Tangled Fate

Bad Moon Rising

February 28, 2010

Louise lounged in an armchair while Stefan and Elena shared the sofa in the Salvatore living room. When the doorbell chimed, her eyes followed Damon, the eldest Salvatore, as he crossed the room to answer it.

Ever since the carnival, Louise had been refining the art of avoiding him. Facing him felt impossible; she knew he'd demand to know why she had saved his life, a question she couldn't answer, especially after he had briefly killed her brother. She now went to great lengths to dodge his gaze and shunned any conversation that might lead to being alone with him. Whenever she sensed a private encounter looming, she was quick to offer a hollow excuse and vanish.

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

"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 averted his eyes from everyone, settling to keep his gaze on the floor. He seemed afraid to utter the response. These people had enough problems already, adding something else into the mix could be traumatic. Though, they were asking, meaning something must have happened. "The lycanthrope." he finally admitted.

"As in werewolves?" Louise asked, her eyes tracing the shock expressions that now filled the room. The history each had remained silent for far too long that it had taken them a moment to actually register what he had said.

"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."