Dr. Randall stepped through the stainless door leading to the embalming suite. “How do you do, young lady?” He gave her a low bow.
Lilith chuckled and grinned at Dr. Randall. “I’m well, sir.” She turned to me and stuck out her arm. “Take two bags of blood and have them with you when you and Dash go to Lakehead. In fact, make sure he always has them close, just in case.”
“What will it do if he…? How should he consume it?” Knowing my husband would be consuming vampire blood had me worried. How the hell would we get it out of him? Would he be a vampire after drinking this?
“He’ll need to drink it, Keir. Both pints. Once he tastes it, he won’t be able to stop, so don’t be within arm’s length. I’m not sure how much control he’ll have, which is why I hope you’ll reach out to one of my kind for assistance. Actually, why don’t you take Adonis with you?”
I stared at her. “If Adonis is with us, why would we need your blood?”
“Mine has a little extra kick that Dash will find quite helpful.”
I collected the phlebotomy kit I’d purchased, arranging everything on the desk in front of me before situating Lilith in a chair next to the desk so she could prop her arm while I withdrew two pints of her blood. I sat on the rolling stool and tied the tourniquet around her arm.
“Where is Adonis, anyway? He hasn’t been around much lately, though I still see your other sons milling about. They can come say hi, you know?”
Lilith closed her eyes for a moment. “It’s better if the boys keep their distance so we don’t tip a hand that you’re being protected by members of the underworld. Adonis is in Mexico right now with the holy man. He’s carrying quite the torch for Dr. Carl. I’m not sure how I feel about it.”
I chuckled as I picked up an alcohol packet to swab the inside of her elbow. I was still uneasy about what would happen to Dash if he consumed her blood, but with the war looming, it was the least of my problems.
I picked up the vacutainer and attached the tubing and the bag to it before I tapped the vein that had plumped up quite nicely. It was easier to find a vein in a living human than a dead one, though Lilith wasn’t exactly alive in the conventional sense.
“A little pinch…” The needle slid in easily and the blood flowed freely. It was darker than human blood, but that made sense because blood from a deceased individual was darker as it was evacuated from the body.
“You’re good at that,” she said as I handed her a little stress ball from the desk to hurry the process along.
“I’d have thought it would have been harder to get the needle to pierce the skin. Do you feel pain?”
“Now, Gatekeeper, don’t believe everything you see in movies. Are you close to being prepared for the new baby? It’s only a couple of months, right?”
A big grin overtook my face as she cunningly changed the subject. “We’re thinking of house hunting. I was raised here, but I don’t know if I want to raise my kids in a funeral home.”
I thought back to my dream of Dash and me at Lake Shasta with a brunette girl and a blond boy. I had no doubt those were our children, and I would do everything I could to ensure they had a wonderful childhood.
“That might be a good idea. Tell me, after this is all over, andifwe all make it out in one piece, what do you and Dash want your lives to be?”
That was an odd question. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
Lilith rolled her eyes, which I fully expected. “Let’s say you and Dash could be anywhere you want to be and have any kind of life you’d like. What and where would that be?”
“Well, I would gladly give up my job as the Gatekeeper, but I’d want to stay here in Reardon. I’d want to keep my profession because I enjoy what I do by providing a service few people are game to provide. I’m not sure what Dash would want for himself, but I want to raise our family like every other family in the world.”
That was probably a pipe dream, but it was my dream for our future. What the reality ended up being for all of us was a crap shoot.
“Let’s all hope we get to see the future. Where is your mother and her dreamy new husband?”
I chuckled. “What would Quinn say if he heard that?”
Lilith’s laughter filled the mortuary. “He’d probably be jealous and fuck my brains out, which I’d welcome. Then I’d fuck his brains out.”
That had me laughing with her. “So, have you two taken that step? Have you topped Quinn yet?”
“That’s a little personal, Keir, but hell yes. Many times.”
We both laughed as I changed the bag. It was going much faster than I’d anticipated, but who knew? Maybe it was normal for a vampire to bleed faster? Yet another thing I didn’t want the answer to.
I pushed Dr. Randall into the walk-in, checked the compressor screen to see that it was normal, and then left him to his rest. His spirit was reclined on the same table as his body, and he seemed content.
I quickly cleaned up the mess and put everything away. I was taking Lilith’s blood upstairs to put into the refrigerator’svegetable bin until we left on Wednesday morning. I’d already bought a small cooler and ice packs to take with us to the lake.
