Bedlam Boyz(73)

"Well, it didn't look too likely when all I was doing was ditching class and trying to run away from lousy foster homes. But talking with Elizabet made me think about what I'd like to do with my life. So I'll give it a try. If it doesn't work out, maybe I can go work for the CIA or something. I've got all that experience in breaking and entering, I bet they'd hire me in a minute!"

"Don't you even think it, scamp!" Elizabet said sternly and Billy laughed.

I never would've guessed this about Billy, Kayla thought. I never thought that maybe he had dreams, dreams of more than just getting through a few days without getting arrested, or how to break into an apartment quicker and faster the next time. I never thought he might want to be an engineer. He's so different. I mean, it's only been a week, and he's changed so much. Or maybe he's not so different, maybe he's been this way all the time, and I just didn't know it.

"Have you guys heard anything about Liane?" Billy asked, his face suddenly very serious.

Elizabet shook her head. "Nothing new."

"We're going to go look for her," Kayla said. "Right after we leave here, we're going into Hollywood."

"Well, then get your asses out of here," Billy said with a smile. "And I'll go back to watching the football game. Come back and visit me after you've found her." He looked down, away from them. "I've been worried 'bout her. Kayla, I figured that you'd be able to take care of yourself, even if you never did before. . . ."

"Hey, thanks a lot, dude!" Kayla said, glaring at him and then grinning in pretend anger.

"No, I'm serious! I always took care of stuff for all of us, after we left the foster home, but it wasn't because I was the only one who could do it. You could; you always could. You just didn't . . . just didn't believe enough in yourself. But Liane's different. I hope she's okay."

"We'll find out," Elizabet said reassuringly. "My guess is that she's still somewhere in the Hollywood area, that she wouldn't have gone far, which means . . ."

Elizabet's voice faded, and Kayla glanced over at Billy's roommate, now asleep. His face was very pale and drawn, white even against his pillow, only a few stringy wisps of hair visible beneath the baseball cap. Something's very wrong there, she thought, something's very . . .

Without warning, the room disappeared around her. It was as if she was falling into a whirlwind of pain and chaos, sliding between the layers of skin and muscle, until she could see the cells of his body. The cells that were fighting a hopeless battle against each other, killing him piece by piece. It was too overwhelming and confusing; she didn't know how she'd start to heal this. It's not just a single cut or a wound, she thought, it's all the way through his entire body, it's everywhere. . . .

She felt Elizabet's hand on her shoulder, pulling her back into herself. "Control, Kayla," Elizabet murmured. "Disengage from it. Control it."

Kayla blinked and shook her head, trying to clear the image of the millions of cells fighting against each other from her vision. Then she was standing in the hospital room again, Elizabet's hand on her shoulder keeping her from falling.

She glanced at Billy; he was staring at her.

"Your eyes!" he whispered. "Your eyes were filled with blue fire. It's true. I thought I dreamed it, but it really happened. That scar that the doctors found, the one they said must've happened a few months back. Except it didn't; I'd never had it before. It was you. What is it, Kayla?"

"We'd better go," Elizabet said quietly, urging Kayla toward the door.

"Kayla?" Billy called. "Please, I need to know!"

Still dizzy from the magic, Kayla looked back at him. "I don't know, Billy," she said. "I don't know what it is. But I'm going to try to figure it out."

"And I'm going to help her," Elizabet said.

"Yeah, you do that, Elizabet," Billy said, settling back against his pillows. "Elizabet can help you figure things out, Kayla. She's good at that."

Kayla glanced back at her friend. It's not the same, she thought. It's never going to be the same. We're different people now. "Take care of yourself, Billy," she said.

"You, too, Kayla," he said, and smiled. "Try to stay out of trouble, hey?"

No bets on that, she thought, walking out into the corridor.

In the hallway outside his room Kayla turned to Elizabet. "Do you know what's wrong with Rick?" she asked. "All that craziness, everything fighting itself<W1%-75><|><D%0>?"

"Leukemia," Elizabet said. "That's what Rick has." She was silent for a moment as they walked past the nurses' station. "Everyone has limits, child," she said at last. "You'll have to learn what yours are."