As the bright full moon slipped behind a cloud, there was an almost unperceptable motion on the ground below as a figure clad entirely in black dashed from behind a tree in a well-to-do Los Angeles neighborhood to the sliding patio doors of a relatively large home. The figure, her shoulder-length dark brown hair tied back in a ponytail pulled a lockpick out of one of the many pockets of her cargo pants and with the unerring swiftness that comes from many hours of practice, picked the lock and quietly slid the door open enough to get inside.

Once safely inside she took out her mini flashlight and took a quick look around. The sliding door placed her in a kitchen that looked like any other kitchen in the city. Cupboards lined the walls, broken only by the refrigerator, stove, dishwasher and sinks. The young woman noted with slight approval that the cupboards were oak, as was the island in the middle of the room. There were mirrors on the ceiling, something she had never understood the point of. She rolled her eyes at her reflection above and giggled before growing serious again. She was on a job after all and couldn't waste time or goof off. If I did goof off...Devin would certainly never let me hear de end of it... she thought to herself with distinct distaste.

With that in mind, the young woman moved silently and stealthily from the kitchen, through the wide opening that led to the living room, which looked like it belonged in a museum. Plastic covered the beige furniture, which had probably never been used. She shook her head in disgust and scanned the mahogany shelves and tables around the room. She was looking for something in particular and it in seconds she knew it wasn't in the immaculate room. Upon figuring that out, she moved on, deciding to go back into the kitchen and try the other side room. The dining room.

A dinette set that could have been one of the prizes on "The Price is Right" stood in the center of the room. Along one dark-blue wall was a cabinet with glass doors that held various collectable plates, figurines and knick-knacks. The young woman walked across the hardwood floor and stood in front of the cabinet, looking inside carefully. While it was quite a tempting idea to open the cabinet and take everything...the Royal Dalton figurines alone were worth a small fortune, she knew...she couldn't do that. Her job was to steal a specific item from the house and as she scanned the contents of the cabinet her eyes lit up with realization.

There, in the right hand corner of the second shelf of the cabinet was what she was after. A beautiful antique faberge egg, red and white in color with gold trim and a gold stand. The egg, which wasn't one-of-a-kind of course, but was unique all the same, had been bought at an auction by the family the week before for thousands of dollars and was reputed to have belonged to the last Czar of Russia.

The young woman pulled a felt bag out of one of her pockets and set it on the table behind her. Then she turned back to the cabinet and opened it, flashlight sticking out of her mouth so she would have the use of both hands. Without disturbing anything else in the cabinet, she reached in with her gloved fingers and picked up the antique egg placed it in the felt bag. She then did the same with the stand and closed the cabinet. Dey really should keep dis t'ing locked up. Someone could steal somethin'. she thought with a mental chuckle. She wrapped the egg and its stand in the soft felt and took off the small pack on her back. With extreme care, she put the treasure inside the pack and returned it to her back. Then she headed back out and crossed the kitchen one more time. She paused at the sliding door and looked back. It was a shame, really, that such a house, with all it's collectables and antiques, wouldn't have a security system to speak of. At least if there'd been a security system, it would have made the job a little more challenging.

She stepped back out into the moonlit night and slid the door shut behind herself. She couldn't lock the door, of course, but was hoping the residents would decide they'd forgotten to lock it before going to bed. Without another look back, she walked off the patio and dashed back into the shadows of the trees in the yard before leaping over the fence and disappearing into the night.

In seconds she was three streets over, walking close to buildings and ducking into shortcuts in alleys whenever she came across one. She slipped past the beefy bouncers of a rather loud, rocking club with flashing colored lights and glared back at the building once she was past. The sound disturbed the otherwise peaceful night in a most rude manner. It certainly wasn't like the jazz clubs she remembered from her childhood in New Orleans, where the sound of music drifted out in such a way that it invited you inside instead of giving you a pounding headache the way this club did. A few moments after passing the club, the young woman darted into what looked like a dead-end alley beside what appeared to be nothing more than a storage warehouse. She went to the door near the back of the warehouse and knocked.

A sliding window opened and the young woman grinned up at the face that appeared in it.

"Didja get it?"

The woman raised an eyebrow quirkily and her grin widened. "What do you t'ink, Rob?"

