Tangled Fate

Bad Moon Rising

February 28, 2010

Louise sat on the comfy Stefan and Elena on the couch in the Salvatore's living room. The doorbell rang and she watched as the eldest Salvatore moved towards the front door.

After the night of the carnival, Louise has been trying her best to avoid Damon as much as she could. She couldn't face him. She knew he would be questioning her more on why she saved him but who wouldn't after he temporarily killed her brother? Now, every chance she got she avoided talking to him, eye contact and being in the same room as him alone. If that seemed like it would happen, she quickly made an excuse.

"Thanks for coming, Ric. Can I get you something to drink? Coffee, bourbon? Bourbon in your coffee?" Damon walked ahead of Alaric into the parlour where everyone else was.

"Elena mentioned you needed my help." Alaric urged ignoring Damon's offer. Damon gestured for him to take a seat.

"Yeah, we were hoping you could help shed some light on the Lockwood family." Stefan elaborated as Alaric took a seat on the couch opposite the one he, Louise and Elena sat on.

"Now, why would I know anything about the Lockwood's?" Alaric gave him a questioning look. He was a vampire hunter and as far as he was concerned, the Lockwoods weren't vampires.

"Well, you wouldn't." Damon said as he took a seat in an armchair. "But your dead, not-dead vampire wife might." Alaric's eyes immediately fell to the floor; Isobel was still a touchy subject for him. Louise shot Damon a glare but he merely shrugged at her.

"Isobel's research from when you guys were at Duke together." Elena clarified for her teacher.

"You said that she had spent years researching this town." Stefan added, leaning up in his seat and resting his elbows on his knees.

Alaric nervously licked his lips. "Isobel's research here in Mystic Falls rooted in folklores and legends but at the time I thought much of which was fiction."

"Like that amazing vampire story." Damon smirked, wiggling his eyebrows causing Alaric to smile slightly.

"Aside from vampires," Elena said. what else?"

Alaric avoided all gazes as his eyes traced the floor. He seemed to be afraid to utter the response. These people had enough problems already, adding something else could be traumatic. Though, they are asking meaning something must have been going on. "The lycanthrope." he finally admitted.

"As in werewolves?" Louise asked looking around at the shock faces that filled the room. The history teacher had been silent for so long it took a few moments to actually register his response.

"No way, impossible, way too Lon Chaney." Damon shook his head.

"Is it?" Stefan countered.

"I've been on this planet one hundred and sixty some odd years, never came across one." Damon told his brother before returning his attention to Alaric. "If werewolves exist, where the hell are they?"

"Why do you suspect the Lockwoods?" Alaric asked.

"Because vervain didn't affect the mayor at Founders' Day but the Gilbert device did and it affected his son Tyler." The eldest Salvatore answered.

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

"We were hoping that Isobel's research could help us figure it out what it is." Louise said, getting to the real point of her teacher being there.

"Well, all her things are still at Duke-" Alaric cut himself off. "I mean her office is still there. She's technically still missing."