"So vamps have secret lives? Who'd have guessed that?" I said, a tad more sarcastically than was wise.
Anger flashed across her expression, and something within me chilled. Don't poke the bear, I reminded myself fiercely. Not if you want to avoid being executed by the high council.
"Vampires are hardly alone in keeping secrets," she said, her voice crisp, holding little of the fire I'd seen only a heartbeat ago. That I'd even seen it suggested that whatever the problem was, it was big. Or at the very least, annoying. "And you would do well to remember that, considering how well your mother kept her own secrets."
"My mother's secrets were little more than an unorthodox birth and upbringing, and it'd be of little use to anyone now to reveal it." As Jak would say, she was old news. "Speaking of my mother, just what is happening with the hunt for her killer? You did promise to put full resources behind the investigation if I helped you and the council."
She paused, considering me for a moment, reminding me very much of a cat studying its prey and wondering whether to eat it or play with it. "The hunt is currently at a standstill."
That much I'd gathered. "Why?"
"Because there are no leads. Whoever killed your mother did so without leaving any sort of trace evidence."
"Given her battered state—" I paused, swallowing heavily as I tried to ignore the memories that rose. "How could the killer have left no evidence whatsoever? Even if he was wearing a full DNA containment suit, there must have at least been footprint smudges."
There'd been too much of her blood, too much of her flesh and body parts, splattered around. No killer, no matter how careful, should have been able to get out of that kitchen without leaving some trace of himself. Unless he could fly. But even then, there should have been DNA evidence of a shape-shift—even if it was only feather fluff lost in the change.
"The Directorate is at a loss to explain it, and neither they nor the Cazadors have had any luck uncovering anyone who might have wanted your mother dead."
So she had kept her word and thrown the resources of the council behind the hunt. She'd ordered a Cazador—who were basically the vampire council's leashed killers—to look into it. It was actually more than I'd thought she would do, even though she had made the promise.
"So we're looking for a ghost?"
"Or an Aedh."
Her words hit like ice, chilling me to the bone. An Aedh could get in and out unseen, and they certainly had the capability to tear a body apart without leaving any trace of themselves behind. Hell, I could do it if I wanted to. It was the nastier side of my Aedh heritage, one I'd been reluctantly taught by Quinn, Riley's vampire lover and a man who'd once trained to be an Aedh priest.
"But why would an Aedh want to tear my mom apart like that?"