Favor

Noun: an act of kindness beyond what is due or usual.

Author's Notes: Well here's another chapter of Favor. I've made some progress on BtOG (finally. I've been stuck in this one scene for literally years. Good to be past it), but the chapter still has a ways to go (three major scenes left). Not much to add up here, besides surrendering to Xavon Wrentaile who lore checked me in the reviews. They totally called me on the Pepsi/Coke BK issue. The funny part was I actually researched to make sure that I was right. Turns out I didn't research enough.

On a side note, Xavon is also the writer responsible for Beyond the Outer Gates lies... a highschool library. A great extension of BtOG, fleshed out with both cannon and original material. A strong recomendation for anyone who enjoyed BtOG originally.

Now, onto the chapter where we get to see Harry and Lara... Reverse Hikaru Genji? Wha...?

Time: Post Restoration of Faith, still pre-series

"Hello," Lara looked up as she was greeted with a dry voice. "I'm looking for a friend. Since I couldn't find her, I thought I'd ask Audrey Hepburn if she'd seen her."

"Isn't this Tiffany's?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as she lowered her sunglasses with a smile.

"Breakfast was a good couple of hours ago," Harry pointed out, pulling a chair as he sat down across from her. He gave her a once over, which Lara allowed with a patient sigh. "So. More fans?"

"Unfortunately," she confirmed, pushing her glasses back up. Lara felt that she had to give her good Ser Knight points for the comparison. With her eyes covered by wide Manhattan style sunglasses and her hair covered by a scarf, she did feel a bit like she stepped out of the old film.

Just because she was incognito though, didn't mean she had to be unnoticeable. Her silk blouse had a modest but noticeable décolleté, and her skirt was at just the point where it could be called professional, albeit questionably.

Under the cover of her glasses, she noticed Harry noticing, and was pleased with her choice.

He pretended as though his eyes hadn't flickered, and she allowed the pretense. It was one of the aspects of their friendship that she did so enjoy, after all.

"I swear, we have to find a new café every month," Harry sighed.

"I've heard of a new one that has been popping up recently. I believe it's some chain originating from the west coast," Laura mused, closing her book as Harry proceeded to dump far too much sugar into his beverage.

"You? At a chain? Must be something trendy then," he took a sip, and sighed as his sweet tooth was apparently satisfied.

"I believe they're called 'Starbucks'," she volunteered. "Still, they might have a decent selection, but we'll have to see if they can successfully franchise."

"I still don't see why we can't settle on smaller, mom and pop type places," he grumbled, and Lara raised an eyebrow.

"The sort of place that reeks of pretention and bases its business model on attracting only customers who feel that popularity automatically means a lack of integrity?"

Harry paused, and gave her a blank look. "Wait. Are you looking down on pretention?"

He looked her up and down deliberately this time, and then raised an eyebrow. Lara surrendered the point.

"Not my kind of pretention," she acknowledged. She was rich, privileged, and dressed like it.

"Well, at least you own it," he acknowledged right back.

They shared a smile, sipping their beverages in unison.

It had been three years since the two of them had first shared a table at a Burger King and got shot at, and Lara had to admit, she had enjoyed how those three years had developed.

Originally, she had offered to have coffee the next week as a method to simply ensure she could continue to meet up with her Knight as she contemplated a pursuit of him. To her surprise, she found herself also simply enjoying the meetings almost as much as the pursuit. And pursuing him she was, at this point. Lara was in full hunt mode.

It was interesting, just how wily her prey was, she mused. It seemed besides having mastered 'saying less is more', good Ser Knight was also somehow an unconscious master of 'playing hard to get'. The manners he had displayed when he first held the door open for her appeared to extend to other categories as well: pulling chairs (which was so quaintly old fashioned that she found it endearing), treating women with respect (much better than being objectified, though that could be fun to. The object she was usually cast as was 'goddess' after all), and not making presumptuous assumptions that all her actions were actually invitations (a bit more frustrating, but while some of her actions certainly were it was nice when the ones that weren't were treated as such).

