Chapter the Sixteenth
In which Summer Vacation starts early
When Alexander sat up, Delia was on her stomach, laying beside him on the bed, reading.
When she realized that her brother was awake she sat up, moved closer to him and the two of them put their foreheads together.
"Morning, Deedle."
"Afternoon, Nander."
He pulled his head away, "Afternoon?"
She nodded, "It's nearly two in the afternoon. I was beginning to think that you were going to sleep till tomorrow." She sent a message to her father that Alexander was awake.
A few minutes later, Damien came into the room, sat on the bed and examined his son's face and hands: he was without a scratch, "How are you?"
"Much better, D-man, but hungry enough to eat the proverbial horse."
"There's pizza. I asked Cecile to stop and get pizza last night, I wasn't sure if you would eat it yesterday, but you should see all the food," Delia could already taste the chicken pot pie that was sitting in the fridge. "She's not here, but she brought it this morning...she must have cooked all night."
Alexander got out of bed and stretched, "I'm going to take a shower and get dressed."
"Want me to wait for you?" Delia jumped off the bed, at the ready in case Alexander should need her.
"No, it's okay."
"Would you like me to put some pizza in the oven? I haven't had lunch yet."
"No, but will you wait for me to get downstairs before you eat?"
"I don't know, I'm pretty hungry," she was half joking.
"Trust me, nag, I'll make it worth your while. Come on, Milo," Alexander took off to his room with his dog following him, while Damien and Delia went back downstairs.
Once Alexander had showered, dressed and had made himself presentable, he stood at the top of the stairs of the second floor hallway. His and Delia's bedrooms were still on the same floor as their father's. It was a relatively short hall, there were just the three bedrooms. If he went to his left, there were another set of stairs that lead to one wing of the house with some of the guest bedrooms and he and Delia would sometimes sleep in the bedrooms there, just to see what the rooms were like. At the end of the hall, near Delia's door, was another smaller set of stairs. Those lead up to two bedrooms that Damien had promised to them whenever they felt like they needed more privacy. Those bedrooms were directly behind the room that was at the top of the stairs that were to his right and next to his room; the room where both Delia and Damien went but where so far, Alexander was forbidden to go.
He looked up the stairs and was overcome by an urgent need to be in there. He couldn't remember the last time he had thought about going into the room, but something was pulling him up there now. Alexander suspected that it had something to do with his newly discovered abilities, but he let it go and sprinted down the stairs.
Once in the foyer, he heard voices coming from the study and realized that Anna and Thomas were here. He knocked on the study door and was told to come in.
"Hey...I'm not intruding, am I?"
Thomas got up, came over and put a hand on Alexander's shoulder, "How are you?"
He gave Thomas a smile, "I've been better, but for right now, I'm starved. Hey Anna, did you sleep here last night?"
She laughed, "I was here, but there was little sleeping involved."
"We're all happy you made it home and that you're safe."
Alexander reached out to Thomas and could feel love, concern and protectiveness mixed in with some paternal anxiety. No doubt, Thomas must have quickly put himself in Damien's shoes and had thought about what it would have been like if one of his son's had been taken.
"Did Damien tell you who he was?"
"Yes, but he'll sort that out with you. Anna and I are going to go now, but we'll be back at some point. You take care, alright?"
Thomas and Anna left, and Damien and Alexander went out to the kitchen, where Delia was sitting at the island, spinning on the chair waiting for her brother to decide what was going on with lunch.
"This fabulous thing that's happening better be happening soon because I'm starved and Alexander is awake now, so whatever it is we're eating, you had better be eating it, too," she jumped off the chair and looked at Damien.
Alexander turned to his father, who apparently had chosen not to eat until his son was ready, willing and able to do so as well and he was so overcome with love for his father, the feeling hurt his chest. Alexander came over to Damien, who put his arm around his son.
"How do you feel about pasta for lunch?"
Delia frowned and thought about what she had seen in the refrigerator, "We don't have any pasta."
Alexander smiled, "But would you like some?"
She shrugged, "Okay."
