Eliza is the escapee of a strange future, where faerie collided with the modern world, and became an orphan as a result. Raised by her grandparents, she lived in a tiny town called Bordertown, the only town on the border of Faery. 

Her Grandparents, Nona and Nonni were Kalderash Rrom, and ran a small magick supply shop in vicinity of the Dancing Ferret in SoHo. They were known in town for having the rarest ingredients on either sides of the Border, and had a high traffic of well paying customers, most of whom didn't want their purchases known.

Nonni sent her at six to learn hand to hand in case the  Gangs got rough with her, for after dark the streets became theirs. The police in Brodertown weren't anything like the ones in bigger cities further from the Border of Faery. They were more like Sheriffs in the Old West, shoot first and ask questions later.

Living half in the streets and half home, she was a product of her situation, a wise-ass girl who brawls for money. She learned Romany and Spanish from her Nona, and knife fighting from Nonni along with her hand to hand.

She'd advanced in her training at the Dojo ran by Sensai Chaun Wang, who'd often remarked on her ferocity.

That was when tragedy struck.

Nonni had made a deal with a True Blood from Dragonhill, newly out of Faery, that went badly.

Eliza came home to a blood bath that afternoon, both grandparents murdered and no suspects. She fled the scene to her friend Guy's squat, and he took her in for a time.  Word spread, and the True Bloods were intent on severing any times to the murders. Eliza took the knife her Nonni received in trade from the True Blood, packed what she could carry, and Guy found a way to send her into Faery, where she wouldn't be looked for.

Good thing it went wrong.. she ended up here, in Beware, completely lost and pissed off.