Bedlam Boyz Read online

  “Well, it’s only going to get weirder, honeychild,” Gram said from behind her.

  Kayla turned so quickly she nearly fell. “I thought you were gone,” she blurted.

  “Naw, I was jus’ doin’ that for dramatic effect,” Gram said, an impish grin across her wrinkled dark face. “I’ve always wanted to do that to Elizabet. She’s always been so unflappable, even as a child; I just couldn’t resist it.”

  “So why are you still here?” Kayla asked.

  “Because, honeychild, you an’ me have to talk. Let’s go for a walk, okay?”

  Silently, Kayla followed the ghost of Elizabet’s grandmother through the darkened house to the front door. The ghost drifted effortlessly through the door, vanishing from view. Kayla followed, and barely stopped herself in time to avoid bashing her nose against the door. She opened the door very quietly, so Elizabet wouldn’t hear, and stepped outside.

  Outside the house, the street was very quiet, with the faint echo of the late-night traffic on Laurel Canyon as a distant noise, sounding almost like waves on a shore. Kayla followed Gram around the side of the house, along a winding trail that led to the top of the hill—or, rather, Kayla walked and Gram floated.

  “Can you tell me a little bit about this ghost stuff<|>?” Kayla asked, trying to catch her breath as they paused at the top of the hill. She looked out at the lights of the city, spread out like a glittering carpet of jewels around her. From this viewpoint, she could see the lights of Los Angeles to the south and the San Fernando Valley to the north.

  “Oh, you’ll understand that eventually,” Gram said, also admiring the view. “There’s not much to it. The basics are simple. There are two kinds of ghosts: people with unfinished business, and ones like myself who are too stubborn and meddlesome to leave. You want to watch out for those folks that don’t have all their business taken care of, girl—they can be nasty. But we have more important things to talk about.” Gram sat down in midair as though on a chair, folding her legs under her. “I was born in 1860,” she said. “In Georgia, on a farm. You know anything about American history, girl?”

  “A little.” Kayla nodded. “Wasn’t that right around the time of the Civil War?”

  “You’re right. I was born into slavery, just like my folks, my grandma and grandpa, and my great-grandparents had been. When I was a little girl, they outlawed slavery, and suddenly we were free. Even as a child, I understood what that meant.

  “But I’ll never forget that for the first few years of my life, someone owned me. That’s the choice you’ll have to make, girl. There are people out there who want to own you. And the question you have to ask yourself is: will you let them? Right now you’re surviving more by luck than anything else; luck and my granddaughter Elizabet watching over you. But this choice, this has to be yours. Elizabet can teach you the ways of magic, what you need to know to control your talent and not hurt the people around you. But me, born a slave in Georgia, I can teach you about freedom.”

  “I don’t want anybody to control my life,” Kayla began. “But how can I stop them? It’s not like—”

  Gram cut her off with a sharp gesture. “It’s not a question of wanting, it’s a question of whether you’re willing to fight right down to your last breath to be a free woman. Are you? They may gild the cage for you, make it seem like a lovely place to be, but slavery is slavery. And not just for yourself, but others.”

  “What do you mean?” Kayla asked.

  Gram glanced at her quickly. “You’re a part of more than you know, girl. Things, they’re gonna be happening around here. You’ll need to be ready for ‘em.”

  Kayla didn’t know what to say to that. Gram pointed off to her right, away from the glittering carpet of lights of Los Angeles, across the dark hills between L.A. and the San Fernando Valley. “Can you feel it, girl?” she asked.

  Kayla shook her head. “I don’t understand. Feel what?”

  “Look there, in the hills. Can’t you feel it?”

  Kayla squinted, trying to see what the old woman was talking about.

  “No, no! Not with your eyes! With your heart,” Gram said in an annoyed voice.

  Kayla closed her eyes and reached out her hand, trying to sense what the old woman was talking about. There was nothing there… . No, there was something. A faint glimmer of magic, very far away, a dim point that glittered in the night. As she looked more closely at it, she could feel a sense of power, drawing her toward it.

