don’t know, Lilly. That was an odd question, wasn’t it?”

  “It’s a telling question.” She glanced at him with a smile. “Most just blindly say they’d help but never do. You said you don’t know, and I can count how few times I’ve heard that on the fingers of one hand.”

  “Ask it a lot?”

  “More than I wish I had to. We were telling stories, so let me tell you one. It’s about a world where the fantastical and mundane came together to make something special, beautiful, and terrifying.”

  John chuckled, “What’s the book called?”

  “Huh? Oh, no, it’s a story, not a book. Magic, elves, dwarves, and so much more can be found alongside the rustic charm of the old west. I remembered it because of your name.”

  “I thought we were telling stories of bad days,” John said, wondering if Lilly was two fries short of a combo meal.

  “We are. A great man in that world was killed and with him gone, the Darkness began to spread. You see, it takes a man who can overcome anything, a man who can continue to put one foot in front of the other, to make a difference in that world.” She shifted gears again, the engine getting slightly quieter as if lamenting the death as well.

  “And this man dying, that was a bad day for you?”

  “Yes,” Lilly said as a single tear fell from her eye, slowly sliding down her cheek.

  John blinked, not having expected her to cry. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to mock.” Without thinking, he reached over and wiped the tear away. “Forgive me?”

  “I should be asking that,” Lilly whispered. “I have a selfish request, Johnathan Doc Henry. I want you to do what he failed to do.” She shifted again, and the fact she had shifted more than the car could possibly have gears didn’t register on him.

  The wetness on his finger forgotten, John blinked, “Huh?”

  “Can you… no, will you, become my Voice? Will you turn the odds of the losing battle and help a forgotten world rise from the brink again?” Lilly turned to face him, no longer holding the wheel.

  John’s heart lurched as he waited for the car to wreck, but instead, he noticed bright points of light streaking past the car, eerily like an old TV show did for a traveling starship. Slack-jawed, he stared at the lights for a long moment. He turned back to look at Lilly only to find that she was gone.

  “Lilly? Where did you go? What’s happening? Why me?”

  “Because good men, truly good men, are harder to find than the best hand,” Lilly’s voice echoed around him as the car vanished and the lights grew brighter, flashing by even faster. “If you decline, you will be back on the side of the road a mile from town and will forget all about me, remembering only someone giving you a lift.”

  John swallowed as he watched the lights. “If I say yes, then what?”

  “I will bless you and give you what you’ve been missing, plus more to make up for what you missed. My name is Lillianna Uma Caroline Kingmaker, and you’ve been looking for me all your life.”

  John started to laugh, tears pouring from his eyes at the insanity of it all. The lights kept going by, but he finally caught a good look at them— each was a planet filled with life that was being watched over by a powerful being. But the Darkness, which he thought of as space, shifted and dark points started growing on each planet. The Darkness dimmed the light around the world, and when the light waned, the Darkness moved in, snuffing out the light and the planet. Each time he watched that happen, he felt the loss of it almost as keenly as he felt the loss of Theresa.

  “Fine, Lilly. I agree. I will be your Voice, Lady Luck.”

  The sound of happy laughter filled the air around him, and the loss he felt lessened. The sound of chips being fiddled with, cards being shuffled, dice being rattled, and slot machines paying out erupted around him.

  “I accept you, Voice of Luck. Rest now, and before you wake, you will have to make some decisions as to what gifts of mine you wish. I would grant them all to you, but I can’t. You’ll need to grow stronger to hold more of my power.”

  “Will I see you again, Lilly?” A warmth like a loved one holding him and soothing an old pain suffused him as he asked the question.

  “It will take more faith in me for me to speak with you again, much less to be seen by you. Do what you can to help the world... I will be watching. May the dice fall in your favor and the cards always come when you need them.”

  Chapter Two

  Welcome, Voice of Luck. You are one of the chosen speakers of the Gods. Before we go further, you must select which race you will embody. Please select from this list:

  Human: Jack-of-all-trades and master of none, this race gains no advantages besides not being denied access to skills, abilities, and gifts. Humans are the dominant race on the planet.

  Half-Elven: Of mixed blood, this race gains some of the innate nature of the elves— faster reflexes, keen hearing and eyesight, and a
ffinity toward nature magic. Half-elves are viewed as belonging to neither race.

  Half-Dwarf: Of mixed blood, this race gains some of the innate nature of the dwarves— healthier, resistant to poisons, and exceptional night vision. They also gain an innate understanding of any craft involving metal. Half-dwarves can pass as human, and most try to do exactly that, knowing how half-breeds are viewed.

  Half-Bestial: Of mixed blood, this race gains some of the advantages of their bestial parentage, depending on the type of bestial you choose. Viewed with disdain, hatred, or pity by all other races.

  These are your options, as your old world did not have the other races. Please choose your race.

  John would have blinked if he had a body, but he was just a floating consciousness in the vastness of space. Well, that sets the stage, John thought. Okay, not sure I want to be a half-animal... I mean sure, if they are mostly human, I’d probably tumble with one or three, but not sure I want to deal with odd ears and a tail all the time myself. Human… I can pass. I just did that for over forty years. Which leaves me as half-elven or half-dwarven. Normally I’d choose dwarf, but if I’m going to be the Voice of Luck, I’ll end up gambling a lot. The increased reflexes from the elf will make that easier to meddle with, and they gain nature magic… but the dwarf would make it easier to resist the effects of alcohol. Plus, I could see about crafting shit and I would get night vision.