To complicate the matter, there was that pesky protection of his as well. Despite it having been nearly three years, there was no sign of it going away anytime soon. It was enough to make her shake her head at her friend's lack of love life. It was just her luck that when she finally found suitable prey, they had the ill fortune of apparently being a celibate.

That wasn't to say that Lara didn't have options, or that she was being stopped. She was a creature of seductive power, after all, born to temptation and studied in her own nature. If she was serious, she was quite certain she could have good Ser Knight truly on his knees before her (where she would have such interesting tasks for him to carry out).

However, Lara had discovered something unusual about herself: she was having fun.

With Harry, there were no expectations, no agendas; both for herself, and for him. He was not a target of the court that she had to beguile on orders. Nor was he in anyway attempting to exploit her position for some overreaching nefarious goal. To Harry, she was just a friend that had been made under unexpected circumstances, with an unusual background and job. To Lara, Harry was an acquaintance she wished to become more, but not more than more.

And so, Lara bided. Like a lioness, stalking the savannahs, approaching her prey slowly, with all her guile, knowing if she moved to fast that her target would sense her intent and flee, forcing her to escalate and use all her power to bring him to heel…

"Lara," she blinked, Harry's fingers in front of her face as he snapped. "You with us? You looked like you were somewhere else for a second."

"Oh, pardon me," she demurred. Her previous train of thought had made her a bit Hungry as she pursued it. "I was just considering how best to seduce you, is all."

"Hell's bells," Harry coughed, her rejoinder catching him as he took a sip of coffee and he sputtered, blushing again as Lara smiled winsomely. "Pure evil. You have way too much fun doing that," he muttered, grabbing some napkins to clean up his mess. "Could you lay off the coquette debutante act? One of these days I'm gonna end up taking it seriously."

"And wouldn't that be a shame?" she kept smiling.

Alright, maybe Harry was just a little dim. Still, she could work with that.

*Scene Break*

"You were right, by the way," Harry grumbled, taking a bite out of a Danish as he did so.

"I usually am," Lara demurred, "though perhaps a little more detail about this particular instance?"

"The Astor case," he elaborated, and Lara nodded briefly as she recalled their last meeting's conversation. "It went from shady to ass over teakettles in about zero to three seconds flat."

"As I recall, you were the one to originally voice concern over the case," she pointed out. "I merely provided some perspective on how it could warrant that concern." He shrugged, nodding at her point. "Still, I have to ask, what was it that originally set you off to them?"

"They didn't haggle," he began. "They were just too willing to take Nick's terms. No one with that much money gets there without being tight about how they spend it."

Lara hummed briefly, nodding at his point, before playing the devil's advocate. "Perhaps they were simply too distraught? Their concern over their daughter's disappearance might have pushed them to be more amendable?"

"No, it didn't fit their behavior," Harry countered. "During the interview, they were calm, polite, very professional. Fake smiles all around. If they really were overcome with parental concern, they might have taken the terms like that, but they looked like they were treating it just like a business meeting."

It was actually a rather typical conversation between the two. Lara had been meeting with Harry long enough for the two to have covered most of their past through conversation so now they tended to focus on the present. She knew that he was an orphan, that he had been adopted by an abusive man who he had been forced to defend himself against, and that the defense had caused him to run afoul of the law. After that he had been shunted into the foster system, but apparently defied the odds and found himself a decent old farmer who had done his best to raise him.

Harry in turn knew that her family came from old money, and that she had multiple siblings from different mothers. He knew that her father had pushed hard for his children to enter the family business, which was entertainment of a somewhat dubious nature. He also knew just how annoyed she sometimes found herself that she was apparently the only sibling who took the role seriously, and how often she had to clean up her family's messes.

She may have left out some minor details, such as the family being centuries old and composed of soul sucking monsters, but she felt that maybe too much information too early might complicate her overarching plans.

However, the best plans were the ones with multiple preparations occurring.

