“Declan may have glamoured another creature to look like May and went with it when you assumed it was your mother.”
“But he would know that’s not May,” I persisted. “I think her ghost is with Wesley. Whether by choice or not, I can’t say, but that’s my feeling.”
“That doesn’t mean Declan can see her. Maybe he used May’s image from his memory.”
“May would have still been much older than the individual I saw when he disappeared.”
“He was obsessed with youth,” Galen pointed out. “Maybe he planned to use that mural — the image of May when she was younger — to get her on his side. He could have planned to tell her that he could bestow youth upon her. Jareth might have ruined his plan.”
I blew out a breath. “That’s a lot of maybes.”
“Too many,” he agreed. “Tell me about dhampirs.”
That sounded better than obsessing over a hunch I couldn’t prove. I waited for my margarita to be delivered, then got to the heart of matters. “I did a lot of research this afternoon.”
“I know you did, my little geek. That is also one of my favorite things about you.”
“What’s your absolute favorite thing?” It was a tangent, but I felt the need to chase it.
He smiled. “Fishing for compliments?”
“Just curious.”
“You’re my favorite thing.”
My forehead creased. “But … .”
He shook his head. “The whole package.”
“Even though I drive you crazy?”
“You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.”
“Good point.” I pulled out my phone. “I took some notes.”
“Of course you did.” His smile widened.
“The book I read said that they’re the offspring of vampires and humans,” I started. “Jareth confirmed that the only humans who can survive it are witches. The book suggests they have to be very strong witches.”
“They can’t get pregnant otherwise?”
“Some can, but won’t survive the pregnancy.”
I scrolled through my notes. “Dhampirs are alive. They have beating hearts and pumping blood. They can sustain some direct sunlight, but it can weaken them, so they limit daytime activity.”
Galen cocked his head, adopting his philosophical expression. “That would make it easier to hide what they are. They’d live long enough to amass an impressive fortune, but they would have to move regularly to avoid questions.”
“My understanding is that Declan didn’t tell anyone on the island what he was.”
“I had no idea. I looked through his file today —it’s in my truck at the station, but I walked so I could drink, by the way — but there was no mention of him being part vampire.”
“My guess is he didn’t want anyone to know. Jareth may be the only one who knows his true origin story.”
“And anybody who had suspicions back then would have said something or let it go,” Galen said. “It makes sense.”
“He was a property owner,” I pointed out. “He could have owned the property under an assumed name, then returned twenty years later under a different name and pretended he was the son of the original owner.”
“It’s something to investigate.” He didn’t sound convinced.
