Lloyd Slate

Lloyd Slate was a human male and the Winter Knight until the mantle was transferred to Harry Dresden. He first appears in Summer Knight.

Description
"I don’t believe in faeries!"

- Harry Dresden, charging into battle against Lloyd Slate and Aurora’s Sidhe.

Lloyd Slate was the Winter Knight until the events of Changes and he mostly did Maeve's bidding.

He had a snowflake brand on his neck. His hard-muscled arms were covered in needle marks, indicating his drug addiction. He wore black jeans, white T-shirt, leather jacket. His scalp was mostly bald but for some stubble, his face red on one side, half an eyebrow was missing—he'd been burned recently.

His weapon was a Japanese-style sword whose tang is not quite that of a genuine katana.

It is difficult to say how much of his personality is that of his Winter Knight's Mantle. The Mantle of Winter Knight will strongly intensify any predatory urges the wearer possesses. After accepting the mantle, Dresden told Sarissa not to be afraid of him, that he wasn't like Lloyd Slate; in response, Sarissa whispers that "Neither was he. Not at first."

Biography
Lloyd Slate was recruited to serve as the Winter Knight by Maeve, the Winter Lady. He has come to despise her because of her dominating, cruel attitude. He is a heroin addict, rapist, and murderer.

Summer Knight
In Summer Knight, Harry Dresden is in Maeve's hideout questioning the Winter Lady when Slate came in, knelt before her and handed her a box. Dresden asked him point blank if he killed Ronald Reuel, the Summer Knight. He said no, that he didn't think it possible he could kill him. Maeve flared into a rage when she realized the knife in the box is useless to her plans, threw it at him, then held him in a bind and tortures him with cold and wind. Enraged, Slate managed to take several steps towards her before Maeve ordered him calmed and Jenny Greenteeth shot him up with drugs. Dresden is certain that Maeve didn't kill Reuel—she was visibly drained and clearly pushing the edge battling her own Knight, let alone her enemy. But he's uncertain about Slate, he could have lied, he's a mortal.

After meeting with Mother Summer and Mother Winter, Dresden is attacked and knocked unconscious. When he wakes up, he is trapped inside a circle of toadstools and surrounded by the Summer Lady Aurora, Talos, Korrick, and Elaine Mallory, along with Slate. They question Dresden under magical compulsion to answer; it turns out that Slate had murdered Reuel with the help of Aurora, who then made vTaLily the new Summer Knight before petrifying her, intending to sacrifice her at the Stone Table to disrupt the balance between Winter and Summer. Slate helped her because of his hatred for Maeve; with the power of both the Summer Knight and Winter Knight, Slate would be powerful enough to finally take her on and kill her.

During the battle at the at the Stone Table to stop Lady Aurora from killing Lily, Lloyd Slate badly wounds Meryl with his sword. Fix is so angry by this, he fought him with the cold steel of a monkey wrench until Slate lay still. At the end of the battle, Slate is trapped in ice shackles and kneeling on the ground while Mab offered Dresden his position as Winter Knight, promising to erase all other obligations to her if he agreed, Dresden refused it, and Mab promised to hold the position open for him by torturing Slate until he agreed, terrifying the Winter Knight. Slate was carried away by Maeve, Mab, and Mother Winter, pleading for Dresden to take the Knighthood—"Don't let them keep me waiting". When they vanished his screams were still ringing in the air.

Dead Beat
In Dead Beat, Mab again asks Dresden to take up the Winter Knight's Mantle—she will cancel his debts and answer all of his questions freely. Dresden asks why she wants to get rid of the new Knight. Mab tells him that Slate has been kept alive and tortured for more than three years, and only Dresden can end it; she encourages him to consider taking the Knighthood as an act of mercy. Once again, Dresden refuses.

Proven Guilty
When Harry Dresden meets with Fix Lily and Maeve, they mention Slate and his reputation. Maeve comments that Slate often dragged Lily in front of the court "for performances", once making her dance in red heels; it is heavily implied that Slate often raped Lily, both publicly and privately. Fix tells Dresden that Slate is still alive after four years of torture. Dresden points out that Slate must have known what he was getting into when he betrayed Mab, and both Lily and Fix shudder as they tell Dresden that Slate could never have predicted what Mab had in store for him.

When Dresden and Charity Carpenter attack Arctis Tor to rescue Molly Carpenter, they find Slate suspended on an icy tree in a crucifixion state by thick sheets of ice. He is totally blind, and when he finds out that Dresden is there he pleads with Dresden to end his torture, to kill him, then falls unconscious again. Lea tells Dresden that he nears the brink of death due to starvation and frostbite, but Mab "tortures him with kindness" by healing his wounds, restoring his sight, feeding him, and allowing him to sleep in her bed (sex is also implied.) When he next woke up, he is once again hanging on the tree, blinded. Lea believes that when his mind is broken down enough to look forward to returning to the tree, thus restarting the cycle of Mab taking care of him, Mab will discard him, stating that "he only lives so long as he resists." Dresden leaves him there while they flee.

Small Favor
Mab informs Harry Dresden that Slate will only be allowed to die when he is replaced and she wants Dresden to replace him.

Changes
After Harry Dresden agrees to become the Winter Knight, Slate is brought to the Stone Table. His skin has been ripped apart, and the word "Traitor" has been carved all over his body, even in his teeth. He is crying softly, and seems unaware of his surroundings; Dresden realizes that he's no longer even capable of begging for death anymore. He is placed on the stone table, and Mab tells Dresden to kill him in order to take the empower of the Winter Knight's Mantle. Dresden is reluctant to simply murder a man, but with no other choice available he holds Slate's head down and cuts his throat. Slate gave a little sigh of relief and died.

Cold Days
It's mentioned that Slate iced the stairs underneath Ronald Reuel and pushed him down them.

When he meets Fix at the battle of Demonreach, Harry Dresden notes that for years he had suffered under Lloyd Slate, and been forced to watch Slate rape and torment Lily, longing desperately to have the power to take on the Winter Knight; now that he did, he would fight to the death to protect her.

Skin Game
When Dresden argues with Mab informing her he won't do as told, she firmly tells him to obey her or "there will be consequences." Dresden recalls Slate, remembering that after defying Mab, he had ended up begging for death, and that he actually was grateful when he could die.