Mio Sole

22 [Aurora]

**June 25th, midnight**

It's been 5 hours, and my anger is still red-high and bringing me to the brink of insanity the longer I drive around.

Alaric had my motorcycle shipped to New York three days ago, and now is the first time I've been able to drive it. Giovanni had insisted on me driving the car he said I could have, and it wasn't until I noticed the black SUV trailing me at every turn that I realized he had a tracker in it. I'd exchanged it for my bike at Alaric's apartment two hours ago and have been driving around to clear my head ever since.

However, if the blood boiling in my veins is any indication, it's not working very well. I'm speeding down another empty side street when my phone starts ringing. I pull over to the side of the road with a frustrated sigh and answer it without looking at the caller ID. "Speak."

"Woah, you look mad," Sebastian's amused voice says through the small screen. A glance at it shows that it's a FaceTime, and I quickly angle the screen to the sky with a frown. "I'm sorry if I interrupted something."

"Just me planning a murder," I say, only half jokingly. I try to lighten my tone, if only for his benefit. "What's up?"

There's some shuffling off-screen, and Sebastian looks in the direction it came in. I should've guessed he wasn't alone. He never is. "Alek, Stefan, Nik and I just got back from an event, and we have nothing to do. We were hoping you'd wanna come over."

"I'm afraid I might not be such good company right now."

He frowns at the screen, the movement very similar to the one I just did. "You're always good company. And besides," his frown changes to a cocky grin fast enough to give me whiplash. "If you're planning a murder, we're the best people to be around. Come on, I can tell you the best ways to hide a body, and Alek can show you where to stab someone to cause the most pain."

He sounds so serious that I almost don't realize he's joking, and it's that that makes me laugh. He looks perplexed for a moment before letting out a little chuckle, his eyes darting off screen again. "Where are you at?"

"My house," he says. He covers the mic for a minute while he speaks to someone off-camera. "Stefan says you're 3 minutes away. Turn left at the next stoplight and then right two streets after that. Mine is the first house on the right."

"How does he know where I am?"

Sebastian waves me off. "Just come over. He can explain when you get here." He hangs up before I can say anything else, and I pull back onto the road with another sigh. His directions were easy enough to follow, and I'm pulling into his driveway soon after. A light is on in the living room and someone I can only assume is his father is watching a movie or something on the TV. Another light is on upstairs in the window to someone's bedroom. Not wanting to disturb his father, I beeline for the tree at the side of the house.

All the years I spent playing outside instead of going home after school comes in handy as I easily scale the large tree before climbing onto the slanted ledge beneath the window. A glance inside the room shows Niklaus sprawled out on a twin sized bed, and I sigh in relief before rasping my knuckle against the glass pane.

Niklaus's head snaps to me, his eyes narrowing in confusion before he yells something across the room.

Sebastian's face pops into view a moment later, and I almost jump. He opens the window with an expression similar to Niklaus'. I climb inside as gracefully as possible, my dress rising up slightly as I swing my legs through the window. Sebastian is wearing fitted black pants and a dark blue shirt, and a glimpse of his flawless golden skin under his collar threatens to make my blood heat in a completely different way than it already is. "Why didn't you just come in through the front door?"