Lucille nodded. "She's one in a million. She is Kindred, however."
Mason nodded... trying to take in this factor. If Lyness was a vampire, then, her power to communicate with animals was a vampire power. That meant ... ohhhhhhhhh ... Mason sat back in her chair with the overwhelming realization.
She tried to frame it into words. "Miss Semingworth, may I ... request of Lady Lyness that she try to teach me to communicate with animals as she does? According to my research, it is my ingestion of your blood that lets me learn a fraction of your, well, supernatural abilities. So I'd need to ask that of her as well... I realize she probably won't acceed, but, think how useful it would be to know if it worked or not, and how long it took if it did."
Apparently Lucille considered this a valid argument, or had some other reason for wishing Mason to converse further with Lyness, for she assented. She seemed quite doubtful that Mason would meet with success, though she thought it quite likely Lyness would be happy to try - Lucille knew more of Lyness and her ways than Mason did.
Mason was quite pleased. Her pleasure didn't dim even when she realized that her desire to communicate with animals had begun not when she met Lyness, but when she met Nicholas. In fact she nearly skipped downstairs to tell Brutis the good news. He took it with canine equanimity.