Chapter 13

Chapter

Thirteen

KEIR

“Dash toldme you had our next guest come in earlier. Can I watch you embalm them? I’m not sure if I can stomach it, but I’d like to try. Is that okay?” Vale met me when Adon and I returned to the funeral home after the burial.

What I didn’t expect was for Amelie to barrel into the front foyer and stare at me. “I want to learn to embalm the guests, and I have a strong stomach. Why can’t I study to be an embalmer?”

I took a deep breath and released it. Dash had pulled the trigger on talking to Vale and Amelie before he’d talked to me, and I wasn’t happy about it. I was more than capable of handling the work at Dearly & Son. I didn’t need backup like he’d suggested.

“First, take a breath. Why would either of you want to learn to embalm our guests? It’s kind of gross.”

Amelie chuckled. “It’s part of the process. We live. We die. We have to be prepared for the next journey.”

That was the best way to describe my job that I’d ever heard. I turned to Vale, who looked a little pale. “I think you’re incredible, but I don’t think you can actually do the embalming. You’d be a hell of a funeral director, but I don’t think you’re prepared to be a mortician.”

Maybe it was harsh to say it, but we didn’t need to belabor the idea that Vale, the sweet young man who was so happy to have a family, could make incisions and pump chemicals into a body. I loved the kid, but I believed he was cut out for other things.

Vale grinned. “Thank god. When Dash brought it up, I was afraid to say no, but she’s got a stronger stomach than me.” He pointed at Amelie, who had a satisfied smirk on her face.

“Yeah, that’s probably right. So, Amelie, would you like to join me in the embalming suite? You’ll need scrubs, but we can see to that soon. I’m going to go upstairs and change, and I’ll meet you in the mortuary in a few minutes.”

After Amelie nodded, I went upstairs to our bedroom to change. When I returned downstairs to the funeral home in my scrubs, Amelie and Dash were talking in the kitchen.

“This looks dangerous.” I was making light of it, but I had to wonder what was happening with Dash. He’d mentioned threats, and I was worried.

“I was just telling her I’m not a misogynistic prick. I fucked up by not thinking of her taking the embalming courses, but she’s set me straight. You ready for this?” He was looking at Amelie, who had a calm smile on her pretty face.

As we went downstairs to the embalming suite, Amelie set Dash and me straight. “I’m stronger than I look, you know. I don’t like being judged incompetent simply because I’m a woman. You know I’m capable of more than just being a greeter. I’m able to handle important things, Keir. This won’t be the first time I’ve seen blood.”

As I started to ask what she meant by her comment, Jonas came into the mortuary through the side door. “How are we all doing?”

I glanced at Dash, so he snapped his finger and stopped Amelie and Vale, who had just descended the stairs. His gift didn’t work on others.

“I’ve been getting threatening texts from an unknown number.” Dash stepped closer and put his arm around my back in a comforting gesture.

“And I’ve received one as well, along with a weird thing that happened on the computer. Dean Lester is coming with a crew to look for fingerprints, and a computer tech is coming to see if someone tampered with the desktop. They should be here any minute now.”

Just as I was about to retrieve Mr. Josephson from the walk-in, the bell for the receiving bay rang. I turned to Dash. “Release them. I’ll be right back.”

I went through the stainless door and hit the button for the garage door. Adon had volunteered to take the hearse to get the oil changed for me, which was nice of him. When the door opened, Dean stood on the driveway with two men and two women, all wearing jackets with SCSI badges. “Come in, please.”

I led them into the mortuary. “These are the crime scene folks from Sacramento PD. This is Amelie Holt, one of my assistants, and Valentino Rankin, the other. Uh, Lake isn’t here, Lieutenant. I’ll call her and have her drop by.”

Retrieving my phone, I called Lake, who said she’d be there in thirty minutes to get fingerprinted. Jamie was still at school, and Lake had been studying for a test.

Should I contact Adonis? He was in the mortuary often. “My driver is taking the hearse to be serviced, but he should be back in a few minutes.”

Amelie and Vale were fingerprinted by one of the female techs while the other female tech walked around the mortuary with Dash, who pointed out the areas to check for unknown fingerprints—the doors, the walk-in, the supply closet in case someone was looking for embalming fluid as I’d wondered about the day I saw the orders on my computer.

The tech guy was busy running some programs on the desktop while I was fingerprinted too. “I had to be fingerprinted for my state mortician license,” I told the lady investigator.

“Oh, I could have just pulled them off the site. I wish I’d have thought of it sooner, Mr. Dearly.”

