There was a cap on the number of humans that could be killed by a single vampire in the course of a year. The number was higher than she liked, but she was not Council and her influence had kept the quantity lower than initially proposed. She'd had to be satisfied with that.
Ingram swallowed. His jaw flexed. "The explanation's appreciated. I understand from your way of thinking you're just treating that one person the way I have to treat my dinner. But when you're the same as that dinner, it's different."
"We may be human in appearance, but vampires are a different species. We exist and thrive in very different environments. There are many mysteries we don't understand about one another."
Her voice was becoming more flat, her body language minimal. Feeling Jacob's close regard again, Lyssa knew she was showing her weariness. While she didn't have to retire at the first glimpse of the sun, this evening, including her fainting episode, had drained her. She'd done her best for now. If they wanted to leave, well, that would be fine. But even as she had the thought, her gaze drifted back to Jacob, his bare shoulders and firm mouth. When a pang of yearning clenched a cold fist in her belly, she had to push it away with a surge of effort.
"That's my philosophy on it," she continued. "But it's not shared by all my kind. Many view you as tools, fodder for entertainment, food, experiments. The same as many of you view other species. Not equals in any sense, not deserving of any rights we haven't given you. Beings who have the simple misfortune of being treated as a product instead of a sentient being with its own right of existence."
She lifted a shoulder. "It's an understandable deduction. For the most part, the weakest of us is superior to you in strength and longevity. Most of us that live to one hundred years outstrip your experiential intelligence, because if we don't, we don't live to see two hundred."
"So you don't agree with that viewpoint?" This from Jacob, his mind working over her words so hard she could see it in his expression.
"Yes. And no." She leaned back in the chair. "I'm a predator, Jacob, and humans are my prey. I'll never view them in a way comfortable to you or your kind. But like the hunter who's finally learned to respect the stag enough to kill few and far between, and only when necessary for food, I've learned there's far more to you. An essence whose value is separate from my needs. However, while a human may sit down to a burger, despite the fact there's a salad bar nearby with enough lower food chain nutrition to fully sustain him, for a vampire there is no salad bar. There is only human blood."
Time ticked away for a quarter of a moment as she waited. Jacob picked up Ingram's keys from the counter as the driver at last raised his gaze, meeting hers with visible effort. "I'll think about it awhile, but if you're… interviewing elsewhere, I'll tell you it's likely I'll say no. There are just some things it's hard for a human to do. It's hard to watch a cat catch a mouse and not help the mouse, isn't it? I could maybe drive you around while you're here, for your manicures and errands. I'd have to think about that, too. I'm just not sure I'm your man for the rest."
"I understand. I appreciate your honesty, more than you realize." Rising, she came around the counter and extended her hand. "Thank you for considering it."
He hesitated. When she began to lower her hand, her gaze frosting, he surprised her by reaching out, albeit awkwardly. A light shake, the way a big man tended to handle a woman's fingers. It almost made her smile, though his honest words had stung. Not because she was ashamed of what she did to survive, but because she liked him.
"I'm finding it hard to believe you're letting me go so easy after telling me all that."
"Well, again, Mr. Ingram, who would believe you? But there's another reason." She withdrew her hand. "No one serves me except by choice."
She shifted her attention to Jacob so he would not miss the warning note in her voice. "Once the choice is made, I become far more territorial."
Chapter Eleven
Jacob remained in the kitchen while she escorted Mr. Ingram to his limo. He wasn't sure what to make of all the images she'd put in his head, all the feelings she'd stirred in him in less than one night's time. Whether it was emotional overload or something else he didn't know, but he realized he needed to shut the tornado of thoughts down. Put them in a room where they might work out to some kind of sense next time he opened the door to look at them.
So he took an orange out of the fruit bowl and began to roll it across the table top between his callused palms. Back, forth. Back, forth. A simple mind-clearing exercise ironically taught to him by Gideon to help him fight vampires, to combat their overwhelming physical and mental presence.
When she returned, he was still doing it. As he lifted his head, he saw she was looking at his wrists, which still bore the light imprint of the manacles. She wet her dry lips, making something tighten in his chest. But he watched her, waiting for her to make the next move. Trying to hold on to a sense of calm.
She moved around the island. "How did you get free?"
"If I tell you that, my lady, you'll know all my secrets. I won't be able to employ the same tactic to get free again."
She stopped, a foot between them. Shifting on the stool so he faced her, he released the orange and laid one arm on the counter, his other hand braced on his thigh in an open, casual pose he was sure she knew was deceptive. A bowstring drawn as taut as he was could send an arrow to the moon.
"So does it get you off, playing the all-powerful Oz?" he asked.
Placing her hand on one of his knees, she exerted pressure until he widened the space between them. She moved in, her gaze on his face. "Is that what you think? That this is about ego?"
"It's got to be, in one form or another. You want me to hand mine to you on a platter."
"I want you to let go of it, so it doesn't stand between me and the rooms of your soul." She blinked. Once. "There's a pleasure in that, I'll not deny it. But there's more to it." When she cupped his jaw, Jacob couldn't help the tension in his neck, resisting the movement. "If you don't learn how to be submissive, Jacob, you won't survive in my world. It's not complicated to understand. The only thing complicated, the only thing to solve, is your refusal to accept it even after all your training with Thomas."