The Unearthly (The Unearthly #1)
by Laura Thalassa
The first time I was declared dead, I lost my past. The second time, I lost my humanity. Now I’m being hunted, and if I die again, my soul is up for forfeit.
After enrolling in Peel Academy, an elite supernatural boarding school on the British Isles, the last of the sirens, Gabrielle Fiori, only wants to fit in. Instead, the elixir meant to awaken her supernatural abilities kills her.
When Gabrielle wakes up in the morgue twelve hours later, something wicked is awakened in her, something even the supernatural community has never seen before. Now the only person who can help her is Andre de Leon, the community's infamous bad boy and the king of vampires.
Yet even his help can’t prevent the repeated attempts on Gabrielle’s life. Someone is after her, and they will stop at nothing to end her short existence. Only Gabrielle cannot let that happen now that her soul hangs in the balance, because she may have met the devil. And he wants her. Bad.
About the Author
Excerpt
I woke up to darkness. I blinked in an effort to make out my surroundings, but I could not see anything. As I tried to sit up my head hit a solid surface.“Ow.” I reached up to rub my head, and my elbow banged against a metal wall, making a tinny, reverberating sound.
I tried not to panic. Where was I?
I tentatively reached up and touched the low metal ceiling. It felt filmsy. My hands followed the ceiling’s contours and quickly hit the edge of what appeared to be a metal box.
I felt around with my feet as my pulse spiked, now frantic to figure out where I was. As I moved, a piece of paper attached to my big toe brushed my skin. I sucked in my breath.
Oh. No.
I remembered from CourtTV. There was only one place where tags were placed on toes. The morgue. Somehow I had ended up at the morgue.
I let loose a bloodcurdling scream and began kicking the metal wall beyond my feet. To my shock, as I kicked the wall beyond my feet, the metal gave in. It groaned as each successive blow dented it outwards.
On the other side of the metal I heard someone cursing.
“Help! Please!” I shouted.
I heard someone swear. “What in the world-”
Suddenly I was rolled out from my metal prison. I sat up, belatedly realizing that only a thin paper blanket covered me. I clutched it to myself and squinted up at a young man in scrubs. His face was pale and his eyes were huge as he stared at my lively appearance.
He began to back up. “I-I’ll go get...” He turned on his foot and sprinted out of the morgue.
I sat there, stunned at my surroundings. Had I died? I tried to recall my last memories. I remembered wearing the white robe and being led into a dark room. Women dressed in shimmering garments gave me something to drink. Then it all went fuzzy.
For a moment that was all I could recall. Then a dizzying series of images came flooding back. There had been blood everywhere-and the awful convulsions. I put a hand to my mouth when I remembered the sharp, lacerating pain where my gums split open.
What had happened to me?
Distantly I heard a series of footsteps slapping against the linoleum along with the sound of rickety wheels.
The doors burst open, and a group of doctors and nurses came in, wheeling in a gurney. They placed me on it and began strapping various medical instruments to my body. Then the questions began.
“How long have you been awake?”
“Five minutes?”
“Are you experiencing nausea?”
“No.”
“Does anything hurt?”
“Not particularly.”
“How do you feel?”
I thought about this last question as they rolled me down the hall.
“I feel good.” I paused. “Actually, I feel really good.”
In fact, my senses were sharper than they’d ever been. I could see clearly all the way down the hall. And I could smell everything, from the chemical scent of disinfectant, to the underlying smell of bodily fluids-sweat, vomit, urine, blood.
I asked aloud the question that plagued me. “Why was I in the morgue?”
The doctor nearest me looked over. “Last night you were proclaimed legally dead.”
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