Chapter the Twenty-Fifth

In which a Request is made

Delia handed her brother his t-shirt and watched him pull it down over his head and adjust it so that it no longer looked like it had been hastily discarded while making out. She adjusted her own shirt and turned to look in the mirror to make sure she was presentable.

"So pretty," Alexander whispered, leaning over and kissing her neck.

She was still surprised by how his touch or his words could create a fire in the pit of her stomach and spread out, sending flames through her veins until it flushed into her cheeks and other parts of her. Once they were dressed, they sat on the bed.

"I wish we only went to school half a day everyday." They had just finished and Delia would have been happy starting all over again.

"Mm, I agree; though we couldn't keep sending Cecile home at noon."

"We could do things up here even if she were here; she doesn't come looking for us and we could make sure she didn't come looking for us."

"Is that something you'd be interested in doing? No pressure, if not we can wait."

She shook her head. "No, I definitely want to do things while she's here. We did talk about doing things with Damien in the house when he's not asleep, so I think it would be good practice."

Alexander wished that it was eleven thirty again and that they had the whole afternoon laid out before them. He closed his eyes and moved his mouth in silent prayer.

"What are you thanking God for?"

A few moments later he opened his eyes and regarded her, a smile on his face. "The usual, for you and making sure He knows how grateful I am that I didn't end up with a brother."

Delia moved closer to him, placing her mouth on his. They kissed and her right hand moved up his back, into his dark hair and her thumb found the three sixes hidden there and Alexander could do nothing but bury his face in her neck.

They had found out, by accident, that their marks served as erogenous zones, and the first time that Delia had inadvertently touched Xander's mark while they had been making out, it had brought him to his knees. Once they had figured out what had happened, they had tried it out on Delia and she experienced the same intense reaction. Later, they had decided that it made sense, for both of them remembered that when Damien wanted to comfort them as children, he would stroke their heads. Then, they had not understood why it had calmed them, but they had come to understand that touching the mark had an effect on their mood, which now apparently included anything sexual.

"And for many reasons, I'm grateful for my brother." She kissed the top of his head.

"Madame, we'd better get a move on, or we're gonna be explaining to Damien why dinner isn't on the table when he comes home." He stood up and put out his hand. Delia grabbed it and he pulled her up off the bed.

She stretched. "Right behind you, Chevalier."

Damien had left a message on the machine to have dinner ready when he got home, so they went into the kitchen to prepare that night's meal, which would be Indian food.

"What if he says no?"

Alexander turned to her. "Delia Thorn, the eternal optimist. He won't say no. He understands about things like this and if we have needs that need to be met, who better than him to help us fulfil those needs...though just to be on the safe side, you're asking him."

"You're the boy, it's easier for him to talk to you about certain things. Has he ever mentioned anything like this to you?"

"No, but it doesn't mean that he hasn't done anything like this when he was younger." He smiled at her. "Or, if he does stuff like that now only we don't know about it. My worry is that this conversation is a double edged conversation. I guarantee you that he's going to use this a reason to have a talk to me about whether I'm interested in girls and what those interests might entail."

"And you can look him in the eyes and be truthful when you tell him that you don't like any 'girls.'"

"That's some technicality there Deedle; I'm confused, which one of us is going to the lawyer?" He winked at her.

"Xander, if you really don't feel like you can lie to him, then we don't have to talk to him and just let things alone."

"I don't want to do that, do you?"

Delia shook her head. "No, but if he does initiate a conversation with you where you are going to have to lie to him and you don't want to do that, that's more important than anything I want to do."

"The conversation about me being interested in girls is going to happen sooner or later, so better now when I'm thirteen and it's normal for me to not be interested, than when I'm sixteen and Damien is wondering if his son is gay." Alexander turned back to putting the bread on a tray to eventually go into the oven.

"I'll be glad when we live on our own."

"Not that there aren't a dozen reasons to be happy about being out on our own, but what in particular has got you so happy about it right now?"

"I think I'm most attracted to you while you're cooking; you're so happy and content. Hopefully, our kitchens will have sturdy counters." She had said it as matter of factly, keeping keeping all those warm, melty feelings to herself.

"I think I'm so happy in here because it makes Damien and you, but especially you, happy. And don't you worry, those counters will be plenty sturdy." Like his sister, he had kept what he was feeling to himself and carried on with preparing the night's meal.

...oOo...

Delia came from the bathroom to find her father sampling the butter chicken. She went to him and gave him a hug. "Good evening, father, you're cold."

"Good evening to you, daughter, and yes it's cold outside. I've had enough of this shitty weather, so any time it wants to be over it can be my guest." Damien took a sip of the wine that Alexander had poured for him. "Your brother tells me that there's something you two would like to discuss over dinner?"

