Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
Lara’s New Year’s party was being thrown in the first parts of Chicago to be restored—the Gold Coast. It had suffered, since Ethniu the Titan had apparently taken the opportunity to destroy several towers with the Eye of Balor, but the roads had been reopened specifically to begin the cleanup there first.
Collapsed buildings were a mess, especially the ones that had been built more than forty or fifty years ago.
The debris was full of toxic materials of one kind or another and cleaning them up was difficult and painstaking.
The roads were open, the lights were on, and if not for the missing spaces in the skyline where towers had once stood, one could have mistaken it for Chicago.
Or maybe the city was getting better. Maybe I was just being negative about it because I wasn’t healing as quickly.
Molly had arranged a deep blue limousine to take me and Bear to the party, which was being held at a hotel called the Drake.
When we got out of the limo, in the front of the building, I felt self-conscious in my tux.
I’d mostly only worn rentals before. This one had been tailored to me and felt strange.
I wore my duster over it. Its pockets were stuffed full of what I’d need for the evening.
“Quit fiddling with the cummerbund,” Bear muttered.
“It’s an extra belt,” I said, adjusting the deep blue cloth. “I don’t see the point.”
“Lets you fly matching colors, makes slightly overweight people look better,” she said.
I opened my mouth to reply as we headed for the front doors and then fell silent as I felt some kind of sensation crawl over the back of my neck, and I snapped my head up to look at the skies above. The lights mostly made me blind, as did the steady fall of moderate, fine snow.
Bear frowned at me. “What is it?”
“Every once in a while, the past few months,” I said, “I’ve felt something overhead.”
Bear squinted up at the night sky. She was wearing a silver party dress that clung to her form.
She looked good. Solid, confident, and proportionately curved, and her makeup had been applied with skill.
Her brown hair was bound back in a tight braid.
A rather large clutch purse she carried with her probably contained compact instruments of mayhem.
She sniffed the air and said, frowning, “I don’t feel anything. You sure?”
“I’m not sure of much lately,” I said. The feeling faded and I shrugged my shoulders to prevent a shiver rolling down my spine. “Okay. Ready?”
“Spent a lot of time in your lab today,” Bear noted. “How’d your meeting with Lara go last night?”
I paused and squinted up at her.
“Freydis told me Lara slipped out,” Bear said. “And when I checked your room, you weren’t there.”
“Goddammit, Bear,” I said, annoyed.
She smiled at me and lifted her eyebrows guilelessly. “I am your bodyguard, not your babysitter. Did I not show the appropriate discretion?”
I gave her a glare that bounced off of her without leaving a mark. Then I sighed. “It…went,” I said. “We talked. We’ll talk some more this evening.”
“Hmm,” she said, regarding me thoughtfully. She gave the skies one more glance. “That should be interesting,” she said, and we walked into the hotel.
—
This event was a different kind of party than Halloween had been, I noticed.
For one, it was at a public venue, and while it wasn’t as ritzy as Chateau Raith, it was maybe an eight on the fancy scale for Chicago.
The party itself was less formal and considerably smaller than Halloween had been.
The guests were mostly members of House Raith, all but one of them female, and I didn’t recognize the rather reedy-looking male member of the Court.
He must have been one of Lara’s cousins—she only had one brother.
The rest of the Raith in attendance were dark-haired, vibrantly attractive women in various flavors of formal attire.
I noted a few other visitors from other supernatural nations.
LaChaise wasn’t there. I didn’t see Drakul anywhere.
There were a pair of Summer Sidhe in attendance, identifiable by their green-shaded hair.
Both of them nodded gravely to me as I came in.
I recognized several others from Halloween, and there were a lot of faces I didn’t recognize at all.
They weren’t announcing guests as they arrived this time, either.
Freydis appeared, a slim woman a little taller than average, and approached us as we entered.
Her hair was shaven on the sides, bound back in a thick coppery red braid on top.
She wore a little black dress that showed off her fair skin and her slender, strong physique.
She walked up and braced Bear with a crooked grin.
“Brownhead,” she said.
“Freydis,” Bear said easily. “How is life with the White Court?”
Freydis rolled her eyes. “Distracting as hell,” she said, a faint note of complaint in her voice. “How is it over at wizard castle?”
“Mostly quiet. Can’t complain,” Bear replied. “You heard anything from Gard?”
“Her client doesn’t really come to parties. He’s loads of fun.”
Bear snorted.
“Dresden,” Freydis said. She raked her eyes up and down me leisurely. “You’re looking”—she gave me a slow smile—“lean. And hard.”
“Gosh,” I said. “Thanks.”
“Grumpy, though, eh?”
“Been a tough few months,” I said.
Her expression sobered and she nodded. “Done those,” she said. “You’ll get better, bit at a time. Lara’s had a last-minute meeting to take care of. There’s a side room, if you’d care to wait there for her rather than, you know.” She rolled her eyes at the room. “Here.”
Not being in a room full of potentially dangerous interactions? Or, worse, awkward conversations I didn’t want? “That would be fine,” I said.
Freydis showed me to a door that led to a smaller sitting room next to the grand ballroom. There were several comfortable-looking padded leather chairs and couches, though the room was dimly lit. Given that it was a White Court function, it was easy enough to guess why it was here.
Freydis shut the door behind us and said something to Bear in a language I didn’t know.
Bear frowned and replied in the same tongue. They exchanged a few phrases and Bear sighed. “Fine,” she said finally. “Dresden, can you mind yourself for a few minutes? I need to call my boss.”
“I thought I was your boss.”
“You’re my client. Vadderung is my boss.”
“You’re still here under guest-right,” Freydis assured me. “And I’ll be watching the door.”
“Sure,” I said, and settled down in a chair. “I’ll sit here quietly and not touch anything.”
