At the sound of her mother's name, Kagome's whole body locked up, and after the last thing Sesshoumaru said, her ears started to ring.

"Why would Gome's mother want to kill her?" Sango asked. "That makes no sense."

Sesshoumaru sighed and ran a hand through his tousled hair, looking uncomfortable. "I really wish there was someone better to explain this all to you, but we don't have time to wait to get where we're going. Ariana isn't Kagome and Souta's real mother. She married Angelo after they were born. As I hear it, she was the only sorceress who would have him after he had kids with a shifter. I don't know why. Sorcerers hate us for some strange reason."

"They're afraid of you," Miroku pointed out from the driver's seat. "I'm not sure if they think that you're crazy violent animals with the intelligence of humans or if they just think you're more powerful than us, but I know that most sorcerers are afraid of you, which pisses them off because they think they're superior to you at the same time."

"Did my father agree to this?" Kagome piped up, seeming to have not heard anything Miroku said.

Sesshoumaru wouldn't meet her eyes as he nodded his head. At that simple gesture, Kagome exploded.

Literally.

Flames poured from her pores and licked at her skin, almost caressing. Sango screamed, scrambling backwards into the passenger seat. Sesshoumaru pushed Souta and Inuyasha out of the way, both of whom were startled awake at Sango's screaming. Inuyasha's jaw dropped and he crawled in front of Sango, which made Miroku scowl; Souta tried in vain to get passed Sesshoumaru to go to Kagome.

"That's my sister, my sister!" He screamed. "What did you do to her?!"

Sesshoumaru pushed Souta back hard enough to knock him over and crawled over to Kagome, who was crying flaming tears and not looking to be cooling down anytime soon.

"Ma belle femme, I need you to calm down," Sesshoumaru stated calmly. "I know I've shocked you, and probably hurt you, but somehow, I need you to reign in your emotions. You're kind of on fire." Souta, who'd taken French all through high school, rose his eyebrows, but said nothing.

At that, Kagome looked down, saw he was right, and noticed that she was also naked, and screamed. The flames rose higher, changing colors from an icy almost watery blue to a bright red.

"Really smooth Sesshou!" Miroku yelled from the front seat. "Let her brother talk to her. He's the only one who'll probably be immune to the flames."

Sesshoumaru reluctantly nodded, never taking his eyes off Kagome, and moved to the side, still close enough to be sweating from her heat.

Souta moved closer, noticing all of a sudden that though everyone else looked uncomfortable, the heat didn't bother him at all. Feeling more confident, he moved closer to Kagome and slowly put his hands on her wrists, not caring that his suit was burning off at the arms. "Gome," He said slowly. "I'm not sure what's going on, but you know you've always got me. I'm not going to hurt you or let anyone hurt you… ok?"

The flames started to recede, but didn't go completely. So Souta kept talking, "Remember when we were kids and that rabid dog tried to attack you? You remember what I did, right?"

At that, the flames died down slowly, Kagome smiled through her tears and sighed "you jumped in front of me and the dog bit you instead. You had to get rabies shots."

Souta smiled, "And I still have a scar." The smile died and he scowled when he realized that his sister was naked in front of three men. He took off his ruined suit jacket and passed it to Kagome. "Put this on. And someone catch me up on what set her off in the first place. And how the hell was she on fire and she's not hurt. She even has all of her hair." Souta turned around in front of Kagome, blocking everyone's view of her as she put the jacket on.

Sango pushed her way passed Inuyasha and said, "I'll update you, because I don't think Kagome wants to hear it again, come here."

Souta moved over to Sango, clapping Inuyasha on the shoulder as he turned around to listen as well.

"Try not to catch on fire please," Sesshoumaru said turning to climb back into the passenger seat. He turned back to Kagome, "You ok petit?"

"I think so,"

"That's the best we can hope for I suppose." He tossed a duffle bag into the back seat. "While you guys were sleeping we stopped and picked up some clothes. Nothing fancy, and there are extras in there for you petit and your twin. I have a feeling there will be more spontaneous combustion in your future."

"You still haven't answered my question," Souta turned his attention to Aiden. There were tears in his eyes and his voice wobbled, but he hadn't caught fire, which was a surprise to Sesshoumaru. Perhaps he's the stronger one of the two. "Which question was that feu garcon? You asked a few."

"Fire boy? Really? I didn't catch fire. And my question was how did my sister catch fire in the first place? And how did she not get hurt?"

"Ah, easy questions, thank goodness," Aiden sighed, "I'm too young to be delivering all this news. I feel like an old maid." He shook his head. "Anyways, you two are phoenix shifters. The only line in existence. We're actually on our way to a place where Miroku can create a portal to where the shifter community is so you can meet the rest of your mother's family. I'm guessing she caught fire because she lost control and unlocked her powers. You two must be late bloomers, shifters powers usually manifest with puberty."

Sango gasped all of a sudden, "My parents! They're going to flip out! I have to go home!"

Miroku and Sesshoumaru exchanged a look, which did not go unnoticed by Sango. "What?" she demanded. "Tell me!" she shouted when they remained silent.

"Your parents are dead," Miroku said quietly. "I was going to go and get them, tell them that it wasn't safe anymore and bring them with us, but their car was hit on the way to the hotel once the explosion hit the news. They're saying it was a drunk driver, but I'm pretty sure that was Ariana's work too."

Through the explanation, Sango had been quiet, but something seemed to snap inside of her, and she burst into tears. Kagome crawled over and pulled her friend into her arms and let her cry into the shirt she'd put on. Inuyasha rubbed her back in a soothing manner.

"Why aren't you freaking out about parents?" Sesshoumaru asked Inuyasha suspiciously. Inuyasha looked up in surprise and shrugged.

"I never knew my parents. My foster family doesn't really care what I do. They'll probably just think I ran away, and since I'm eighteen, they won't really care about that either."

Sesshoumaru's suspicious look became sympathetic. "You guys should get some sleep. We're out of California, but we're a long way from where we're going."

"Where's that?" Inuyasha asked.

"El Paso Texas. The armpit of America." Miroku replied with false enthusiasm. He looked in the rearview mirror at Sango and sobered up. "I'm sure you'll all have family where we're going. And hopefully that can lessen some of your grief."

Kagome looked down at Sango, who seemed lost to the world, crying her eyes out. "I hope so too."