Since Davina and I got those spells from Elijah, trying to maintain control was much better. Davina and I kept turns with playing with her candle. As controlling the fire didn't seem to take up a lot of magic, it seemed fun to do.

I was playing with the candle, staring intently at it when the room became filled with whispers. I looked up, "Someone's doing magic"

Davina bit her lip nervously, starting to draw the witch doing magic, "This is bad. We have to let Marcel know"

Marcel walked in, carrying a large canvas bag over his shoulder "Let Marcel know what?"

"A witch doing magic in the Quarter" I replied without standing up from the floor.

Marcel chuckled, "Ah, don't worry about it. That one is Marcel-approved" I nodded in understanding. "Besides..." He dropped the large bag on the floor "Got something to handle, this being your speciality, Little B"

Marcel opened the bag to reveal a brunette guy. The vibe coming from him was similar to Marcel's so I figured he was a vampire too.

The guy looked around. He saw me and Davina, scared "Oh, no. Y-You're the super witches"

Marcel looked at us, "Say hi to Josh"

Davina slowly stood from her easel in confused suspicion, looking at Josh "Why would would you bring him here?"

"Josh has a problem" Marcel answered. "Klaus compelled him to spy on everyone" He grabbed Josh, forcing him into a nearby chair, forcing me to stand up and back away from them, looking at Josh curiously. "We can't have that. So, I thought 'I'll just kill Josh...'"

"Marcel, please" Josh begged "It's not my fault"

"Then I thought, 'Killing a vampire, that would be breaking one of the biggest rules'," Marcel finished. "Smart thing to do is flip Josh, that way, he can tell Klaus whatever we want. He could even spy for us. All we gotta do is wipe away that compulsion, and since compulsion is practically magic, I thought you Beth would be ecstatic to absorb magic from a different source than Davina to suffice you for a long time. What do you think?"

I looked at Josh, contemplating. "It could hurt"

"Not as much as doing it myself" Davina told us, crossing her arms, "I could do it but the more Klaus said, the more could hurt. So I think it should be best if you do it. You can tell apart the extra magic besides the vampirism, don't you?"

I nodded slowly, "I tried that once" I explained, "I can't actually reassure there won't be pain. I'm absorbing a magic that somehow became part of his vital energy. It will hurt. But that's completely up to Josh"

We looked at Josh

"I-I'll do it, anything, yes" Josh told us. There was a beat of silence, "How much pain are we talking?"

I walked closer, placing a hand in Josh's forehead, letting it glow a faint red, starting to remove the magic of his compulsion.

Josh began to shout, screaming in pain and in agony. Marcel had to restrain his arms so he wouldn't hit me.

~8~

Marcel was already gone.

Josh was now in the ground, laying in a fetal position, screaming in pain while I worked on wiping away Klaus' compulsion from him. I was next to him in the floor, dropping my hand to the side, the red fading.

It was a good thing I had that magic container necklace in me, as I was afraid that if I took more magic I could die of that much magic.

I rolled my eyes at Josh, becoming tired myself but from hearing him scream in pain. "I'm sorry, but it's gonna get worse. I can feel Klaus' compulsion runs deep each time I siphon you"

Davina knelt in front of us, looking at Josh sympathetically, helping him sit back up on the chair, "I'm sorry for that and for Beth being that way" She told him. I rolled my eyes "You need to think of something else. Take your mind off it. Do you like music?"

Josh breathed heavily from the pain, "What? I can't think of music right now"

I sighed heavily "Why?"

Josh looked at me in frustration, "I dunno, maybe because you're giving me a Voodoo lobotomy!"

I shrugged, looking away

Davina shot me a look, turning to Josh, "Do you like jazz?" Josh sighed in frustration "So, what then?"

Josh sighed "Club stuff. House? Trance? You know, "unce unce unce unce?"

Davina scoffed, "I'm a witch. She's a siphoner. We're not Amish! It's just, we're only sixteen. We don't go to clubs"

"When I was sixteen, I'd been to, like, a hundred clubs" Josh told us. "God, that was only four years ago. It feels like another life. All I wanted to do is meet boys. Things are so much more complicated. Now, all I want to do is meet boys, feed on people's blood, get one of those daylight rings so I don't burn in the sunlight" He laughed bitterly "All perfectly normal things"

Davina walked over to her table, where Tim's violin was still resting from when Elijah fixed it. I followed her with my eyes, silently "I like the classics. Puccini, Bach, Mozart. I took piano"

"I'm not a music girl myself" I told them sighing, "I wasn't allowed to play music as it could distract the real witches of the family with that atrocity" Davina looked sympathetic. I shrugged. "It doesn't matter anymore. At least not anymore while we're stuck here"

"Why not?" Josh asked

"Marcel's worried that someone could hear" Davina answered "It's not his fault, he just wants to keep us safe"

"Safe from what?" Josh asked

"Basically, a coven of psycho witches wants to sacrifice Davina in a blood ritual. And these other witches wanted to use me as a container of magic, for this crazy spell of where I can siphon all vampirism from every vampire they want to, so they can return all that magic 'stolen' from the original witch who made the vampires back to the earth, basically making me a conductor of magic. Marcel killed most of them before they could completely the spell, only one or two are left as far as I know but I don't think they have the means to actually complete the spell"

Josh laughed dryly, sympathetically "Oh! Wow, okay, uhhh... I'm sorry?"

"Don't be" Davina told him "I'm going to destroy them all. And I'm going to make sure they don't turn Beth into a weapon to kill vampires. And once they're gone, everything will go back to normal. We'll have our old lives back"

Davina smiled

I forced a smile, nodding

~8~

After siphoning all the magic of Klaus' compulsion from Josh, which took all day, I finally dropped my hand, not sensing any more compulsion magic.

Josh was laying on the floor, looking sweaty and pale, breathing heavily, groaning in pain, pushing himself onto his elbows

Davina and I knelt in front of Josh on the floor

For the first time in all day, I smiled at Josh "That's it. You're free!"

Josh smiled in relief "You're right! I can feel it" Davina giggled. I chuckled "Before, I was always thinking about what Klaus would want me to do. Now, I'm like, 'Screw that guy!'," He started to laugh hysterically in happiness "Klaus Mikaelson can suck it!" He continued laughing. My smile faded, looking at Davina knowingly. Davina frowned unhappily. Josh noticed our looks, "What? What's that look for?"

Davina sighed sadly, "Marcel wants Beth to make you forget about us"

I nodded slowly in agreement

"Oh, you don't have to do that!" Josh told me, "I, like, owe you my life!" I smiled weakly at him. Josh looked between us "I'l keep your secrets! The whole siphoning thing. Besides, it's kind of nice, just talking to someone normal again"

"You think we're normal?" I asked skeptically "Dav's a sixteen year old witch and I'm a sixteen year old siphoner witch living in an attic like some kind of freaks"

"I'm a gay club kid who died and came back as a vampire" Josh replied "Yeah, normal's kind of relative, you know?" We all laughed. Josh held a hand to Davina and the other to me, a pinky extended on each hand "Here, pinky swear on it"

Davina gave me a smiling look

I returned the smile making her sigh in relief

We linked our pinkies with Josh's, the three of us smiling.