Chapter Seventeen

Drakul arrives unexpectedly at Lara’s party, moving impossibly and exuding predatory calm. He greets Lara and Molly with formal courtesy, then focuses on Harry, hinting at a starborn kinship. Drakul hands Harry a card with his location and publicly waives Accords protections before two witnesses, inviting the White Council to meet or attack him at their convenience.

Harry presses him on motives; Drakul frames it as preventing messy proxy wars and keeping order. Their exchange turns tense as Harry postures and Drakul warns that Harry has never faced anything like him. Drakul then departs without a trace, leaving the room unsettled.

Carter LaChaise approaches, needling Harry. Harry insults and advances on the ghoul, but Molly interposes and chills the room, and LaChaise appeals to Lara’s hospitality. Lara, as hostess, reprimands Harry for endangering the peace and threatens to remove both offenders if necessary. She defuses the moment by assigning two White Court vampires to entertain LaChaise, sending him away uneasy.

Molly warns Harry not to jeopardize Winter’s alliance with Lara and goes to petition Etri, while Harry follows Lara into the garden. Lara acknowledges Harry’s trauma and the awkward alliance but demands he respect her house and her authority, promising consequences if he does not.

To prove the stakes and their perilous chemistry, Lara kisses Harry. The kiss floods Harry with overwhelming sensation, stoking the Winter mantle’s desire and leaving him incapacitated long after she departs to resume her duties. Later, Molly and Bear find him; he can only report that Lara threatened him and asks to go home.