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question? Was she mad about Kira going to
England, Tristan being a vampire, the Punishers bringing her to
Sonnyville…the list could go on and on. Maybe if she stayed silent,
her mother would just keep ranting…
    "Well, Kira? What do you have to say for
yourself?"
    Kira looked around, desperately hoping
something out the window would give her inspiration. At a total
loss for words, she went to her classic fallback. "I love you,"
Kira said slowly, offering up her super wide 'I'm sorry' smile.
    "Oh don't give me that—that face stopped
working when you hit puberty. I mean, how did you even get a
passport?"
    Ah, England it is, Kira thought.
    "Mom, I never wanted to lie—it was just, I
needed to go to see if my birth mother was alive, to see if I could
save her." She wasn't listening, Kira realized as her mom continued
mumbling.
    "And Tristan is a vampire? How could you not
tell me?"
    "Well, I mean, I thought you would figure it
out. You are a Punisher…"
    "And you've killed people?"
    "Only vampires—"
    "And you let them drink from you?"
    "Not from me, jeez, there were other
factors—"
    "And you've been lying to your father and I
for months, not even trying to include us."
    "In what? In my life as a conduit? You didn't
exactly want to be included, Mom. You could have asked me about it.
You could have checked in once in a while—why is that all on
me?"
    Kira shifted in her seat, staring straight at
her mother, trying to gather some strength. This was not all her
fault.
    "You didn't tell me about your powers, about
how strong you are."
    "All you had to do was sit in on one training
session with Luke—just one and you would have known about my
abilities. You're the one who asked me not to tell Dad, to leave
him and Chloe out of it. You pushed me away. You edged me out of
the family."
    Her mom refused to look at Kira, but stared
straight ahead. They were on the main drive, heading out of town.
In five minutes they would be at the gate. Kira recognized this
tree-filled street—she had sped down this road a few too many times
before.
    "I didn't push you away. I wanted you to have
a normal life." Her mother's voice had softened slightly.
    Under any other circumstance, Kira would have
been amazed at her skills. Somehow she had turned this fight around
and escaped a thrashing. But victory was the last thing on her
mind. The two of them had danced around this fight for a long time.
Kira had been keeping these feelings in for too long—she had opened
a floodgate alright, but it was within her own heart and not her
mother's.
    "Well, I'm not normal, Mom, and neither are
you. I'm strong, and powerful, and it's part of me now. And you
have to accept that."
    "I won't accept it," her mom pushed her foot
down on the gas pedal a little more, "I won't accept you being in
danger all the time and people arguing over the fate of your life.
I won't accept my own people begging for your head."
    "Please, your own people? You don't even know
what being a conduit is. You don't understand."
    "I understand that fighting for your life
every second of every day is no way to live. I understand waiting
at home for your family to come back from a mission, never knowing
if they'll show up alive. I understand losing people. And I won't
let that happen to you."
    A tear rolled down her cheek and Kira
realized her mom wasn't blinking. Her eyes were wide, staring
straight ahead at something Kira couldn't see. Her entire body was
stiff, unmoving.
    Farther down the road, Kira saw the gate—a
black shadow across the road growing bigger by the second. It was
opening slowly, anticipating their approach.
    "Mom, slow down. Where are we going?"
    Her mother didn't move.
    "You can't do this anymore, Kira. All the
lies and all the fighting, I won't allow it." Her fingers trembled
on the steering wheel.
    "Okay, Mom," Kira said softly, putting a hand
on her forearm. She had never seen her mother so out of
control.
    "I won't lose you like this, Kira. They're
crazy."
    "I