by Mel Todd
My Luck
Twisted LUck Book 1
Ternion Universe
Mel Todd
Copyright © 2020 by Melisa Todd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.
Bad Ash Publishing
86 Desmond Court
Powder Springs, GA 30127
www.badashpublishing.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Book Layout © 2015 BookDesignTemplates.com
My Luck/ Mel Todd -- 1st ed.
Paper ISBN 978-1-950287-04-8
Life goes on, love reminds you of where you've been.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Epilogue
Chapter 1
Magic appeared in the late 1800's and spread across the world - no one knows why. As more and more incidents of magic occurred and people began discovering affinities, the idea of classes and branches of magic spread. Though other countries have other names, they are consistent in the magic types and groupings. The three classes were codified as Chaos, Order, and Spirit. Worldwide the number of mages currently accounts for about fifty percent of the world's population. ~ History of Magic
I stared at the body lying not ten feet away from me and sighed. I carefully scooted back up the slope to the sidewalk and sat there.
Why me?
There was no voice from the sky answering that question, so I pulled out my phone and dialed 911. The half-whine bounced around my mind as I heard the familiar spiel. "You've reached 911, what's your emergency?"
"Hey, Hazel. It's me." I didn't get nervous calling emergency services anymore. That might be a bad sign. I pushed my short dark hair out of my eyes. The action reminded me I needed to add more red highlights. It would give it some personality.
"Oh, Cori. What now?" Hazel's voice held a mix of exasperation and worry, probably because out of the almost hundred times I'd called 911 over the last few years, she's gotten at least half of them. Not my fault she worked the shifts when I was out and about. But it meant she fussed over me even when I saw her on the street.
"Dead body. Male, late thirties, at the intersection of…" I rattle off the nearest cross streets. "The shaded area. He's under the trees a bit."
"You know I have to ask, so let me run through the questions. Are you sure he is dead?"
"Oh, yeah, I'm sure." I glanced at the body and repressed a shudder. It took a fair amount of gore to make me queasy anymore, but this almost did it.
"How are you sure, no pulse?"
I rolled my eyes at Hazel, even if she couldn't see me. If I said he was dead, you could be guaranteed he was dead. "Heck no. I didn't touch him. Not about to touch him. Even with my training still in progress, I'm positive he's dead." I was intimately familiar with death. He was very, very dead.
"Cori, are you purposefully being a pain?" Hazel sounded frustrated, and I fought a smile. Maybe I was being a bit of a pain, but dang it, I was going to be late to work so I might as well have some entertainment to make up for it. "Check his pulse, please. I already have the ambulance and police on their way."
"Please tell me the chief isn't coming." I might have whined that part. Laurel Amosen and I didn't get along, though I wasn't sure why. She was strong, smart, a mage, and she should have been a role model. Instead we both brought out the worst in each other.
"Cori! You know I don't request specific people, I just put out the call. Now, pulse?"
"Hazel, his head is a good three feet from his shoulders. There isn't a pulse." I sighed as I heard the sirens wailing their way towards me. Soon I'd be the one in that vehicle coming to help. In one more semester I'd be the paramedic. Not that there was any chance of helping this guy. Not even a merlin could save him, though they might be able to figure out what killed him. Because I couldn't see a darn thing that might have separated his head so decisively. The left side of his head facing me didn't have a mage tattoo on it, but most people had them on their right side. I couldn't see any jewelry, but all of that meant nothing. Hedgemages didn't have to wear markings.
"Only you, Cori." Hazel heaved a sigh. "Do you know him?"
"Nope."
"Did you see what caused the death?"
"Oh heck no. If I had, I'd still be running." Well, probably. With my life I might have stuck around to watch.
"I think that's all, as the police will be there soon. You need me to stay on the line, or are you fine?"
"Right as rain," I chirped back, but there wasn't a smile on my face regardless of my peppy voice.
"Talk to you later, Cori. Gotta go." The disconnect tone rang in my ear. I resisted scratching my head. Leaving my damn dandruff here would make my life even more complicated. In my world, I'd scratch my skull to get rid of the dandruff and a gust of wind would blow and coat the dead guy with my DNA. Not what I needed.
I slipped my smartphone, the cheapest one available, back into my pocket and looked glumly at the dead man. "You are really messing up my routine you know? I'm supposed to be at work—" I paused, pulled my phone back out to check the time, and heaved a sigh—"in five minutes. I can guarantee that I won't make it. Oh well. Maybe Samuel will give me a ride. Might make my boss less annoyed. Oh, crap, Molly!"
With the sirens getting louder I rushed off a hurried text to both my boss, Molly, and my coworker, Kadia.
*Found dead body. Waiting for cops. Will be late.*
I hit send as the flashing blue lights of the cop car pulled up on the street next to me.
