Page 186 of Plug and Drain

“Who did that to you?” she asked in a muffled tone.

“They did,” he said, jerking his head at the manor behind him. “They’re bloodsucking lunatics—and that’s simply stating a fact.”

Susie reached out to touch him, and he held still as she hesitantly ran a hand along his right arm. Her fingertips lingered over a particularly nasty crescent-shaped bite where the skin was yellow and bruised. “Are you in pain?”

“Not particularly. They’re a little sore.”

“These look awful,” she whispered. He chuckled. “I thought witches were nice.”

“Oh, they are.” Arken began putting on his shirt. “They’re the friendliest people you’ll ever meet, and highly intelligent. But they’re also a little air-headed, and the older ones are quite compulsive.”

Susie wore a deep frown as she watched him button up his shirt. “Compulsive?”

“Some of them have been alive for centuries. It’s made them rather…silly.”

“Surely not all witches are like that?”

“All the ones in my acquaintance are. Unless you know of any others?”

Susie gave her head a quick shake. “Why are you letting them bite you? Are they hungry?”

“Not exactly. Their food and water magically replenishes, so hypothetically, they have enough reserves to stay here and live forever. But whenever they use their magic, it ages them, and the only way to reverse the process is if they drink vampire blood.”

“So, you’ve been letting them feed off you?”

“Precisely.”

“But…” Susie took a step back, shaking her head and scanning his body, even though he’d put his shirt back on…as if remembering where the marks were. “You’ve got bite marks everywhere!”

“And cuts. See?” He showed her his wrist before he buttoned up the cuff. “I try to encourage them to drink from a clean cut, for my sake, and most of them are quite good about waiting for their turn. But when I’m in there, I’m quite outnumbered.”

Susie rubbed her face. “This…is the stupidest, most bizarre thing I’ve ever heard of in my life. Why…?” She struggled for words. “Is that where you go every night? Do you come here and…let them drink your blood?”

“In recent times, yes. It used to be Nathaniel’s job. I think he’s a little more efficient at keeping them in line than I am.”

Nathaniel had emphasised the importance of a whip crack to get the witches' attention, and that when that stopped working, a good whipping would bring them into line.

Arken hadn’t had the heart. He’d tried restraining them, but with nearly fifty witches and wizards milling about, it was difficult to maintain any kind of order.

“I have to do this,” Arken said gently. “They need me. I bring vials of vampire blood when I can, but it’s hard to come by. Given there are so many of them, I can only give each of them enough to stay alive, so most of the witches appear quite old. There used to be seventy, but Nathaniel couldn’t keep them all alive, so he had to make some difficult decisions.”

“Decide who gets to live, and who gets to die?” Susie muttered.

“Exactly. The witches wouldn’t be quite so reckless with their magic if they weren’t confined like this. Fortunately, as they grow older, they tend to stop using magic, especially as they approach the brink of death.”

“And when they’re not on the brink of death? What happens after you’ve given them blood?”

“They become young and reckless again,” Arken said, giving a helpless shrug as he fumbled with his neck scarf. He wasn’t sure if it was Susie’s close proximity or his growing fatigue, but his fingers weren’t cooperating very well.

Suddenly, Susie was standing in his space, helping him with his neck scarf. Her hands brushed the front of his shirt as she worked.

“Why on earth don’t they just stop using magic then?” she asked as she finished tying the scarf.

“Because, as I said, they have been stuck in this plane for a good decade and a half, and they’re incredibly bored.”

Susie’s fingers stilled in the middle of smoothing his neck scarf. “They’re bored?”

“Yes.”