Page 39 of The Vampire and the Case of the Baleful Banshee

I looked at her squarely. ‘Honestly, I don’t, but I must say you don’t seem as bereft as one might expect.’

She gave a sharp, rueful laugh. ‘Of course not! My daughter has ascended,’ she said triumphantly.

I blinked at her. I had no idea what she was talking about. My ignorance must have shown on my face because she explained. ‘Banshees have two life cycles. In our mortal shell we can procreate and live like other supernats, but our next life cycle is not guaranteed. Only one banshee in each family in each generation can ascend. And my Aoife was chosen.’ She sounded proud, not sad in the slightest.

Okay, so maybe that explained why she wasn’t devastated – though presumably it meant no earthly future for her daughter, no wedding, no grandchildren. Wasn’t that worth a little sadness? ‘What happens to those that don’t ascend?’

She shrugged. ‘They move on, leave this world like anyone else.’

‘What does it mean to be one of the ascended?’ I was curious what effect Aoife in her spirit banshee form could have on the physical plane.

‘Haven’t you ever heard of our kind, vampire?’ Nora sneered at me.

‘Of course I have, but I didn’t know about your double life cycle, or the one banshee per family per generation thing. Supernats are close-mouthed about their own species.’ I kept my voice matter of fact.

She huffed. ‘As a regular banshee, she’ll wail the deaths of an entire generation of the Sullivan clan. If she’s a strong banshee, she’ll be able to communicate with her loved ones, both friends and family. And if she’s exceptional, as I think she will be, she’ll be able to affect the physical world to some extent. She may even be able to communicate with people that she doesn't have a strong emotional connection to.’

Aoife had appeared to us: did that mean she was super strong? I perked up a little. If she could communicate, perhaps she could tell us who killed her. ‘You say she could move things around. Is that like a poltergeist?’

‘It depends on how strong she is. We have a family story about my great-great-great grandmother. She was almost as physically present as I am.’

‘When I told you the news of Aoife’s death, you said there was already a Sullivan banshee.’

‘There is,’ she sniffed. ‘But from a different generation. I wasn’t sure if there’d been enough time between the last banshee’s and Aoife’s deaths, but evidently there was.’

I’d had no idea that banshees were so complex. Multiple lifecycles and some of the ascended-spirit banshees could impact directly on the world. I’d certainly seen and heard Aoife, but what I’d seen was a scared girl wailing about her premature death. She had seemed pretty fucking traumatised to me – but what did I know?

Chapter 23

I continued the interview. ‘Did you know that Aoife had stolen the fire gem?’ I asked abruptly, hoping to shock something out of her.

Nora pursed her lips. ‘Not until you told me,’ she said flatly.

‘Do you know why she did that?’

She smirked proudly. ‘To bring that damned barrier down, of course. For years she’s heard me talk about that ridiculous tax bleeding our finances dry – and for what? To protect us from the bogeyman? It’s absurd. We’re supernats, for god’s sake. We fear nothing and no one.’

She could speak for herself; I feared plenty of things including spiders, commitment, and the monster beyond the barrier. ‘Have you actively done anything to bring the barrier down?’ I asked.

She looked down and away from me. My gut told me the real answer was yes even as she was saying no.

‘You’ve protested,’ I pointed out.

‘And that’s all,’ she lied.

‘How far can you teleport?’ I demanded.

‘That’s none of your business,’ she retorted.

‘It is my business. I’ll remind you that this interview is voluntary at the moment, but if you leave some questions unanswered I might have to take it to the next level.’ I looked her in the eye. She might think I was bluffing but I really did suspect she had something to do with the theft of the wind gem. She wanted the barrier down.

Now that I knew how banshees worked, I was also suspicious that she might have had something to do with her daughter’s death. She could have killed Aoife so that the girl could ascend to the position of family banshee. She hadn’t lost her daughter with her death, not truly.

‘I can teleport a hundred feet,’ she snapped.

‘Could Aoife do the same?’

‘She’s stronger.’ Nora’s voice was full of pride. ‘She can teleport almost a mile.’

---