That did more to intimidate the ghoul than anything I had done. LaChaise’s expression became uneasy.
“I do apologize for any misunderstandin’ that might have come to pass,” he murmured. He turned to Lara and put on a big, cheesy smile. “Perhaps we can attribute it all to the drink. I certainly intended no disrespect to my charmin’ hostess.”
“Of course,” Lara said, and her smile could have made one of those “gleam” sound effects from anime cartoons. She lifted her hand and snapped her fingers twice. It took less than three seconds for a pair of White Court vampires to appear.
One of them was Tania, whom I had encountered a few times before, a petite bundle of apparent fun whom I wouldn’t have touched with someone else’s ten-foot pole, wearing a nurse’s outfit that just barely didn’t show off anything. I didn’t know the other woman’s name, but she was tall and well-muscled and her lustrous dark hair was shaved short on the sides, and her ears were pierced through with enough silver to start a mint, wearing a bikini made of scale mail and carrying a plastic sword. They snuggled up on either side of LaChaise.
“Ladies, please show Lord LaChaise a good time,” Lara said. “Give him something to sink his teeth into.”
“Oh, I couldn’t possibly take up their time,” LaChaise said, beaming.
“Nonsense,” Lara said sweetly.
Tania wrapped the ghoul’s muscled arm all the way around her, and Goth Sonia took his other hand and started leading him away, walking in front of him with a lot of really fascinating English on her movements.
“Twit,” Lara breathed quietly. Then she turned to me. “I would like to speak to you alone, outside, please,” she said, and stalked out of the doors toward the garden.
I exhaled slowly. My body was still convinced I was about to tangle with a ghoul.
Molly turned to me, her face flushed, and said, “Harry. That was stupid. On a couple of levels.” She shook her head. “Winter’s alliance with Lara is necessary. Do not screw it up.” She looked across the ballroom, where Etri, his sister, and several other svartalves, in their disguises as mortals, were just arriving. “Meanwhile, I need to go ask Etri for favors. It’s probably best you aren’t with me for that in any case.”
My heart was racing. Hell’s bells, I hated ghouls.
But Molly was right. I was not behaving in a way that was conducive to survival in my current surroundings.
I gripped my staff and took another deep breath. “Yeah,” I said. “Yeah. I hear you.”
“Not that I’m not tempted to get LaChaise alone somewhere and leave his guts in a pile on the floor,” Molly snarled. She closed her eyes for a second, and when they opened again, they were cat pupiled and calm. “Go,” she said.
And I went.
Lara hadn’t stopped walking while I waited to follow her. I had to hurry to catch up as she headed down a path into the gardens, all trees and seemingly random plants and softly colored lights. I caught up to her, and we were out of immediate sight of the house.
Lara turned to me, her expression as distant as the stars.
I faced her.
“I get that you’re hurting,” she said quietly. “I get that you have a past with ghouls. I get that they nearly killed you last week.” She took a step closer to me. “I even get that you never asked for the arrangement Mab has established to seal our alliance. It’s awkward for both of us. I certainly never saw myself as a long-term partner with anyone.” She took another step closer and reached up to pull my head down so that she could whisper in my ear. “But if you ever disrespect the peace of my house, or me, ever again, so help me I will knock your teeth out one at a time.”
And then she tore off the big false beard and kissed me.
I’ve been really drunk before.
I’ve been tranquilized by a number of drugs.
I’ve been exposed to a couple of kinds of ecstasy of magical origin.
I’ve even been kissed by a young, weak White Court vampire once. And once by Lara herself.
This was different.
Everything went away.
Cold flowed through me, light and sensation turned to some liquid like honey, flowing out from the kiss and over the whole of my body. The world spun around and around and suddenly there was grass against my back, and every blade of it brought its own starburst of sensation. And Lara…Lara was pressed against me, body to body, and every inch of it was a pleasurable sensation like nothing I had ever known, or had words to describe, her lips moving with perfect sensuality against mine, as if she knew exactly the way I had always wanted to be kissed, the way I usually knew where down was.
The Winter mantle rose in pure, primal desire, going wild in my chest, and at the same time overwhelming languor made every movement its own slow-motion ecstasy.
“If I wanted it,” she said against my mouth, her voice shaking, “I could simplify everything and make you happy to be that way.”
