“Do you think it’s him on the other plane?”
“It makes a strange sort of sense. Obviously we can’t know. You said you saw only a shadow.”
“The mural featured a giant shadow. It’s like a prophecy coming to life.”
“Perhaps.” Jareth leaned on the settee. “Tell me what you know about him.”
“Not much.” I ran him through what I’d learned, which was precious little. “Galen is going to see if they have another file at the sheriff’s department. We’re going to comparenotes tonight.” I paused a beat and asked the most important question. “What do you know about Declan?”
“He came to the island when he was younger. That was about a century ago.”
“Was he a vampire?”
One side of Jareth’s mouth hitched up. “You’re a curious girl. That’s one thing I’ve made note of about you since the day we met.”
“I am curious,” I readily agreed. “Galen doesn’t particularly enjoy the trait.”
“Actually, he does. He loves everything about you, including the way your mind works. He wouldn’t change you.”
“You’re kind of skirting around the Declan issue,” I noted.
He sighed in a way that reminded me of a leaky tire. “He came to the island looking for his father. There are a lot of stories about how he ended up here, none of them true. I believe I’m the only one who knows the truth of his birth, and there’s a specific reason for that.”
I waited him out.
“He is technically my nephew,” he announced.
I cocked my head. “How? You said he wasn’t a vampire. You’re a born vampire.” I’d done research on this too. “If your sibling had him with someone else, how was Declan not a born vampire?”
“Because my brother had him with a human.”
“Your brother?—”
“I don’t speak his name,” Jareth warned. “He’s still out there, being evil. My goal is to never cross paths with him again.”
I nodded. As long as Jareth’s brother didn’t play into this, I didn’t need to know his name. “How did this happen? I didn’t think vampires could mate with humans.”
“It’s rare,” Jareth acknowledged. “Very rare. Demons and humans have no problem mating. Shifters and humans are the same. Vampires and humans struggle to procreate, but it happens.”
He took a moment to collect himself and then pushed forward. “My brother is not a good vampire. We were never close. He enjoys mating with humans because he likes to be in complete control.Once, about a hundred and fifty years ago, he met a human he thought he could control but it turned out to be the other way around.”
“Meaning?”
“She was a witch and she took advantage of him. She wanted a special child. There’s no more special child than the offspring of a witch and a vampire.”
I breathed in deeply through my nose and out again as I tried to wrap my head around it. “Is there a special name for this creature?”
“Dhampir.”
“That’s a vampire-witch hybrid?”
“A vampire-human hybrid,” he corrected. “However, what most people don’t know is that the only humans who can carry a vampire baby are witches.”
“How does it work?”
“Dhampirs are living beings. They have some strength of vampires. They can feed on both blood and food. Dhampirs are stronger when they feast on blood, and that’s what Declan did trying to grow stronger. He was always frustrated that he had some of the weakness of humans.
“I told him he was better for it, of course,” he continued. “He could walk in the sun for a limited amount of time each day. It did weaken him. He would live a longer life than a human but was still mortal. He didn’t think that was any better.”
