(1) The Phoenix (D. Salvatore)

Chapter Ninty-Five

With her phone pressed to her ear, Daphne paces a little where she stands on the side of the street outside of the Mystic Grill, after their training in the woods, they had all split up again. Daphne staying with Caroline, Matt, and Elena as they came back to town. There are things that they need to talk about and putting it off will just make it worse, mostly because she is nervous enough without having to think about it more. Damon went to pick up Alaric, to take him to the boarding house for a drink and some food, trying to get him to eat something more than the one bite of a sandwich, because Daphne knows he wouldn't have eaten anything more than what she saw.

"I've got Alaric" Damon offers as Daphne glances over at Elena, Matt, and Caroline sitting together at a table outside of the Grill close by. "You sure you don't want me to be there when you tell them?"

"No, it's okay" She assures him. "It has to come out now, we're at the Grill, getting some food..."

"Come over when you're done, I'll make you feel better" He teases, she chuckles and smiles to herself.

"Promise?"

"Promise" He assures her softly before they both hang up. Daphne lets out a breath as she slides her phone away. She was hoping that by the time this moment came she would be ready to talk about it, that she would know exactly what she is going to say. But she doesn't. She just has to come out with it, as she did with Damon. She heads towards her friends who glance at her. Each is curious and cautious at the same time. Not that she blames them, the word curse is bad enough.

"Daph" Caroline starts. "If you're not ready to..." Daphne smiles at her softly but shakes her head.

"No, you'll all look at me weird until you know, so..." She shrugs and then joins them at the table outside of the Grill. She takes a deep breath and nods, more to ready herself than anything. This is a conversation she has been dreading, because of Elena. She never wanted to burden her family with this curse. "Urm my birth mother is..." She stops and shakes her head. "Was a fairy" Matt blinks a little, processing the fact that fairies are real and that this girl he grew up around is apparently half-fairy. "And my dad...Sirius was a wizard....but when fairies and wizards or witches produce a child, that child is born phoenix-cursed" She admits. "I don't know the whole history, the source or whatever, no one I have met and no books I have read really has an answer, lots of theories but...." She shakes her head.

"What does it mean though?" Elena asks. "Because you seem...normal, like....not cursed" Daphne smiles softly at her, but she can see the worry in her eyes.

"It means that the two magics coming together created this magical, dangerous, force inside me, but it lays dormant.....asleep inside of me until I die" Caroline and Elena frown at her. "If I were to die and then my body be burned...It would wake the phoenix inside of me and it would bring me back, but I would be different...dangerous. The Phoenix would fight to take control of my body...." Caroline touches Daphne's hand on the table. It's a lot to take in, learning that their friend, or sister in Elena's case, has the potential to become dangerous and powerful enough that it is considered a curse. It has to be bad. But there is a determination to them. They are not going to let that happen to her.

"And Klaus knows this?" Elena asks, and Daphne nods.

"Damon thinks he might activate the phoenix as a way to...deal with you..."

"Why would that work?" Matt asks. "You're our friend...you wouldn't hurt us"

"No" Daphne assures him. "I would never purposely hurt you, any of you...but the Phoenix will not care about family or friends...it will kill and cause damage and obliterate everything in its path...it won't matter who you are to me"

"Meaning that you could take us out...." Caroline whispers, Daphne looks at her sadly. "Even the vampires?" Daphne nods.

"The phoenix is capable of...." Daphne stops. "I don't want to ever become the person that would do that sort of damage..." Caroline squeezes Daphne's hand. "Not to the people that I love"

.........

At the boarding house, Damon places his white oak stake underneath a pile of firewood as Alaric watches. Finding Damon's hiding place is ridiculous. Considering his past successes at hiding things from bad guys. He folds his arms over his chest and raises an eyebrow at Damon who looks back over his shoulder at Alaric standing behind him.

"I mean, did you learn nothing from the moonstone in the soap dish?" Alaric asks, reminding Damon that Katherine easily found the moonstone because he thought disguising it as soap was a good idea.

"Why?" Damon counters. "Where'd you put yours?" Before Alaric can answer him, they both hear a noise from downstairs. Damon gets up from the floor. "What the hell was that?"

"Didn't you say that Daphne was coming over?" Alaric asks. Damon hums but then shakes his head.

"Not till later" He leaves the room and heads down the stairs to find out what the noise was. With any luck, it was just something falling over, but knowing how things have gone for them, it will not be a broken vase, but something much more sinister. Suddenly, he sees Alaric get thrown down the stairs and falls to the floor. "Ric?" Damon looks up the stairs, turns around and is stabbed in the stomach with a knife by Rebekah.

"Hello, lover"

........

Later, outside of the boarding house, Stefan walks towards the porch and front door when Daphne appears, suddenly, at his side, causing him to jump. She chuckles and tucks her hands into her pockets. She knows that apparating always seems to cause him to jump and be surprised. Damon has gotten used to it, but it is still fun to do it with Damon.

"You've got to stop doing that" Stefan scolds her, she just smirks back at him as they head towards the house. Daphne's phone starts ringing in her pocket. Daphne frowns a little as she pulls it out then raises an eyebrow at Elena's name flashing there. Considering that she's just finished talking to her.

"Don't tell me you've gotten yourselves into trouble already, I literally just left you" Daphne teases as she picks up the phone.

"Klaus' brother, Finn is in the town square and he's with some ex-girlfriend or something" Elena admits.

"Oh, so you did go and get yourself in trouble" Daphne complains, Stefan looks at her, now listening. Daphne glances at him. "Finn is in town with a woman" She simplifies. "Elena thinks it's his girlfriend or something"

"Guy's been in a coffin for the last 900 years" Stefan pauses. "Sage. It's got to be Sage" Daphne turns her phone to set it on speaker.

"You're on speaker," She tells Elena.

"We have an opportunity. So how do we do this?" Elena asks.

"Listen to me, Elena, do not do anything, okay?" Stefan warns. "Sage is very old and very strong. You don't stand a chance against her"

"Then you two get down here" Elena counters. Daphne and Stefan share a look, he shrugs a little and then nods.

"We'll find Damon and meet you there" Daphne offers and then hangs up before she and Stefan walk into the house. Stefan sees Alaric on the staircase and that he is injured.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"Rebekah happened," Alaric answers as Daphne moves towards him, already pulling out her wand to help him. Stefan lets out a breath and glances around trying to figure out their next move.