Lara Raith

Lara Raith, also known as Lara Romany, is a vampire of the White Court, and member of House Raith. She first appears in Blood Rites.

Description
Lara Raith is the eldest of the living Raith children and is secretly in charge of House Raith.

Family
Lara Raith is the daughter of Lord Raith. She is an older sister to Thomas and Inari Raith. Two further sisters are Elisa and Natalia Raith. They live on the Raith Estate. Her cousins are: Madrigal and Madeline Raith.

She was briefly married to a man named Romany. She later used the name Lara Romany in public.

Details

 * As the result of picking up a wedding ring, she has a crescent shaped scar. (ref?)
 * Thomas Raith says that his sister is very resourceful, quite gifted with removing obstacles.

Character
Lara is described as being incredibly sensual and yet extremely lethal. Her strong personality and will allow her to gain power among the White Court. Lara is very ambitious and seeks to further her position.

Lara is perhaps the most dangerous of the White Court, a master manipulator, conspirator and seductress. Above all else her word is always honest;  being given safe passage by Lara always ensures she will go to extreme lengths to preserve her word. Since secretly taking over from her father she has ended all threats to his position of power, removing the leaders of the other two houses. Lara has a different administration style from her father. She would pick skilled subordiates and listen to them. Security at the Raith Estate has greatly improved. Harry suspects that she could make a more powerful and skilled enemy than her father.

Appearance
Harry describes her as: hair was dark, curling and glossy, so dark it almost looked blue in the highlights. Her skin was creamy. Her dark pink lips a bit large for her narrow face but not detracting. Her eyes were the real "killers", large, oblique, grey with flecks of periwinkle blue. Her eyes were alive, alert, aware of others, intelligent and held humor. There was also smoldering demonic fires and predatory hunger.

Blood Rites
In Blood Rites, Lara enslaved her father, keeping him as a puppet, thus making her the true but secret leader of House Raith. She has hence become the power behind the throne and is essentially in control of the White Court.

White Night
In White Night, Lara pushes a peace effort between the Red Court and White Council for unknown reasons, but due to the White Court's nature to be backstabbing schemers and traitors, this is unlikely to be for the benefit of either the Council or the Red Court.

There's a coup in the works by the other White Court houses: House Malvora and House Skavis. Lara does a lot of manipulating in indirect ways to get Harry's help including getting Thomas to promise not to speak to Harry. She teams with Harry to help take down the traitors after Harry and Carlos Ramirez duel with Madrigal Raith and Vittorio Malvora at a White Court meeting held in the Deeps. There, she also shows the capabilities she has in a fight where she and Thomas single handedly stop cold a group of charging uber-ghouls. After the battle of the Deeps, Harry suggests that it was Lara who planned the whole thing, the hunt for magic folk with the Skavis and manipulate Lady Cesarina Malvora in order to manipulate the other two houses to make their move agains House Raith in a way that she could control. In exchange for silence, Harry gets Lara to: provide a weregild for the families of those lost practitioners, a promise to never target magic-users again and the release of the captive Wee Folk in Harry's name.

Turn Coat
In Turn Coat, Harry and Anastasia Luccio go to the Raith Estate to investigate White Court mental tampering of their lawyer Evelyn Derek. While there, the Naagloshii attacks, kills and injures many, including Justine and Luccio and Lara's two sisters: Elisa and Natalia. Shagnasty has Thomas and wants to trade Morgan or he'll torture and kill everyone Harry and Lara care about. Harry tells Lara that Madeline Raith, is the one who tampered with Derek's mind and behind the hit on Harry by Binder and also the skinwalker's attack—she a puppet. They agree to work together to trace the stings back to the source, take down Shagnasty and get back Thomas. Harry calls Lara and they trade information: the money deposited in Morgan's account came from Lara's dummy corp by Kevin Aramis sans Lara's knowledge. If The Council found that, there may be war. They're bein played against each other. Harry tells what he knows about Madeline, probably killed Aramis. And she hired Binder.

Changes
In Changes, Thomas Raith suggests enlisting Lara's aid in finding Maggie since she's quite. Harry resists letting her in too close. Thomas says she'll want to protect him now that he's highly regarded in the White Court after the Battle of the Deeps. Later, she arranges fo rthe US Navy to airlift Thomas, Molly Carpenter and Mouse out of Chichén Itzá and to safety aboard a naval ship.

Cold Days
In Cold Days, Thomas updated Harry: Lara and Marcone are uneasy allies against the Fomor though they'd prefer to kill each other. The two of them are part of the Brighter Future Society, also called the Chicago Alliance, along with Karrin Murphy. Marcone is the only other man besides Harry who turned down going to bed with her. She's annoyed. Lara has also helped fight back the Fomor in other cities with the help of the Paranet who's members can use computers. She dispatches a ready team when she hears about trouble somewhere—and simultaneously learns about the magical talent in other cities. She is also getting more involved in bigger government, she's wants more control. Harry hexes her spying bugs in Thomas's apartment.

Relationship with Harry Dresden
After the events of Blood Rites, Harry and Lara are currently locked in a stalemate as Harry knows the White King has become a mere figurehead and Lara knows Thomas is Harry's half-brother. Despite the growing hostility between them, there appears to be a great deal of respect as well, in particular from Lara for Dresden's own skills at manipulation and deduction. Besides, Harry helped her gain more power within the court.

Recruiting Attempts: In White Night, Lara offers Harry a chance to work for her, and Harry once again turns her down. She repeats the offer for Harry to join her in Turn Coat and when faced with death from the Council Harry seems to actually consider it.

To escape the explosion of Deeps, Harry powers his shield by kissing Lara. After they are out, Lara's lips are burned. She expresses shagrin that he's still protected by love, that it's been four years—she has files on it— and he's not been involved with any woman since.

In Turn Coat, Lara told Harry that the way to control someone is by giving them what they want. Lara offer Harry: curcease and peace. "I can take away the pains of the mind and the body and the heart. I can give you something no one else can—freedom from you but burdens of responsibility and conscience. Sweet Dresden. I could give you peace. Imagine closing your eyes with no worries, no pain, no fears, no regrets, no appetites, and no guilt. Only quiet darkness and stillness and my flesh against yours. I can give you that. You wear your pain like a suit of armor. But one day it will be too heavy to bear. And you will remember this moment. And you will know who can give you what you need."



Other details
Lara loans Harry a Rolls Royce Silver Raith, circa WWII (vintage is Harry's guess). She tells him to bring it back with a full tank.

Lara is called "Lady with the Cold Eyes" by Toot-toot (in Turn Coat). He and all the Wee Folk of Chicago feel beholden to Harry Dresden for freeing many of them or their kin from her captivity. In Small Favor Toot-toot uses the phrase: "Pale Hunters".

Quotes
"I am glad to see you survived, wizard. You who destroyed my father and secured my own power, you who have now destroyed my enemies. You are the most marvelous weapon I have ever wielded. I love peace, wizard. I love talking. Laughing. Relaxing. I will kill your folk with peace, wizard. I will strangle them with it. And they will thank me while I do." — Harry: "Not while I'm around."

"We labored centuries to cultivate this herd. I will not abide a horde of toady, has-been poachers." Lara concerning her reasons for fighting the Fomor, the "herd" is people.