(1) The Phoenix (D. Salvatore)

Chapter Seventy-Seven

Damon looks up from this drink as Daphne steps into the main room of the boarding house. He is feeling a little snubbed after this morning, but he knows she's got some intimacy issues because of her deep, deep, deep-seated fear. He's trying not to overreact. But he can't help the way he feels. When she basically fled his attentions in bed. That's never happened to him before. He's spectacular in bed, that he knows. And he knows that she enjoyed herself last night, there was no doubt in that. They work well together. It works. They work together. It's not like him to feel self-conscious about this stuff. But he is. And he's trying so hard to keep it locked down, to not upset her with it. Daphne lets out a breath and sets her book down on a table as she passes it. Moving into the room to join him. She hates that she can feel those emotions from him, and she knows she put them there with all this fear stuff. The phoenix fear is crushing her and is affecting her relationships, not just with Damon, but with the others too. Secrets are bad for all of them. She sees that now.

"I.." She starts and then stops. Unsure how to begin here. She wants to explain. She really does. But she's not very good at expressing herself, clearly. She's had trouble with Damon specifically. But that she's fought so hard to keep a part of her a secret from everyone around her and then hides behind sarcasm and quick wit.

"Avoiding me?" Damon asks her, she shakes her head before she changes her mind and nods. "Red" He starts.

"No" She stops him. "It's...I keep waiting for myself to panic and get scared...." She admits and lets out a breath. "And I thought if put in the bare minimum, if I put some distance between us after last night....." He softens slightly, moving closer to her. "But it's not going to work...."

"Me and you...?"

"No" She is quick to stop him, that's not what she means at all. "Keeping my distance" She elaborates, he lets out a small relieved breath. "I have to be honest about a few things" He frowns. "That thing I'm scared of, that...keeps me distant...I'm going to tell you now, but you can't say anything to the others, not yet, I want to tell Elena and Jeremy together, and I can't because..."

"Jeremy isn't here right now" He finishes and she nods.

"But I think it will help if I tell you....so..." She swallows and looks away. After talking with Kol, she realised that two enemies know her secret and those she cares about don't. It hit her that it's time. That can't be the balance here. They can't use that against her.

"Hey" Damon whispers, touching her arm. "You can tell me anything" He assures her. She sniffles a little. She's starting to see that. Which is strange considering he's this vampire and yet he is proving to be one of her most trustworthy allies. And she deeply cares about him. She has never felt this way about another person. She loves her family and her friends, but what she feels for Damon is something completely new to her. She has to throw herself into this relationship if she wants it to work. Which means...honesty. All of it.

"My kind, the fairy and the witch parts, are so rare...that most pass it off as legends, as stories, never even thinking that they might see one...Tink and Sirius' relationship was unorthodox because of their species..." He nods, this much he knows. "Their union was frowned upon for more than species and class" She whispers and touches her arm with her hand, almost curling around herself. "They're not supposed to have children, it's not a law, but a sort of common understanding...."

"Daphne" Damon starts and she shakes her head. He can't interrupt her, she'll stop and not get started again. He nods a little, then mocks zipping up his lips.

"Because of the clash of magic inside of me, because fairies and humans are two different species, the mixed genetics...it produces a malediction at birth" He frowns. "A curse" He softens a little. "I was born cursed" He touches her arms and then lifts a hand to her cheek, now he understands, whilst he doesn't know the specifics, anything with the word curse in is going to be bad. And that it has her this scared. "I'm what's known as a phoenix-cursed" She whispers. "It means that the two magics coming together created this magical force inside me, but it lays dormant....." She pulls a face. Turns out she is not very good at explaining her own curse. She's never had to tell anyone before. Other people have been telling her all this time, but each one did it a different way and she actually feels a little confused as to what she should say to get it right. "Do you remember when I asked you to promise not to let them burn me?" He nods and then realises. "If I die and I'm burnt...It would wake the phoenix inside of me and it would bring me back"

"Why is that a bad thing?" He asks. "If it means that you would survive...."

"Damon, it's a curse for a reason" She stops him. "The 'phoenix' is dangerous, uncontrollable, unpredictable magic...it is the deepest, darkest manifestations of myself, of my magic, of my emotions.....I won't be able to control it or the damage it would do...I know the stories, I've read all the books, I know what my fate holds if it ever wakes. Death, destruction, chaos......I can never let that happen" She is getting upset again, he pulls her closer, hand still on her cheek as he uses his thumb to brush away a stray tear.

"Okay" He stops her, pulling her into his chest, arms around her to comfort her. "Then we don't let it happen" He assures her. "And...if something does...if you do die" He struggles a little with the concept of her death, it's strange for him to care that much. Now he knows that she's so afraid of dying herself, it's put it on a whole new level for him. "I promise I will bury you in a deep, deep hole and fill it with concrete, just like you want" He kisses her head and she nods into his chest.