"Yes, please."

"Okay, well the quicker the food gets to the table, the quicker we can have our conversation." Damien picked up the basket of warm naan bread and headed to the formal dining room.

"I'm no expert, but I think that means he's hungry."

"Well played Inspector Poirot and I am too, so ándale." She picked up the bowl of basmati rice and head out to the dining room.

Once everyone had gotten through the first helping of everything, Damien turned to his children. "So, what is it that you want?"

Delia looked at Alexander, who then reached under the table for his knapsack, unzipped it, pulled out a book and handed it to his father.

"Has this gone to school?" Damien looked from one to the other.

"We're not that stupid. When I brought it down, I just threw it in there." Alexander jutted his chin towards his knapsack.

Damien looked at the book again. Alexander had handed him Les 120 journées de Sodome, ou l'École du libertinage. "Where did you get this?"

"Anna...is she in trouble?" Delia looked up at her father, who quickly shook his head.

"No. The agreement was that anything that you wanted that you didn't want to get from me, that wasn't dangerous, would get to you without me knowing about it. I'd hardly call books written by the Marquis de Sade dangerous, but this, like your bibles that have...comments written in them, doesn't leave this house. I hope you've also hidden this from Cecile?"

"Now you're just insulting us." Alexander took a drink of water.

"Okay, so I'm guessing there's more to this than letting me know that you've discovered Donatien Alphonse François de Sade."

Alexander looked over to his sister. Whenever things came up that they wanted and it was something that they thought their father might refuse, they left the task to Delia figuring that he would give in to Delia's wishes before Alexander's; it usually worked.

"Alexander and I would like to torture somebody."

A small smile appeared on Damien's face and he took a drink of his wine, but both children had felt the same thing.

"We've amused him, Delia, we may just stand a chance at getting what we want."

"So, may we, father?" She smiled hopefully at him.

"Why?"

"Huh?"

He turned to his son, "Why, por qué, pourquoi, warum, dlaczego. Not to mention...that's quite the one eighty, Xander. Delia I can see, but it hasn't even been a year since you found out who you are and that you thought that you were one of them."

"Thank you, Damien Thorn, for being such a dick about everything." Xander put a forkful of butter chicken in his mouth.

"Why do we have to justify it?"

"Because I'm the dad, and if I want you to explain to me why you want to do something, then that's my business."

Delia continued. "Are you mad at us? Is this something we shouldn't be doing? Have you never done anything like this?"

"This isn't about locking step with me and doing something or not doing something because I do or don't do it. You've stated what you want and now you have to justify it."

Alexander eyed his father suspiciously. "So...all we have to do is justify why we want to do it and then we can do it?"

Damien smiled at him. "I didn't say that at all." And then helped himself to seconds.

...oOo...

Later that evening, Damien invited his son into the study to have a talk with him.

"You haven't come to me so far to tell me of any girl you're interested in."

"That's because so far I'm not interested in any girl." As Delia had suggested, he let himself think about the technicality of that statement.

"How about sex?"

Alexander batted his eyes. "Why Damien Thorn, this is all so sudden."

Damien chose to ignore his son's comment. "You know you don't have to have a girlfriend to have sex." He sat beside Alexander, who had grabbed a drink from the fridge and had taken a seat on the leather sofa. "We have women, none your age that I know of, though, I think there might be someone who's eighteen, who would be more than happy to bed you, if that's what you wanted. They're up for anything and they're there for you, to please you, no questions asked and you don't have to reciprocate anything they do for you. And in light of your recent admission, these women will let you hurt them and if you drug them up enough and use your powers of persuasion, they'd agree to let you kill them. But if you want an unwilling victim, that will take some planning."

"So, I can rape someone without needing to justify it, but if I want to torture someone, I need to write an essay." Alexander shook his head. "I can't wait until I'm the dad and can make up arbitrary rules for crap. How old were you when you first had sex and with whom?"

"I was thirteen and it was with four women whom I honestly cannot remember."

"Do you remember any of the women you've had sex with?"

Damien smiled. "Only the one who gave me children."

Alexander closed his eyes and swallowed and turned back to his father. "Did you love any of them?"

"No."

And he suddenly realized how lonely his father must be. Alexander had grown up with a sibling with whom he shared a special bond; he had never known what it was to truly be alone. Now he and Delia were close in a new way, a way in which Damien would never really understand because no human woman could ever satisfy that need to find someone like himself.

Alexander cleared his throat. "Getting back to other things, in case I didn't make it clear, I haven't done the deed, as it were."

