A Stumble into Deceit.

She acted more like a girl, but it was laced with a hint of danger, one that made Jacob raise his left brow with intrigue, but as for the question, he decided to ignore her altogether. Shackles around her arms and ankles looked dark, almost as if burn marks, his nose confirmed. If she escaped from The Agency, why was she still sporting them? Was she unable to get out of them? Or was he perhaps overestimating her abilities? “You’ve killed a man here in this city. That kind of behavior tends to attract unwanted attention.” He had two motives behind saying that. The first was to tell if she was able to figure out if he was lying, and the second, he still had to pretend to operate within legal bounds in case a ‘hero’ decided to intervene.

The words that she uttered in her soft voice almost confirmed his fears, but then again, Jacob likely was not the first that the Agency sent to retrieve the girl, so it was more than likely that she simply figured that whoever that came after her was surely from the agency. The more she spoke, the more assured Jacob became that he was not dealing with someone of a sound mind. The more she walked towards him, the more he took steps back. He wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of the hunt, if that's what she had implied earlier.

And as he continued to observe, he noticed one of her eyes to be glowing like his was, hinting at the fact that perhaps she too was a nocturnal creature.

She continued to speak in her lower tone. “I can help you, if you let me.” He almost looked like he was cowering, but as long as his prey was interested in him, and moving towards him, Jacob was still very much in the game. But the most concerning aspect was her shifting moods so to speak. She seemed thrilled and he could feel the malice in her, and all the same he could feel that she was not all there, almost as though she was absent minded. That was just on the outside. He could sense her fragility, her starved body and its need for rest and sustenance and yet, the mind that drove it didn’t seem concerned.

He took a risk, a calculated risk. “...and they can give you what you want.” He remembered something he’d read about in one of the files. “Stories…don’t you want to listen to their stories?” If she was as intelligent as the report suggested, then she was smart enough to not fall for his tricks, but if those were something that gave her stimulation, then against her better judgment, she ought to go for what he was offering. He hoped.

Her aura seemed to flicker all of a sudden, an ocean of bloodlust seemed to want to drown Jacob in it. It roused the beast in him, agitating the beastial side of him. It prompted him to respond. In that moment, he felt pressured teeth becoming canine and facial expression contored, but it was likely a different kind from what Lyra was likely imagining it to be. “You…don’t want to do this, trust me.” And if all failed? If she attacked? Then he was going to respond with force as well. The bounty was to bring her alive, not unbroken.

Jacob paused as well, when she did. Her words left him with a bad taste on the tip of his tongue. She looked so young, probably no older than when he was, when he had that life threatening accident and almost died. Suppose he ceased being human afterwards. Had his choices in life been different, he probably wouldn’t be much different.

Her words were spat out, harsh and in them were signs of her own frustration. It was understandable, being caged like an animal and treated like one. But the more she spoke, the less inclined to treat her with humanity he felt. Plus there was the fact that she did not entirely give off the smell of a human being. Maybe she had something inside her that was human, and perhaps it was that that was preventing her from being an absolute monster. Either way, Jacob came to terms with one thing. She needed to be removed. The question was, in how he was supposed to do that.

And she was trying to play a mental game with him. To get him to reveal his hand, perhaps. Whatever the case, she made it known just how sure she was about herself and the position she was in, evident by the fact that she sat down on the ground. Her tone revealed her mindset, a hint of her bemusement.

Jacob followed by example, and he sat down on the ground opposite her, his eyes still glowing in the dim moonlight that caressed the low cut grass in the park, and the canopy of trees around them, and the bushes underneath. The park itself that would normally be abundant with the sound of crickets or bats or owls appeared almost completely silent in response to the presence of two hunters.

The aura he presented neither stagnated nor changed, he was still one full of calm, but if you looked closely, he was not to be approached casually. His arms appeared to rest on his knees but they were ready to carve through the flesh and tandon of anyone brave enough to test them. “And yet, it didn’t stop me from finding you.” Using just bits and pieces of information, he was able to find someone in a city of millions. Could his skill be doubted? “You seem to hate this Agency. The moon is full and we have some time on our hands. If you aren’t willing to hear stories, would you rather tell me yours? Or is it just going to continue to be about how you love to hunt and kill, because trust me, that is mundane.” Or as she called it, boring.

And then she dropped onto the ground, stretching her arms and legs, to reveal how thin she was. She had muscles but they were merely outlining her skin and bones. She looks malnourished, if anything.

And when she lifted her head up, their gazes would meet and she would be able to see an unchanging expression, glowing eyes and a face partly covered by shadows in contrast to the moon gleaming down from above. A gentle breeze swept across them, and her scent, fresh, attacked his nose once more, reminding of just how dangerous this child-like creature actually was, despite her current demeanor. It was disgusting. And then her head went back down.

The dog? The city? The village? Her aura changed again, to be replaced by an energy human, she was tired, wasn’t she? Hungry? Or was it both. Despite her words, her mental as well as physical state of being was clear to Jacob, someone who was well versed in the study of mannerisms and body language. It was a useful skill to have in the profession. “All this talk is making me hungry. Want to go grab something to eat?” He asked instead, completely ignoring her question yet again. Last thing he needed to do was have her lose interest in him, and if he were to just follow everyone of her whims like a good little cub scout, she was going to decide Jacob was not worth her time, and either move on or start attacking, both of which were worse than if he could simply subdue her without using up more energy than it needed.