“Not a big deal. Thank you for coming. Can I get anyone a drink?” I glanced around to see nobody was interested.

The hearse was backing into the garage, so I went to get Adon. “Can the police fingerprint you?”

Adon stopped in front of the hearse. “Why?”

“Someone is threatening Dash and me, and something odd happened with the computer, so they’re here to check it out. They want to eliminate all of us, so if you’ll let them fingerprint you, that’ll be a help.”

The man smirked. “I’m afraid they won’t find me anywhere. Remember, I was never born.”

Shit!That wasn’t something I’d considered. “Okay, uh... Let’s not look for trouble. Just give them your fingerprints, and we’ll see what happens.”

Adon shrugged, and the two of us went into the mortuary. Lake had arrived and was talking to Dean while the investigators continued their work.

An hour later, Dash and I were scrubbing the fingerprint dust off the doors and doorframes. Amelie was damp mopping the floors where dust had accumulated during their investigation.

Unfortunately, the computer tech found nothing on the desktop, which made me look like a lying idiot, though Dean had said maybe whoever broke in was computer savvy and had erased their footprint, so I shouldn’t worry about it. I still would.

Lake had gone to pick up Jamie from school, though when she’d walked away from Dean, he’d said, “See you on Sunday.” I was guessing they had a date of some sort, but it wasn’t my business.

The techs found a lot of fingerprints, leading me to believe I needed to clean better, but they said it would take them several days to go through them. I couldn’t help hoping they came up with something, but my gut told me they wouldn’t find anything. Others probably didn’t leave fingerprints behind, and more and more, I was coming to believe it was a supernatural being that had gotten into the mortuary through the portal. That wasn’t something I could tell Dean.

Once everything was put to rights, Jonas and Adonis left. Dash went upstairs, and I went to the walk-in to get Mr. Josephson. His spirit was sitting on the end of the cart smoking again, though I couldn’t smell it.

I wheeled out the cart and secured it. I then wheeled over the embalming tank and pump, along with the stainless cart where it was most convenient, and I turned to Amelie. “You’re sure you want to watch this?”

Amelie exhaled. “I am. I’m not sure why, but I was drawn to you...to Dearly & Son...for a reason. I believe it’s my destiny to work here and help you with the work you do. Now, let’s get on with it. Is Mr. Josephson’s spirit here?”

“Yes. He’s currently sitting on the computer chair smoking a cigarette.”

We both chuckled. “Hello, Mr. Josephson. I’m Amelie Holt. I hope you don’t mind if I observe your embalming. I want to train to become an embalmer, sir, but I like knowing what’s involved in something before I commit to it.”

I glanced at the chair to see Alfred smiling. “Say, she’s pretty. She’s more than welcome to stay. Show her my dick. Maybe I’ll be able to get it up again if I know a pretty girl is staring at it.”

“Alfred, Amelie is getting married to a dear friend of mine. I won’t repeat what you just said. It’s inappropriate.”

“What did he say?” Amelie stared at me with curiosity.

“He said you’re pretty.” I wasn’t repeating the rest, which brought a hearty laugh from Alfred.

“Aw, thank you, Mr. Josephson.” Amelie then glanced at me. “Well?”

I pulled the sheet off Alfred’s body to reveal the hospital gown he wore. “First things first, we always keep in mind that the family could pop in at any time, so we show the deceased as much respect as possible, which means we don’t leave tools resting on the body, and we cover the genitals with a modesty cloth. We have to see the body while the fluid is doing its work, so we don’t cover them with the sheet during the process.”

I then cleaned the orifices with disinfectant and an antimicrobial solution to assist in the preservation process. I then set the features and shaved Alfred’s face to make Lake’s job easier the next day when she applied his makeup.

His hair was already short, so I trimmed up the sides to save Lake the trouble since she would be preparing him for his memorial service on Saturday afternoon. She could do his makeup in the morning so the rest of her weekend was free to spend with her daughter... and Dean Lester at some point. I was turning into a busybody, but it was so fun!

After his hair was right, I cut the hospital gown off him. Right there was his penis, and he wasn’t lacking at all. “Told you. She can look at it if she wants.”

Amelie stepped forward. “Wow. His wife must have been a happy woman.”

Of course, her comment brought a great laugh from Alfred. “Thank her for me.”

I glanced up at Amelie through the face visor I was wearing. “He says thanks.”

Her giggle was contagious, and I laughed with her as I placed the modesty cloth over his genitals and went about washing the back of his body. Amelie even donned a paper gown and gloves, helping me to roll him to properly clean the area.

