(1) The Phoenix (D. Salvatore)

Chapter Forty-Two

At the boarding house, Daphne and Damon are in the living room, talking over the monumental disaster of their plan and the night. They didn't factor in Stefan turning on them. Of all of the people that could have turned on them. Stefan was low down on the list of most probable. Rebekah and Mikael being higher up as the two that will likely cause the most problems. Turns out they weren't who they should have been worried about. Daphne has her legs tucked under her as she takes a drink from the glass in her hand. Damon paces slightly, opting to drink straight from the bottle instead.

"We thought of everything, Red" Damon points out. "Klaus having hybrids. Mikael turning on us. We brought in Katherine so Elena wasn't in danger. Anything that could have gone wrong we were prepared" He takes a drink from the bottle.

"Stefan wanted Klaus dead too" She comments. "That's why it was a good plan"
"We blew it" He offers, she gives him a weird look.

"Urm, no, we were awesome" He lets out a small laugh and looks at her. "I mean...I was amazing" She adds. He hums and nods.

"Yeah, you were" He agrees. She did everything she was meant to. Perfectly.

"And to think that I came up with that spell on the fly" She lets out a breath and shrugs. "I really am amazing"

"You made it up?" He asks, she nods.

"Yep," She pops the p and smirks at him. He has to hand it to her, she is clearly very amazing. And a very talented witch. "What about Katherine?" She asks.

"She ran for the hills like usual, the minute things got bad! And who blames her?! Klaus would've crushed her. I had him. I had Klaus! This could have all been over!!!" Damon throws a bottle of scotch in the fireplace and growls. Annoyed at himself. At Klaus. At Stefan. At the result of this night. This plan. Daphne stands from the sofa, sets the glass down before she moves towards him.

"Look, we just need to figure something else out" She points out. "I'll keep going on the blood spells" Damon glances at her as she reaches him, his hand coming up to cup her cheek. "And we'll deal with Klaus, one way or another"

"You just don't know when to give up, do you?" He asks her, she smirks and hums before she shakes her head.

"Nope" She answers, he snorts in response. "Part of my charms" She teases, he nods and rubs his thumb into her cheek. "You know...I should be going home, get started on the blood again" She offers and takes a few steps back before turning away from him. He grabs her wrist and pulls her back to him. There is no way he's not going to take this shot. They are finally alone. With no impending drama or plans. They have the night now. And what better way to forget everything that went wrong, than to finally get to enjoy her company. To ignore everything else. He presses his lips to her as he closes his eyes. It's not as cliché as fireworks. It's a deep heat in his stomach that rushes up his spine and back down again, flooding through his entire body. It's a tingling in his fingertips as he touches her back. It's butterflies. It's a craving for more. He pulls back, though he is reluctant to put any distance between them. Her fingers clutch to his jacket. He brushes his thumb across her cheek. "Fuck" She mumbles as she licks her lips. She wasn't expecting it to be that good. She's been kissed in the past. But it had been sloppy quick things in corridors and cupboards at school. It was never anything of real substance. Till now. She didn't think that kissing someone could be that enjoyable. His lip twitches into a smirk. She looks up at him. "Do that again" She coos. And he does. They are both more sure about it now. So they both put more into it. Lips moving against one another. He grabs at the backs of her thighs and lifts her up, her arms instinctively wrapping around his neck, fingers drawing through his hair, her feet lock behind him, holding herself to him. He carries her across the room to a table, a desk or something, his mind is completely blanking on the details of his own home. He sweeps his arm over the table, clearing it, he doesn't care. He sets her down onto the top of it and tilts her head up to kiss her deeper. She pushes at his jacket, yanking it down his shoulders as he slots himself between her legs, fingers pressing into her thighs, nipping and pressing against her lips. He reluctantly releases her so she can yank his jacket all the way off, dropping it on the floor before she moves to his shirt. Drawing her fingers over it. "Evanesco" She casts and his shirt instantly disappears. Damon looks down surprised, touches his chest before looking up at her, she smirks a little and shrugs. He smirks back, then helps her shimmy out of her dress, pulling it up and over her head. His eyes are instantly drawn back to her body as he throws her dress aside, not really caring where it ends up. He's more interested in her matching blue underwear. Lacey. He loves lace on her. And he so wants to savour this moment, but he has other things on his mind. His lips find her neck and she clutches to his shoulders. His arm wraps around her back, his other hand finds her thigh before he picks her up again.

.............

Later, Damon and Daphne lay on the floor, wrapped in blankets with pillows in front of the lit fireplace, the only source of light in the entire room. His hands-on her bare waist, her arms around his neck as their lips move against one another. The two of them are warm. Satisfied but still craving more. Daphne moans against his lips as he shifts his hand to her back, pulling her body closer to him, pressing her right against him. Sex is good. It always is good for him. But he never realised that there was something lacking. Genuine affection and feeling. He thought, that the best he would get, the closest to perfect he would get was with Katherine. But it wasn't even close to being the same. His fingers reach up for her neck, tracing the chain of her necklace as he draws his lips around to her jaw. She closes her eyes and rests her head back against the pillow behind her.