Zomromcom

Zomromcom is the first book in the Supernatural Entanglements series.

Edie Brandstrup, a soap maker, lives in her childhood home in Zone A of the Containment Zone, a walled-off area in Northern Virginia established after a secret government experiment created zombies. She has remained there since her parents were killed in the First Breach twenty years earlier. Returning home at dusk, Edie sees a zombie sprinting toward her neighbor, Chad, who is oblivious while wearing headphones. Fearing for his life, Edie intercepts the zombie, kicking it and hitting it with her burrito. The creature turns its attention to her.

Just as the zombie is about to pounce, Chad kills it by slicing its head off with a large knife. Edie is stunned to find that her neighbor is not the dim-witted young man she thought he was. He is well-spoken with a faint French accent, disdainful of her actions, and dressed in a leather hoodie and sheepskin underwear. When a second zombie attacks, he kills it with his bare hands by tearing out its heart. He warns Edie that more zombies are coming and forces her into a hidden shelter beneath his house.

They descend a long ladder into a vast, modern, and luxurious underground lair. Edie calls the Containment Zone Emergency Line to report the breach, but the call is abruptly disconnected, and no warning sirens sound. Soon after, the power, internet, and cell service fail. The man formerly known as Chad finds this suspicious, as he has his own independent systems. Using his security cameras, they see a large pack of zombies surrounding his house. He reveals he was playing the role of "Bro Chad" to ensure his privacy. During their conversation, Edie discovers his refrigerator contains only bags of blood and realizes he is a vampire. He offers her shelter, claiming it is to repay his debt to her for attempting to save his life. Edie, however, is determined to leave at dawn to warn other residents.

The vampire reveals his real name is Gaston Maxime, but he prefers Max. He shares classified government files on the zombies, revealing they were created as supersoldiers to kill werewolves. He also debunks common myths about vampires, explaining they historically avoided daylight for secrecy, not because it harmed them. Max gives Edie his bed for the night. She has a vivid nightmare about her parents' deaths, reliving the moment she hid in the attic as they were killed below, fulfilling a promise that saved her life. Max comforts her when she wakes.

The next morning, Edie insists on leaving. Max reveals he has been secretly protecting her from intruders for over a year and agrees to accompany her. In Edie's garage workshop, she recognizes his video equipment and realizes he is the anonymous creator of the popular YouTube fashion channel, Better Than You Beauty and Fashion. They take Max's SUV and drive toward the main access road. They discover the drawbridge over the moat between Zone A and Zone B is down and the wall door is open, which should be impossible. They conclude the breach was an act of sabotage.

While driving across the bridge, they are trapped by zombies approaching from both directions. The creatures swarm the bulletproof SUV, which begins to cave under their weight. Max drives the vehicle against the barrier rail, and they escape by jumping through the windows into the moat below. Edie surfaces safely but dives back down, believing Max is drowning. She gasps underwater while trying to rescue him, and he is forced to save her, revealing he was only retrieving supplies. On the bank of the moat, they share their first kiss before seeking shelter in a nearby abandoned mall.

Inside the mall, they find refuge in an old Pottery Barn, where a sofa reminds Edie of one her parents owned. Max helps Edie out of her wet clothes, drying her off and bringing her to orgasm with his hands and mouth. They nap together, and he reveals that fae, a type of Supernatural being, murdered his parents when he was a child by using their ability to steal lifespans. Their rest is interrupted by a gang of armed counterfeiters led by Belinda, Austin, and Doug, who claim the mall as their territory. A tense standoff is defused when they discover a mutual connection: they are all fans of a YouTube channel that has featured both Edie's soap-making and Max's fashion videos.

Max and Edie spend the day and evening with the counterfeiters. That night, after he feeds from her wrist, they have sex for the first time. He reveals this is the first time he has fed from or been intimate with anyone since a betrayal twenty years ago. They leave the mall at dawn and meet a troop of Girl Explorers led by a girl named Riley. Riley identifies Max as a vampire and reveals that her neighbor, a witch, has used scrying, a form of magical divination, and believes demons were involved in the breach. Max and Edie decide to investigate the breach site themselves to gather evidence before alerting any authorities.

