Sympathy For The Devil, An Urban Romantasy

Turns out hell has an HOA.

After surviving demon clowns, sewers guarded by wolf-men, and my own spectacular incompetence with a sword, I figured I had a decent handle on this Soul Retriever gig. Ten souls, one favor to Afterlife Enterprises, and I get to keep this second chance at living. Simple enough.

Except nobody handed me an employee handbook for what came next: the Underground City isn't the vague, poetic "circles of hell" I was picturing. It's an actual city. Streets. Subways. Skyscrapers with working elevators and truly baffling interior design choices. Somewhere along the way, hell got public transit, and nobody thought to mention it.
And presiding over all of it? Alaire.

Impeccably dressed, terrifyingly polite, and about as trustworthy as a man who deals exclusively in souls, Alaire runs the Underground City the way other men run empires: with total control, a cold smile, and the quiet assumption that everyone eventually gives him what he wants. And right now? He wants dinner with me...

Right. Talk about a date worse than getting catfished on Bumble... Anyway, after I said "no", Alaire hands me a business card with three sixes on it and tells me to call if I change my mind.

Tallis, of course, is thrilled I said no, right up until it becomes clear that turning Alaire down doesn't mean the problem goes away. Jealousy looks good on a two-thousand-year-old Highland warrior who already growls more than he talks. But it looks a lot less good when I catch myself feeling the same thing right back.

I've got souls to retrieve, an alcoholic guardian angel to keep out of trouble, a sword I still can't quite handle, and a body count of demons I'd rather not think too hard about. Every infraction brings me closer to a hundred years of nothing. I only get to make one more mistake before that becomes my problem.

Turns out afterlife office politics are deadly serious. Who knew.

Just when I think I've dodged Alaire for good, a single text message changes everything: an accusation, a deadline, and an invitation I can't say no to twice. Whatever's waiting for me at those gates, I have a feeling "dinner" is the least of what Alaire has planned.

The problem isn't surviving the Underground City. It's that somewhere between Tallis's jealousy, Alaire's games, and a city built on every rule I thought I understood about the afterlife, I'm starting to realize the real danger was never the place.

It's the very fine line between the devil who wants to own me, and the warrior who's already starting to feel like mine.

One-click now for the second bite of this funny, unique, and increasingly dangerous romantasy series.
The saga continues in Book Three of The Underground City Series, To Hell and Back.