Eclairs and Finger-Guns

Bethany licked the gooey chocolate off of her fingers, feeling a sense of both satisfaction and disappointment as she finished the last of her eclair, along with the last of her spending money, which pretty much consisted of about thirty euros. She barely had enough for the train ride back. In fact, she wasn't entirely sure why she was here, other than the fact that she had a job to do. The eiffel tower was such a random place for a secret meeting.

The woman rested her chin in her hands, leaning on the grated railing around the tower. She stared at the people below, and began to think about how much fun she could have up here with a sniper rifle and some spare rounds of ammo. Closing one eye, she made a gun with her hand, aiming it carefully at one of the tiny people on the ground. "Pew," she whispered, hitting him right in the head with an invisible bullet. "Pew, pew," she said again, her voice barely audible as the oblivious people below were being massacred right under their own noses.

"Dumb Parisians," B.B muttered with a frown, "They just won't die when you want them to..."

"Got something against the french, love?" High heels clicking against the metal flooring, sinfully painted lips pulled into a smile as she caught sight of the woman. Her hair was pulled elegantly away from her face with a clip made to look like a navy blue rose, and she wore a flattering evening gown of the same color that made her seem high class, if not a bit desperate. The bodice was tight, showing her figure and baring her pale shoulders to the illumination of the paris night. That was exactly the look she wanted, and so it was the act she pulled off.

She'd missed this. The bargaining. The jobs. Hiding out in your office didn't nearly have the excitement a growing gal needed, that was for sure. She barely knew why she'd considered it.

Elbow length gloves, white to contrast the dress and complement her skin, adorned her arms. Moving to the railing beside the woman, she gave a slight sigh. "You would not believe the nightmare all those stairs were in heels." She murmured conversationally, leaning forward onto the railing. Staring out over the night, she smirked.

"I know the thief that replaced the famous monument with the replica we're standing on now. That being said, I suggest you place an offer on the table before I decide it wasn't worth coming here. Bored easily, me."

Bethany turned around, now leaning backwards on the railing, and broke into a smirk. The woman in front of her directly contrasted herself. She was blonde, excessively elegant, dramatic- pretty much looked like a walking perfume commercial. Bethany on the other hand, had her hair let down in messy waves, and was wearing a tight tank top, her brother's old leather jacket, some heavily ripped jeans, and combat boots from her military days. Mind you, she still considered herself to be pretty dang sexy, just on a much, much different level.

At her question, the woman shrugged, "Nah, not really. Except, you know, they're always overdressed, maybe a little pretentious- but other than that, no. Not more than any other type of person."

She raised an eyebrow as she turned back to face the railing, the air mercifully still in the cold, "Wow, no kidding. I didn't know climbing all those stairs in heels was possible, but you've even got the ass to prove it." She leaned over for a moment to get a better look, then whistled, "You sure are one impressive lady."

BB frowned. "What did they do with it?" She muttered to herself. If someone went to all the trouble to make an exact replica of the eiffel tower in order to swap it out for the old one, then it would really have to be the exact same thing. Otherwise it would probably collapse and kill thousands of people. Then it would be pretty clear that it was stolen. Not only that, but even once you had somehow managed to switch it out for the exact same thing. Then what would you do with the one you had? Sell it on e-bay to some lunatic millionaire? There was literally no point to doing all of that.

Bethany shook her head, trying desperately to get herself to focus, "Right. Well, of course, we're giving you a pretty hefty royalty. Then, since this is such a big job, you're going to get one invisible 'favor card' redeemable at any place or time of your choosing. And this is a favor from the Sons of Galen. Sure, we may be primarily muggles, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a group of fighters tougher and more capable than us."

"I don't know if this counts or not, but you'll also get the opportunity to steal from Nolan Carde himself. If you're even capable of doing the job and not getting killed, that in itself should be a pretty big incentive."

