"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 leave 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."
"Oh, just a few classes," Kayla admitted. Like most of this school year. . . .
"And I'll call downtown," Elizabet continued. "We'll get a regular patrol to stop through here on their circuit, plus whatever else they think is appropriate to a key witness. You'll have to testify, Kayla. It'll probably take a couple of days for them to get the paperwork started on this, but you will have to testify against the gang. I don't know whether the L.A.P.D. can do anything against elves and that ogress . . ."
They'd better take in a platoon of Marines with them, if they try!
" . . . but we can certainly do something about the gangbangers," Elizabet continued. "If we see any sign of the gang or . . . anything else, the police will probably want to take you into protective custody. So don't be alarmed if a policeman stops by to see how you're doing during the day, while you're studying. And you'd better start cracking the books. You'll have some serious catching up to do if you want to graduate high school with a high enough grade point average to go to college."
"College?" Kayla glanced at her. "I can't go to college!"
"Of course you can," Elizabet said, smiling. "I'll help you with the tuition. But you'll need to get your grades into shape or you won't be admitted. It'll take a lot of hard work, but I think you can do it."
"College?" Kayla repeated, her eyes wide. College . . . I never thought I'd be able to do that. I wonder what I'd study? I'd like to learn more about how this magic thing works, but somehow I don't think they'll have classes in Magic 101 at UCLA.
Elizabet laughed, reaching out to ruffle Kayla's hair. "Of course, imp. College. Who did this to your hair? It looks like it was hacked off with a knife."