"Poorly," he says. "Tony's parents were not particularly close to him, but at least they had met."

"You would've had to pretend to be twins with Tony regardless - was he like your brother, or what?" Her next guess is 'parent'.

"Not remotely," he says. "Nor my father, before you ask. He was... Tony. I loved him. Further labeling did not seem productive."

That makes sense. Bella nods.

He smiles faintly.

"Do Watchers tend to know much about magic?" Bella asks in a complete topic change. "I'm still not accomplishing anything with what supposedly simple spells I've attempted and unless Slayers just fundamentally can't do magic, I'm missing something obvious that someone who knows magic would be able to tell me. It might be worth exposing myself to lots of crustiness just to get that figured out. Of course, maybe there are less crusty freelance witches who can take students and wouldn't need to know I'm the Slayer to find me worth their time."

"...I have no concrete data to support this," he says, "but my feeling is that the Watcher's Council is not an organization you want in your life. Even if they can teach you about magic, and I don't know if they can, or would."

"Freelance witches are probably a better first choice," agrees Bella. "Don't suppose you can find out if there are any of those lying around who take students? In addition to checking out the librarian?"

"Such a busy life I am acquiring. By all means," he says cheerfully.

"I like to be busy, don't you?" Bella inquires innocently.

"Beats the alternative," he snorts.

"Exactly."

"I ought to get on with it, then. Farewell, dear Juliet," he says teasingly.

"Until tomorrow," she returns, and she hops out of her side of the truck and goes inside only when she's sure he's out of range of the porch lights.

Bella avoids taking out any more suspicious books the next day, although she does return the ones she's read - he can probably look up her borrowing history anyway, and he's more likely to do that if she's overdue with something. She gets no more than a raised eyebrow when she dumps her items into the bookdrop and scurries home.

"Yes," is the first thing he says to her, "your new librarian is a Watcher."

"D'you know if he suspects anything?"

"I do not."

"Okay. Did that take all night or do you know about local witches, too?" She hops in the truck and unlocks the other side for him once he's finished his blood and she can stop holding her nose.

"What I know about local witches is that there are a lot of dead ends," he says. "Competence and friendliness seem to be mutually exclusive qualities. But I have not exhausted my resources yet."

"I'd take a friendly incompetent if it came to a choice between the options, at least to try - I'm happy to do self-study once I know what I haven't been able to make anything work yet."

"The friendly incompetents I have looked up would be no use to you."

"Are they so incompetent that they only imagine they're doing magic?" she inquires.

"Correct."