CHAPTER THREE | BAD MOON RISING

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RILEY ABSOLUTELY HATED THE IDEA OF BEING IN A CAR WITH DAMON SALVATORE. Though, at the request of Elena, she was prepared to put her differences aside and accompany her best friend to find out more about what exactly the Lockwood's were. Alaric had agreed to escort them to Duke, where they would be able to go through all of Isobel's research. And, unfortunately, Damon had seemingly invited himself along for the ride.

Gwen's eyebrows furrowed at the sudden sound of a car horn from outside the house. As she pulled back the blind, she noticed a car parked out the front, then her eyes fixed to Damon Salvatore, who was perched against the car. "Riley! I think your friends are outside."

"Yeah. Yeah, I know. I'm just going." The strawberry-blonde witch ran down the staircase and grabbed her jacket from the coat rack.

Gwen raised an eyebrow toward her granddaughter with a disapproving look. "That Salvatore brother again, hm?"

A small chuckle left Riley's lips as she slipped her denim jacket on. "If it makes you feel any better, he and I aren't friends anymore."

"Remind me where you're off to, again?"

"Uh— Just, Elena and I have a research project, and Alaric's agreed to take us to Duke." Riley gave her grandmother a smile. "I shouldn't be back too late." The loud honk of Alaric's horn echoed through their ears again which caused Riley to roll her eyes. "See you later. Love you!"

"Love you, too, sweetheart!" Gwen called out just before she heard the slam of the front door. It was in her best interest to observe her granddaughter from the window as she headed out to Alaric Saltzman's car.

"Nice to see you this morning, Riley," Damon smirked with his arms folded across his chest as Riley wandered straight over to the car with an irritated look. "What's up with you?"

"I'm just preparing myself for the agonizing day ahead. You know, the fact that I have to be in your company is already giving me a headache." The strawberry-blonde witch fired back with a faux smile before she opened the back door and jumped in, besides Elena.

"Tell me about it." Elena chuckled softly to herself while Riley nodded in agreement.

Damon's eyes drifted into the back of the car and he narrowed his gaze toward the brunette girl. "You know, this whole pretending to hate me thing is getting a little silly."

Whilst Alaric's eyes remained on the road ahead, a small scoff escaped his lips. "I don't think she's pretending." He then glanced at Damon. "You did kill her brother."

"There is a huge asterisk next to that statement. He came back to life." Damon proudly defended himself with a shrug.

"Yeah, thanks to a ring you didn't know he was wearing." The Gilbert girl rolled her eyes and moved her gaze to the window beside her.

"Why are you so sure I didn't know?"

"Okay, fine." Riley tilted her head and raised an eyebrow toward the Salvatore. "Did you know he was wearing the ring?"

Damon's eyes fell onto Riley as he gave her a small smile. "Yes." He spoke wholeheartedly, but the strawberry-blonde had known Damon long enough to know when he was lying.

"You're such a liar." She scoffed in disbelief.

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"So, Isobel was officially employed by the anthropology department given that most paranormal phenomenon is rooted in folklore," Alaric informed the trio just as they arrived at the entrance of Duke University. They wandered up to a petite woman who sat at the entrance. "Excuse me, hi. I'm Alaric Saltzman, I called earlier."

"Yes, of course." The brunette woman stepped forward and shook his hand. "I'm Vanessa Munroe, research assistant, comparative folklore." Vanessa paused for a moment. She glanced at Damon with a flirty look, which caused Riley to roll her eyes, then she turned to Elena with an unreadable expression. "Uh, let me just grab Isobel's keys."

"I'm sorry, these are my friends. Elena, Damon, and Riley. I hope this isn't too much of an imposition."

"Oh, please. Isobel's office is right through there." Vanessa gestured to a door just to the right of them, before she moved over to her desk. "Isobel was one of my first professors. I'm a grad student. She was brilliant, and one of the reasons I went into folklore. Uh— I have to ask. Has there been any news?"

"No. No, I'm afraid not." Alaric bluntly responded with a somber expression on her face while Vanessa returned a sympathetic look.

"It's right this way." She lifted herself up from her desk and unlocked the door which led them into Isobel's office. "I'll grab the light. Feel free to look around. It's fascinating, isn't it?"

Everyone's eyes were drawn to objects in the room. Riley couldn't help but be mesmerized by the little artefacts and items on the shelves. Damon's eyes drifted up shortly after, once he realized Vanessa disappeared. "Where'd she go?"

On cue, Vanessa came back into the room holding a crossbow. "What the—" Riley mumbled softly once she noticed the crossbow was aimed at Elena. Vanessa fired but just before it hit Elena, Riley held her hand up in the air and caused the arrow to miss her friend and hit the wall beside her.

Damon's eyes lifted up in confusion as Alaric hurried over to the brunette woman and slammed her against the wall to prevent her from hurting anyone else.

"Elena, you okay?" The strawberry-blonde turned her gaze around to the doppelganger, whose eyes were widened with fear.

"I— I'm fine. Thank you."

"That bitch is dead." Damon lowly growled with a small smirk on his face as he attempted to head to the other room where Alaric had moved Vanessa.

"Don't you dare!" Riley warned with a threatening look in her eyes as the Salvatore stepped closer to her and tilted his head.

"What makes you think you any power over me?