Hence, the conversations about their work. For one, she found it quite relaxing to be able to vent to someone every once in while without having to worry about it being leaked for politicking. She was also sure Harry enjoyed the chance to blow off steam as well. And more importantly, it allowed her to begin preparing him.

The White Court favored intrigue and manipulation. To dwell in it required the ability to perceive plots, and to circumvent them. In the end, to use another's machination against them and for your own goal was the ultimate expression of White Court power.

And so, whenever Harry talked about his work, she would make sure to interject some… perspective into it. Some advice here about how to spot a suspicious patron, a word there about how to set up an investigation to provide additional benefits; little things to help Harry now in a dangerous job, and maybe later, if court politics ever caught up with them.

Lara had managed to keep these liaisons secret for the last three years, but she was a realist. There was little chance of keeping her game from everyone forever. Sooner or later, someone or something would discover her indulgence, and then, well, depending on what it was Harry might need some tools to keep himself safe until she could take her own action.

Finite, ruthless actions.

Lara did not abide poachers. And she still owed her Knight a favor, after all.

"So what shape was their inevitable yet supposedly unexpected betrayal?" Lara asked, prompting the conversation. "And how did you deal with it?"

"After we reported having located their daughter and confirmed we were with her, they called the cops and reported Faith's disappearance as a kidnapping," he scowled. "Bastards were so obsessed with the negative publicity having a runaway would cause that they would rather have a kidnapping."

"It is more avant-garde," Lara pointed out. "Much more interesting in the social circles. They would have been the talk of their next social gathering."

"It's nice to know my framing and incarceration would have been enough to spice up their country club soiree," he grumbled. "However, when I played back the recording of their agreeing to our contract, they changed their tune fast enough."

"Why, Harry Dresden," Lara started to smile slowly. "Isn't it illegal for to make a recording of a conversation during an investigation without permission of the other party? To think, the Astors would make the mistake of allowing such easy evidence to exist…"

"Yeah, they didn't know," Harry admitted with a sigh. He even had the grace to look a little sheepish. "Nick nearly blew a gasket when I told him I did. But then I pointed out that filing a false police report was also illegal, and if we were to go to the Astors with the recording, than we could use it to get them to pull the cops of us, and no one would ever have to know…"

"Of course, no one needs to know about either malfeasance," Lara agreed, sipping her coffee. "Still, it was a risk. If you presented that to police, and the Astors had decided to pursue it anyway, they would have the legal resources to potentially defend."

"Well, I might have not threatened to go to the cops with it," Harry leaned forward, a small conspiratorial grin growing as he did so. "I might have threatened to go first to their club's board, then the press…"

Lara threw back her head and laughed.

"Oh, yes, that would do it," she acknowledged, raising her cup in salute, which Harry matched. "If their greatest fear was the smear of their daughter's runaway being made known in their circles, than making precisely that known would be the best way to curtail their scheme."

"They thought so to," Harry nodded, before sighing. "Though Nick tore me a new one after that. I don't think I'm going to be heading back to Ragged Angel for a few days. Maybe give him some time to cool down."

"Oh?" Lara leaned forward, smiling wickedly as she caught his eyes slipping down for a moment before he regained his control. "If you have a few days off, I have some work to take care of down at the club. Perhaps you'd like to come along again?"

"Er," Harry began to sweat slightly, the blush she enjoyed provoking returning slightly. "Sorry, but, er, that kind of place is a little…"

Just once, Lara had managed to trick Harry into coming to Zero with her. She had been moaning about being the only one responsible enough to oversee the books, and he had expressed curiosity at what kind of club her family owned. Lara had naturally invited him to take a look.

She might have neglected to mention just what kind of club Zero really was when she did so.

She gave him points, he didn't bolt when they arrived and she took off her coat to reveal some of her more elegant under apparel as they were let in (the scene did have a dress code, after all). He even managed to stick around long enough for her to actually finish her work, even though she had specifically dragged it out to make sure he had maximum exposure to Zero's special bondage event that was going on (she always felt the best chains were in the mind, but sometimes the ones being worn could be quite enticing). He even shared a drink with her afterwards (though she was disappointed that apparently their bar didn't have his favorite microbrewery. She resolved to look up who this 'Mac' fellow was and see if he had the capacity to provide for larger orders). But when the orgy really started to break out, he had made an excuse and bravely turned tail and fled.

