“Wouldn’t someone have recognized him?” I asked, already seeing the holes.
Galen held out his hands. “Maybe, but everything in his file suggests he was a loner. No one knew him very well.”
“Except Jareth.”
“It doesn’t sound as if Jareth knew him very well.”
I thought about it for several seconds longer, then shook myself out of my reverie. “Dhampirs can regenerate, but not at the same levels as vampires. Their powers are reduced in the sunlight. There are conflicting statements in the book that suggests dhampirs stop aging at eighteen, but I don’t think that’s right because everything in the DDA file on Declan suggests he looked to be in his forties when he arrived on the island.”
Galen tapped his fingers on the table as he took it all in. “Maybe the rate of aging is so slow that it takes twenty years to age a year. If he’s been alive for a hundred years and looks to be about forty … .” He trailed off, leaving me to decide.
“I guess that part doesn’t matter,” I said. “Obviously I’m going to have questions for him when we’re face to face.”
Galen’s smile disappeared in an instant. “I prefer that not happen.”
“I’m getting my grandfather back.” There was no give to my toneas my voice ratcheted up a notch. “You can’t ask me to leave him over there.”
“I am not asking you to.” Galen was matter of fact. “I’m trying to figure out a plan that doesn’t involve you facing off with a serial killer vampire.”
“Dhampir.”
“One is not better than the other. Vampires are superhuman. Even if Declan has only a fraction of the power Jareth has, he’s still dangerous.”
“And he has my grandfather.” I swallowed hard. If I thought about Wesley too much, my eyes started to burn. “My grandfather was taken to use as bait against me.”
Galen licked his lips. “Or because Declan was obsessed with May.”
It wasn’t as jarring to hear it this time. “We don’t know that.”
“We don’t know that he was taken because of you.”
“That plane door was hexed to draw me in specifically.”
“Or Declan didn’t realize May was dead and it was aimed at her. Why else put it on Wesley’s ranch? You don’t live out there.”
“May didn’t either before her death.”
Galen raised a finger. “That’s true. But if Declan were to search for May’s soul — a standard way of casting a locator spell — where would it have led him?”
I didn’t want to answer that question.
“You’re the center of my world, Hadley,” he continued. “But Declan could very well be looking for May.”
“But we think May is with Wesley,” I said. “He already has her.”
“Does he? Maybe he doesn’t realize she’s a ghost. Maybe May went to the other side, realized what was going on, and is hiding from him. She could be over there plotting against him.”
I liked picturing that. May was a force to be reckoned with. Still, there were holes in his idea. “I saw my mother. If that was Declan glamouring himself, how does that play into the May thing?”
“I don’t know. Maybe Declan is making up the rules as he goesalong. Maybe he had one plan to start and pivoted.” Galen leaned closer and stared directly into my eyes. “We need to be smart about this so he doesn’t get what he wants.”
“I won’t abandon Wesley,” I insisted.
“We’re not abandoning him,” he assured me. “Wesley would not be okay with you getting hurt attempting to rescue him. If something were to happen to you, he would never get over it. You’re the last living member of his family.”
Wesley had lost his wife and his daughter. Sure, the great love of his life was still hanging around as a ghost, but he’d lost her in life. I really was the only family he had left.
“I won’t sacrifice myself for no good reason,” I promised.
