The Unnatural Adventures of Elle York

Elle York awoke in a puddle of blood clutching a sharp knife. The knife was hers. The blood was not.

For most people, this would be cause for alarm, but instead of panicking, Elle sat up and tried to piece together the previous few hours. When that failed, she looked around for clues to where she was. She didn't recognize anything, and she appeared to be alone in the unfamiliar apartment.

Struggling to her feet, she realized that she was clothed only in panties, a bloodied tank top and one sock. She had a fresh bruise spreading across one thigh. She limped to a window, pulled open the curtain and stared down at the strange skyline. All she knew with absolute certainty was that it wasn't New York City.

"It must be Tuesday," she muttered, resting her forehead against the cold glass. "The weirdest things always happen on Tuesdays."

Novels and Short Stories

“Cardinal Rule” (An Elle York Short Story)

At the beginning of Elle's career as a monster hunter, she still holds on to certain illusions. One of those is the tried-and-true mantra that if you shoot something, anything, in the head, it stays dead. When a pack of Lazarus Monkeys takes over a Manhattan-bound subway, she learns that the Unnatural world doesn't always follow its own rules, and if she can't stop the runaway train, the Lazarus Monkeys may survive the crash, but she and the other passengers certainly will not.

“Contractor” (An Elle York Short Story)

Most people would be amazed to discover what lives in their pipes and crawlspaces, but nothing surprises Elle York anymore. Well, hardly anything. When radioactive sewer slugs start crawling out of shower drains in Staten Island, Elle comes to the rescue, but it’s hard to shine when she is waist-deep in a septic system.

UNNATURAL CAUSES (Novel #1 of the Unnatural Adventures)

“Goddamn creepy the shit that happens in small towns.”

In a small, sleepy community, children are vanishing out of their own front yards. Something demonic rips a young accountant out of her car and drags her into the woods. When an old friend begs for help, Elle immediately comes to their aid. Unfortunately, the handsome and infuriatingly obstinate detective in charge of the case doesn’t like civilians poking around his crime scene and follows Elle straight into an ambush.

After their narrow escape from a trio of bloodthirsty trolls, Elle teams up with Detective Eberly to stop their reign of terror. As the gruesome deaths escalate, they discover that the victims are all connected. Together, they must strip back the picturesque suburban façade to reveal the mastermind before the slaughter can end.

When an ordinary, headstrong woman and her quirky friends are the only thing standing between innocent victims and the horrifying beasts stalking them, Elle must risk everything and face her worst nightmares to keep her little corner of the world safe from unnatural creatures.

“Lizard” (An Elle York Short Story)

A steamy swamp, a small town under attack, and a scaly monster? For Elle York, it's just another day. There’s a fifty-thousand-dollar bounty on the head of the Lizard Man, and she needs the money more than anybody. When she arrives in South Carolina, she finds that she’s not the only professional monster hunter hot on the lizard’s trail. The competition includes her old mentor, who is more experienced and better prepared. If she teams up with him, she’ll double her chances of bagging the Lizard Man, but will have to split the prize money and the bragging rights.

DARKSPEED (Novel #2 of the Unnatural Adventures)

“Constant danger, threat to life and limb, long hours, dirty work and no pay, what’s not to love?”

After she is fired and dumped on the same day, Elle York thinks things can’t get much worse, but her troubles are just beginning. She discovers a nest of goblins in the sewers, learns that her apartment building is haunted, and stumbles across a dismembered body in her dumpster. To further complicate her life, she finds herself drawn to a shapeshifter, forcing her to reconsider everything she thought she knew about unnaturals.

As the body count skyrockets, Elle realizes that she can’t save Manhattan on her own. She has to turn to a pair of mysterious mercenaries, a witch who faints at the sight of blood, and the shapeshifter for help. Together, they must rid New York City of the goblin infestation and stop an inhuman serial killer before more people die.

Click here to sample the first 5,000 words of DARKSPEED in PDF format. You will need Adobe Acrobat reader or an equivalent PDF reader to view this file. DARKSPEED is copyright © Olivia Leigh Blacke, 2009.

