"Great. And now you realize you're not ready to care for people after all? I told you, it's not an easy job! But you have to do it—for your mom," I heard Lazy sigh.

I'd been on the phone with her for over an hour, but the whole time I'd avoided talking about the here and now. How could I possibly explain what was really going on?

"Hey Lazy, the guy I'm supposed to be taking care of is a vampire king, whom I—congratulations to me—freed single-handedly. And now? Now I get weak in the knees when he looks at me. Not just out of fear, but... for other reasons...