  “That’s the source,” Gram said. “That’s the source of magic for all of Los Angeles. There are a lot of folks that need that to survive. Keep that in mind, girl, that folks’ lives are depending on that little place.”

  “What folks? I don’t understand.”

  “You’ll see,” Gram said, “you’ll see.” She glanced up at the sky, where the moon was setting behind the distant hills. “My, it’s time you were in bed. Go home, girl; go home and learn, and think about what we’ve talked about.”

  Without another word, the old woman faded away.

  Kayla stood on the hillside, looking down at the lights of the city. I don’t know that I’m strong enough, she thought. Gram can talk about freedom till she turns blue … well, she is blue, already! But I don’t know that I can do it. Carlos terrifies me. I don’t know how to stand up to him. And Nataniel and those other nasty elves …

  No way. How am I supposed to do it? She’s nuts; the old lady is just crazy.

  But if I don’t learn how to stand up to them … what then? I’ll be hiding from them all my life. I don’t want that, either.

  She turned away and started back down the hill, lost in her thoughts.

  “Concentrate!” Elizabet said from somewhere behind her.

  “But you just told me not to concentrate!” Kayla protested from where she was sitting on the living room floor. Her eyes were tightly closed, but she wanted to open them and scream. These “mental exercises” are making me crazy!

  “Well, you’re not getting it that way,” Elizabet said, “so we’ll try the other way. Since you’re having trouble relaxing enough to use your Sight, we’ll try this instead. We have to train to you to where you can rely on your talent, not just have it happen accidentally, uncontrolled. So concentrate on something, anything. Think about it as hard as you can.”

  Kayla nodded. There is, she decided, a hell of a lot going on in my life that I can think about. Magical powers, healers, killer elves, gateways into other worlds, an ancient ogress who likes to have muggers for dinner … literally. Yeah, there is quite a lot going on in my life lately, she concluded.

  “Think about something specific,” Elizabet said.

  “Okay, okay, give me a break!”

  “That is the one thing I won’t do,” Elizabet said, her voice tinged with humor.

  I’m getting tired of this bullshit! Kayla thought. There’s Elizabet, standing right behind me and smiling. Oh yeah, I’m sure this is a lot of fun for you, too! She’s—

  Kayla sat up straight, opening her eyes in shock. “I saw you! I really saw you! With my eyes closed!”

  “See, you’re learning, child. It’s not entirely hopeless.” Elizabet smiled. “It only looks that way. Now, think of something, really concentrate on it.”

  Kayla tried to think of something to concentrate on. It was a beautiful day outside, really great, not too smoggy, a perfect day to go to a park… .

  That would be nice, she thought, smiling. To go to the park next to the house… .

  She thought about the park down the street from her house, the house where she’d lived with her parents before … before the Awful Day. She loved that park. Mom and Dad used to walk with her there in the evening, as the sun was setting through the tall trees. It was different from all the other parks she’d ever seen: a wild, untamed place where the gardeners and keepers seemed more interested in the little community gardening project at the back of the park rather than the park itself. The trees were left alone to grow into unruly shapes t
angled with ivy and surrounded by shrubs. The paths through the park were hard to find and harder to follow, but that was something she loved. There was one tree that she loved best, a huge old oak tree with broad spreading branches which filled the sky. Dad said that the tree was at least two hundred years old. Sometimes Kayla had thought she could hear laughter from the tree, the flickering movement of someone climbing in the branches, but Dad always said that it was only the wind, there wasn’t anyone there.

  She’d run to that tree on the Awful Day, the day she’d come home from school and found the police cars in front of her house. Old Mrs. Liddy had called the cops after hearing gunshots from next door and seeing some cars leave fast. They wouldn’t let her into the house, into her own house; she heard some of the cops talking about how they’d found blood, but no bodies.

  She remembered running to the park, falling onto the thick moss under the tree and crying. That’s where the cops had found her, hours later. She could feel the tears starting down her face, remembering.

  “Are you all right, Kayla?” Elizabet asked, concern in her voice.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said. “I’m fine.”

