Page 39 of How a Vampire Falls

“No, now.”

“If you’re worried I’ll mess up the math, believe me—I won’t.”

“I couldn’t care less about the math right now. This isn’t about your productivity. It’s about taking care of yourself.”

“I’m a vampire, and I—”

“You’re aperson, and you’re not freaking invulnerable. Go. To. Bed.”

Sleep sounded so good he nearly began to cry. Whoa. Maybe he was actually tired. He leaned toward the phone and let his face fill her screen, and she shook her head.

“You look terrible,” she said.

“I…” He pressed his fingers to his eyes, which now burned. “Leslie, I have to get this done. There’s already been a continuance; the judge said she’s not allowing another one. If my report isn’t ready to present at ten tomorrow morning, these people could get away with everything they’ve been doing.”

“I hear all of that. But you’re beyond exhausted. I can see it and I’m not even there.”

“I…”

“If you go to bed now, you’ll wake up at one in the afternoon. That’s plenty of time to be ready the next morning if all you have to do is organize and type everything up.”

Was it? He could hardly think.

“Does this have anything to do with the matchmaker test question you didn’t answer?”

He blinked. Pressed his palm to his head, which had been aching for a full day now. “What?”

“It was a True or False. ‘I am more than the sum of my accomplishments.’ It’s the only question you left blank.”

A flash of memory from ten years ago… Reading the question over and over, fighting with the part of him that knew the correct answer was True but feeling deep in his cold un-aging bones that for him if for no one else in the world, this was absolutely false. He was precisely the sum of his accomplishments. He tackled a thing, did it well, finished it well.

“Right,” Leslie said as though he’d responded. “Okay, we’ll talk more about this when you’re not catastrophically depleted.”

A laugh broke from him. “I’m what now?”

“You heard me, vampire.” She brought her phone close to her face. “Sorry I’m not there to say this in person, but you listen up anyway.”

He nodded.

“Ryker, you accomplish a lot, but it’s not all you are. I’m not dating you for your accomplishments. I’m dating you because you’re so much more.”

A salty lump filled his throat, and he swallowed hard. “Okay.”

“Now put the work down and go rest. You get to rest just like everyone else on the planet.”

“I can probably finish it in the next couple hours.”

“No. Trust me on this. Set an alarm if you’re afraid you’ll sleep past one, butdo notset it for earlier than one. Promise me.”

He nodded.

“Say it.”

Even his laugh sounded tired now. “I promise not to set my alarm for earlier than one.”

“Good. And good night.”

“G’night, Leslie.”

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