Page 44 of Plug and Drain

Could it be? But why would she save me? She was so upset after I attacked her…

He stared at the crackling flames as he stewed in his thoughts, trying to decide what Susie’s actions meant. Had it been a mere act of kindness? Or a sense of obligation? She seemed like the sort of kind-hearted soul who willingly helped others—even someone like him.

Arken found himself hoping that it was a third option. It was as unlikely as it was foolish, of course, but he entertained the thought as he soaked in the fire’s warmth, sinking deeper and deeper into the enchanted armchair. He was so preoccupied with thoughts of Susie that when a viny tendril tried to push a piece of chocolate into his mouth, he let it.

The chocolate melted in his mouth. Dark, sweet, and tangy—almost as delicious as Susie’s blood, which surpassed them all and filled his veins like wildfire.

In an instant, his hunger returned with an intensity that outstripped all previous desires. His body was bursting with strength, but he craved blood all the same. It had nothing to do with his physical state, and everything to do with the desperate loneliness that had carved a hollow in his chest over the past decade.

He wanted blood, and the connection that came with it. And not just anyone’s.

Hers.

Chapter 13

Summoned

Susie

The side of Susie’s palm was stained with dark blue ink, her quill tip blotting the parchment as she hastily re-dipped it.

She didn’t care about the stains. She was too immersed in her analysis of the romantic drama Professor Marmala had been teaching them. Susie took to Literature like a duck to water, and she wrote frantically, her hand aching as she tried to put into words the ideas bursting from her mind.

Julianna initially doubts the integrity of Matthew, she wrote, and the unfolding events lead to a crisis that requires personal growth and change for their love to endure.

The quill scratched the page, a dance between passion and precision.

The play delves into themes of trust, self-worth, and the transformative nature of l—

She paused, her skin prickling with a strange, unsettling tingle as the words sunk into her like talons. A feeling of dread began to build inside her as she reread what she’d written. The light-hearted play, which had always brought her comfort, suddenly caused her stomach to turn uncomfortably. The tip of her quill hovered, poised to attack as she considered crossing out the sentence.

“Fifteen minutes,” Professor Marmala called, giving the class an encouraging smile. “Do your best to complete your essays. At ten o’clock, we will be moving on to a discussion of Magor’s Fairy Tales.”

Susie chewed the end of her quill as she refocused on her essay, her momentary discomfort forgotten as she tried to recapture her train of thought.

The transformative nature of…?

She exhaled through her nose.

Love, she finished, then stopped to stare at the word, her brow furrowed as she the words bled into the page. Her quill tip rested on the end of the sentence, the full stop growing larger by the second as fat beads of ink slid down.

She was stuck on how to proceed.

What came after love?

Disappointment?

Betrayal?

Both, she thought, but she was no longer thinking of the comedy, which had turned out alright in the end, a happily ever after without a loose end in sight.

Love was a funny thing, which Susie had limited experience with, and had first been introduced to by her rule-abiding parents. They’d been eager to send her to Volmasque Academy when she turned eighteen. Unlike some of the other shifter parents, Susie’s parents had made no attempt to hide her away at her grandparents’ farm or a great aunt’s country dwelling like some of the other shifter parents had with their children. No, her parents had considered the academy a natural progression in Susie’s life, and a part of stepping into adulthood. They’d never actually attended Volmasque themselves since the academy had only been formed after Henrikk came into power.

Still, they were convinced beyond a doubt that it was a good idea. Assimilation was a trait that Susie’s parents had in spades, and they were confident she would inherit that quality from them in due time. Susie wasn’t so sure.

“You must attend the academy!” her mother had cried aghast every evening at the dinner table. “Those are the rules.”

“And it’s the law,” her father would add.