Page 72 of The Human’s Heart

The only one I wanted to drink from was my viramore.

Well, and Toby, if I was being real. His blood was delicious. Being my sire made me crave it.

But definitely not as much as I craved Zay’s blood.

Shaking that off, I walked into Toby and Thayer’s house without knocking—another thing that was strange to me. I was so completely comfortable just walking in like this. Who would’ve thought little ol’ me could honestly feel like they were my family?

I sure as hell never could’ve imagined it.

“Hey, Hugo!” Thayer yelled from the kitchen.

“Hey!” I yelled back, following the sound of his voice.

When I turned the corner, he was finishing up some dishes and turned to smile at me. “How’s it going?”

“Good.”

“You still feeling okay? Still good with everything?”

It was sweet that he checked in with me often. He knew I’d been scared to become a vampire and had a lot of reservations, so he always made sure I was feeling alright about everything.

“Honestly, I’m feeling great about everything. I feel good, strong, and healthy, and I’m loving living here.”

“That’s great, but I hear a but coming.”

I snorted. “I miss working. That’s actually why I’m here. I wanted to ask Toby if I can go back to work.”

“Ah, makes sense. Let me tell him to come here. He’s over Em and Jules’ house doing… I don’t even know what. Probably work crap. Anyway, let me get him back here so you can talk—”

“Oh no. You don’t have to interrupt him.”

He waved me off. “Trust me, kiddo, he wants to be here for you. He’d be upset if he found out you were looking for him, and he was busy, and I didn’t let him know.”

That made me feel… weird. Sort of guilty, but also… I dunno, pleased, maybe? It was… sweet.

Having a sire was so strange, but I definitely lucked out in that department. Toby was one of the gentlest souls I’d ever met, and he’d truly stepped into that fatherly position seamlessly.

And Thayer was just as… fatherly.

I’d never had that either.

It seemed that Zaos and his family were determined to give me everything I’d ever missed out on and more.

It was only a minute before Toby walked into the house, and I knew he had to have used his vampire speed to get here that quickly. As soon as he saw me, he walked over and pulled me into a hug.

It was a total dad hug, and I was here for it. He always gave me a nice, big dad hug every time we saw each other, even if it’d only been a few hours since we’d last been together.

He released me and squeezed my biceps, grinning at me. “Hey, fledgling. You okay?”

For some reason, the whole fledgling endearment thing felt special, so I smiled back. “Yeah, sire, I’m good.”

He patted my arms, then walked over to Uncle Thay and gave him a quick kiss before turning back to me. “So what’s going on?”

“Um… so… I really, um, miss working… so I was wondering if I can maybe go back to work? Even just part time or something?”

“Oh. Okay. I’m sure we can arrange that.” He stared at Thayer for a moment, and I had a feeling they were speaking telepathically. When he nodded at him and turned back to me, I knew I was right. “The two of us can come with you as your bodyguards. That way we don’t even have to worry about being apart too long.”

That made me equal parts happy and guilty. “Are you sure? I don’t want to mess up your schedules.”