I wasn’t certain how to react to the news she was sharing. “Okay,” I hedged.
“Not in a creepy Lolita way,” Lilac assured me. “There weren’t a lot of demons on the island and I thought he could help me control my powers. I went to introduce myself.”
“Obviously you survived.”
She nodded. “I knocked on his door. There was a bad vibe about the house. I felt it right away. When he opened the door, he seemed surprised to see me. He invited me inside.”
“Oh, tell me you didn’t go inside,” I said. “You said no to the candy, right?”
Her lips quirked. “I went inside. He wanted me to go upstairs with him. I knew there was something wrong with him — he wasn’t subtle with his evil intentions — and I tried to run out of the house. He’d locked the door.”
I started feeling sick to my stomach. “When was this?”
“The day he disappeared,” Lilac replied.
“Did you guys kill him?” It was my natural assumption. If Lilac had gone there, even as children the others would have followed, determined to protect her.
“No, but I wish we had,” Galen replied grimly. “We didn’t know she was there.”
“I managed to escape,” Lilac replied. “I lost my temper and set him on fire. He seemed surprised and smothered my magic quickly, but it was enough time for me to jump out of a window and escape into the water.
“I got lucky,” she continued. “Aurora was out there with some of the other sirens. They swam me away when Declan tried wading in after me. He was furious … and I think a little curious.”
“She made it to us and I told my mother what happened,” Galen said. “She called the police. They found creepy stuff in Declan’s house, but he was nowhere to be found.”
“He ran,” I assumed.
“That was the prevailing idea,” Booker confirmed. “They sent out search parties, but everyone assumed he either escaped from the island or died from exposure.”
“There was a time people thought the sand worms got him,” Galen offered, referring to the worms that had served as sentries for a hidden village for a very long time. They were gone, and nobody had actually died because of them as far as I knew, but it was a reasonable assumption for the time.
“He was conducting experiments in his house,” I said. “He had chains on a wall in his laboratory. Have you ever been in there?”
Galen shook his head. “By the time I was installed in my position, he’d been gone for more than ten years. He was no longer a threat and I didn’t really think about him.”
“Well, we need to think about him now.” I was firm on that. “My mother is in that mural.”
“How?” Booker argued. “She died ten years before Declan disappeared.”
“I don’t know how, but she’s there and I’m going to find out why.”
Galen used his most reasonable voice in responding. “Fair enough. What’s the plan?”
I only had one option. “After lunch, I’m going to see Jareth.”
“Why?”
“Because the bottle contains vampire blood. I’m hopeful he knows something. Right now, Jareth is all I have.”
“I need to go into the office.” Galen looked apologetic. “Can you wait for a few hours? I’ll go with you.”
I shook my head. “I can see Jareth without a chaperone. I’m not waiting.” I paused a beat. “He’s my grandfather.”
Galen smiled. “Fair enough. But don’t go back to the ranch.”
“I won’t.” I didn’t have enough information to even attempt that. “Not yet anyway. I promise to tell you before I do.” That was the best I could do.
13
