"I don't think assassins this good wear Venetian carnival masks in downtown Tacoma, so the nicknames and masks don't help," he said.
"So we know everything and nothing useful," I said.
"If I'd taken the contract to kill the Queen vampire, she'd be dead right now."
"Or you would and I'd be talking to Peter about why he's lost a second dad."
Edward gave me the full weight of his cold gaze. "You know how good I am at my job."
I'd had years of practice meeting that cold gaze. I met it now. "You don't understand, Edward. She's the darkness, the night itself made alive."
"I wouldn't have just blown her body up and called the job done," he said. "Something that supernatural needed magic to kill it for good."
"What—you would have brought a witch along?"
"No, but I would have gone to one and gotten charms, a blessed weapon, something. The mercenaries the vampire council hired to kill her treated her like just another mark and now we're all in the shit because of it."
I couldn't argue with him; he was too right. The Harlequin had been the law of the vampire council in Europe for thousands of years, but their original job had been as bodyguards to their Dark Queen. Half of them had broken with the vampire council and were back to taking orders from the Mother of All Darkness.
"They thought fire would destroy her," I said.
"Would you have assumed that?"
I thought about it. "No."
"What would you have done?"
"I'd have plastered myself with holy items, thrown more holy items on the body so her spirit couldn't leave the body she's in, and taken her head and heart, then I'd have burned it all separately down to ash, and put the ashes of the head, the heart, and the body in different bodies of running water."