“I already asked that one,” I said smugly. “And the answer is no. Our immortal bodies are still essentially the same. We’re just cut off from all the perks.” I hoped he didn’t ask about decapitation because I honestly wasn’t in the mood to debate that.

“Okay, so what do you want from me?” he asked.

“What makes you think I want anything?”

He looked at me.

“Okay, maybe I do want something. But come on, who else would know more about this stuff than you?”

“Who knows more about demons? Hmm, let me think. I know. How about the demons you work for, the ones who are all-powerful and have been around since the beginning of time?”

“They’re not all-powerful. Otherwise they wouldn’t need a human for the summoning—or end up getting summoned in the first place. And that’s what I need you for. There can’t be that many humans in the area capable of doing this, are there? You have to know who they are.”

Dante opened his mouth, no doubt with a snappy reply ready, and then abruptly closed it. “I don’t know,” he said slowly. “I don’t keep track of those things.”

I leaned toward him, incredulous. “Of course you do! Do you not want to tell me? Why?”

He sighed, his hesitant expression turning typically annoyed. “Because those kinds of people get pissed off if you start advertising their names.”

“What, you’re afraid they’re going to come beat you up?”

“No. Not exactly. But there’s sort of . . . a professional courtesy in these circles.”

“I’ll be discreet. I won’t tell them where I got the information.”

“Most of them already know we’re together. They’d figure it out. They keep an eye on those kinds of things.” He turned considering. “Of course, in that same vein, a lot of them know you as a succubus and might just think you knew through your own connections.”

He still seemed hesitant, so I played a mean card. “Well, I can always go ask Erik if you’re too nervous about it.”

Erik was another mortal in town who dealt with the occult and paranormal. Unlike Dante, who was a practitioner, Erik simply studied and built up knowledge of the magical undercurrents in the city. He had a psychic’s gifts and was attuned to what most human eyes didn’t see. Sometimes he could even see what immortals couldn’t. He and Dante had an old, old grudge and didn’t enjoy being around each other, to put it mildly.

My attempt to bait Dante didn’t work, though. “Don’t even try it, succubus. Making me jealous of the old man won’t make me help you.”

I looked up at him pleadingly. “What will make you help me?”