Sincerely Yours [Stefan Salvatore]

[23. Hunting Lessons and Full Moons]

[2x03; Bad Moon Rising]

"Thanks for coming, Ric," Damon greeted Alaric as he opened the door and allowed him into the Boarding House. "Can I get you something to drink? Coffee? Bourbon? Bourbon in your coffee?"

Lucy rolled her eyes in annoyance at Damon but smiled at Alaric as he came into the living room. It felt weird to say, but she actually missed her biological father while he was out of town for teacher development training.

"Lucy mentioned that you needed my help," Alaric commented, sitting in the seat Damon gestured to next to Lucy.

"Yeah," Stefan nodded, sitting on the couch across from them and next to Elena. "We were hoping you could help shed some light on the Lockwood family."

Alaric looked at Damon and then at Lucy, confused. "Why would I know anything about the Lockwoods?"

"Well, you wouldn't, but your dead—" Damon hesitated and smirked. "—not-dead vampire wife might."

"Isobel's research from when you guys were at Duke together," Elena spoke up when Alaric sighed heavily.

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

"Isobel's research here—Mystic Falls—was rooted in folklore and legend," Alaric explained. "At the time, I thought most of it was fiction."

"Like that amazing vampire story," Damon grinned.

"Aside from vampires, what else?" Lucy wondered, looking at Alaric for answers.

Alaric pressed his lips together. "The lycanthrope."

Lucy's eyes widened and she leaned forward in interest as Stefan, Elena, and Damon exchanged looks. "As in werewolves?"

"No way, impossible," Damon denied stubbornly. "Way too Lon Chaney."

Stefan looked at him. "Is it?"

Damon scoffed. "I've been on this planet for one hundred and sixty-some odd years," he stated. "and I've never come across one. If werewolves exist, where the hell are they?"

"Well, why do you suspect the Lockwoods?" Alaric wondered, not caught up on the more recent events happening in Mystic Falls.

"Because vervain didn't effect the mayor on Founder's Day but the Gilbert device did," Damon shared his reasoning. "And it effected his son, Tyler."

"And at the school carnival, his uncle, Mason, exhibited inhuman behavior when he fought one of the carnival workers," Stefan added. "It suggests some sort of supernatural entity."

"We were hoping that Isobel's research could help us figure out what it is," Elena told Alaric.

"Well, all of her things are still at Duke," Alaric cleared his throat. "I mean, her office is still there. She's technically still missing."