The Teacher

A Little Glitter

"You're money or your life." Hissed a voice and Finn sighed.

"Really? Pretending to be a mugger that speaks unaccented English outside the Louvre? That's how you want her to remember your first meeting?"

"You suck, Finn." Arthur moved around her and nodded at Gloria before he finished his thought. "Oh, no wait. That's me." He held out his hand as though Gloria should take it and kiss it and Finn smiled when the girl backed away to put Finn between her and the somewhat glittery vampire. That did catch her attention, and Finn grabbed his hand.

"You're glittering." She accused and wrapped the vampire in magical bands. He tensed as he felt them, but didn't pull away. He'd been threatened by worse than her she was sure.

"Yeah, that's part of why we need to talk. Side effect of the job, but I swear it's not what you think." Arthur said through teeth clenched shut by her magic. Finn narrowed her eyes and dropped his hand, letting the magic pull it harmlessly to his side.

"You have an apartment nearby then? Somewhere we can talk?"

"Maybe. You have to promise to hear me out though, and be patient. I won't even start to explain anything until we get there."

Finn thought a moment and glanced around. There weren't a lot of people, and she had only noticed the glittery skin when the light hit it a certain way. More a light sheen than true glitter. She'd never understood the workings of the curse the vampires were under, just the point. If they glittered, they were drinking human blood, and more than necessary for survival. If they glittered, there were bodies piling up somewhere. If they glittered, they died without fanfare, apology or mercy.

But she'd never seen one glitter just a little bit before, and Arthur had always been careful to follow that particular rule. She nodded.

"I don't promise you'll survive this either, but I admit to being curious." She admitted and Arthur started walking. They crossed the River Seine and carried on to a well lit campus for the Universite Paris Cite. Arthur stopped at a security checkpoint, it was after hours and they weren't students, and a moment later brought them both forward to sign in. Finn glared at Arthur, but signed in silently.

He led them into a building, down some stairs and stopped when a group of younger people - students Finn assumed - seemed to cluster around him. The French was faster than Finn could grasp, and she waited for an explanation that came after the group split up and moved away from them in different directions.

"Explain why you have students' as thralls?" Finn asked quietly.

"They aren't. Or not like that." Arthur frowned after the students. "Sycophants maybe? Still not quite right. They'll be there when I give you my explanation, but first we need the professors too."

"The what?" Finn said as one group of students returned with an older gentleman in tow.

"Ah, you must be Findobhair." The man gushed and Finn was momentarily taken aback that he used her full name and pronounced it correctly. "I am Doctor Travis. Arthur says you prefer Finn?" At Finn's brief nod the Doctor smiled. "Then, since I am not your physician, I think for you to call me Travis would be best."

"I don't, I mean, Doctor and-" Finn cut herself off and took a deep breath. "Honorifics are earned Doctor, and I have no doubt you've earned yours."

"Well, yes, but to hear Arthur tell it you have earned your honorifics too, have you not Madame Hunter?" He arched one eyebrow at her and Finn blinked.

"Ah, I see. Alright, then Travis it is. Thank you." She bowed her head a little and shot a glare at Arthur when the Doctor turned his attention to Gloria.

"And you are?"

"Hello Travis, I'm Gloria." The students tittered, but the Doctor hushed them with a wave. "I think you have not matched my honorifics yet young lady, you may call me Doctor or Doctor Travis. Your last name? Are you a Mademoiselle?"

As Gloria spluttered and seemed to choke on her answer Finn spoke up. "Names are powerful, I think Ms. Gloria would suffice."

"Are names powerful?" One of the students asked, pulling out a tablet and tapping open something to take notes. Finn raised an eyebrow and kept her mouth shut while the student looked at her expectantly.

"Perhaps that can wait for another time," Doctor Travis said as he turned to his younger students. "Madame Hunter is always busy and she is here for an explanation on what we do, not to teach us things." He shooed the students and they moved en masse into one of the laboratories.

"Sorry, they are all a little star struck by you." Arthur said as they trailed behind.

"There are reasons we don't tell people about us. I truly hope this doesn't come back to bite anyone in the ass." Finn growled as she stepped into the room. One of the students brought a bag of blood up to Arthur and he took it with a small smile. Finn wondered if his nerves were real or for show as she watched.

"We are researching blood borne illnesses here." Doctor Travis explained. "Of course, we are quite limited in what we can do since the blood must be contained and we cannot simply test on humans." Finn watched as Arthur, with a glance at her and Gloria, pierced the sealed bag with his canines and poured the blood down his throat. After a moment his skin glittered brighter and she frowned. "All of the blood we have is donated to us by people suffering from the illnesses. It is sealed by the hospital laboratories, and brought to us here. Of course, we don't advertise what we do to test things." Arthur dropped the empty bag into a biohazard box and waited. A moment later a student brought a syringe with a clear fluid in it and injected it into the vampire. Everyone waited until his eyes suddenly started to drift in different directions, and then one of the students grabbed a large steel pail while two others helped to support the man as he vomited violently into the can.

"No. Whatever that was no." Arthur spoke up after he had recovered. The pail was lying at his feet and he lifted it. A large kiln looking machine sat just off to the side and he put the pail into this, sealing the door and pressing a large yellow button. "My organs, as you all know, aren't autonomous. I turn them on, as it were, when we do this. That, whatever it was, shut most of them down. You'd kill people." He eyed the syringe where it sat innocuously on the counter. "What was it?"

"A concoction of Ether, Cyanide and Fentanyl." The student that had injected him said and the entire room stared at him aghast. "You told us that if Madame Hunter didn't approve that our memories would be erased and you'd be killed." He said in a thick accent that Finn couldn't quite place. "The fastest way to show her why you are glittering when you aren't actually eating humans is to show that you vomit them back up quickly."

Doctor Travis took the student by the upper arm and led him out of the room while Arthur turned to look at Finn. "Finn, please prevent this from being really bad?" He asked and Finn, already pulling magic towards her to do just that, teleported the kiln and the syringe in question into the River Seine.

"If you want that kiln back it's at the mouth of the Seine by the English Channel. Under water. Make Arthur go get it. Arthur? Let's take a walk shall we?" Finn said.