At the breach site near Wall One, they find the mutilated bodies of two guards. While there are signs of demonic involvement, such as burn marks and the smell of sulfur, Max detects the faint scent of dead roses on bruises around the guards' wrists and ankles, the signature of fae violence. They speculate that a revolutionary fae faction orchestrated the breach, killed the guards, and framed the demons. They fear the fae plan to use the zombies to eradicate humans and other vulnerable Supernatural species. Realizing they cannot go to the authorities without risking a human-Supernatural war, they resolve to stop the zombies themselves while they are still within the Containment Zone.

Returning to Max's house for supplies, they are ambushed by a stray zombie. Max is severely wounded while shielding Edie. He makes her promise to kill him if he shows signs of transforming into a zombie, then collapses. Edie gets him to his library, where she tends to his wounds. She finds what appear to be teeth marks where the skin is not broken, but Max notes the wound could have already partially healed. He survives past the ten-minute transformation window for humans without changing. As he sleeps, Edie realizes she is in love with him. He wakes at dusk, mostly healed, and reveals he was "detaching" from life, a vampire condition that leads to self-destruction, before she intervened, and that she has saved him.

The next morning, they track Riley's scent to the home of a witch named Sabrina and her wife, a telepath named Starla, who is gravely ill. Sabrina is initially hostile, revealing she knows Max's full name and believes he murdered his former lover, Jacquette. Starla agrees to use her telepathy to recruit help. Their small force assembles: Gwen, a pregnant oracle; Kip and Lorraine, two trolls; and Riley and her troop. Sabrina casts a truth spell on cider they all drink. Under its influence, Riley reveals her troop is composed of half-fae who use glamours (magical disguises) to appear human. The trolls admit their famed clumsiness is an act, and Gwen reveals she is pregnant. Max is forced to tell the full story of Jacquette's betrayal and death in self-defense, proving his innocence. Sabrina reveals her magic is weakened from keeping Starla alive, and they form a truce.

That night, the group lures the zombie pack to their location on Cloverleaf Drive with a house fire. As they watch the house burn, Edie tells Max she is ready to move from the Containment Zone, resolving her long-held grief. Their traps, a large pit and razor wire, incapacitate many zombies but are quickly overwhelmed. The five main fighters, Edie, Max, Sabrina, Kip, and Lorraine, engage the zombies, while the Girl Explorers use their fae powers to restrain them. As the Explorers' power fades, Gwen creates a lye-and-water explosion as a distraction. The remaining zombies go after her. Doug and Belinda, the counterfeiters, arrive unexpectedly to defend Gwen. Edie distracts the last few zombies by singing a song from the children's show Enora the Explorer, allowing them to be killed.

A final, hidden zombie ambushes Max. Edie shoves him to safety and takes the attack, killing the creature but getting severely injured and bitten in the process. With less than ten minutes before Edie fully transforms, Max begs Sabrina to save her. Sabrina reveals the only way is a magical exchange: a life for a life. Just before the sacrifice, Max gives her his mother's pomander, a silver scent ball, for luck. He then sacrifices his immortality to save Edie. The spell works; Edie is healed, and Max becomes a mortal vampire, now warm and with a faster heartbeat. He tells her that giving up endless centuries of isolation to live a mortal life with her is a happy ending.

In the aftermath, Gwen has a powerful, clear vision of a future massacre where fae and uniformed humans are working together to slaughter other Supernaturals. She knows of a powerful representative on the Supernatural and Enhanced Ruling Council (SERC) who might believe her story. Max reveals he plans to call in favors to try to restore immortality for both himself and Edie, and also offers to help Sabrina and Starla gain immortality. The story continues in the next book of the series.