Alaric sniffed his coffee before taking a small sip. He managed to hold in the cough, but smiled at Adam appreciatively. "Thanks. It's great," he said before taking a drink that could grow hair on your chest.
He watched Adam with the vervain, not commenting on the sneeze or subsequent apology. He had sneezed himself and tossed the sprig he had first gotten. Now he knew just how useful the little plant was. And not just because Isobel managed to freaking compel him when he was without.
"Well," he said, taking a seat on his very full bag, "you know my wife, Isobel? She was obsessed with the supernatural when we were married. Er, first married. She would stay up until the wee hours of the morning doing research. She had an entire office full of books, research notes... anything you would need to know. I thought it was for a book she was trying to write. It wasn't. She was looking for factual evidence and found it. Then... well... she found a vampire. I saw him... biting her. I thought she was dead for two years." He shifted uncomfortably, then cleared his throat. "Anyway, I took her research and started adding to it with my own." He spread his arms, then shrugged.