CH59 Back to Africa

We spent the night in each others arms, I had cried myself to sleep and Damon just held me.
In the morning my eyes were red and puffy,
"Good morning baby" Damon whispered probably hoping I wouldn't break down again, I just nodded and walked to the bathroom, I had a shower, I realised when I stripped that my clothes were bloody, I furrowed my eyebrows and then realised that Damon had probably cried too, he would miss me if and when I went to prison, I would make him promise to move on.
Once done with my shower I got dressed and went downstairs to make my announcement, a mug of tea waited for me, I sat at the table and drank my tea, Damon put a piece of toast in front of me, and smiled sadly, I ate slowly I felt sick. Once I forced the toast down and drank some of the tea, I thought this was a great time to make my announcement
"I want to go to Africa" I told the men, Dylan gasped and Charlie and Damon looked at each other "I need to tell the people what happened, I need to face.." I choked on my words "I need to face their wrath" I cried once more
"We will support you, Anastasia, but you won't be punished, we won't allow it" Dylan said
"I have to be punished, Dylan what I did was wrong, it was evil, I have to accept punishment, and you guys need to accept it too" I whispered the last part I turned to my mate and smiled sadly, he smiled too
"When do you want to leave?" My mate asked me
"What? Damon you can't be serious" Dylan was angry
"I am serious, Dylan we promised to support Anastasia, and that's exactly what I'm doing" Damon explained, pinching the bridge of his nose
We blinked to the throne room in the castle of Africa, it was empty but I could hear voices coming from outside, I guided the men outside, people were dancing, and singing, everyone wore white
"Maybe they don't know yet" Charlie commented, I caught a nearby woman by her arm
"What are you celebrating?" I asked her, she looked at me as if I had asked a ridiculous question, but then she saw our attire and smiled, realising we were not accustomed to their traditions
"It is a funeral, we celebrate, as death is a new beginning, the king and prince died yesterday" she explained
"How did they die?" I asked wanting to know how much I'll have to tell them
"They were burned, by queen Anastasia" she looked around as if looking out for people listening, she came closer to me and said the next part quietly "the king wanted his son to marry her, she is mated to a vampire, and the king thought that was ridiculous, so I think, when the king tried to force her she killed him, and if any man tried to do that with me, I'd kill them" I gasped at that not knowing what else to say
"So what about the kingdom? What happens now? Who becomes the next king?" I asked her, wanting to change the subject
"Ahh, well that will be decided in forty days, you see many people will come for the throne, and they will fight, whoever wins takes the throne" she smiled
"What about the queen, will she not be punished?" The question was asked by Damon
"No, she won't, see in Africa women have rights, rights to choose her mate, her love, she has freedom, if a man tries to take that away from her, he will be punished, it has always been that way, so in our eyes the king and prince were punished" she explained
"But aren't you upset? You lost your king, and prince, don't you want to punish her?" I asked nearly shrieking
"She's the queen, we love her more than we could love our king, king Jabari was only king for twenty years, and queen Anastasia has been around a lot longer" the woman smiled
"Kwame, come on, you're missing the funeral" someone came and pulled the woman, Kwame, away, I was confused now, I came here to get punished but it seems I won't be,
"Well that went better than we expected" Dylan said, trying to lighten the mood, "Come on, Anastasia, time to go home" the men agreed and we blinked to Dylan's house, I went to the living room and paced
"Maybe there another way to get what I deserve" I must have said that out loud, because next thing I know Damon has grabbed me by my shoulders
"ENOUGH, I'M SICK OF THIS, YES YOU KILLED SOMEONE, BUT YOU DID WHAT YOU HAD TO, STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP, STOP PUNISHING YOURSELF AND GET IT TOGETHER" Damon shook me trying to shake sense into me, Dylan and Charlie had run into the room when Damon had been shouting but neither of them tried to stop him, I cried again, I brushed Damon off me and sat down, my face in my hands as I cried, someone sat next to me, it was Dylan, I heard the front door open and close, Damon left
"I'll go after him" Charlie said before the door opened and closed once again, Dylan wrapped an arm around me giving me a sideway hug as I cried, after a while, when I was all cried out, I hugged Dylan
"Anastasia, I know you don't want to hear this but Damon is right" Dylan said I gasped and looked up at him, was he serious? Dylan shook his head "the people of Africa don't want to punish you, Anastasia no one does, so why are you punishing yourself? You don't deserve this" I shook my head
"I killed them"
"Yes you did, and anyone in your position would've done the same, Anastasia you did nothing wrong, no one hates you, no one, the only person that wants to punish you, is you" I thought about that "Anastasia, Damon can't stand it, he's worried about you, he knows what you're going through, he wants to help you, he wants to be there for you, just..., just...., just let him in, let him help you, you can come back from this, just let him help you" Dylan was crying
"You're a pacifist, you're supposed to hate me" I told him with a chuckle
"It's hard to hate you, Anastasia, you're an amazing person" Dylan told me he hugged me again, Damon and Charlie came back, Dylan and I broke apart to greet them, Damon's eyes were red, and puffy, my mate had been crying, I got up and ran to him, I hugged him
"I'm sorry" I whispered to my mate
"I'm sorry too" Damon told me, hugging me tighter
"Get a room" we heard Charlie shout, Damon and I just laughed, our foreheads touched
"You ok?" Damon asked me, to which I nodded my head, I wasn't ok, but I would be, my mate smiled and we joined Dylan and Charlie on the sofa and talked.
I was still sad, but this is where I wanted to be, with my mate, and my friends, this is where I belonged.
