Ch41 An easier way

We soon came to the dining hall, there were two men stood in here wearing the same attire as the guards outside but without the spears, one man left as we all sat at the table, the table was long, long enough to sit thirty people, Pierre sat at the head, I sat next to him Around the corner on his right, Damon sat next to me, Dylan sat opposite me, and Charlie sat opposite Damon, the butler that had left came back with a food trolley, he put covered plates on the table, a woman came in now wearing the same attire as the men, she bought with her another food trolley, this one had plates, bowls and cutlery, she set the table and I said a thank-you she nodded in acknowledgment then left, the butler had finished putting out the food, he uncovered all the dishes, before he too left, there were assortments of meat, a plate of vegetables, and a dish of fried fish,
"Dig in, please" the king said, Damon took my plate and filled it for me, without any input from me, Charlie did the same for Dylan and himself, Damon took a little of everything "that won't be enough, king Damon, have more, please"
"I'm fine with this much, thank-you your majesty" Damon told him with a smile to which the king nodded
"After this we will go out and meet people, I think I would like to meet your staff first, is that okay Pierre?" I asked
"Of course it is" Pierre said wiping his mouth as he swallowed what he was eating, "but you know there is an easier way to do this, it will save time" he announced to all of us, we stopped eating and looked at him "Why don't you call a meeting, at each castle, call a meeting, meet the staff, then ask the king to announce that you would like to meet everyone, all the queens did that, she or you would spend three weeks in each castle and every single person would come to meet you at the castle, that way you didn't have to travel"
"But what if everyone can't make it?"
"That never happened, everyone always came to see her, she waited, usually three weeks, sometimes more, but she stayed three extra days, if no one came during those three extra days she moved on to the next castle, if, however, even one person came during the three days she would wait another three days, so sometimes she'd stay in one place for over a month, but she never complained" he said adding the last bit quickly, "Mary explained all of this to me after she was initiated, she got her memory, so she explaind that this is what she did" I nodded at that, I looked towards Dylan who just shrugged as if to say it was my decision, so I looked at Damon
"It would make this easier, but it's up to you, Anastasia, I can't make this decision for you,
"I know but please, what do you think? What do you actually think?" I asked Damon
"My queen I think it's a great idea, personally, if it was me I'd stay here, and see the people here" Damon told me again, calling me his queen, that could only mean one thing, he has forgotten who he is, what I am, I looked towards Pierre
"Do you know anything about this? He is now acting like he works for me, like he's a butler" I said pointing to one of the butlers standing away from us."He acts as though he doesn't love me, like he's someone else" I nearly cried
"Like he's being compelled?" King Pierre asked I gasped at that
"I would never" I told him, Damon is my mate, I could never compell him
"Of course not, but it seems that when you tell him something instead of asking you are accidentally compelling him, how do you stop it? How do you make him remember?" Pierre seemed interested to know so I turned to Damon
"I love you" I told him, Damon looked at me then all the men around the table
"Me too" he said smiling, if vampires could blush he'd be blushing, I looked to Pierre now asking him with my eyes what this meant
"I have never seen anything like this before, but then again I've never met a witch that is mated to a vampire before either, and I can honestly say that non of the other queens went through this with their partners"
"Were any of them ever mated?" I asked "to anyone?" I added
"No, I don't think they were, they were married, they all fell in love, and they all married but I don't think any were actually mated" Pierre explained, to which I nodded, still deep in thought.
Once dinner was done, we went to another room, and yes there were many twists and turns, did I mention I may need a map? This room had sofas, and lamps, on either side of each sofa, there was a coffee table, a rug, and a cabinet, a lot like the one Damon had in his home, I guessed it contained alcoholic beverages once we settled Pierre asked if we'd like a drink, Damon and I asked for bourbon, Dylan asked for whisky, and Charlie got up saying he'd get the drinks, but Pierre dismissed him with a wave and told him to sit, Charlie obliged and asked for a whisky as well, Pierre passed us drinks and he too sat with a drink
"Oh I don't like the smell of rum" Damon announced covering his nose with the inside of his elbow, I just laughed
"The highlights of being a vampire" Dylan laughed "I can't smell a thing mate"
"I am sorry Damon" Pierre stood up "I'll get something else"
"No, no, it's fine, I don't mind, please sit, have your drink" Damon too was on his feet, both men smiled and nodded then went back and sat back down, we drank and talked, but my mind was elsewhere, soon I cleared my throat
"I've made my decision" I announced, all eyes were on me "I love travelling but I think Pierre's suggestion is best, we should visit each castle and call the people to us, it will save more time, and Dylan might just relax a little" I looked smugly at Dylan who just rolled his eyes at me
"It's settled then" Pierre said getting up "I will make the arrangements, and Anastasia you are welcome to stay as long as you like, forever if you want, this castle is nothing without you. With that said, please wait here whilst I make arrangements" Pierre left us all in the room.
"I've been thinking" Charlie spoke
"I'll alert the media" both Damon and I said in unison, we looked at each other and burst out laughing "oh real mature" Charlie said frustrated, this caused us to laugh louder and harder Charlie huffed once we were calm, Charlie continued "thank-you" he addressed Damon and me as if saying thank-you for no longer laughing "anyway Anastasia when you compelled Damon to never be compelled again..."