"See what you did? Distracted me," I told the body. Too much time alone had me talking to anything and everything. Maybe I should get a pet. Or at least work on talking to living people? I stared at the body, resisting again the desire to go investigate, to find out something about him. Dig through his pockets, at least get a name to call him. But leaving traces of myself on a dead body would be stupid. That lesson I hadn't had to learn the hard way. Cop shows are excellent for teaching you some basic crime scene protocol and the consequences for breaking it.
Slipping my phone back into the pocket of my thrift store jeans, I stood up, brushing off my butt as Samuel Clements got out of his squad car. We all gave him a bad time about his name, but right now my mood was more on the snarky bitter range of things rather than the peppy teasing. I'd heard rumors he was a Pattern hedgie, but I nev
er saw anything to give credence to it, so I didn't worry about it.
"Corisande Munroe, what trouble are in you this time?" He, too, had that exasperated tone. My goal after I graduated was to have people talk to me without sounding exasperated. That would probably never happen, but I could try.
"I'm not in any trouble. I was simply doing my civic duty and reporting a dead body." I didn't say murder victim or accident victim; that had been beat into my head by my third dead body. Don't assume you know how they died or anything about their death, even if you watched them die. Those were the worst. And why I was striving to make sure I'd never need to just stand by unable to save or even help someone again. But this guy had not been dead for a long judging by the few insects that were just now beginning to be attracted to his corpse.
"Again? I swear, Cori, you attract trouble more than any kid I've ever seen." The tone and frown got my hackles up even more.
"And this is my fault how? You know I don't ask for it. And don't call me a kid." I regretted the words the second they left my lips. Protesting you weren't a kid always made you sound like a kid.
Samuel held up his hands in mock surrender as the ambulance, with flashing lights and wailing siren that made me flinch, pulled up behind him. "Yes, ma'am."
I bit back a retort; I really did need him to give me a ride to work and being snarky wouldn't help that. I'd turn twenty-one in April, but he'd known me for a long time. At the ripe age of twenty-eight, he'd always seen me as a kid. As much as small towns rocked, they also sucked. Once you were notorious, you were always notorious.
The EMTs got out of the bus pushing a stretcher and came up alongside of us.
"'Ello, Cori," Jeff Pierson said, his soft southern drawl pulling out the syllables until it almost sounded sensual. I rolled my eyes. With his long lanky body, dark brown eyes, and light brown hair, half the women under thirty lusted over him. I wished I did.
The thought at least snapped me out of my stupid look, and I smiled at him and Sally Chang. "Hey, guys. Come on, I was just about to show Samuel where the body is."
Sally nodded, her long black hair twisted up in a series of intricate braids, each one with beads sectioning off an inch. I looked at her, always marveling how even in a uniform she looked stylish, smart. But then most mages always seemed to. Her tattoo gleamed on her temple, black with solid red showing her as strong in Pattern. Rather than hash marks she had little dots in Air and Transform. I frowned when I noticed that her right hand was missing her normally beautiful long nails.
"What did you run into that needed that much offering?" I nodded at her hand.
She glanced down comparing the two hands. Her left hand had nails about an inch long, painted with protective gel, the right looked like they had been bitten to the quick.
"Bad car accident. Child involved. Idiot parents hadn't buckled her into the child seat." Sally shrugged and grinned at me. "Worth the offering. Kid should be fine, and the parents will be in jail for a while. DUI."
I nodded, the familiar mix of envy and relief washing through me. I wanted to help people, save them. Magic would have made it possible for me to be better, more powerful. However, magic scared me on a level I didn't know how to address. It wasn't an issue. None of my family had ever emerged. I'd never be a mage so worrying about it was a waste of time.
"Enough chit-chat," Samuel said. He was prickly about magic too; his dad was archmage and Samuel, lacking a tattoo, wasn't. Or at least not above a hedgemage. "Where's the body, Cori?"
"I said I'd show you," I huffed. "It's not like waiting is going to make a difference."
"It might," Sally said mildly and I fought not to bristle. I really needed some food; my temper was way too short today.
"Trust me, it won't." I turned away from them. "This way."
"Lead on, mi'lady," Jeff drawled again. I ignored the groans from Samuel and Sally. Jeff was an unrepentant flirt, but I just found him amusing.
"Down there." I pointed and under the shade of three pink azalea bushes and a tall magnolia tree lay the body of a man in a dark brown almost black suit. A few feet away lay his head, eyes closed, much to my relief. Blood covered the area, sprayed around in streams of red turning to brown. The amount of blood implied a lot of things, but unless I got closer, I couldn't figure out where he'd been standing or sitting when he'd been killed. I'd been studying him since I stumbled upon him, literally. I pegged him as out of town businessman, as I didn't recognize him and he was too old to be here for the college. No matter how badly I wanted to know his name, all his information, everything, I had not gotten any closer than this. I can act with restraint. Sometimes.
The three looked at the body, hidden by shadows and the slight slope of the ground away from the road. Away from where anyone would notice.
