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rooms anymore, neither. We’re gonna lose business like this.”
    “Demon business, but not the humans,” Elise said. “And it will keep the police out of your hair.”
    “Cops are easy to pay off.” Neuma sighed. “I kind of wish the Night Hag would come out of hibernation. Then we’d have someone to deal with public crap. You know?”
    Elise grimaced to think of it. Demonic overlords were seldom thrilled to find kopides hiding in their territories—even retired ones. “Since you’re the manager now, I need news. Anything you can tell me.”
    “There ain’t much to say,” Neuma said. She started changing into her costume for the night. “Like I said, I’ve heard tell the big boss is stirring, but you know, people say she’s going to wake up every six months or so.”
    “Where did you hear it this time?”
    “David Nicholas. I think he’s just stirring shit up so nobody will kill him and take the casino, but…” Neuma dropped the bathrobe. “You know how he is. He’s not even keeping hours down here anymore. He’s got an office on the ninth floor like he thinks he’s some fucking big shot.”
    “Is that all?”
    “There have been some bodies going missing around town, too,” Neuma said, grabbing a pile of leather straps off the counter. “Not just grave robberies. It’s the hospital too, and it ain’t some ambitious thief. When we gossip about it this much, you know one of us has gotta be involved.” She donned her costume piece by piece, buckling the shorts on the side and holding one of the straps over her breasts. “Mind hooking me up?”
    Elise pulled the strap tight and slipped it through the buckle, but her fingers wouldn’t work the way she expected. The proximity to Neuma’s skin was distracting. “Why would a demon stock up on bodies?”
    “Food? Hell if I know.”
    Grave robbing didn’t sound like a wholesome activity, but Elise doubted it had anything to do with Lucinde’s problem. “Have you heard about anything big, bad, and incorporeal in the area? I’m looking for something that might be possessing people.”
    “Don’t think so, babe. If there was something that nasty around, we’d already know.”
    “Yeah. You’re probably right. Look, I’m going to go, but thanks for the shot. I’ll try David Nicholas again tomorrow night.”
    Neuma pouted, sticking out her lower lip. It was ruby-black as though she had painted her skin with fresh blood. “I’d love to see you on the bar with me tonight. We could have a lot of fun.”
    Elise couldn’t seem to tear her gaze from those lips. “No,” she said unconvincingly, “I don’t think we could.”
    The door to the dressing room swung open. A man with an angular chin and a too-large nose stuck his head in. “Why aren’t you on the bar, bitch?” His gaze turned to Elise. It felt as though a wet rat slithered up the vertebra of her spine. “Oh. You again.”
    “David Nicholas,” she greeted.
    The club’s manager was a full-blooded nightmare—hundreds of years old, but ages past his heyday. David Nicholas made people dream of rotting alive. He had been extremely powerful in the Middle Ages, when everyone feared leprosy, but now his specialty was being obnoxious.
    “What do you want?”
    “I’ll give you three guesses,” Elise said. “Let’s have a talk in your office.”
    His lip curled. Smoke trailed from his thin lips to the caverns of his nostrils. David Nicholas stabbed a finger at Neuma. “Bar. Now.”
    She gave him an ironic salute, and Elise followed him out of the room. When she shut the door to the dressing room, Neuma’s draw lost strength, and every step away made it easier to keep walking.
    David Nicholas led her up the stairs behind the changing room, taking long drags on his cigarette. Elise could almost see the smoke billowing down his esophagus.
    They emerged on the ground floor of Craven’s. The lights were dim and the slot machines glowed like oases in the desert. A cocktail waitress