Alexander looked up at his father again and then deciding something, went into the kitchen and began making pasta for lunch. He went to work chopping onions, garlic, peppers and mushrooms and added it to the ground beef and pork that he had begun frying in a large skillet. He took out a jar of Cecile's preserved tomatoes and added that to pan. He put water on to boil for the dry pasta, which was kept in the house because neither Delia nor Alexander cared for fresh pasta. Forty-five minutes, and a loaf of garlic bread later, they all sat down at the kitchen table to eat lunch.
He waited for his sister and father to eat and after a few minutes, "Well?"
Delia put down her fork and looked in amazement at her brother, "Xander, I don't know what to say, this is delicious. Since when do you cook?"
He laughed, "You've eaten lots of stuff I've made, only you didn't know I made it," Alexander looked over at his father.
"I think Delia pretty much summed it up," Damien put another forkful of pasta in his mouth.
"It's not even close to the best I can make. The sauce needs to simmer for a few hours. So can Cecile teach me how to cook?"
"I'm confused...you already know how to cook," to be helpful, she pointed down at her plate.
"Deedle, this is spaghetti, not cooking. Cecile was worried about how you'd feel having your son cook. She says I'm a natural. She gave me a nickname," Alexander didn't bother to hide the pride that was ready to spill out.
Delia was already laughing before the words left her mouth, "I'm afraid to ask."
"El jefecito de cocina," Alexander got up and did an ole pose.
Delia was laughing too hard to say anything more or even eat.
"Well, el jefecito, if Cecile wants to show you how to cook, she can go right ahead," Damien sat back, taking a sip of the wine that Alexander had poured for him.
"Delia, what happened to you at school?" he sat again and continued eating.
First she, then Damien, recounted things from their ends, both leaving out anything that Alexander wasn't yet ready to hear.
Alexander was glad that he had been right about Cecile not being involved in anything, "Cecile needs a new car. Can you buy her one?"
"And she hasn't been on a vacation since last year. She says she wants to see her family in France. Could we send her there?"
"She can go on vacation later in the summer. Once this whole thing is dealt with, I'll get her a new car, okay?"
"Any plans for me today, D-man?"
"I need to talk with the both of you separately, but after that, you can do whatever you want."
"Can Delia and I spend the day together?"
"You don't need permission to spend time with your sister. Once you're done, we can talk."
Damien finished drinking his wine as Delia and Alexander ate their lunch, after which, Delia brought the dishes into the kitchen, she'd rinse them and put them into the dishwasher, but she ran after her father and brother and caught them just as Damien was ushering Alexander into the study.
"Xander?"
He turned and she embraced him and Alexander wrapped his arms around her. They hadn't had a chance to talk since he had woken up and most of the things that Delia wanted to tell him, she wasn't allowed to. She wanted to tell him how she had failed in her job as his protector and that she'd die first before she ever let that happen again. It was only because he was spending time alone with Damien that she was willing to let him be out of her sight.
She let him go, "I don't care what you did, for lots of reasons, but the most important one is that I wouldn't care what you had to do to come back home to us, to me, and nothing you ever do could make me stop loving you."
Alexander of course felt the same, but he could tell Delia was hurting and that whatever had happened, she blamed herself, which he knew wasn't true. He shook his head, "Geez, Deedledork, get a grip."
"I have no clue why you had to kill anyone, you're such a skinny shrimp. Couldn't you have just turned sideways and then they wouldn't have been able to see you?" Delia gave him a once over, let out a derisive snort and then took off back to the kitchen to finish cleaning up.
Alexander followed his father into the study. Damien had stopped in the middle of the room and he went to his father.
Like Delia, Damien hadn't been able to spend any time with Alexander since yesterday. He wrapped his arms around his son and held him, not wanting to let him go.
Alexander let his father hold him. Under any other circumstance, he would have resisted the attention; but this wasn't just any circumstance. Alexander was silent for sometime before finally speaking, "I have so many questions," he pulled away from his father and looked up at him.
Damien took a seat on the leather sofa and waited for his son to join him, "I know and I'd like nothing more than to answer those questions for you right now, but not until this gets resolved. Please be patient and wait for a few days and then you'll know everything."
"Why does Delia think that what happened was her fault? Please don't let her think that."