"That's fine. This isn't about trying to make you feel bad because you haven't had sex. Do you think you have violent sexual tendencies?"

"I don't think so. Well, the violence itself is arousing, but wanting to torture someone is for the violence's own sake and curiosity." Alexander had imagined all his sexual wants into the special box, and added to them the thought of all the things that he and Delia had done to each other while they had read some of the more graphic passages.

"And you can come and talk to me about this anytime, particularly if it's going to require you to force anyone to do anything. And I do want to know if there is a girl in which you are interested. I know there quite a few who are interested in you, including Emily. And you can have both...a nice girl whom you date, or marry, who makes you look respectable and women who will let you do anything you want to them."

"I don't know if I'm interested in any of it just yet, but it's pretty great to be us."

Damien smirked. "Yes it is and I didn't mean to bust your balls earlier."

"It's okay, I'm tough, I can take it." Alexander got up and then turned to his father. "So, I can send Delia in here for her frank discussion about some of her more violent urges and you can tell her about your orgy with four women and you can ask her if she's had sex?"

"That's not even funny and don' t you dare tell her that." Damien got up to follow his son out of the study when he grabbed Alexander's arm. "Does she have violent sexual urges?"

Alexander had to stop himself from laughing. If his father were anymore uncomfortable, he'd sweat right through his five thousand dollar suit. "Not that I know of."

"I need to know if either one of you needs to do something against someone's will. I can't have either one of you doing things on your own right now. She'll tell you and if she does, you come and tell me and I'll find a way to talk to her about it."

"Okay." Alexander left the study, happy that the conversation was over.

And in the end, Delia and Alexander were honest with their father. They were curious about things, they wanted an up close and personal anatomy lesson, to dismantle the whole to see how the parts fit. They also wanted to know how much pain someone could take, how much they could hurt someone without being squeamish. What would people say under the stress of being tortured? If hurting people was part of their job, then shouldn't they be expert at it? If it came down to killing someone, shouldn't they understand exactly what they were doing to him or her?

They pleaded their case to their father and he sat, stone-faced and unmoved and told them that he would consider what he said and left it at that.

...oOo...

It was the first week of May, one Friday morning, when each younger Thorn woke up to find a note saying that they wouldn't be going to school that day, and that they should come downstairs dressed in clothes that they wouldn't mind getting dirty.

Each had done what the note had asked and when they came downstairs, they found their father in the dining room having breakfast with a man they didn't know.

"Hello." Alexander gave the man a broad smile and went to shake his hand.

Delia gave him a curt nod of her head.

"This is Arthur Pollock; he's part of the R&D team at Thorn. Cecile isn't here today, so help yourself to breakfast."

The younger Thorns stood in the kitchen getting their food not knowing what to make of the stranger in their home.

As the morning went on, Delia and Alexander didn't understand why their father was making them spend the day in the company of the man. The four of them went for a walk around the grounds, all the time, Delia and Alexander telling the stranger how much they liked school and the like. But worse than that, they had to listen to him ramble on about things that neither cared about.

It was after eleven when they arrived back at the house.

"If you would like, father, I can prepare lunch."

Delia almost started laughing. Alexander on his best behaviour was always funny because it was so unlike him.

"Well, why don't we hold off on lunch for right now. Incidentally, there's some stuff in the basement for the both of you."

They stood there, staring at their father. Neither Delia nor Alexander ever went down to the basement because there was nothing there for them to see. Their weird day was getting weirder.

"You have ten seconds to go and find out what it is, or I put it back from where I got it."

Alexander took off first and Delia just stood there, but she quickly jerked her her head in the direction of the basement and then ran off after her brother. It took a few moments of Delia being down their until she emitted a squeal of pure joy; anyone hearing her would have thought that she had found a secret passage to Disneyland.

There was the sound of pounding feet on the stairs and moments later, flush with excitement, the younger Thorns found their father.

"Is all that for us!?" She grabbed on to her father's arm, and bounced on the balls of her feet.

Alexander, who had turned to the man sitting on the couch drinking coffee, grinned wickedly. "I think the better question to ask, Deedle, is, is he for us?"

Damien smiled at the man. "As fathers, it's our job to guide and teach our children and to indulge their wants when we can and sometimes an opportunity arises where we get to do both."

By this time, Delia and Alexander could scarce contain themselves. That they were excited and that there would be some vague sexual feelings lurking around was okay. The only thing they had to control was turning those feelings on each other.

"You see, Arthur, my children have expressed a desire to torture someone and by random happenstance, that someone is you."

By now the dogs had appeared in the sitting room, blocking all the exits. The man was trapped.