A shame really. She had invited him partly to get a read on how he responded to these kinds of scenarios to determine his interests. It had given her a good baseline for his current debauchery tolerance. The other part of her reason was she had been hoping he would partake in the scene, and rid himself of that protection through a casual liaison. Doing so would have opened him to some of her more direct methods of hunting.

She should have known better. If Harry was the type to indulge he wouldn't have had such an old protection in the first place. Still, she did so enjoy teasing blushes out of her Knight.

"Probably for the best," she relented, leaning back and enjoying her coffee. "Work has been… Trying lately."

"Ouch," Harry winced, giving her a sympathetic look that she appreciated. "Madeline?"

"Madeline," she confirmed, sighing briefly. "How I long for the day when I can choke that self-indulgent bitch."

Harry had the grace to look nervous at her declaration. He probably thought she was being metaphorical. She wasn't.

"What did she do this time?" Harry asked, taking on his turn to play the sympathetic ear.

"What she always does," Lara grumbled.

"Needlessly complicate things, or just fuck them up beyond repair?"

Harry had a point with that question. Madeline always screwed up, but she did have different flavors of screw up.

"The club's rental contract is coming due, and I'm afraid she made a mess of the negotiations," Lara clarified.

"And thus, your majesty was called in to fix things up," Harry concluded for her. "Again."

Strangely enough, the oversimplification was still accurate. A club like Zero tended to prefer to remain under the radar as much as it could. It was fairly common for them to have to move it once it became a little too established. And places where they could stage such raw decadence tended to be places that favored less legal circumstances themselves.

At least organized crime had become more, well, organized over the last few years, Lara mused. That new comer, Marcone something or other, at least ran his business like an actual business. After Madeline had enthralled and then killed the contact they had been negotiating with and called attention to their operation the newcomer to the mob scene had come to negotiate with some protection. Lara had initially been concerned about having to find new places to hide bodies if they began making demands, but instead the negotiations had just slapped a reasonable penalty fee onto the initial down payment, and then a negotiation about how large an additional surcharge would be added to the rent.

Hypothetically, the surcharge was due to the fact that they were renting to an entertainment business and thus hypothetically had to pay a higher tax rate than other industries. In reality, it was simply a trumped up 'protection charge', albeit one which could be utilized as an additional tax write off on their end. Still, the price had been reasonable, and the framing had allowed a benefit to their own club as a valid expense as well, so Lara had negotiated in good faith and a reasonable deal had been established.

Marcone had made an offer of a reduction in their rent if they agreed to some laundering through their establishment, but Lara had declined, wanting to keep the business as legitimate as possible (for all the drug use, sex parties, and other borderline issues). Lara had actually been mildly impressed when the mob had simply accepted their declination and stuck to the negotiated deal.

An intriguing fellow, this Marcone. Lara had already filed a report in the contested interest files, noting him as a possible future contact or target of opportunity.

"Sounds tough," Harry offered. It was in the tone of voice that indicated he had no idea what precisely had gone down, but understood it was rough and was trying to be supportive. Lara tilted her head in acceptance. "How's your main job going?"

"It's…tolerable," Lara gave, not quite hesitating, but perhaps a bit slower than she might normally answer an innocuous question like that.

Harry caught that pause. He really had come to understand her tells, perhaps a bit better than she had anticipated.

"Your boss is making his life a hell, isn't he," Harry sighed, settling back in his chair. Lara sighed in response.

"Yes, he most certainly is."

Lara liked Arturo, she did. He was talented, passionate, and skilled at his profession. But the man needed to keep his dick in his pants a bit more for the industry. This Tricia Scrump, well… Lara had been around enough people in her time, and in that time she had developed a number of ways to describe a number of different people bearing a number of different traits reliably with a number of single words.

