Brave (Damon Salvatore x OC)

Just You *

Alaric arrives at the Salvatore boarding house the next morning and Damon answers the door.

"Thanks for coming, Ric. Can I get you something to drink? Coffee, bourbon? Bourbon in your coffee?" Damon asks .

"Ember said you needed my help." Ric answers shortly.

Damon leads him into the Parlor where Stefan and Elena are sitting on one of the couches. "Yeah, we were hoping you could help shed some light on the Lockwood family." Damon settles down on the other couch next to Ember and lays his hand on top of hers where it rests on her thigh. Elena has been shooting her twin curious and slightly baffled looks all morning over the newest pivot in their relationship.

"Now, why would I know anything about the Lockwood's?" Alaric asks.

"Well, you wouldn't. But your dead, not-dead vampire wife might." Damon suggests

"Isobel's research from when you guys were at Duke together." Elena hints.

"You said that she had spent years researching this town." Stefan reminds him.

"Isobel's research here in Mystic Falls rooted in folklores and legends but at the time I thought much of which was fiction." Ric admits.

"Like that amazing vampire story." Damon smirks and Ric gives him an unimpressed look.

"Aside from vampires, what else?" Elena asks

"The lycanthrope." Ric shares.

"Wait, like werewolves?" Elena asks confused.

"Werewolf is a medieval word and concept." Ember corrects "It means 'man-wolf'. Lycanthrope is older. Ancient Greek, it translates to wolf-human. Herodotus wrote stories about a tribe of men who shapeshifted into wolves once a year in the first century B.C." Stefan and Alaric are watching her impressed and Elena is smiling happily that Ember's intelligence is getting to shine. Damon is watching her proudly with a warm gleam in his eyes that causes butterflies to crowd her belly.

"How do you make all of that sound sexy?" He asks her confused. "But, regardless of how old the legends are." He shakes his head. "No way, impossible, way too Lon Chaney."

"Is it?" Stefan wonders.

"I've been on this planet one hundred and eighty five some odd years, never came across one. If werewolves exist, where the hell are they?" Damon demands

"Why do you suspect the Lockwoods?" Ric asks.

"Because vervain didn't affect the mayor at Founders' Day but the Gilbert device did and it affected his son Tyler." Damon explains.

"And at the school carnival his uncle Mason exhibited inhuman behavior when he fought with one of the carnival's workers." Stefan shares. "It suggests it's some sort of a supernatural entity."

Ric nods in understanding. "We were hoping that Isobel's research could help us figure it out what it is." Elena tells him.

"Well, all her things are still at Duke. I mean her office is still there. She's technically still missing." Ric informs them.

"So can we get access to it?" Ember asks excitedly.

Damon leans forward. "Ric, we need to know what we are dealing with. If this wolfman thing is true, I've seen enough movies to know it's not good. It means Mason Lockwood is a real-life Lon Chaney and that little Tyler punk may just very well be Lon Chaney junior, which means Bella Lugosi, meaning me, is totally screwed." Damon glares and Ember squeezes his had comfortingly.

......................................................

At the Gilbert house Ember is packing for the trip to Duke. Stefan and Elena are watching her.