  “Kayla,” Elizabet said. “Keep your eyes closed. Can you see me?”

  She could. There was a faint brightness against the inside of her eyes, a glow that moved as Elizabet walked around her, matching time with her quiet footsteps. “You’re doing it, child,” Elizabet murmured. “You’re doing it. Now, look at yourself.”

  She felt herself moving away; no, she was sitting still, but somehow she was moving in that quiet darkness. She turned and looked back at herself. What she saw was fire, blue-white centered around a core of brilliance, with flowing tendrils of light flickering and dancing over the surface. Kayla opened her eyes suddenly, startled, and blinked. “What was that?” she asked.

  Elizabet was sitting close to her; she laughed, little lines crinkling at the edges of her eyes. “Yes, that’s you. That’s why everyone can find you, because you look like a neon sign when you’re using your magic. But we’re going to see if we can do something about that now. Close your eyes again. Now look at yourself and try to make the glow a little less bright. Dim it down. Not completely, but see if you can slowly fade it.”

  Kayla concentrated, imagining that brightness fading away to nothingness.

  Make it go away … dim it down, like turning down a light… .

  A wave of dizziness hit her like a fist. She opened her eyes and grabbed for anything to hold onto, afraid she was going to faint. Elizabet caught her, keeping her from falling over.

  “Not too much,” Elizabet repeated, “just a little bit. Carefully. Slowly.”

  Kayla nodded, taking a few deep breaths. She closed her eyes and tried again. This time she could do it. She could bring that simmering pool of fire down to embers, glowing with restrained power. She concentrated, letting the fire slowly die down, dimming the light to a faint glow. “Did it work?” she asked.

  “You did it just right,” Elizabet said. “Now, you’re going to have to learn to keep it like this all the time. Otherwise, anyone that’s looking for you will be able to find you easily, just by tracking your magic. Good work, child.”

  “Are we done now?” Kayla asked.

  “Not by a long shot. Lesson number two. This one will be a little tougher. We’ll do this and then take a break. It’s almost visiting time at the hospital where your friend Billy is staying. We can go over there and see him. I called the hospital while you were still asleep, and he’ll be expecting us.”

  “Great!” Kayla said, grinning. It’ll be terrific to see Billy. I’ve got so much to tell him… .

  Except I can’t, can I? He won’t believe any of this. He’ll think I’m crazy. My old friends … are they still going to be my friends? I don’t know about that. “Where’s Liane? Do you know?” she asked.

  Elizabet shook her head. “No, she’s still missing. Though I’m hoping once you have a little bit of control over what you’re doing, you might be able to find her yourself. The police haven’t turned up any leads at all.” She reached into the pocket of her jeans, pulled out a small Swiss army knife, and sat down on the floor next to Kayla. “Now for the next lesson.” She opened out one of the blades and glanced up at Kayla. “What you’re going to do now,” she said, “is not heal me.”

  “I don’t get it,” Kayla said. “What are you … ?”

  Elizabet brought the razor-sharp knife down on the palm of her hand.

  Pain! It echoed through Kayla like a shockwave. She felt the magic inside her answer that pain, welling up through her. Kayla reached out to where the blood was slowly pooling in Elizabet’s palm.

  “Stop it!” Elizabet said sharply, and Kayla drew back, startled. “You have to learn to control it, not let it control you.”

  “Elizabet, I—”

  “Just sit there, child,” Elizabet said. “Just sit there and control it.”

  That’s easy for you to say, Kayla thought resentfully, feeling the magic pulling at her like a riptide, trying to surge through her, reaching out to Elizabet.

  Her hands were shaking. She clenched them into fists and closed her eyes. I will control it, she thought desperately. I will!

  Slowly, like an ebbing tide, she felt the pressure easing. The electric touch of the magic fell away from her with each breath she took, slowly receding.

  She opened her eyes to see Elizabet smiling at her. “Not bad,” Elizabet said, “not bad at all.”

  Kayla smiled in relief. Thank God this craziness is over, she thought. Now I’ll just heal Elizabet, and then we’ll be done with this.