“He’s pretty clean, but they’re not always like that. If they’re homeless or pass suddenly, they defecate and urinate, so you must be prepared to clean up all sorts of messes.” It was gross to discuss, but she needed to know what she was in for if she was serious.

“Yeah, I don’t see Vale being able to do that.”

I nodded in agreement.

Once we finished that part, we settled him on his back and I showed her where to insert the trocar and the drain tube, explaining how the tank and pump worked to drain the blood from his body and replace it with embalming fluid, and I turned on the embalming machine. I finished washing the front of Alfred, and then sat at the computer to record Alfred’s preparation in the event it was needed for any reason. “How’s the wedding planning?”

We had about two hours for the process to be completed, and I didn’t leave the embalming suite after it was underway unless it was necessary. I began filling out the form, making notes of anything unusual I found on the body like bruises or cuts. Thankfully, nothing of the sort was on Alfred’s body. He had a few pin pricks from where he’d had an IV for meds and saline solution at the end of his life.

“It’s coming along. My mom’s a pain in the ass, but if I thought she’d be different this time than she was any other time we planned something, I was lying to myself. How’d you get through it?”

I chuckled as I continued my task. “Mostly, I just let Mom do what she wanted. I just wanted to be married to Dash.”

It was true. I’d just wanted to be married, though the wedding had been fun—except for the shit that happened the morning of the ceremony. I could have done without that attack. Though, we did learn that Dash could heal my wounds with his saliva.

I had to ask myself how many more changes Dash was facing to prepare him for the upcoming fight. Where would it take place, and what would our numbers be? Obviously, humans couldn’t fight, which meant Amelie, Lake and Jamie, my mom and Lenny, and Vale would need to be somewhere safe.

Since the portal was in Reardon, I assumed it would be nearby. Would there be a way to lure Nyx and her people somewhere to keep humans safe? If she wanted to take over the Human Realm, she’d definitely want the fight to be here so she could take her throne immediately. How much did she know about the Human Realm? I needed to ask someone. It seemed like something we should discuss with Jonas or Jo.

“Keir, it stopped.”Amelie touched my shoulder where I’d been staring at the funeral preparation form for Alfred as I got lost in thought about the future for quite a while. When I glanced toward Amelie, I saw she was looking at her phone. She must have thought I was an idiot just staring at the screen for so long.

“Oh, I was daydreaming. Sorry. Now, we check the body...” I continued explaining the process to her. Once we were finished, I had her call Alfred’s son to bring him something to be buried in. I would help Lake dress him Saturday morning.

Once we had Alfred safely tucked away, I hooked my arm through Amelie’s and walked us upstairs, turning off the lights in the embalming suite. “So, what do you think?”

Amelie patted my arm. “I think you’re a good teacher. You should think about it if you ever have any free time.”

I chuckled. “If I have any is right. We’re talking about having kids. We’d like to try surrogacy, but if that doesn’t work out, we’d look into adoption. We talked about it on our honeymoon.”

“That’s so great! Have you started looking for an egg donor yet?”

“We’re thinking maybe we’ll get an anonymous donor. We don’t know many women we’d feel comfortable asking.” I’d lost touch with all my female friends from college. It seemed pretty crappy to just call one of them up out of the blue and ask for their eggs.

Amelie’s face lit up. “We’re not going to have children anytime soon. I’ll donate eggs to you guys.”

I froze. Almost two years ago, Amelie marched into the funeral home and told me I would hire her. She’d seen it in a vision because she was sort of psychic. Her quirky personality and can-do attitude made me love her like a sister. But...giving us some of her eggs seemed like an imposition.

“I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. What would Trent say?” They were getting married in the fall, and while they were younger than me, they may still want to have children sooner rather than later.

“I’ll talk to him about it, of course, but you talk to Dash about it too. Wouldn’t you rather know the donor so you’ll know of any family histories?”

There was that, but there was something more worrisome. “Won’t it be hard for you when you see our babies? I mean, you’ll be their biological parent⁠—”

“But they’re your kids, Keir. I can be the best aunt in the world and not feel possessive of them. How many kids do you think you’d like to have?”

“A couple. Hoping for a boy and a girl. I don’t want this to come between us, Amelie. You and Trent are important to us.” I saw red flags everywhere, but the idea was tempting.

“I’ll talk to Trent, and you talk to Dash. There must be a way to make this work for all of us.” Amelie kissed my cheek and went to the office, returning with her purse and jacket.

“Bye. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” She left through the front door of the funeral home, and I locked up and headed upstairs.

Tomorrow was another day with more questions than answers. Maybe we’d learn more tomorrow?