However, the only way Lara could describe Tricia was 'Trash'. A shame, but Arturo seemed to have not noticed that yet.

"I thought you were going to try and hook him up with one of your sisters?" Harry asked, recalling her previous plan to keep Arturo from ruining his life. "Which one, Elisa, was it?"

"Yes. From his last wife I had thought Arturo might prefer a more aggressive woman in his life. Alas, it seems his tastes have changed again," Lara bemoaned. Lucille had been a bit Amazonian, so Lara had thought that Elisa might have been suitable for him. Really, with her sister taking Arturo under her wing she would also be able to curb some of the more independent streaks that Arturo had been displaying lately. And really, it was about time someone else in the family had started to help keep the business going.

Alas, despite having made introductions as soon as she was able, it seemed they were too late. Elisa had been able to confirm that he had already acquired protection. AGAIN. That man, this was his third wife and the third time he managed to achieve love? Was it because he was European? It had been a decade or two since she had been in Europe proper, but while she remembered them being more passionate and open about their sexuality, she definitely didn't recall them being true to their hearts.

"Well, the heart wants what it wants," Harry provided, somewhat unhelpfully she thought.

"Or else it does not care?" she finished the quote, and he blinked.

"I was going with 'there's no logic to these things', myself," he admitted.

"The set is going to become impossible," she vented, setting aside the very different directions their quotes had gone. "That vapid bitch is already starting to take advantage of Arturo's favor. If she shows up late and high again, I swear, I'm going to push her down some stairs."

"That's not like you," Harry pointed out. "Wouldn't it be better to bribe one of the stage hands to loosen a stiletto heel and suggest they move her office to a higher floor, near some stairs?"

"Hmmm," Lara hummed, honestly considering the somewhat unexpected suggestion, but appreciating the far more devious scheme almost on reflex. "No," she finally sighed. "Not enough layers to truly allow for plausible deniability, and no guarantee that fall wouldn't be adequately damaging."

"Er, I was making a joke," Harry deadpanned. "Women are scary."

"Heaven has no rage," she gave him a winsome smile again, and he chuckled in return. She sighed again, continuing. "Still. Maybe it's time to start considering retirement?"

"Whoa," Harry paused, blinking as he gave her a startled look. "Where did that come from? You've never been shy about your job, and you're still freaking gorgeous. Retiring already?"

"Why thank you, Ser Knight," she smiled at him, genuinely appreciating the compliment. He waved it off, not even bothering to get embarrassed at his words.

"Anyone who can't see that you're hot is either blind, dead, or gay," he stated matter-of-factly.

True, but she appreciated it being said every once in a while, so she was still pleased with his compliment.

"I've had a rather long career as it is," she moved on, running through her reasons out loud. "I'm already at the time when most stars retire." Usually to be replaced by a younger upgrade. Lara herself never had to worry about that, seeing as she was immortal and not going to be aging any time soon. However, if she stayed for too much longer she might gather attention BECAUSE she wasn't starting to show signs. "And work for the family just seems to be coming up more and more often. It's a bother to have to be out so late cleaning up messes just to have to go to the studio in the morning. It might be a better use of my time to just take care of things before they become messes in the first place, and leave the studio behind."

Now if she could just get her father to see that. It was always better to be seen doing her best, rather than force him to compel it from her…

"Is this one of those industry things then?" he ventured, taking in her reason. "Like how athletes have a short career time, before retiring and cashing in on their fame to focus on their product line?"

"Well, I doubt I would be successful with a product line…" Lara laughed slightly at the image.

"I don't know. Air Jordons are a thing, so maybe if you just came out with a good stiletto…" he offered, and she had to stop herself from snorting at the ridiculous idea.

"I think I might need to hire you on for my marketing, if that's the case," she countered. "Feel like giving up the glamorous life of the private investigator and maybe coming under me, perhaps?" she leaned backwards, being careful to fully but subtly display herself as she recrossed her legs.

Harry blinked, and then fully unpacked the innuendo. He sighed, sinking his head into his hands as she got another blush from him.