“Boardwalk” (An Elle York Short Story)

Most people think a weekend in Atlantic City is a good way to let their hair down, relax, and maybe lose a couple of bucks at the Black Jack tables. For Elle York, the stakes are much higher...and hairier. The Jersey brothers have invited her to join them for a mini-vacation, but nothing ruins a day at the beach quicker than a pack of rogue werewolves. In a town known for casinos and corruption, Elle learns that there’s more to life than luck.

EXQUISITE NIGHTMARES (Novel #3 of the Unnatural Adventures)

"It’s so much more fun when they fight back.”

Elle York comes face to face with the scariest enemy of her career as a monster hunter; her family. Finding out that no one is who she thought they were, nothing is what it seems, and everything she thought she knew is wrong is only the beginning of this action-packed adventure full of horned demons, bone eaters, and gods who suck the dreams straight out of their victim’s heads. In order for Elle to get to the truth buried under years of deception, she first has to untangle the lies and uncover secrets that should have remained hidden.

“Shroom” (An Elle York Short Story)

When a gargoyle appears in Elle York’s living room begging for help, she decides to do a good deed for the unnatural community for a change. Unfortunately, no good deed ever goes unpunished. In this high-flying adventure, Elle has to face the consequences of her impulsive and indecisive nature while going out on a limb for a monster.

UNNATURAL ALLIES (A crossover novel with GENTRY author Marissa Turner) - A work in process

It’s taken Elle York a long time to learn the value of teamwork, but when she finds herself allied with a werewolf, things get dicey. Someone is systematically trying to wipe out the supernatural population of Savannah. Cliodhna Richardson, enforcer for the local werewolf clan, is convinced that Elle is responsible. Two natural enemies put aside their differences to work together in order to find the real culprit and put him out of commission before more innocents get caught in his crosshairs.

BRIGHTSIDE (Novel #4 of the Unnatural Adventures)

“Everyone has a price, Dr. York.”

Elle York’s personal life is finally settling down, but getting attacked by a six foot tall, bloodthirsty chicken is still her idea of just another day at the office. Her career is back on track and her relationship with Jon Eberly is starting to get serious when a turf war between two rival vampire gangs threatens to destroy everything, and everyone, she cares about.

Elle finds out the hard way that her tight knit group of friends is also her biggest weakness, and when they are threatened, she is willing to do anything it takes to keep them safe - including making a deal with the devil Himself. With her friends’ lives hanging in the balance, failure isn't an option as she faces her toughest enemy yet.

“Blended” (An Elle York Short Story)

For most people, Memorial Day means inviting friends over and throwing meat on the grill in their backyard, but for a group of men who owe their immortality to a demon, the holiday means sacrificing a different kind of animal. When Seth is kidnapped and his soul is offered as payment for an ancient debt, Elle will stop at nothing to get her friend back safe.

SECONDARY INFECTION (Novel #5 of the Unnatural Adventures)

“World’s going to hell and we have front row seats.”

After a mystical virus transforms most of the population of Manhattan into zombies, Elle York stops fighting to save everyone and starts worrying about just staying alive. Finding a way to escape the quarantine zone with her friends and neighbors while they are being pursued by a horde of hungry undead is hard enough, but finding out that she may have inadvertently been responsible for the disaster is more than she can handle. When Armageddon is released, only Elle can stop the infection before it consumes the whole planet.

SLEEPWALKERS (Novel #6 of the Unnatural Adventures)

"What took you so long?"

Elle York always believed that she was supposed to save the world, but learned the horrible truth that her real purpose was to wipe out humanity. After defying her destiny, she thinks that she can finally have the normal life she’s always wanted. When she finds out that there are three more people in the world who have the power to destroy civilization as she knows it, she leaves everything – her friends, her job, even her fiancé – behind to stop them before it’s too late. The clock is ticking, and the fate of the world is on her shoulders as she races to stop the Apocalypse before it's too late.

The Unnatural Adventures of Elle York

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