"I think I just asked a stupid question. Hang on, I'll let you in."

A lock clicked from the inside of the building and the door opened to reveal the asker of stupid questions. Rob Forbes was six-foot-one, with the build of a man who worked out extensively because he did. He was only four years older than the young woman who stepped in from the dark night, with longish wavy sandy blond hair and twinkly light blue eyes that looked white in certain lights and moods. Rob was dressed in a pair of ripped blue jeans, a red t-shirt and ratty sneakers. He towered over the woman, who was nearly a foot shorter than him. He smiled at her as she walked over to a table near the door and set her backpack on it.

"I know Devin wanted to be the one to do this job, Dani, but if you want my honest and candid opinion, I think Papa chose correctly when he gave it to you over him." Rob commented as he watched her take the felt bag and it's contents out of the pack.

"Perhaps, Robby, perhaps." Dani replied with a laugh. "But it's choices like dat one dat make livin' wit' our dear Harvest Master even more difficult."

Rob frowned. "Devin doesn't hate you, Dani. He doesn't hate Rory either. He just..."

Dani glanced at her friend sharply, her green eyes defiant and bright. "He jus' what, Rob? De man is stuck in de dark ages. Maybe he don' hate us, but he certainly don' like us or approve of us. He t'inks dat women have no place bein' t'ieves an' he can' stand de fact dat bot' Rory an' I have turned de males-only tradition on it's head."

"Dani..." Rob protested. "It was an adjustment for all of us when you two showed up here out of the blue like that when Pierre decided to move here after his excommunication from the New Orleans Guild. You had already passed your tilling...so had Rory...and once you proved yourselves to us, we had no choice but to admit you into our ranks. We've all more or less accepted you both into our family, but there are some, like Devin, who have a hard time dealing with an accepting change. Surely you understand that."

"Of course I do. But it doesn't make it right to be so 'gainst allowin' girls to train an' at least get a chance to do de tilling an' be t'ieves if dey want." Dani retorted. "Now do you want to take a look at dis here antique egg or not?"

"Danielle Potier, has anyone ever told you you're just as stubborn as Devin?" Rob laughed. "And of course I do. But Papa, Devin and Scott should really be here too."

As if waiting for that particular cue, three men suddenly appeared in a doorway across the room from them. The obvious leader was an older version of Rob, with the same sandy blond hair and the same build. His face was serious as he lead the way over to where Kris and Dani were standing, but his brown eyes betrayed his sense of humor. His name was Peter Forbes, and he was the leader and Patriarch of the Los Angeles Thieves Guild. Rob, his oldest son, was his heir and would eventually succeed him as Patriarch.

Behind Peter was the Guild's second in command, Devin Anderson. Always serious and with no sense of humor to speak of, the brown haired, brown eyed Devin was a traditionalist above all else. He disliked change, but grudgingly accepted what he couldn't prevent. From the day he met Dani Potier and her best friend Rory Alouette thirteen years before, he had disliked them, if not for who they were, then for what they represented. Change. As a Master Thief with the Guild title Harvest Master, it was Devin's responsibility to decide which items the Guild stole would be kept and which would be sold. And once that decision had been made, if he decided the item could be sold, it became the responsibility of the man walking beside him.

Scott Brewer was a slight man who looked like an accountant, not a Master Thief. He had dark red, almost auburn hair, grey eyes and a knack for business. He held the Guild title Harvest Disseminator and for good reason. He was a keen businessman and knew how to get the exact right price for any item the Guild thieves had stolen. He had contacts all over the city and beyond and the resold stolen items were never traced back to the Guild. Scott's contacts were as discreet as they come and could be trusted. Scott made sure of it. It was interesting to know that there were so many dishonest people in the world.

"Ah! Dani, you're back!" Peter said with a smile. "I take it you've been successful?"

"Of course." Dani replied with a smirk directed at Devin. There had been a heated exchange of words between twenty-six year old Dani and thirty-eight year-old Devin earlier in the day after they discovered they were both being considered to do the job.

Devin glared at her. "Let's see it."

Dani opened the felt bag and removed first the gold stand, setting it on the table. Then she took the egg out and placed it on the stand. Four sets of eyes widened when they saw it.

"Whoa..." Scott breathed. "That thing really is impressive! I'd heard it was, but I never imagined it could be that nice..."