"YOU TOLD HIM" I shouted at Damon
"I had to, I needed advice" Damon seemed sorry
"We decided not to tell anyone" I told him a little quieter now
"It's good that he did" Charlie carried on "when you compelled him that day what exactly did you say? What were your exact words?" Charlie asked me, I thought for a bit
"Um I said 'no witch will ever compel you again' Damon repeated in a monotone voice and that's it" I shrugged
"Hmm, well I think when you compelled him the Gods must have felt that this could be bad, so they gave you the power to compell him, so now you're the only one that can" Charlie told me
"But I'm not trying to compel him, why does he get compelled everytime I ask him something?" I asked frustratedly
"It's not everytime, and it's probably to keep him in check" Charlie sounded a little sorry at the end there looking at Damon apologetically, I thought about this.
Pierre came back
"The announcement will be made tomorrow morning, and people from all around Europe will come, in the meantime tomorrow morning my staff will meet you in the throne room and you can talk to them" he told us happily, I stood and thanked him "it's fine, come let me show you to your rooms, three rooms have been prepared" Pierre announced as we walked out of the room
"If you don't mind, I would like to share a room with my mate" I told him holding Damons hand for emphasis
"Of course, I know you will share" Pierre told us, Damon and I looked at Dylan
"If you don't mind I'd like to share a room with my husband" Dylan announced emphasis on I'd and my the king turned to look at Dylan he saw them holding hands then looked at their faces
"My apologies Dylan I didn't know, I shall let the staff know that it's two rooms not three, they'll be happy, one less room to clean" he laughed all of us laughed we went down more corridors and went up some stairs, did I mention? Map
We came to Dylan and Charlie's room first, it consisted of a four poster bed, a wardrobe, a big window overlooking the castle grounds
"Through here is the ensuite" Pierre told them showing them a door next to the wardrobe "my apologies once again" he said lowering his head
"It's fine, honestly don't worry, we get it all the time, people mistake us for brothers or friends all the time" Dylan told him
"Sometimes even boss and client" Charlie added to which Dylan nodded
We left them and went further down, we came to another room, this one also had a four poster bed, a window overlooking the castle grounds and a built in wardrobe, there were four doors to the built in wardrobe where as Dylan had two doors
"Your ensuite is through there" Pierre pointed to one of the wardrobe doors, I raised an eyebrow at him, he just smiled and nodded towards the door as if to say take a look, I did just that I walked over and opened the first door on the right to my surprise there was another door behind it, when I opened it I saw the bathroom, I gasped, this was so cool, I walked out and closed both doors, with a nod towards Pierre and a smile, I sat on the bed "what time would you like the maid to wake you?" Pierre asked the both of us
"We can wake ourselves" I announced looking at Damon who just nodded "thank-you king Pierre"
"Pierre, just Pierre, and you're welcome ma maison est ta maison" Pierre smiled
"Wait I did French in school" I closed my eyes, I thought "my home is your home" I said as I opened my eyes
"You know French?" Pierre asked
"No, not really, I've forgotten most of it" I told him truthfully he left after that, Damon saw him out and locked the door behind him, and I got close to Damon, and kissed him "I love you king Damon" I smiled, Damon smiled too "my king" I whispered taking his hand and kissing it, Damon winked at me, kissed me then blinked away, I groaned, why would he do that?
Damon came back less than ten seconds later, with the bag that I had packed for both of us,
"I delivered Dylan's and Charlie's" he told me with a shrug "now where were we" he whispered kissing me again, I removed his shirt, breaking the kiss long enough to do so, when I tried to kiss him again he stopped me covering my lips with his finger instead, "You've been compelling me?" He questioned, not accusingly, just enquiring, so I nodded
"I've never meant to Damon, honestly I don't even know how I stop it, I think when I tell you I love you it stops"
"You love me?" Damon smiled I rolled my eyes and smacked his shoulder playfully
"You know I do"
"Hmm" Damon let go of me, so I went into the ensuite and did my nightly routine, I left the bathroom to see Damon lying in bed, he was lay on his back, his feet crossed at the ankle his right hand under his head and his left hand holding a book, I raised an eyebrow, as if to say you read?
"Pierre came in earlier, this book contains information about the previous queens" he sat up on the bed propping himself on his hands, I joined him on the bed and took the book from him, I opened it to the first page, the content page, each chapter was named after each queen, the first name was Evangeline and the last was Mary, I went to the final page and saw that Mary was in fact the last chapter, no queen had ever survived long enough to get into the book, I closed it and sighed "You ok?" Damon asked rubbing my back
"Yeah, sorry, I just thought my other selves would've been mentioned" I shook my head as if to say it doesn't matter
"I get it, but you're here now, you can write an entry" Damon held a pen out to me
"Damon, I can't, I shouldn't" I took the pen and put it down on the bed, writing in a book was wrong
"No, no, Pierre said that now that you're here it is your right to write your entry, that's why he bought the book here, so that you could write in it, all the other queens did, well it started with Josephine, she wrote about the others before her then up until Mary they all wrote their own entry" Damon shrugged
"What do I write?" I asked no one in particular
"Well you don't have to write now, you have three weeks to decide" Damon shrugged again.
"Hey do you need to feed?" I asked ready to offer my blood
"No, I'm fine" Damon layed down again
"Well let me just say that if you need to feed you may feed from me, you don't have to go looking" I told him hoping I didn't compell him, luckily Damon smiled and thanked me, we got under the covers after putting the book and pen on a table near the window and we went to sleep.