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.”
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
Bear and Freydis kept a discreet distance from Lara and me as we made a few rounds of the ballroom. Lara talked to pretty much everyone. I nodded and gave brief smiles when introduced and otherwise said little. More and more people arrived as the evening got later, the rich and swanky mostly. There were some famous faces there, apparently, but I didn’t really recognize them. I did recognize a couple of aldermen, the superintendent of police, and several attorneys from the DA’s office, and got introduced to the mayor’s senior assistant. None of them really took any notice of me, what with Lara right there, and several other members of the White Court drifting through the room.
The gathering was noticeably more sedate than Halloween had been, by which I meant I didn’t see any of the White Court drawing off victims to be fed upon.
It was boring as hell.
Lara wore a deep blue dress matching my cummerbund. It plunged in the back, was slit up high on one side, and looked fabulous, even for her. The Winter mantle wanted me to find out if her skin was as soft and smooth as it looked. I squired her about with her hand on my arm, a cool, light pressure.
We escaped the room around eleven and took an elevator to the top floor. Freydis produced a key card from her dress and opened the door before I’d gotten close enough to screw up the card reader. The two Valkyries took up position on either side of the door to the executivesuite after Bear handed me my duster, with the necessary implements in the pockets, and Lara and I went inside.
“Are you sure that’s all he said?” Lara was asking me. I’d given her a précis of my conversation with Lord Raith while we rode up in the elevator.
I checked over the conversation in my head. “Yeah, pretty much. Some smug insults, some excuses over them, veiled threats.”
She frowned as I shut the door behind us. “That’s…He hasn’t acted like that in a while.”
“Like a jerk?” I asked.
“Like he thinks he has teeth,” she replied. “Perhaps I should have a chat.”
The executive suite was large and tasteful. I felt oddly uncomfortable in the room and after a moment realized it was because of the electric lights. I’d gotten used to lanterns and candles, to longer shadows and dimmer rooms.
Probably said more about me than about the hotel.
“Sounded like standard egotistical villain bluster to me,” I said. “Not like I’m gonna believe the guy was giving me a warning out of the goodness of his heart.”