  “Very good,” Elizabet continued. “We’ll sit like this for the next forty-five minutes or so, until you think you’ve really got it down.”

  Kayla stared at her. She’s got to be joking!

  “No, I’m not,” Elizabet said, in a voice that didn’t allow any argument.

  Kayla sighed. It was going to be a very long forty-five minutes… .

  Chapter Fourteen

  “I think that was a rotten trick, Elizabet,” Kayla said, helping Elizabet carry the dishes from the breakfast table to the kitchen sink.

  “Learning isn’t supposed to be easy, child,” Elizabet said as she set the dishes down into the soapy water.

  “Yeah, but I didn’t think it would be this hard,” Kayla said. “I mean, you never—”

  Across the room, the phone rang. Elizabet grabbed a dishtowel to dry her hands and then hurried over to answer it. Kayla rolled up her sleeves and began scrubbing the dishes. She listened to one half of the conversation. “Good morning, Nichelle … I didn’t think there would be any news … Well, thanks for calling. I’ll see you later tonight at the office.”

  Elizabet’s forehead was slightly furrowed with a frown as she walked back to Kayla.

  “What was that all about?” Kayla asked.

  Elizabet began drying the dishes Kayla had washed. “That was Detective Cable. She wanted to tell me there had been no update on your case. You’re still officially kidnaped as far as the LAPD is concerned.”

  “You didn’t tell her that I’m here?”

  Elizabet shook her head. “I haven’t told anyone anything. I’m still not entirely certain what to do in this situation. I really should take you downtown and have you tell everything to the police. You’re a witness to multiple crimes, including homicide.”

  “No!” Kayla shook her head. “Don’t you understand if I do that, it’ll never be over? They’ll always be after me.”

  “Not if they’re in prison, they won’t be,” Elizabet said grimly.

  “You can’t guarantee that! I just … I just want to live. I want them to leave me alone.” Kayla thought about it for a moment, wondering whether she should ask the question that had been bothering her all morning. What the hell, she thought, and plunged forward. “Elizabet, if you were serious about maybe, like, adopting me, which I think would be really great, I thought maybe we would want to leav
e Los Angeles. I mean, I’ve got this whole crowd of people that may be looking for me, and Carlos knows where you live. Sooner or later, they may come looking. So, I thought, hey, maybe we should just go somewhere else. Like New York, maybe?” Or Alaska. South America. Burma?

  “Is that what you want to do?” Elizabet gave her a long look. “Run away? Again?”

  New Zealand? Ireland? Antarctica?

  “Well … yes! I mean, I don’t want to be here when the trouble arrives. What if those killer elves start looking for me again? Or Carlos?” Or Ramon …

  Kayla thought about Ramon, his laughing dark eyes. Guess I’ll never see that guy again, she thought. If I do, his big brother will be right behind him. I know he’s okay; I healed the guy, I shouldn’t worry about him. But I do… .

  “No,” Elizabet said firmly. “We’re not going to run away. These are problems, child, that you’ll have to learn how to face, because if you don’t, they’ll just find you again and again. You’ll have to go to the police and tell them everything … well, almost everything,” she amended. “We’ll deal with this trouble together. I want you to do this because you know it’s right, not because I’m compelling you to do it. But you must know that you have to do it, you have to go to the police and help them put these people behind bars. You have to be willing to confront them.”

  Kind of a scary prospect, that, Kayla thought, remembering about Carlos, the T-Men, and the Unseelie Court. It’s a whole lot of trouble. More than I want to deal with, that’s for sure. How did I get myself into this kind of trouble?

  “I’ll have to go into work in a few hours,” Elizabet said, stacking the clean dishes in the cupboard. “I’ll stop by the county office and file papers to see about formally making this your foster home. You, on the other hand …” And she gave Kayla a stern look. “You will stay here, try to keep out of trouble, and do some schoolwork. I have a number of textbooks in my library that you can start with. I imagine you’ve missed quite a bit of school over the past few months.”