"I don't think that. But, killing her isn't a way to get back our friendship, Damon." Riley breathed simply before she rolled her eyes and wandered back into the other office.

"Please! Okay, I freaked. You would have done the same thing." Vanessa yelled out just as Riley watched Alaric shove her inside a chair. "It is not possible! Katherine Pierce can't be alive, and Damon Salvatore died in 1864. Okay, I—I read Isobel's research."

"Well, then you should know just how possible this is," Alaric responded with a stern voice.

"Okay. This is Elena Gilbert." Riley gestured to Elena, who wandered back into the room with Damon behind her. "She's Isobel's daughter and a descendant of Katherine Pierce." Then, she gestured to Damon. "And, this is Damon Salvatore."

"Look, we need your help, okay? We need to see all of Isobel's research. Anything related to Mystic Falls." Elena gave the woman a pleading look in an attempt to prove she was nothing like Katherine Pierce.

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Riley and Elena had dedicated themselves to finding anything else out about Katherine, whilst Alaric was focused on finding out about the Lockwood's and the potential fact that they could be werewolves. The strawberry blonde let a heavy sigh escape her lips as she scanned another set of files.

"What's up, pouty?" Damon whispered softly in her ear with a smirk whilst the strawberry-blonde rolled her eyes.

"There's nothing in here about Katherine that we don't already know," Elena told the vampire without sparing a glance for him.

"Oh, man. You know, it's a bummer we're not friends anymore because I could tell you guys what I know." Damon folded his arms over his chest and smirked the moment the two girls glanced up to look at him.

"You're painfully predictable, you know that?" Riley raised an eyebrow toward him.

"Hey, guys, check this out," Alaric called out as he offered up the page of his textbook to Vanessa while Riley, Elena, and Damon wandered toward him.

"There's no record of werewolf mythology in Mystic Falls, but there are some records of some of the lesser-known legends. Everything from Scandinavian skin-walkers to the Maréchal de Retz." Vanessa explained as she handed Damon the book. "Tonartsliitsii Metslii, which roughly translates into the curse of the sun and the moon."

"A cure?" Riley's eyes widened with intrigue while Alaric nodded slowly.

"It's Native American." He answered.

"Aztec." Vanessa corrected. "It explains one origin of the werewolf curse traced through Virginia. The short story; six-hundred years ago, the Aztecs were plagued by werewolves and vampires. They terrorized the countryside, made farming and hunting impossible until an Aztec shaman cursed them, making vampires slaves to the sun and werewolves servants of the moon. As a result, vampires could only prowl at night and werewolves could only turn on a full moon. When the full moon crests in the sky, whoever unlucky enough to fall under the werewolf curse turns into a wolf."

Damon hummed softly with a pointed look on his face. "Can they control the transformation?"

"If it were a choice, it wouldn't be called a curse." Vanessa shrugged again. "Werewolves will attack humans but instinct and centuries of rivalry have hardwired them to hunt their prey of choice: vampires."

Riley and Elena's eyes both widened with fear as they glanced to Damon, who looked unsure. "Well, if werewolves were hunting vampires, I would know about it."

"Not if there aren't that many werewolves left alive. Hundreds of years ago, vampires hunted them almost to extinction."

Elena furrowed her brows. "Why would they do that?"

"I'm guessing so they could protect themselves, right?" Riley answered with an unsure look as Vanessa nodded. "I mean, I suppose that's easier than constantly being hunted by another species."

"Not only that. But, legend has it that a werewolf bite is fatal to vampires."

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Once they had finished up at Duke, Alaric took it upon himself to give Vanessa the speech about not breathing a word of what they discovered to anyone. Whilst Damon, Elena, and Riley headed over to Alaric's car.

"Here. Allow me." Damon stepped in front of Elena and opened the door for her. "You're not gonna be able to hate me forever, you know? Riley's already forgiven me."

The strawberry-blonde witch scoffed in disbelief as Elena and Damon both eyed her up. "Uh— I really don't think I've even considered forgiving you, Damon."

"Oh, you know you have." Damon retorted playfully, though the doppelganger didn't seem to have any interest in maintaining a conversation with him.

Elena rolled her eyes at the fact that Damon was stood in front of the door, so she was unable to enter the vehicle. "Can we just go?"

He pulled a book out from behind his back and simply handed it to Elena with a shrug. "You didn't dig deep enough."

"Petrova?" Riley repeated as she glanced at the front of the large book Damon had given her friend. "I don't understand."

"Katherine originally came from Europe. Petrova was her real name." The Salvatore simply shrugged. "Katerina Petrova to be exact. Back when I saw it engraved on an old heirloom. Men snoop too, you know. Let me know what you find, I'm curious myself."

"Thank you, Damon." Elena nodded once he finally moved out the way of the door so that she could jump in the car.

But, when Riley attempted to enter, he shut the door. "Just because you gave Elena some know-it-all book about Katherine, doesn't mean you've redeemed yourself in my eyes."

"No, and I get that. You have every right to hate me right now, Riley. I should've told you what happened, you know, we're closer than that— or at least, we were." Damon cleared his throat softly with a serious look in his eyes. "You hated me before and we became friends. All I'm saying is that it would really, really suck if we lost that."

"Yeah. It would, wouldn't it?" The strawberry-blonde exhaled deeply just as she grabbed hold of the handle and pulled the door open again, forcing him to move aside as she opened it.

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