(1) The Phoenix (D. Salvatore)

Chapter Six

Daphne knows there are eyes on her from behind, she's just not sure who they belong to. Possibly from all of them. She's the newbie here. The new force. The new face. Elena will want to know how or who told Daphne about werewolves. She didn't tell her sister. So someone must-have. Someone tattled on them. Damon moves to Elena's side, but even his eyes are on Daphne too. His experiences with witches haven't been all that great, even the tiny little one ahead of him has already knocked him on his ass.

"What's to say that this pack isn't even here?" Damon asks her, Elena glances at him. "What if Tyler Lockwood knew jack shit about where they are?"

"Then at least we tried" Elena answers and then jogs up to Daphne ahead of them. "How did you...?"

"Jeremy told me" Daphne offers and then looks at Elena. "Why didn't you?" Elena looks down and shrugs. She knows how this looks. She knows.

"I was scared" Elena admits. "I thought you'd hate me....for everything"

"Hate you?" Daphne asks her. "Why would I hate you, Elena? I'd have been fucking terrified for you...." She admits. "Doing all this alone..." Elena shrugs a little. Daphne nudges her sister and smirks. "Props though" She offers, Elena frowns at her. "Fucking a vampire" Elena blushes. "Is it rough?" Daphne asks with a smirk. "I bet it is"

"Daph!" Elena scolds.

"Come on, you can tell me....does he use his vampire strength in bed? Throw you against the wall and just...ravish you?" Elena shoots Daphne a look but the witch just smirks back at her. "What I wouldn't give for someone to do that to me, just once" She comments with a soft sigh.

"I would" Damon offers as he passes them. Daphne gives him a look.

"Yeah, I bet you would, Perv-ula" She teases. Damon winks at her and she smirks wider. Elena smacks her arm and smiles at her. "What?" Daphne asks Elena. "He couldn't handle all of what I've got going on anyway" She motions over herself, Elena starts laughing and just like that. Remembers how much Daphne makes her smile and laugh and makes her happy.

"We got about a mile left" Alaric informs them.

"The sun's about to set" Damon adds.

"The moon doesn't reach its apex for a while. We have time" Daphne counters and glances at Elena who looks tired. Suddenly, they all hear some twigs snapping, Alaric, Damon, and Daphne all move to put Elena behind them. Forming a protective circle around her. Daphne reaches into her sleeve and touches her wand, not pulling it out just yet, but just in case. A male figure stumbles out of the trees, sweaty, pale, clearly very unwell, possibly a werewolf. Alaric points his crossbow at him.

"Stay where you are!" Alaric warns. The figure lifts his head and looks directly at Damon.

"Vampire" He rushes over to Damon and they fight. He pushes Damon against a tree. He tries to bite him. Alaric shoots an arrow at him but Ray is still trying to bite Damon. Daphne knows that she is about to expose herself to a muggle, but she kind of has to. She pulls her wand from her sleeve and points it.

"Stupefy" She casts and a blast leaves her wand and throws the man back away from Damon, knocking him out.

"What took you so long?" Damon complains as he pushes himself up.

"What?" Daphne counters. "I thought it was some form of mating ritual" She motions with her hands. "Didn't want to get into the middle of it" Damon gives her a look, she just smirks back. Elena is staring at her sister.

"What was that?" Elena asks, Daphne clutches at her wand. She wasn't ready to tell her, she can feel it. She wanted to sit down with some tea and cake and talk Elena through all of it step by step, starting from the beginning. "Daph?" Elena asks softly.

"We'll talk when get of this fucking mountain" Daphne offers, Elena nods. She can wait a few hours. She can give her big sister that. "That spell won't hold a wolf down for long" Daphne adds as she shifts closer to the unconscious werewolf.

"What are you doing?" Alaric asks.

"You and Elena came here for information, right? To find Stefan?" Daphne asks, Alaric nods in agreement. "Well...let's just say...I have a knack for getting information out of people" She crouches and leans on her knees to look over the wolf. "Something's wrong with this wolf" She points out. Damon moves closer to her, wary of the werewolf but interested in just what the hell she means?

"What?" He asks. She shrugs her bag off her back and opens it up.

"Accio" She casts as she opens it and an empty vial pops up out of the bag, she grabs it and sets her wand between her teeth so she can pick up the guy's arm, pushing up his sleeve to expose his wrist. "Hold," She tells Damon, though mumbles against her wand he gets what she wants. He crouches at her side and takes the arm. She pulls out her wand. "Diffindo" A little light appears at the tip of the wand and she pulls it across the werewolf's wrist, not touching the skin but close. The spell cuts at his flesh, till he bleeds. She holds the vial under the wound to catch the blood. Damon watches her as she concentrates on the task. A little scrunch to her nose but even he can tell she's enjoying this. She motions a little with her fingers as she sets a stopper into the vial. Damon drops the arm and watches as she peers into the blood, lifting it up against the setting sun.

"What?" He repeats.

"Do you see it?" She asks, he looks at the blood, and yeah, he can see it. There is something wrong with it.

"It's split" He points out, she hums and nods in agreement. "Why?"

"That's a fan-fucking-tastic question" She agrees and tucks the vial into her pocket. "I can't test it here" She shrugs a little. The werewolf begins to stir.

"Time to go" Damon offers as they stand and take a few steps back from the wolf. Alaric keeps Elena behind him as he lifts the crossbow again. The werewolf wakes up and screams. The transformation begins."Is he turning?" Damon asks.

"It's impossible. It's still daylight" Elena argues. The wolf screams and snarls as his bones shift.

"We gotta get out of these mountains now!" Daphne adds. There are no arguments from any of them now. They turn and run away from the shifting werewolf.