"Down, pheromone lass," he muttered to her, and she grinned.

"Is that what you named it?" she asked now leaning forward and giving him an exaggerated look. "Most men prefer something a little more masculine. Though if you do need help getting it down…"

"Oh, for Pete's sake," he snapped at her, unconsciously crossing his legs to hide himself from her view. "Is everything an innuendo to you?"

She smiled, knowing that she could probably push the joke maybe three more times if she was serious about it, but not seeing the need.

"Still, if we're talking about careers, I need to be thinking about mine too," he somewhat forcefully moved the conversation back from the mire Lara had dragged it into, and she raised an eyebrow, cocking her head in curiosity before she took a breath and recalled.

"Ah, you're apprenticeship is about up, isn't it?" she asked recalling the time frame before professional licensing could be completed. Harry nodded, and she continued. "So, thinking about whether to remain with your current employment, or perhaps thinking of going out on your own?"

It had been three years since she had first been exposed to the private investigator industry from the man before her. In that time she had come to learn a little about how the industry worked. On one hand, staying with an established agency would mean reduced income, but greater job security. On the other hand, going independent was risky, but with greater risk were greater rewards.

"Actually," Harry began, rubbing the back of his head slightly and looking away sheepishly. "I was thinking about going a slightly different route. How does being Chicago's first registered wizard sound?"

It was because Harry was looking away, probably in embarrassment about making such an outrageous claim to someone he probably considered a perfectly ordinary friend of his, that he missed Lara going completely still.

'Surely, he can't mean what I think he means…'

*Scene Break*

He did.

Lara had a hopeless moment where she tried to understand just HOW she had missed something so important. Her good Ser Knight, besides being handy in a tight situation and a newly trained private investigator was an honest to god's wizard of the White Council!

Immediately after finishing her coffee with Harry, she had come back to the Raith manor in the outskirts of Chicago and raided the house's files. The Raith family, by her instigation, had gathered a variety of profiles of various people of interest. When she had put the proposal to her father, ten years ago, he had smiled condescendingly and let her initiate what he called a 'pointless hobby'.

She had tried for years to point out just how much potential recent trends in technology provided, and how beneficial it was to start gathering that information and using it to help predict how individuals would react, but he simply didn't believe it necessary, and simply called it her passion project.

It was disheartening to be dismissed, but would be far more dangerous if she DIDN'T pursue it so at the point in the future when he realized it's importance she wouldn't be punished for not having accomplished it already.

But it was still frustrating to have to handle so much alone. Really, what would it take for some of her initiatives to really take root? It was reaching the point where the next time her father asked her what she wanted for a birthday she was going to tell him an FBI profiler. As it was, for all that she had instigated and set up the various files to be easy to use and useful, sometimes she thought she was the only one who actually bothered to use them at all.

Anyway, while her collection was small she had managed to piece together most of the really important powerful and political individuals, the White Council included.

It was while she was lamenting this apparent failure of intelligence that she found the file on Harry Dresden and realized why she hadn't recognized him.

Frankly, it was because he wasn't important enough to be recognized.

Potentially powerful, on rough sorts with the Council after a brush with black magic during his apprenticeship, but other than that, there just wasn't anything special or interesting about Harry Dresden. He was too young to have any real accomplishments to his name, barely fresh out of his apprenticeship.

Due to the limits of her resources, Lara had focused most of her intelligence gathering around figures that might be a threat or an issue to her. The leaders of the White Council were among her collection, as well as a few of the most notable Wardens. While she tried to at least have a file on as many of the Council as she could, the truth was that most of them just weren't important enough to warrant a second look at.

Wizards were, well, rather boring. The average member of the White Council would set themselves up somewhere, and then just settle down and focus on keeping to themselves. They spent their time experimenting or studying whichever field caught their eyes, tended to work rather specialized jobs in their fields, and would periodically relocate when their age became an issue just to do it again. Having a wizard in the neighborhood hardly ever mattered as long as you left them alone.

