There were no dark and shadowy corners in the cafe, so he sipped his hibiscus tea in a bright and cheerful spot under an antique bicycle. At least the sunlight would keep the vampires away. He hated vampires. Pretentious sons of—

 He straightened and drew in a slow breath, gaze fastened on the woman who'd just entered and approached the counter. Or, that's what he would have done if he'd had as little subtlety as she did. In reality, he continued his slow sip of tea without even a blink.

 She clearly didn't have the cunning of a vampire, or grace of werewolf, or charisma of a fae. Quite the opposite in fact. He rather suspected she was part troll. Something that had never learned to step over small objects, because it seemed easier to smash things underfoot.

 

 No human would have contemplated, let alone created, the combination she wore of glitter and midnight and... yes, that was actual moss on her boots. The scent of green and earth wafted from them as she moved. 

 

 And, unless by some fantastic coincidence a part troll woman had wandered into this specific coffee shop for a nice cup of hot hibiscus tea on a 90 degree day, she was looking for him.

 She strode across the room and hesitated at his table. "I think I'm supposed to say something about the spice in the tea. But it's too hot to drink  yet, and it doesn't smell spicy."

 

 He raised his eyebrows.

 

She plopped into the chair across from him. "So?"

 

"So? You're right, it's not spicy. It's tart and fruity and unnecessarily minty."

 

She dared a sip of the steaming tea. "Weird. It is minty. Better than I thought though."

 

"I suppose you normally take shots of straight espresso and smash the glass?"

 

She laughed, a not remotely delicate sound. "Normally, I like a breve. Now, assuming I had said something perfectly natural about how spicy the tea was, you would say...?"

 

"Such a stickler for someone who's not following the rules very well herself."

 

She took another sip of tea, with a stare that would have been more intimidating if she hadn't immediately choked on the hot tea. 

 

He waited until the coughing and spluttering died down and said dryly, "I like my drinks with a little kick."

 

"See, it's a terrible code phrase! You can't expect people to actually use these lines with a straight face!"

 

"And yet they do," he said. "And I assume you were attempting to use them for a reason?"

 

"Yes." Her face fell serious and, thankfully, her voice lowered a notch. "Yes. I know someone who needs killing, and six .45 slugs to the chest didn't do more than slow him down."

He'd been starting to expect something more interesting from her, but it was the same old routine after all, just with an extra helping of looking suspicious to the normal humans around because of her inability to blend in. "Okay, tell me his name, last known location and any–"

 

"I'm not taking out a hit on him," she said flatly.

 

He stared. "I don't understand."

 

"I want you to teach me how to kill him. I'm not sending an assassin after anyone, but if you teach me what to do, I can defend myself next time he comes after me."

 

"I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what I do."

 

She leaned forward. "I think you're the only person who knows how to do what I need to do, and I don't want to die because you won't tell me if this is a wooden stake type situation, or if I need to learn to make silver bullets."

 

"The usual way I keep innocent people from dying," he said, "is by killing the people who need killing."

 

"That's fine, but..." She clasped her hands tightly around her mug of tea. "We're a little outside the law here. And I... I can live with that. I know the police couldn't do more than I did, and it's not enough. I need someone like you who knows things. But if I send you after him, I'll never know for sure that it had to be that way. Not like if he comes after me again, and I look in his eye and see that it's him or me. Then I'll know it's the right thing to do. All I need from you is to teach me how."

He sighed. Today wasn't supposed to change the rest of his life. Today was just supposed to be one more day under an antique bicycle, drinking hibiscus tea, and waiting for clients. "Okay," he said, "but I have one condition. If I teach you how to kill this one guy, you stick around to learn everything else I know too."

 

Her eyes widened. "I don't... That wasn't..."

 

He held up a hand. "Let's say for a year. You take lessons from me for a year, learn all about the different kinds of weapons you need for vampires and fae and everything else. And after that, you decide what you want to do with all that information. I think I know what you'll do, but if I'm wrong, you can walk away, no questions asked. Fair enough?"

 

She was quiet for a long time, then nodded slowly. "Okay. Fair enough."