"Always knew there was a good reason I wasn't born french." Bonnie mused lightly, raising an eyebrow at the woman's obvious appreciation of her figure. "You aren't so bad yourself. If I was wearing my regular clothes, we'd be twins." Smirking slightly, the woman grinned, smoothing down her dress, she smirked. "Such a nice french night, and me without my parasol."

The woman gave a soft laugh. "Well, he shrunk it of course. Kept it around like a trinket. Grew a replica in its place. The quality of this replica is actually quite grand. Couldn't have hoped for better." Licking her lips slightly, the blond gave a fond smile. "Then he offered it to me as a gift. It's very rewarding to be female, you see. I'm sure you know about it... and if you don't, well... I suppose you might want to look into a new wardrobe." Pursing her lips slightly, she looked the woman up and down more fully. "Of course, if I could attract a whole army of men in rags, I'm sure you could find someone in that... ensemble."

"And these 'royalties' are perfectly sound?" Tilting her head back, she scrutinized the woman. "If I discover that I suddenly want to keep in my possession that in which I take, what is stopping me from doing so? Other than, of course, your gang of rambunctious robin hoods in less than tights running around with stakes. I am very threatened by all that, and all, but I'm sure there's more than just that around."

A knowing glint adorned her eye, but she only rose her chin and smirked. "Yes, Nolan Carde. As well as all this sounds, one measley favor from a group of vampire hunters isn't going to do anyone anything. Not for magical bullets or anything. I'm putting my life on the line, after all, and I value my life more than I value most of my fortune." She paused slightly, and then shrugged. "You are free to take it to another thief, but either they will not take it, or they will take it and fail. Miserably. Then Carde will do what every good man of his stature would and lock down his facility so tight you wouldn't have another chance at him ever again. So." She smiled dazzlingly, folding her fingers together and meeting the other woman's eyes.

"How much do you need these bullets?"

Bethany tilted her head with a smile, "That is one swag keychain. I hope you kept it. Though the image of some poor guy spraying miracle grow on the Eiffel Tower is something I totally regret missing." She smirked, showing that the woman was clearly joking. All this magic crap had been explained to her months ago, and although it boggled her mind at first, the world was starting to make a little more sense now that she knew.

She threw her head back with a laugh, then shook her head at the ground, "I know, I know. At this point, the only thing that gets me laid is my unbridled confidence. The guys really dig it." She snickered again, then sighed, "Yeah. I think Luka mentioned it being about... 5,000 galleons... erm..." She rolled her eyes as far up as they went in thought, tilting her head from side to side, "More or less... I was never very good at conversions."

Bethany blinked in surprise, "If by stakes you mean an arsenal of state-of-the-art weaponry specially designed to kill, maim, painfully torture, or otherwise incapacitate anything with a drop of magic in their blood... Then yeah, that's exactly what we are."

It didn't take long for her smile to return to her face, "But we're not the only ones you would have to worry about. Carde knows that his 'magic bullets' are in very high demand, so he's created a mechanism to track them if they ever are stolen. You don't take too long to track down as it is. We certainly didn't have any trouble finding you. If you do decide to take them, we're not going to expend much effort in getting revenge, but Nolan will want your head on a platter, and most likely he'll get it."

She crossed her arms, "And I like you. It would suck to see you die for something so stupid."

"Favors are worth more than you think. Take it from someone who knows," Bethany shrugged, "But if you really don't appreciate it, then fine, we'll throw in a couple more thousand galleons. We really do have quite a bit of money to waste. Not that it's being wasted on me," She muttered, then shrugged again, "But I'm not complaining."

"But Miss Clyde," She said with a gasp and a small smirk, "That's what this mission is all about: life. We are uncovering all life's little secrets, the ones we still can't figure out. To quote my boss, 'We don't do what we do for the petty egos of the individual. We do it for all mankind. Someday, they will thank us, and we will be alive to witness it.' And yes, I realize it sounds like complete bullshit, but some of that sciencey-magickey stuff they're doing is actually getting close to working. Even I'm pretty impressed by it. If we ever figure it out, you'll be one of the first people to know. That is, if you do this for us."

.