"Not yet, not as far as I know."

"Aaaaugh magic is usually obnoxiously obvious when it does something, what is going on with you, come home with me I want to study you!"

"What, right now?"

"Yes right now, do I strike you as a woman who does not commit to her goals?"

Snort. "How far away do you live?"

"It's about two miles and change from here, I can give you the address if you want to leave a note with a friend or a Watcher or something?"

"A who?"

"... Seriously? Am I your education in all things Slayer? How long have you been a Slayer, this is sad. A Watcher's... okay imagine a conspiracy that knows of and equips a Slayer, finds her to help with her education and training. Now imagine that, but shittier. Way, way shittier. A Watcher is a representative from that group, out to keep you alive as long as possible."

"Month and a half. Wow, I'm glad I didn't shoot you."

"Yes, be. I am amoral and totally out for my own survival but I am at least fucking competent, a month and a half and you don't have a Watcher, that's appalling."

"Is it surprising enough to be mysterious."

"I don't know, maybe your magic thing is making it impossible for them to scry you and they have no other methods of finding you because they're shit, maybe there's a horrific tweed shortage in England and they're crippled by the absence. I don't know if it's leaking into mysterious territory or not because as a group they always seemed completely incompetent to me. I'm just annoyed because this is pathetic and if I were in charge of a conspiracy mine would be way better."

"I suppose they're not competent enough to pay me."

"I get the impression that the Slayer's more of a sacrificial lamb to them, to be used if useful and discarded for a new one if not. They are not up to union code, is what I'm saying."

"So I may not want to email leading tweed producers."

"You may not, no."

Sigh. "All right, which way to your place."

She points, then kneels down to collect magical groceries.

"Thataway. Just as soon as I've collected my mistimed magic groceries."

Nod.

Mistimed magical groceries are soon collected, and off they go.

"So have you been figuring out things by empirical testing, or?"

"Some use of library, some empiricism, some Power That Be In My Bedroom That One Time."

"Okay. And the clever crosses are your own creativity and foresight? I like them in like, a far off theoretical kind of way. I hate stepping on them."

"Maybe if we get along really well I will tell you the algorithm I use to place them so you can avoid them. And yes they're mine."

"Congratulations," says Yvette, dry. "To be fair, if we don't get along really well I am probably going to pack up my shit and run for the hills. Other vampires say they want to live forever and then not back it up at all, I say it and damn well mean it. So I guess it's not my problem."

"I don't kill people for annoying me, although you might find it grating if I decided I needed to check up on you a lot and we were not besties."