It takes Jay a moment to decipher what the Initiate is saying, but once he does, he starts giggling.

"Oh, darling, they don't need to eat! And yes, they're ... ours. In a way. They're awfully dull, however. We were looking for ways to make them ... brighter. More capable. More ... useful as ... ah. Servants."

A grin. A predatory one.

"As guards. And really, there's a lot of prestige in being able to maintain a small band of living dead. It takes one's own power, after all. They don't run themselves and it's not like you can plug them into an electric socket."