Bear looked like she was going to say something, and then shook her head and strode out. Freydis went after her, gave me a quick nod, and shut the door behind them.
The moment I was alone, my thoughts turned dark. Memory started rolling. I rolled the game tape from the night of the battle, when Rudolph had shot Murphy. I’d long ago figured out where I’d made bad choices, but I went over it again. And again. And again.
I was in a deep, dark, brooding funk when the door opened briefly, and the music from the ballroom poured in for a moment.
I looked up, and Lord Raith was standing just inside the door.
I felt my whole body grow tense.
Lord Raith had, at one time, been quite dangerous.
My mother had dropped her death curse on him way back in the day, when I was born.
She’d rendered him unable to feed on mortal life energy, and he’d carried on ruling the White Court on pure chutzpah.
Maybe ten years back, Lara had figured out that he was actually powerless, and she’d…
taken steps to neutralize him. These days he ran the White Court in name only.
It was more or less an open secret that Lara was the real power in her Court.
He was still dangerous. Every instinct in my body screamed at me that he was.
Raith stepped into the room, pale grey eyes focused on me.
He looked a lot like Thomas, but taller and even more marble-statue beautiful.
His dark hair was cut short on the sides, longer on top, a style from a decade far removed from the present.
He wore an all-white tuxedo, complete with white gloves, and regarded me through half-lidded eyes.
“So,” he said quietly after a moment. “You’re going to marry my little girl.”
“Lara hasn’t been yours, or little, for a very long time,” I replied.
He spread open the fingers of one hand and rolled his wrist. “Ah. I suppose I have a unique perspective on the matter.”
“Uh-huh,” I said. “Sure you do.”
His eyes narrowed. “Still disrespectful, aren’t you?”
“I give respect where it’s due,” I said without emphasis.
He gave me a slow smile that bared his teeth a little too much. “I’m told you did the Accorded nations great good during the battle.”
“Did my part,” I said.
“Must have cost you something,” he said. “How is that little blonde you were with?”
Something hot and ugly flared in my chest. It must have shown on my face. His smile sharpened.
“Oh, Dresden,” Raith murmured in a patently false tone. “Please excuse me. I had no idea.”
I took a slow breath. I let myself feel the anger. I let it go through me. I did not set anyone on fire. No matter how good it sounded at the moment.
“Beginning to show signs of maturity,” he noted. He cast a glance over his shoulder toward the door. “Did Lara promise to be a nice vampire? Not do a thing to you? It’s one of her usual plays. She likes to pretend she’s other than what she is.”
“And what’s that?” I asked.
“A predator,” he said calmly.
“Ah,” I said. “Like you can’t be anymore, huh?”
His pale eyes flickered for a second. A muscle along his fine jawline tensed.
“Lara thinks she has her Hunger tamed,” he murmured.
“It isn’t. It can’t be. When it needs to be fed, she feeds it.
Sooner or later, you’ll be food. And I suspect when that happens, she might even be startled by it.
” He lazily lifted his arms overhead and stretched, a feline movement.
“Not that it will matter to you. You’ll be just one more buck she’s taken. ”
“Did you have a point you wanted to get to?” I asked. “Or did you just want to blather along until I throw up?”
“Dresden,” he purred. “You’re here under guest-right. Protected. Much like LaChaise and Drakul were at the Halloween party.”
“Didn’t see you there,” I said, narrowing my eyes.
“I’m sure you didn’t,” he agreed. “There are all kinds of things you don’t seem to notice. Like all children.”
That put my hackles up. There was a definite taunting tone in his voice.
He was needling me over something and enjoying it.
And I had a bad feeling that I should damned well know what it was.
But I didn’t. And in situations like that, I was beginning, slowly, to realize that the best way to appear to know more than I did was to be silent.
Raith beamed at me, taking it as a small victory. “I just wanted to have a quiet word with my son-in-law-to-be and give you my most sincere wishes for good luck. We’re to be family next year, after all. And what else is family for?”
Treachery, deceit, and worse, from what I’d seen of Raith’s interactions with his own family. But I suppose my own family’s interactions hadn’t always been the healthiest and most functional affairs, either. I was working on those.
I just needed time.
The door opened and Freydis came through quickly, her eyes wide, nostrils flared. She took in the situation, body held tense, holding one hand at her side with fingers stiff as if trying to make a sword of her limb.
“Good dog,” Raith said calmly, without looking at Freydis. “Though easily distracted, eh?” He smirked at her and glided from the room.
Freydis watched him go, her expression blank. She shuddered as he walked past her. She shut the door behind him and blew out a breath before she looked over at me. “Everything all right?”
“Polite conversation,” I said. “Or what passes for one with him.”
She shook her head. “Guy makes my skin crawl. Lara wants me to tell you she’s done with her meeting with Etri. You’ll need to make a few rounds of the party, make small talk. Then she’s got the executive suite for your personal meeting. Lucky bastard.”
I sat and stared at the closed door to the sitting room as if I could stare at Lord Raith’s departing back.
I might not have been operating at my best. But I’d have to be a hell of a lot more out of it than I was not to realize that something was wrong here. He’d come in to tell me something and it wasn’t “Good luck.” He’d mentioned a couple of my enemies. He’d taken pleasure in doing it.
And he’d picked a night when I needed my attention and focus on something else entirely. What I was about to attempt with Lara carried with it an inherently unknown amount of danger, and I didn’t need to be worrying about watching my back while I carried it out.
I took a deep breath. I didn’t think I was in any danger from Lord Raith at the moment. This was, after all, a party, and nothing mattered to the White Court as much as appearances. I could focus on his threats later.
I had more immediate ones now.
“Yeah, okay,” I said to Freydis. “Take me to Lara.”