Thomas Raith

Thomas Raith is a vampire of the White Court, and member of House Raith.

Thomas is the narrator of the novelette Backup: A Story of the Dresden Files.

Biography
Thomas Raith is the son of White Court vampire Lord Raith and human wizard Margaret Gwendolyn LeFay. His mother left when he was about five ; she had another son, Thomas' half-brother Harry Dresden. Thomas has several half-siblings on his father's side: his oldest sister Lara Raith, and his youngest sister Inari Raith.

He has grey or blue-grey eyes, although they change color sometimes because of his vampire status. White Court Vampires retain a natural color while they are not Hungry, and lighten to grey, silver, chrome and white consecutively as the Hunger demon gains more influence.

During the events of Grave Peril, Thomas met Harry Dresden for the first time, in the Velvet Room, during which he stayed with Harry and the then-present Michael Carpenter, Knight of the Cross, in order to stay alive.

Thomas told Harry that he was Harry's brother during Blood Rites. He involved himself in supernatural politics more and more from then on.

He owned and worked at a small boutique-and-coffee shop, the Coiffure Cup.

Thomas owns the Water Beetle, presumably named as a nod to the Blue Beetle, a slightly run down tug boat which is introduced in White Night. The Water Beetle is also mentioned in Small Favor and Turn Coat. After the events in Changes, Thomas gives the keys for the Water Beetle to Harry Dresden for a place to crash.

In Backup: A Story of the Dresden Files, it was revealed that he was one of the Venatori. It is also revealed that Thomas can perform some basic magic, like a tracking spell. However, he is a poor spellcaster to the extent that it takes several moments to cast a tracking spell.

After his brother's death, he stopped taking care of himself and started drinking at a failed attempt to cope. Justine decided to drop her protection by sleeping with another woman, so that she could comfort him as many times as neccessary. The theory behind this is that feeding his Hunger by making love would make her immune again to other White Court vampires, while increasing is own well of supernatural power. His Hunger demon is also described in Backup: A Story of the Dresden Files as being stronger than any Raith's but Lara Raith 's once Lord Raith had been crippled by Margaret LeFay 's death curse. WIth the deaths of senior Lords in White Night, his ranking in raw power across the whole court has been increased.

Personality
He is initially is very flippant and seemingly arrogant, even swearing by "my towering ego" and acting in a rather flaky manner about poisoned punch. He is immensely charming and apparently immune to verbal barbs. However, he has more of a sense of humour than most vampires, similar to Harry's. Perhaps because of his highly dysfunctional family, he also likes Harry from the very moment he meets him and was there to help him from the start, already knowing that his mother had another son."

It's gradually revealed that Thomas is a deeper, more caring person than he wants to reveal. His flaky attitude turns out to have a purpose—all his vampire brothers have been murdered by their father, and he risks putting his lover Justine in danger if he shows more than passing affection for her. When Harry and Michael were about to throw him out, Thomas switched from being flippant to genuinely pleading.

One of Thomas' major traits is an overpowering loyalty to his family. With the exception of his father, he is willing to risk his life to save any one of them, and has done so for Harry on more than one occasion before they had any sort of a relationship. In the case of others, he can be rather brutally blunt, such as describing Butters as a coward and advising Harry that the nervous coroner would only endanger him.

He is exspecially close to Harry himself, often confessing things to him that he wouldn't tell others. Ever since the two have found themselves half-brothers they have become quickly close. Thomas often refers to Harry as 'little brother' or just 'brother'. He seems keen to keep a close connection to Harry and the feeling seems to be mutual due to a lack of proper family for both. Thomas often gives Harry advice on things, though mostly encouraging him to get over Susan and ask Murphy out. Though they both annoy each other, they both have a genuine affection for each other and seem to understand each other well.

Like all White Court vampires, Thomas is not harmed by items like, sunlight, garlic and etc. Unlike most of them, he experiences guilt over his incubic nature, and tries to minimize the damage he causes—perhaps the legacy of his late mother. Like his brother, he is a monogamist at heart, and tries to keep his seductiveness in check.

His dislikes include Red Court vampires, unnecessary clothing (i.e. shirts, shoes) when indoors, polka music, secrets (that he isn't in on), and his father. Thomas is also a massive slob: he lives almost exclusively on beer and microwave meals, and leaves the private rooms of his chic apartment an undecorated mess. Unlike many fictional vampires, he has a sense of humor about his nature, even showing up at a duel, apparently (it was a deception) drunk and wearing a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" T-shirt