"I know and I'm going to talk to her right after I'm done talking to you. I want you to tell me everything and I want to know everything, do you understand?"
Alexander told his father everything that had happened to him, starting with his teacher acting weird and finishing when Damien had found him on the boat.
"When I couldn't feel Delia, that's when I got scared and when Tom told me that someone had her...I tried to get away, but I couldn't," Alexander was overcome with irrational panic.
"Xander, nobody had Delia and even if someone did, it wouldn't have been your fault if you wouldn't have been able to get to her."
"You know who took me."
"Yes."
Alexander could feel Damien and he realized, much like he had realized other things, that he had always been able to feel his father, "And are you going to kill him?"
Damien felt a few things from his son: a new understanding of what he could do and a coldness and distance towards people that had never been there before. The mention of the death of the man had not filled Alexander with fear, or hate or anger, but curiosity, wondering how Damien was going to pull of such a feat without getting caught.
"I can't tell you right now what's going to happen, just please, please wait and you'll know everything. What is it?" He could now feel trepidation from his son.
"I liked it," his voice was quiet and he knew his father would be able to feel both the shame and pride that he felt as he admitted it. "I liked being able to control and manipulate them and I don't think it was just because it helped get me out of there. And I did other stuff, too," he didn't want to tell him about about the ravens, he was worried that his father would think he was crazy. "Am I going to go to jail?"
Damien struggled to maintain his composure and muted his happiness at Alexander' admission, "First, no, you are not going to go to prison. Second, I'm not worried and I don't think that you're some kind of psycho for liking it. Who we are? We're very powerful and it's only right that you should feel pride and a sense of belonging because you tapped into who you really are. Do you think you need to talk about what you did, how you feel about it?"
"No, I don't think so. Does that make me bad that I don't feel horrible for what I did?"
"No," Damien smiled at his son.
"I didn't get drunk."
"Are you sure?"
Alexander nodded, "The vomiting? I think that was nerves, not to mention having to look at and smell what was left of whom I killed. He gave me lots to drink, I should have been intoxicated, but," he smiled at his father, "patience, D-man?"
"Just a little while longer and then we'll all be on the same page. Now, I'm going to talk to Delia and then you two can do whatever you want." They left the study and Damien already knew where he'd her.
In the chapel, Delia was kneeling, deep in prayer and Damien stood by the door and watched his daughter. For the past three years, this room and everything else that went along with it had been the sole purview of him and Delia. Now, he was once again faced with the prospect of having to share their family history with one of his children and fear began to take a hold of him. It was a cold comfort, but at least he'd be too preoccupied with everything to do with taking care of who had taken his son to think about it.
"Don't be scared, father," she got up and came over to Damien, who embraced her.
"Easier said than done."
"Who took him?"
Damien pulled away and looked at her, "The two men whom Alexander killed were Andrew Roots and Phillip Betters. The police think that Betters was the perpetrator of the rape and murder of some kids in Michigan." Damien was silent for a moment, "The one behind it all was Brian Hughes. He, I and others wanted some land; I got it and he didn't. The difference between Brain and me is that I could afford to lose the money involved in greasing the wheels of bureaucracy to get what I wanted; he couldn't. All the time, energy and money it took for him to fight for what he wanted caused his business to suffer. He's never recovered."
"Is all business like that?" Delia was more than a little concerned, after all, she'd be running Thorn one day.
"Not really, not when its legitimate. The first rule of gambling is to never bet more than you can afford to lose; Brian Hughes is what happens when you forget that rule."
"He wants to be you, that's why he took what's yours. He's jealous because you have what he wants, but instead of being happy with his life, he wants yours; but I think I just paraphrased thou shalt not covet."
"As you discovered for yourself, a few of those so-called commandments are made to keep the plebs happy with their lot in life, as some should be. Those who don't have what it takes to keep up with others shouldn't be looking over into their neighbor's yard; it just makes them cranky."
"What are you going to do to him?"
"It's already happening. When this comes to a head, Brian is going to find out he's been doing some interesting things since last night. Would you like to come with me? You can be there, if you want."
She thought about it, but shook her head, "Thanks, but I'll decline the offer...only because Alexander won't be there. And now he gets to know who he is."
