I sat in the passenger seat, on my phone, fingers hovering over the keys with Tyler's contact pulled up.

I actually liked him.

"So they raised you." Stefan gripped the steering wheel.

"Hmm?"

"Klaus and Elijah. They raised you."

I locked my phone, letting it fall into my lap. "Since I ran, yes."

"You just showed up one day and they took you into the fold?"

"It was a lot more complicated than that, but essentially yeah. It's not exactly out of character. That's how I got my adoptive brother."

He blinked. "Wait. What? There's more of you?"

"Did you really think Nik and Elijah earned the Original reputation by themselves?"

"I don't know, maybe."

"No, there's five. The ones you know are Elijah and Nik, then there's Rebekah, Kol, and Finn, and then Marcel was adopted before me." He's almost half a century older than me. "But you'll probably never meet Finn and you'd better pray you don't meet Kol."

"I'm afraid to ask."

"Good. Him and Nik together are not a good combo."

"Why do you call him Nick?" Stefan glanced over at me.

"Nik. Trust me, there's a difference." I drew my legs up into the seat. "That's how he introduced himself when we met. Klaus is his villain name and he didn't want to scare me."

"It's hard to picture Klaus not wanting to scare someone, much less a kid."

"Yeah well, you weren't there." I snapped. Fuck. I took a breath. "They're my family." For a lot longer.

"The kind that shoves you into a box when you disappoint them and makes you give hourly updates on your whereabouts, sure."

"I got off easy with my daggering. I genuinely thought Nik would kill me or the two of you. That's why I kept disappearing with Elijah. It made the two of you safer if I could get an Original on my side."

"You said you did something. Something bad."

"I also said I wouldn't get into it. It's my shame to shoulder."

His mouth shut with an audible click. "We're more alike than you think."

"That's not very comforting, Stefan." I leaned my head back.

He frowned. "Still. How can they be family when you so clearly fear them."

"Because while there's fear, there is also love, loyalty, kindness. Maybe it's not apparent now, but I had a rather happy childhood. I wasn't daggered the first time until I was already a vampire for decades."

"Why didn't you wait? Back in eighteen sixty four?"

"Oh you mean the day the both of you disappeared and people were burned alive in the church? That day? I don't know Stefan, why would a scared ten year old wait for her angry father to come home when her older brothers had gone missing?" I deadpanned. "I'm glad I was smart enough to run."

Stefan pressed his lips together.

Good.

I'd shocked him. I snatched up my phone, typing out a check in. I was already pushing it, especially since last night I'd narrowly avoided being late, save only a minute.

Tyler had my attention far longer than I thought he did.

My anger at Stefan began to fizzle when I starting texting the Lockwood boy. There was something about him that I couldn't quite put my finger on. He was telling me about how his mom spiked his coffee with vervain this morning, and he didn't figure it out until later.

"You saw Elena." I don't know how he knew. "I need you to promise me you won't say anything to Klaus."

"Why?"

"If he knows she's alive, he'll kill her, for real this time."

"And why would I care about another doppelbitch?"

"Elena doesn't deserve what's happened to her. She was just a girl before all of this."

An innocent.

Supposedly.

"Alright, I'll keep your secret. Though know that if her life interferes with yours or Damon's, I'll kill her myself. I care very little for Elena Gilbert."

"Thank you." His gratitude was worthless, because I would make good on my threat. "You know, maybe if you got to know her, you wouldn't feel that way."

"I'm good. One manipulative bitch with her face was enough for me."

"She's nothing like Kathrine. She's compassionate-"

"Stefan, I love you, but I really don't want to hear how you've fallen for yet another doe eyed orphan."

"How did you know she was an orphan?"

I shrugged. "I researched before I made my presence known. I wanted to know what kind of town I was walking into." The lie slipped off my tongue easily enough. There was no way I would admit to Stefan that I knew what I knew because I'd read his journals.

Elijah would be furious if I'd done that to him.

Or even Nik with his letters to his victims.

"Plus it doesn't hurt that the Mikaelsons have a pretty vast network. Their minions are very much a seen not heard kind of crowd."

"If you've been with them all this time, how come Elijah was so angry with you?"

"That something I did, separated us. Nik went with his sister, and Elijah was supposed to go with me. I left because I knew that if they found out what really happened, I would've gotten the dagger or worse. The little you saw, was their reaction."

His eyes widened.

"Nik almost killed you for what I did, but Nik also knows that there's nothing I'd hate more than to be stuck in a coffin for eternity." Like Finn, the very Original whose ring I wore. "See mine was specially made, so it wouldn't matter if I was daggered or not, I would be trapped until Nik deigns to release me."

"Why wouldn't Elijah just let you go?"

"Releasing someone else from a coffin is wishing Nik's rage on yourself. Something I'd strongly advise against."

Stefan hummed.