she thought on a sigh and a smile. My business will have to wait.

She knew that, dressed in a tailored business suit, she was asking for trouble.

she thought with a cat-in-the-cream smile, that is the point.

Sauntering towards the alley, she swore she could just about taste the rancid fear roiling off of the intended prey and it excited her.

As she reached it, she saw that there were four others beside the Prelate there and one of them was trying to run away.

Having cloaked herself in shadows a little bit when reaching the mouth of the alley, Aniella uncloaked herself right beside the man.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Monsieur," she said in a thick Cadienne accent, smiling sweetly, even as she held him lightly by the arm.

Kaeden knew she was there, but he had wanted to finish draining the one he had before acknowledging her.

"Madame," he said. "He is yours if you want him."

"Merci, Prelate," she answered, looking the man over.

"He don't look like much, but he'll do."

When all four men were drained and left for whoever wound up finding them, Aniella simply waited, even though it usually wasn't her style.

Kaeden, having fought longer and harder than others within the sect due to his blindness, let her wait on his judgment.

"Madame D'Agostin," he said laconically. "I do not believe that this is your usual milieu."

"No, 'tis not," she answered indifferently. "I usually prefer other surroundings, but I had some....business.....down here tonight. I have a proposition for you, Prelate. Say the Caf

Kaeden nodded, leaving the alley with a cold draft in his wake.

Aniella left the alley right behind him, stopping long enough to place an anonymous call to NOPD about the bodies.

Then she made her way to her original destination.

"Mama Dora? Are you home?" Aniella asked, knowing full well that the woman was not only home, but had known she would be coming tonight.

"Come in, child, come in," came the rusty voice from the other side.

Aniella smiled, seeing the woman who had been an unofficial New Orleans institution for all of the woman’s adult life.

"Come to see an old woman when you should be in your own home, plotting?" Mama Dora said, not unkindly.

"Maybe I just wanted to see you," Aniella answered, the smile turning into a full fledged grin when Dora burst out laughing.

"You saw him tonight, didn’t you child?" the blind, old woman asked.

"Yes, briefly," Aniella answered. "We’re meeting at du Monde after we talk."

Allowing herself to relax in one of the few human abodes where what she was was known, Aniella sat at Dora’s feet and leaned her head gently on the old woman’s knees.

"Will the plan work, Mama Dora," asked an unusually uncertain Aniella.

Unerringly putting a gnarled hand on red tresses and stroking them, Dora said, "Yes, child, the plan will work. But there will be a lot of bloodshed, as you well know."

Leaning her head down, Dora asked, "Will it be worth it in the end, do you think? It won’t change the past, and those that hurt you have long since turned to dust."

"No, it won’t change the past, but yes, it will be worth it," Aniella said. Looking up at the one woman she had let close enough to her in over two hundred years, Aniella continued with, "It will allow for a greater freedom of movement for what I’d really like to do."

Smiling mischievously, she said, "And the general will keep watch over me."

"Yes, you may be right there," Dora said. "Go then, do what you have to do."

Leaving Dora’s, Aniella didn’t look back, knowing full well that this could very well be the last time she saw the woman who was closer to her in some ways than her own mother had been when she was living. But they had some rules betwixt themselves, and one of them was that there were never any goodbyes.

In the end, she arrived at Caf

As, for once, there wasn’t too much of a crowd when they were there, Aniella and Kaeden left off talking until the waiter had taken their order for coffee and beignets.

"Well," Kaeden said, not wasting any time. "What is this proposition that you have, Madame D'Agostin?"

Although she knew he couldn't see her, Aniella smiled.

"What I have in mind, Monsieur Prelate, is a clan war amongst the Brethren, and I would like to put D'Agostin money at your disposal."

"Is that all?" he asked sardonically. "Which of the Brethren clan do you suggest we war against?"

Before she could answer, the waiter came with their orders.

"Merci," she said to him and shooed him on his way. "The beignets here are like nowhere else, do you not think so, Monsieur?"

Dusting off a little powdered sugar, Aniella said, "In answer to your question, Prelate, our own Keepers and the Artisans."

Kaeden raised an eyebrow in question.

"There is a need of a housecleaning within that clan," she explained.

"Also, while subtlety isn't really necessary, it might be necessary in some of the cases."

Looking at Kaeden with burning eyes, she said, "I have the money, you're the only one who can call our Wolven out, as well as give them authority to hire who they need in order for this to be done right."

"Who do you want to meet the sunlight specifically, Madame?"

Knowing that this could either make or break the deal, Aniella drew in a breath to steel herself.

"Archprelate Varianus. He's led not only the Artisans in a direction which has brought us nearer Exposure to humans, but he's been trying to lead all the clans into closer Exposure.

"I don't want that. I prefer working in the shadows and letting my ghosts be, how shall we say? available? for a meeting with either the law or one of the other clans. They can always be replaced. I can't and I don't want to be."

Kaeden sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, thinking.

he thought.

"All right, Madame D'Agostin," he said after a few minutes. "You have yourself a deal. On the condition that you will become my right hand when I take over the Archprelate's position."

Aniella, for all of her planning, was startled by the news.

she thought.

"All right," she said. "Let the bloodshed begin."

----------------------

In the end, it took three months to work their way through the Artisans.

They lost about twenty of their own to the sun, though none of the Wolven. The Artisans, however, were left depleted.

The Wolven knew how to do their job - finding, binding, and leaving the bodies in public places as near the dawn as they could.