(1) The Phoenix (D. Salvatore)

Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen

Decorating in the middle of the night was not something Daphne would ever think she would do, and decorating without the use of magic is another thing. She's not used to not reaching for her magic or her wand to get something like this done. It's just the way her life has been. Even simple things have magical connotations for her. It's strange. And boring, but she will do it because it seems as though this is what Elena needs. That's the same reason that Jeremy caved and decided to help. He knows that this is what Elena needs right now. Elena drapes a white cover over an armchair as Jeremy and Daphne pour paint into a paint trough in the centre of the room.

"Going darker, huh?" Stefan asks from the doorway. Elena turns to look at him.

"It's the only colour we had" She defends and glances at Daphne who mocks a little because she offered to change it using magic, but they did agree to do this the muggle way. It was her idea to start with. But a little magic could have been used then.

"That's what happens when you decide to paint your dead guardian's room in the middle of the night" Jeremy mumbles.

"I don't suppose anyone tried to talk you guys out of doing this so soon" Stefan inquires, Daphne and Jeremy turn to give him a look. For how dare he get on them about doing something in their own home. This is their house. This is their spare room, this literally has nothing to do with him.

"We have to keep moving. Otherwise, we'll start thinking and we don't want to think" Elena informs him.

"Want a hand?" Stefan asks them.

"So, are you two like back together or something?" Jeremy asks, a hard glare to his face as he considers that as an option. Considering everything that they've been through since Stefan came to town and showed an interest in Elena, it is fair that he is being cautious about their relationship. Daphne is too, but she will put her faith in Elena's freedom of choice.

"What? No, Jer, we're just..." Elena starts to defend.

"I – I was just checking up on you guys" Stefan interrupts slightly. "Seeing how you were doing, after everything"

"We're fine. But, if you are trying to be the good guy again, why don't you do the right thing and give us one day? Just one day without any vampires in it" Jeremy scolds and then stalks out of the room. Daphne lets out a breath and gives Elena a look, she shrugs back at her before she turns back to Stefan.

"He didn't mean that" Elena offers. Daphne snorts.

"Yes, he did" She argues as she follows after Jeremy. He's hurting and angry with everything that happened, but he did mean exactly what he said. It's been tough on all of them, but Jeremy and Alaric were close, it's fair that he's this hurt over his death.

.....

As Daphne heads down the stairs to look for Jeremy, the doorbell rings. She sighs and closes her eyes before she opens them again, changing her course trajectory. She heads down the stairs to reach the front door. She opens up the door to find Damon, holding Bonnie by the arm, on the other side. She has a bite mark on her neck which is still dripping blood. Daphne raises an eyebrow at Damon who gives her an exhausted look back.

"We have a problem" He admits as he pulls Bonnie into the house with him. Daphne throws her head back and groans. Because it is never-ending. Literally never-ending. They have just had the fallout of one thing, and now something else is going on. they do not even have the time to deal with the consequences of their last thing, before another is rearing its big fat ugly head.

......

In the kitchen, Damon, Stefan, and Bonnie are standing together. Damon has just finished explaining the events of the evening. He was sitting, nicely with Alaric as he died, and then dream walking Bonnie turns up and basically offers herself as a feed bag to Alaric, awakening his vampire side, and denying his last wish to die a human. Stefan walks to where Bonnie is sitting and presses a towel to her neck wound, letting her take over.

"What do you mean he turned? I thought you were standing guard!" Stefan scolds his brother who turns an angry frown at him.

"Don't blame me. Blame Bonnie the blood bank. She fed him" Damon defends himself as Daphne enters the room with her wand, moving straight to Bonnie who glances at her. Daphne pulls Bonnie's wrist and the towel away from her neck before aiming her wand at it. The tip of the wand lights up and the wound heals under the spell. Bonnie sets the towel down.

"I had no idea what was happening" Bonnie admits. "Okay, the witches led me there. They wanted him to feed so he turned"

"So, where's the stake now?" Stefan asks.

"Oh, you mean the white oak one? The one that can kill an Original and wipe out an entire line of vampires? We don't know" Damon glares at Bonnie as he speaks the last few words.

"If you are so upset with me, why did you feed me your blood to save my life?" Bonnie asks him. Damon's eyes flicker to Daphne for a moment before he looks back at Bonnie, clearly trying not to imply that he did it for Daphne. Because he knows how much Bonnie means to her and how much it would hurt her if anything happened to her. That would not have been a good step in their relationship if he hadn't helped her friend.

"Because I do stupid things, Bonnie" Damon comments. "I do things, like let my friend die with dignity when I should have just killed him"

"Alright, so how do we kill him now?" Stefan asks, trying to get something constructive out of this conversation.

"I've been trying to figure that out," Bonnie admits. "A witch can't truly make an immortal creature, there is always a way to undo a spell." She turns to look at Daphne, wanting her help here because she has no idea where to start. They have had issues with killing Originals as it is, and Esther will likely have written in loopholes to make it harder to kill Alaric. Bonnie has no idea what to do, and she is not sure any of her grimoires will help, but Daphne's read more and been taught more than she has.

"So, what's the witchy workaround?" Damon asks the two of them. Daphne glances back at Bonnie and then shrugs. She has no idea. She can look, but she is in the same boat as Bonnie is. It's not like they teach how to murder freakishly strong and immortal original vampires 101 at Hogwarts. "Red?" Damon asks. Daphne looks across at him.

"I don't know" She admits and then sighs. "I can look at my books, but...." She shakes her head. She has read those books cover to cover time and time again and she knows them better than she knows the back of her hand. She knows there is nothing