(1) The Phoenix (D. Salvatore)

Chapter Fifty-Three

There is a magic-powered record player on the top of a crate playing music as Daphne stares at the locked coffin, swaying slightly as she thinks. Damon is sat on an upturned crate as he flicks through one of the books she brought with her as he continues to suck on the lollipop. His eyes flicker to Daphne as she concentrates on the spells in her mind.

"Okay," She whispers and then holds out her wand. "Start simple...it's an old coffin...probably not protected against anything that complicated" She takes a breath. "Alohomora" She and Damon hold their breath, waiting to see if it does something. It doesn't. "Dunamis" Daphne tries. Nothing. "Aberto!" She pulls a face, now feeling the same frustration as Bonnie had. "Annihilare" She tries. Nothing. "Liberare" She huffs and wrinkles her nose. Damon sets the books down and then stands, moving closer to her. She looks at him as his hand lands on her waist. "What are you doing?" She asks him. He shrugs a little and then smirks at her.

"You're too tense" He answers. "I'm sure your spells can sense it"

"Hmm, an expert on magic all of a sudden" She points out, giving him a look. "Or is this just an excuse for you to touch me?" He shrugs a little. Maybe he does want something of their old friendship back. Before they slept together. He was hands-on. Touchy flirty with her.

"Tell me about them," He asks of her, she frowns. "The vampires you've met before, the teacher at school, the student..."

"Why?" She counters. Not understanding why he would want to know about these things.

"I want to know what I am missing out on," He tells her. "You come along and you tell me that vampires are..." He lets out a breath and shakes his head. "I don't know, I've met witches and..."

"They hate you?" She asks, he nods. "That's because you haven't met an ancient witch, or wizard, before...I get why Bonnie's witches, the traditional witches feel the way they do. Because the ancient wizarding community is more secretive, more hidden, it is the traditional ones that have been hunted and sought after..." She motions to his hand, to his daylight ring. "That make themselves known to you guys, which means that they get the worst side of your people" She offers. "Maybe they treat you badly because of the way you are with them, maybe you are the way with them because of the way they treat you, I don't know the history of it. I remember my classes on vampires. The way you're written about in our textbooks, it's like you were a mystery to unwrap. Which I guess at one point you were. If Klaus and his siblings are the first of your kind, that means that as a species you're only about 1,000 years old. I mean that's the same age as Hogwarts....like vampires only came into existence at the same time as my school did, that's....crazy. Merlin's beard...That means that they were born at the same time that Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw...."

"Are these real people or are you just making stuff up to mess with me?" He asks, she pushes at his chest.

"They were real" She argues. "Maybe one day I will you down and tell you all about them and how fucking awesome they were" Damon smirks a little. "Can I get back to trying to open this thing now?" She asks him, he hums and nods. She turns back to the coffin and shakes her head, amused. She holds out her wand. "Portaberto" She casts, but nothing is working here. Nothing is giving here. Not even a wobble. "Okay, so maybe I can just blow it up" Damon gives her a look. She nods to herself. "Bombarda" Everything in front of her, except for the coffin, blows up. Sending Damon and Daphne flying back from the coffin. Daphne groans as she hits the floor. Damon is suddenly there and helping her up.

"Yeah, nice try, Red" He teases a little as she stumbles into his chest. "But urm, maybe not" She lets out a breath and nods against his chest.

"You're wasting your time" Stefan comments from the doorway. Daphne and Damon pull away from one another. "It won't open" Damon clenches his jaw. "Did you bury the body?" Stefan asks.

"Yeah" Damon answers, moving back to the crate. "Any sign of our little hybrid buddies?"

"Nope, just the dead one" Stefan comments. Damon moves towards the locked coffin and then turns to face Daphne and Stefan.

"Alright, so thanks to Sabrina" Damon winks at Daphne who rolls her eyes a little. "We know that Klaus has 6 siblings. Rebekah is now with Klaus. There was one dead kid in the old world, one dead kid in the new world" Daphne smirks. "Which leaves Elijah and two others. Three sleeping originals, four coffins"

"Any idea yet who's in the locked box?" Daphne asks.

"No idea. But whatever is in here, Bonnie seems to think will help us kill Klaus. So, the sooner you or she can get this open, the sooner we will know if she's right"

"Oh, you think the spirits of a bunch of dead witches that can make the coffins invisible would have figured out how to open one" Damon comments and then tilts his head towards the ceiling towards the spirits expectantly. "Fine, don't help"

"You know, none of this is gonna do us any good if Klaus's hybrid friends find our hiding place, right?" Stefan reminds them. "They need to go away"

"Oh yeah, that's a great idea, Stefan" Damon snarks. "Why don't you just ask them to pack their bags and take a long rest while we are at it. How about try to keep the peace? Don't attract attention to the real thing we are trying to hide"

"Well, I'm not gonna play defence when I have what Klaus wants" Stefan argues. "He does what I say, or I dump his family to the bottom of the ocean"

"And then he kills you and everyone you know like, I don't know...me!" Damon counters. Daphne's eyes flicker between them as she listens to them. Following the argument.

"No, he's bluffing. His family means more to him than anything else" Stefan points out.

"You sure about that?" Damon asks.

"Well, I don't know, Damon. I mean, I guess there's only one way to find out, right? Call his bluff"

"The only way to call someone's bluff, Stefan, is to be willing to lose everything if you're wrong" Damon points out. Stefan smiles at Damon and leaves, ignoring his words.

"I think he might be right" Daphne whispers to Damon who gives her a look. "Look, yesterday, he honestly didn't really care for that hybrid, or me fixing what I broke...he just wanted him to stop. But once I mentioned giving him Rebekah..." Damon lets out a breath.

"He would have done anything for her" He realises.

"Stefan's methods might be batshit crazy, but his logic is pretty solid...." She adds. "If we're smart, we could hostage off each coffin for whatever we wanted. One by one. Or we could open the others and release them"

"Okay, that's crazy" Damon argues. "One original is bad enough, without unleashing...three more"

"Maybe they hate being locked up in coffins" She counters. "Maybe they'll be willing to compromise" He hums a little and then shakes his head.

"With our luck, they'll kill us all on sight" She snorts a little, she can't fault him on that, not really.