Staring at the address written down on the rather crumpled piece of paper she had in front of her Odette Saltzman concluded that she was at the right destination. Sliding her sunglasses back down from the tip of her head she entered the rather old looking building and climbed the stairs until she reached the door marked number nine. Odette stood there for a moment in order to straighten her posture and practice her best and brightest smile before knocking on the door. From where she stood Odette could hear shuffling coming from the other side of the room before the door finally opened. And standing there was her cousin Alaric.

"Hello stranger." Odette began giving her cousin a bright smile before sliding past him in order to enter the apartment. Looking around she could see that it was a typical bachelor pad but a vast improvement on his last place. "Nice place you have here."

"What are you doing here? I thought you were going to be tied up in North Carolina for at least another week? And don't you have a meeting in New York as well?" Alaric asked and it was clear that he wasn't best pleased to see his younger cousin.

"All my business in North Carolina is taken care of Ric, it's amazing what one can accomplish in the space of a couple of days when one is in a rush and has the correct motivation. As for New York, that matter has been revolved by a little thing called email and courier service. Told Corinne that I had some personal business to take care of but it wouldn't interfere with my writing. She doesn't have a problem with it as long as I keep to my deadlines and fly out for the very important meetings but nice try Ric…" Odette quipped.

"I really wished you hadn't of come here, I don't want you putting your life on hold for me Ettie…" Alaric said and Ettie just sighed, her cousin was a right depressing dan at times for good reasons as he had been through a lot at times. But sometimes Odette wished he'd allow himself to be happy for a brief moment not to mention accept that he was getting her help.

"Will you please stop with all this nonsense already Ric? We've gone over it countless times already and I know we both got a huge headache out of this. I'm not letting you do this alone, you'll get yourself killed." Odette stated as she dropped her bag to the floor and plopped herself down by her cousins desk.

"Your father would kill me if he knew I was letting you get involved with something this dangerous." Alaric wearily said as he made his way over to the fridge and pulled out two beers before returning to where Odette was sitting and handing her one.

Odette smiled as she put her feet up on Alaric's desk and took a sip of her beer. "Good thing he's dead then."

"That's not funny Odette."

"Okay that was in poor taste but you get my point as would dad." Odette replied frowning at Alaric's use of her full name as he rarely called her by that. Just like her dad, Alaric would only call her Odette when she was walking on a very line. It almost made her nostalgic of her teenage years.

"No he wouldn't because this isn't anything normal Ettie, this is vampires that we're talking about! Actual blood sucking vampires who aren't good and harmless like all those books and films! They won't hesitate to kill you just like Isobel." Alaric snapped and Odette just peered into her beer bottle as the two of them feel into an awkward silence, which sort of became routine whenever Alaric got upset about Isobel. Odette never took it personally, she just knew that her cousin was angry and upset, most importantly he wanted answers as to what had happened to his wife.

Two years ago Alaric came home to find blood in his bedroom and no trace of Isobel, the police never found Isobel's body but she was assumed to bed. They all did. But it wasn't a normal disappearance or crime, three months later Odette learned the truth of that night from Alaric. He told her that he came home to find a vampire drinking Isobel's blood. Naturally Odette didn't believe it as back then she believed vampires to by myth but Alaric was adamant about it, shoving pages of pages of research in her face; Isobel's research.

"Isobel wasn't just your family Ric, she was mine too and I want to help. The two of you were there for me after dad died, you supported me with everything so I want to help you find out what happened to her. Almost two years we've been working on finding out the truth and we're almost there Ric, don't shut me out." Odette replied as her cousin in law was a paranormal psychologist and Isobel spent her days absorbed into folklore and myths like vampires which Odette and Alaric were more than happy to make fun of. Ric believed that Isobel was killed because she had found out too much and that's when he present Odette with the research about Mystic Falls. A small town in Virginia that had mysterious deaths occur every so often that were quickly blamed on animal attacks. Odette was a natural sceptic and she thought that Alaric had lost his mind due to what happened to Isobel but the whole thing kept nagging at her. Eventually she became a believer. So her the writer and Ric the history teacher continued Isobel's researcher which eventually led them back to Mystic Falls as the mysterious deaths had crept up again.

"I don't want you to get hurt." Ric quietly said.

"Never happen." Odette replied, sounding just abit too confident about that.

"Ettie…"

"I know what I'm doing Ric, I was taught by the best not to mention old buffy refuns and besides if I weren't here to keep an eye on your errant self Ric then whose going to stop you from getting killed? I'm in better physical shape than you given that you're kind of getting old..." Odette said trying to lighten the mood but that clearly wasn't working as Alaric still had a very disapproving and reluctant look on his face. "Ric I'm not a child anymore, I'm a grown adult of twenty six years old. I'm not stupid, I know that this isn't a game and that it is dangerous. You don't want me to be here and your being ridiculously stubborn about it despite knowing that I am more than capable of helping. But here's the thing we're the only family we have anymore so I'm not going anywhere. The two of us do this together or not at all, so if I'm leaving then you're coming with me…"