That night, in bed Damon and I were talking
"You've known Dylan and Charlie a long time, right?" I asked
"Three hundred years" Damon said proudly
"I want to give them something" I announced
"What?" Damon asked giving me his full attention, I sat up in bed, Indian style and Damon did the same facing me
"I don't know, but look they've done so much for me, for us, I want to do something for them in return" we sat and thought for a bit "what about their families?" Damon furrowed his eyebrows "I could reunite them, how long has it been since they saw their families?"
"Probably around two hundred years? That's how long Dylan and Charlie have been married" Damon shrugged I was amazed at that, that is a long time to hold a grudge, no one can stay mad that long so I smiled
"That's it then, that's what we'll do, help them reunite with their families" I was happy with that
"Woah, bad idea, Anastasia Dylan and Charlie don't want to reunite with their families, they broke off all ties with them"
"But that was...."
"No, they don't want this, trust me, I have known them a long time, they will hate you Anastasia" I thought about this, okay I didn't want them to hate me, I had to think of something else
"So what can we get for them then?" I asked accepting defeat
"I'm not sure" Damon was no help at all
"Ooh, maybe we should go shopping, and just buy what we like, what do you think?" I asked, Damon just smiled
"A chance to spend the day with you?" Damon asked, I just nodded "I would love that" he came in for a kiss and I smiled, it was a small kiss, but gods it was perfect, we went to sleep after that. My dreams were not as bad as they had been, I still saw Jabari and Dakarai at my feet, burnt, in Damons house, the house was still on fire, but this time the funeral was taking place, right there in the house on fire, with music and dancing and a whole lot of drinking, so even though the dream started off a little scary, it ended with drinking.
I woke up more rested than I had done in the last few days, in fact when I woke up Damon wasn't there, I did my daily routine and went downstairs looking for my mate
"There you are sleepy head, sleep ok?" Dylan asked me with a smile, I looked at the clock on the wall it read eleven, wait, I slept until eleven? I've never in my life slept that late
"It's fine, you needed it" Damon was behind me whispering in my ear "come have breakfast" he said in my ear, I made him let go of me and turned around
"Let's eat out" I told him, to which Damon smiled and nodded, once we told Dylan and Charlie we were going out we blinked to my house in the mortal world
"So where are we going?" Damon asked me
"I'm thinking Trafford?" I replied
"Sounds great" Damon answered, I blinked us to the toilets in the Trafford Centre, and after making sure the coast was clear we walked out of there, hand in hand, the ceiling was high, and made of glass, I chandelier hung low from it, there were three floors, food court, shops and cinema, there were lights everywhere "food first" Damon instructed as he led me to the escalator that would take us down to the food courts, the floor was shaped as a ship, with a big t.v screen advertising what was available around the Trafford Centre, there were so many food chains McDonald's, KFC, subway, there were Chinese, Italian and Indian restaurants, I got a white hot chocolate with whipped cream, and a blueberry muffin, Damon insisted he didn't want anything
"This isn't enough food, get something else" Damon told me
"Later, let the other restaurants open, I'll get something then, they don't open 'til twelve, so we'll come back later" I shrugged, Damon squinted at me and I just shrugged he said nothing else as I ate my muffin and drank my hot chocolate.
We went up to the shops now
"Ooh, how about new phones?" I asked as I walked into an apple store
"Nah, they got new phones two months ago" Damon burst my bubble, I shrugged oh well there's plenty more.
I walked into a clothing store they had cowboy hats on display I put one on
"How do I look?" I asked Damon
"You look good" he told me, and with a smile he took off the hat and put it back "we're here to shop for Dylan and Charlie, not you" with that said he walked out of the store, the first hour went pretty much in the same way, at twelve, on the dot, Damon took me to the escalator again and straight to the food courts, I rolled my eyes at him, I got a chicken shawarma from a Turkish restaurant, with chickpea humus, it was delicious, even Damon tried some, I had a fanta with it.
Once done with food we carried on shopping.
We finally came to a store that seemed to pull me in, we came to Earnest Jones, Damon said nothing as I walked in, there was wide collection of jewellery and watches I asked to see some watches for men I ended up buying two watches each with diamonds where the numbers should be and golden straps
"These are great, I'm sure Dylan and Charlie will love them" Damon assured me, the watches were bagged and after payment we left the store, we walked around for a while laughing and joking, then we decided to go back home, we went back to the magical world and blinked outside Dylans house and knocked on the door, Charlie answered and let us in, Damon and I couldn't stop smiling, Charlie and Dylan squinted at us, as if to ask what was going on
"So, Damon and I went shopping, and we got you guys something" I began with my hands hiding the bag behind my back
"Oh, no Anastasia you didn't have to do that" Dylan told me
"Yeah you don't have to spend your money on us" Charlie agreed
"No guys look, you guys have been amazing, you have supported me and you took us in when we needed it" I told them
"But that's what friends are for" Dylan reminded me, I just laughed and bought the bag forward, a black gift bag with gold Earnest Jones lettering
"Ta da" I smiled so wide, "open it" I told as I jumped up and down, with a smile they opened the bag and took out the white boxes, one for each of them, Dylan and Charlie opened the boxes at the same time, they opened the box, and both gasped at the same time, their mouths hung open
"Oh gods, Anastasia, these are amazing" Charlie laughed
"Do you like them? Really? Coz I can take them back and get something else" I wasn't feeling as confident as I did before
"No they're perfect" Dylan told me, as they helped each other put their watch on, the watches fit perfectly, Dylan and Charlie came to hug me
"Hey I helped too" Damon reminded them to which all of us laughed and the lycans thanked Damon and hugged him