Running with the Devil

Tara Vance has never finished anything.

Not a fitness program. Not a sourdough starter. Not a single one of the twelve races she's registered for. So when she drunkenly follows a TikTok ritual the night before the Boilermaker 15K, she's just hoping the universe will cut her a break.

The universe sends Azrak the Unyielding instead.

He's a demon of endurance — six-foot-five, skin like heated silk, and a tail with absolutely no boundaries. He's also one failed contract away from demotion to an eternity of causing lost socks and bad Wi-Fi. His deal is simple: supernatural stamina in exchange for one kiss per mile. Quick. Professional. Mouth-to-mouth energy transfer, nothing more.

Then he explains what mile four requires. And mile nine. And what "full body contact" means at mile twelve.

Every kiss hits harder than the last. His hands learn her body faster than any training plan. His tail writes filthy poetry on her thighs in dead languages and proposes marriage in three more. The psychic bond that opens at mile seven means she can feel exactly what he wants to do to her — and he can feel that she wants him to. By the time his glamour fails and she sees the real him, all shadow and heat and hunger, "professional" isn't a word either of them can say with a straight face.

Tara has spent her whole life running from commitment. Azrak has spent three millennia hiding behind contracts because no one has ever wanted the demon underneath. Now, with 9.3 miles of July asphalt between them and the finish line, an unhinged werewolf livestreaming their every move, and a hell-adjacent energy drink company trying to monetize their chemistry, they'll both have to decide: complete the contract and walk away clean, or finally stop running from the one thing worth getting wrecked for.

Running with the Devil is a scorching paranormal rom-com about finding your stride — in racing, in bed, and in life — even when your motivation comes straight from Hell's middle management. Expect escalating kisses, a tail with no impulse control, and a finish line that's really just the beginning.