"Wha..." but Arthur never got a chance to finish as his face went slack and he just sat there.

Damien glanced at his dog, who left his post by the door and simply walked through the sitting room. The man got up, followed the dog, who was leading him to the basement.

"What happens now?" Alexander's voice sounded far away. Mentally, he was already down there and both he and Delia had turned and moved forward to go downstairs.

"Well, we go down and get the lay of the land, as it were. I can participate in this as much or as little as you both want. I can..." Damien's voice trailed away as he looked at his daughter.

She had turned white as a sheet and her lips were pressed so tightly together, it looked like she had no mouth at all. She started whining and had in desperation turned to look at her brother.

Damien hadn't seen this in his daughter since she was very young, when she wouldn't speak and had to get Xander to talk for her.

"Delia, it's okay. Go upstairs and get two clipboards, two pads of paper, pens and pencils and colored pencils."

But she could only stand there.

"It's okay, Deedle."

And she ran out of the sitting room to go upstairs.

"What's wrong?"

Alexander turned to his father. "She's embarrassed about you being down there with us."

Damien almost asked why. "What about you being down there with each other?"

Alexander shifted in his spot. "Um, you do realize that we've spent our lives next door to each other and those walls aren't sound proof." He let scarlet flush up his cheeks and made himself feel as uncomfortable as he thought appropriate.

"I see, I should have realized." Now it was Damien's turn to shift in his spot.

"If one of us has step away and leave, or has feelings, okay, but with you down there..."

"No, it's fine, will she come down?"

"I'll get her down." After some silent pleading, Delia, carrying what her brother had asked for, appeared in the sitting room.

"I'll go over to the office until all this is done. I won't be in the way and you can bring me back here whenever you're finished." Damien walked out of the sitting room and turned to go the foyer to get a jacket. "You can do whatever you want to him, but you will wait until I get back before you kill him. Am I understood?"

"Yes and I'm sorry. I assumed we'd be doing this by ourselves." She followed her father out the door.

He looked at her, making sure she knew that he really didn't mind. "There's no reason to be sorry. This is new for all of us and unless you two really screw this up, it won't be the last time something like this happens so there'll be other opportunities for me to be there with you."

She gave her father a quick nod and then she disappeared back into the sitting room.

Alexander walked his father to the foyer.

"Don't even untie him until I come back." Damien got his jacket, but Alexander took it and held it out for him.

"Will do...you really wanted to be there."

"Of course, what I said was true, a father guides his children. If you have questions about things, I want to be there to answer them."

"Maybe next time, and you're not a dick about things."

Damien smiled. "After this, I hope not."

"And we'll take lots of notes and you can examine our handy work when you come back."

"That's the plan, and be careful. If anything does happen, or you get freaked out, you let the dogs finish him in the basement."

Alexander nodded. "And don't worry, we'll clean up after ourselves."

"I have people for that, Xander. This isn't the first time something like this has happened in this house."

"I knew it! Oh, daddy-o, I bet you've gotten up to all kinds of interesting things while we've been at school."

"And those are stories for another time. Don't worry about gagging him down there; so long as you close the downstairs door, it's sound proof. Okay, I'm off. Eat lunch first, please, and you two have fun and I'll see you when I get back." Damien left and closed the door behind him and Alexander locked it.

He turned to see Delia make her way from the sitting room and she stood next to him.

"You lied."

He shrugged. "I had to. How else am I going to explain us down there together when one of us is having special feelings."

They stood there feeling horrible about themselves.

"I don't know. Maybe once we actually do it, it won't feel so intense. It might take this time, or the time after that, for us to get our feelings under control and then he can join us."

Delia nodded and smiled. "That'll be nice."

"Or, one, or both of us, might decide that this isn't for us and it won't matter anyway."

"True."

But as they stood there, they began to think about the task that lay before them and they allowed the thought of it to fan the embers of their wants and desires. Their dogs, seemingly impatient for their masters, had come out to check on them and Delia and Alexander followed them back to the basement.

"Father said to eat first."

"I'm not hungry for food. I think we're going to be breaking our no fooling around in anywhere but our bedrooms rule."

"I think we're going to be breaking that rule before we actually do anything. Once we get started, if we find we need to do anything, we'll step away. The thought of being intimate with you in front of one of them..." Alexander shuddered.

A grin spread across Delia's mouth.

"Yeah, yeah, you and Damien, very funny, why don't you cut me slack, nag."

The dogs lay down; the basement door would be left open and if they were needed, they would come down.

"Alright, Madame, let's go have some fun." He held out his hand to his sister.

"Oui, Chevalier." She took her brother's hand and they headed down the stairs.