"Cori? Why were you here and how in the world did you notice this body?" Samuel asked.
After so long with all the 'incidents' surrounding me, I didn't even try to make up anything believable anymore. "I was walking to work, the long way," I interjected before anyone could point out this path was a mile longer than a direct route from my house. They didn't need to know why I wanted the long quiet walk to think. "A white cat chased a squirrel across the road, catching my attention. Pretty sure it was Mrs. Hansen's Mortimer. I stopped to watch, not sure which of them I was rooting for, when the squirrel did a ninety degree turn and ran up my body. The cat followed, claws and all." I pointed at my jeans and the holes with drops of blood creating dark spots on the legs. "I fell backwards and tumbled as they finished running over the top of me. When I sat up his head was the first thing I saw." I waved at the rest of the body. "I came back up to the sidewalk and called 911."
None of them even blinked at my story. This was just proof of how weird my life was.
"And you didn't touch anything, right?" Samuel asked, even as Jeff and Sally made their way down.
This time I didn't restrain myself. "No, I crawled all over the dead man, licked him, then decided to play with whatever killed him because it was my first time seeing a dead body and I couldn't resist." My arms crossed over my chest as I stared at him.
Screw it, I'd walk.
"Point. Sorry, Cori. Habit. I forgot you're you."
"Gee, thanks." I didn't even try to keep a civil tone. That had been uncalled for.
"I said sorry," he muttered as he turned back to look at Jeff and Sally coming back up.
"Very dead. Nothing we can do. You'll need to call the coroner. He'll want to see the body in situ, so no reason for us to stay," Sally stated as she pulled the gurney back towards the ambulance.
"Thanks, guys," Samuel said, his tone distracted as he pulled out the radio.
I walked a few feet away giving him privacy to do what was necessary. But he'd have to stay here and wait for the coroner. I might as well just walk to work. I kept looking back at where the body lay. Death fascinated me. It was the greatest mystery and the one I wanted to stop from taking people. Which meant the desire to poke and prod at dead body number thirteen was tangible. My phone vibrated, distracting me, and I pulled it out of my pocket.
*Another one? Cori, your luck. Fine. Just get here soon as you can.* This was from my boss.
*Oooh, was it gory like the last one? You need to give me all the deets when you get in.* That was from my coworker Kadia.
I just shook my head and put my phone away. Jo, my best friend, was probably already at work, but no reason to distract her with this. I'd tell her later tonight. See if I could talk her mom into feeding me again. I was very tired of microwaved dinners, but every time I tried to cook something it went wrong. I'd given up.
Samuel was walking back towards me. "May I head off to work? I'm late as it is. You know where to find me."
"True. You are predictable. Either work at Grind Down, school at West Georgia, or at Jo Guzman's place. Last ditch your apartment over the garage,” he rattled off. They'd gotten good at finding me over the years.
"Hey, at least you know I'm n
ot trying to avoid you."
"Ha, I almost expect you to start a social media account logging all of this." He paused and looked at me suspiciously. "You haven't, have you?"
"No, I haven't." Like I had any desire to document just how screwed up my life was. Before I could say anything else another car pulled up next to where we were standing. We both turned to look at it and I silently cheered as the coroner stepped out. Maybe I would get my ride to work after all.
Chapter 2
Each class of magic has four branches. Chaos is composed of Entropy, Fire, Water, and Time. Order has Pattern, Air, Earth, and Transform. Spirit (the rarest of the classes) has Soul, Relativity, Non-Organic, and Psychic. Every mage, even the lowest rank, hedgemages, are strong in one, pale in two, and null in the final branch. ~ History of Magic
Why is there so much bureaucracy surrounding death? How long can he ask us questions? I didn't touch the damn body.
The coroner started out with a string of questions and I began to feel like I was the one under attack. Once he looked at the body he calmed down, but it took another fifteen minutes before he let us go. After a brief discussion with Samuel, the coroner called in a forensic unit. Samuel called in another officer to watch the scene, then gave in to my completely unsubtle hinting.
"Get in, Cori. I'll drive you to work and let Molly know why you were late." Each word sounded like it had been pulled out of him, but I didn't care. I slid into the front seat and pretended not to see his glare of exasperation. That was becoming my new goal in life—to not exasperate people. Or maybe I'd keep that as my life goal, to exasperate everyone. I rolled the word around in my head, but the excitement of being a pain faded fast.
"Molly knows. Sent her a text, but she'd probably like to know I wasn't making it up." I didn't really look at him as I talked, or even listen, too wrapped up in my own thoughts. I glanced in the rearview mirror at the receding vehicles, all my questions unanswered. My amber brown eyes stared back at me and I swore I could see the hole in my soul. The missing half of me. I pushed it down. Study, work, Jo. That was all I needed. Someday I would have answers about why Stevie had died. I had to find them.