Damien could feel her joy, "When this is all done. I'm not going to assume that Alexander is going to be okay with what he finds out and I'm not abandoning him to deal with Brian. Alexander's been in the dark this long, he can be in the dark a little longer. He's got you and that will make the waiting bearable. However, I want you to drop all this business about it being your fault, because it wasn't and Alexander feels that and he's beginning to feel bad. Just a few more days, then, for better or worse, it will all be out in the open. Do we need to make a promise?" Damien held out his hand, ready to spit into it if necessary.
"Nope, I'm good."
"Okay, so go find your brother and relax."
Delia took off out of the chapel, leaving Damien alone.
...oOo...
Delia and Alexander spent what was left of the day together. They also cooked dinner, with Delia making sure that her chicken pot pie wasn't left off the menu. At ten, Damien called it a night and sent the children upstairs to change into their pyjamas.
Once everything downstairs was taken care of, Damien came up with Alexander's backpack in hand and gave it to him.
Alexander now knew that the police had found Tom's car. "What about school? I don't know what's going on since I missed today."
Damien closed his eyes, "I see an early summer vacation for two Thorns."
"Father, what delightfully naughty thing did you do?"
Damien had kept his eyes closed, "I see...firetrucks."
"With that stupid Ms. Coates still inside, I hope."
Damien opened his eyes and smiled at Delia, "You'll find out when you watch the news."
Alexander shook his head, "I don't understand, the school burned down?"
A sly smile crept across Delia's mouth and she looked at her brother, "In a manner of speaking."
Realization dawned on him and he turned to his father, "You had the school burned down?"
Delia had gotten up on the bed and then held her hands out to her brother, who dropped his knapsack, took her hands and she pulled him up and looked at him, still smiling.
"Let me guess, in a manner of speaking?"
"Just think of it, no more of that stupid school!" Delia began jumping on the bed and she was shortly joined by her brother.
"Okay, okay, you're glad, please stop jumping on the bed before you break it."
Delia stopped jumping and looked at her father, "Are you saying I'm fat?"
Alexander jumped off the bed and laughed, "Ha! Get out of that one, daddy-o."
Damien could do nothing but stare at his daughter, "Keep jumping on the bed if you want."
She shrugged and jumped off, "No, it's okay. I don't want to anymore."
"Oh God help us all, she's turning into a teenaged-girl," Alexander closed his eyes, "I'm seeing something...a blanket fort...it's being constructed in...wait...it's fuzzy, the spirits are being difficult tonight...it's...yes..it's in your room," and Alexander opened his eyes and looked at his father.
"Yes, but," and he stopped them as they were about to take off, "just because you aren't going to school it doesn't mean that this is a free-for-all. You both need your sleep, especially Alexander and if there is carrying on at three in the morning when I am trying to sleep, you'll both be sent back to your rooms."
Both of them, unperturbed by their father's warning, left to raid the linen closet while Damien grabbed a pair of pyjamas from his drawer before his children commandeered it and went into the bathroom and changed.
The younger Thorns also grabbed flashlights, books and edible provisions, including Mallomars which was Alexander's favorite cookie. Alexander's dog, who didn't want to be parted from his master, was given the okay to come into Damien's room and into the fort and then the frivolity got underway.
...oOo...
Damien read as giggles, titters, whispers, shushing, quiet barking and other sundry noises issued from the blanket fort until he decided that one in the morning was late enough for them to be up and turned off his light and told his children to go to bed.
However, as obedient as Delia and Alexander were, there was a camp out reputation to uphold and going to sleep right when their father told them to was unthinkable, so they carried on for a bit more, until Alexander's dog's misstep forced Delia to turn on her flashlight.
"Bad Milo, that was my head."
The dog made a noise between a bark and a woof and Delia and Alexander burst out laughing, as the dog seemed to be apologizing for inadvertently stepping on her head.
"Sleep. Now," the tone coming from Damien's bed made it clear that enough was enough. Delia and Alexander turned off the flashlight and things gradually got quieter until Alexander's dog crawled between the two of them and both Thorn children relaxed and eventually fell asleep.