What was the saying? Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger? Well, the reverse was also true: so long as you didn't meddle, they didn't get angry. Most of the rules of that tired old club were about how NOT to get involved.

The only wizards really worth watching out for were the Wardens, and with Harry's brush with black magic, his involvement in them was extremely unlikely.

'Which', Lara thought to herself, 'makes for a rather interesting situation, doesn't it?'

Biting her lip and tapping the folder against her thigh, Lara considered. After all, did this really change anything?

Lara had begun her pursuit of Harry, not because he was important to anyone, but rather simply because she had wanted to. His protection meant she couldn't use the talents of the White Court on him, but that had never been the goal in the first place. Hadn't she simply wanted him, not as a pawn or as food, but as a lover? Wasn't that why she hadn't resorted to more drastic methods to remove his protection and take him as her own? So that she could truly enjoy him when she finally caught him?

In fact, the biggest issue of her pursuit was just what would happen if her family ever discovered her hobby. Her sisters would no doubt take it as a challenge of one-upwomanship, her brother would probably have just rolled his eyes and wished her happy hunting, but her father…

Lara shivered. Her father had made it clear what he thought of attachments to the kine beyond that of predator and prey. It was a hard lesson to learn, and one of the reasons she had taken effort not to let anyone know.

Now though?

A young wizard, powerful but still coming into it and less of a threat than he would be in a few decades. Already on the edge of ostracism from the rest of the White Council. Well, if Lara just so happened to have identified a potential future asset, that made things different, didn't it? Wouldn't this just be Lara doing her best for the family, attempting to secure a potentially powerful future asset? If someone from the family tried to interfere, well, it would only be natural that she would have to stop them, both to keep them from screwing it up but also because that was how family dealt with each other when power plays happened, wasn't it?

And when she finally had her Ser Knight, well, it would be important to keep him then, wouldn't it? As an asset to the family? So ensuring he had the competence to avoid entrancement, the skill to brave the White Court's politics, and not allowing him to be addled through feedings would be for the best, wouldn't it?

Yes, Lara decided to herself, her smile growing. That was just good business.

When she left the filing room, it was after having attached a note to Harry Dresden's file, indicating herself as an operative of a long term subversion mission.

Best to stake her claim now.

Lara HATED poachers.

Lore Check:

So at this point, Marcone is still not the Baron of Chicago, and is in the process of taking over from the Vargassi. Lara encountering him before hand helps contribute to Marcone coming to realize about the supernatural (his man died, however since it was a White Court vampire there was no obvious wounds. Hence, he couldn't take terrible vengeance on the one responsible, but the seed of doubt begins to grow...)

It's hard to get an exact timeline on when Arturo had and then lost his wives. At this point, we see him beginning his relationship with dear Tixie Vixen (currently Tricia Scrump. I figure they spend a few years happily married, and a few years unhapply married, and few years getting over it before he shows up again.

Lara's interpretation of the White Council is something I extrapolated. In the scenes where Harry deals with the White Council, there are often a lot of wizards, however, there's no reason to think that those wizards are decent combatants. In one instance, Harry describes a fellow wizard with so many marks of mastery that it covered the entire sleeve of their robe. Lara's interpretation of how to deal with wizards is what I've come to believe is the standard modus operandi for a normal wizard.

Also, is anyone else convinced that Lara is sort of a Weeabo? I mean, she mentioned about a century in Japan, has her own dojo (with tatami mats and everything), religiously practices with a Naginato, and wears kimono's whenever it's a formal dress event. Not to mention when she was attacked by a giant squid, SHE was the first one to go to a hentai place...

So yeah, her pulling a reverse Hikaru Genji (raising a younger man into her ideal so she can claim him later) is right in her modus operandi. Consequentially, Harry gets a more bigger grounding in sneakery, backstabery, and treachery.

Wonder how THAT's going to change things...

(Also, word of author, because I think it's funny. Lara's most favorite hentai: gyaru (she finds the fashion amusing, and feels the passion is less contrived). Lara's least favorite hentai: NTR (Lara. HATES. Poachers)