"For a few thousand dollars I sure as hell hope it's this nice." Devin retorted.

"Well," Peter said thoughtfully. "We don't exactly need it, nor do we need to sell it at this time, as we've sold enough lately to supply the entire Guild for a few weeks."

"That's true, Papa." Rob agreed. He looked at Devin. "Dev? What do you think?"

"Once it's discovered that the egg has been stolen, the entire city will be put on alert. They'll keep a close eye on everything and everyone, especially pawn shops and known collectors. Unless we sell it outside the city or even outside the country, we're bound to run a risk of getting caught if we try to sell it now. I suggest we keep it for the time being, until the noise from the theft has quietened down."

Peter, who finalized all decisions, nodded. "I agree. Devin, take the egg and put it in the safe in the library for now. We'll keep it until the timing is right to sell it."

Devin took the egg and its stand and left the room, followed closely by Scott. Rob returned to his post at the door, knowing that there were three other thieves out on jobs that night and they would need to be let in when they returned, whether they had been successful or not. It wasn't likely that they would be unsuccessful; after all, the members of the Thieves Guild were highly trained professionals. But things had been known to go wrong from time to time, so they never expected every job to be successful until it was.

Dani looked at Peter and raised an eyebrow. "Devin really wanted to do that job."

"I know." Peter replied, shaking his head, his blond ponytail swinging around his shoulders. "Walk with me, Dani."

She fell into step beside him and they crossed the room, heading to the doorway he and the other men had come out of moments before. "I chose you for a reason." Peter said as they walked.

"Well I figured as much, since you always make sure to have a good reason for putting a certain thief on a certain job..." Dani remarked.

"Yes. And in this case, my reason was simple. I've been watching you since you arrived here as a thirteen year old girl fresh off her tilling, Dani, and I know you're a better thief than even you give yourself credit for sometimes. But beyond that, Devin's specialty is computer theft. He's not that great with a lockpick. What took you probably fifteen seconds to do would have taken him a minute. It's not that he can't do it, he's just a little slower." Peter laughed. "But don't tell him I said that."

"I won't, Peter. He wouldn't believe me anyway." Dani giggled. She followed the Guild Patriarch through the doorway and down the stairs to another door. The door opened into a small room that had no visable exit, unless you looked at the floor.

Peter bent down and flipped the latch on the trap door and pulled it open. A damp coolness met them but it wasn't unpleasant. "Ladies first." Peter said, gesturing to the metal ladder that started at the trap door and went down into the dark tunnel below.

Dani shook her head and started down. "Lady? Where? Who's been tellin' you dat I'm a lady, Peter?" She joked as she waited for him at the bottom.

"Just trying to be polite, Danielle." Peter replied as he joined her.

They walked along the dimly lit tunnels, their way shown only by candles along the walls. It reminded Dani a lot of New Orleans and her old home. They had lived in tunnels and rooms beneath city streets as well, only, Dani figured, living beneath New Orleans wasn't nearly as perilous as living beneath Los Angeles. After all, earthquakes were common in California, and Peter had told her a long time ago that many thieves had died because of earthquakes in the past.

After a few silent minutes of walking, the tunnel opened into a room, with other tunnels branching off it. Those tunnels led to the rooms where the various Guild families, or clans, lived. In the middle of the room were three ratty couches positioned in a triangle, facing each other, with a table in the middle.

Peter sat down on one of the couches and was about to ask Dani to join him when they were suddenly interrupted by C.J. Jackson, a younger thief with flaming red hair and dark blue eyes. C.J. was six months older than Dani and close friends with Peter's middle son, Jason. He was wearing the traditional Guild uniform and his face was uncharacteristically serious and worried. Something had happened, both Peter and Dani knew that just by looking at him as he rushed into the room.

"Peter! You gotta come quick...we were training...just going through some basic stuff, right? And Jason slipped or something...he fell...just come on...!"

Peter, his stomach suddenly feeling like it had dropped out of his body, followed the young man out of the room. Dani was right behind them in spite of being tired. Jason was Rory's boyfriend, and she instinctively knew her best friend would be in the underground gym with whoever was there. As she ran after Jason and C.J., Dani couldn't help but think that even when they weren't out on a job, life as a Guild thief was always exciting and dangerous.