“How very Hannibal Lecter of you,” I said as I tried to make sense of the request.

She didn’t look insulted, which somehow didn’t surprise me. “Here’s how it would work. You ask me a question. Then I ask you a question. If you answer my question, then I answer yours. If you don’t answer my question, then I don’t answer yours, but you can ask a different one.” She smiled broadly, her teeth looking suddenly very white and deadly against her ebony skin. “You see, I’m even giving you a choice as to which questions you’re obligated to answer.”

If it sounds too good to be true. . “What’s the catch?”

“There is no catch, save for the questions themselves.” Her eyes glinted with amusement. “I’m not going to ask what your favorite color is.”

I thought about it a long time, but I couldn’t see any concrete reason not to at least give it a try. I could answer or not answer as I saw fit, and while I felt sure she’d go for some pretty difficult questions if I asked something she didn’t want to tell me, at least I might be able to get a little bit of information out of her this way.

“Why do I have a feeling this is a bad idea?” I asked out loud as I once again sat in front of her desk. I kept the Taser out and ready, and I pushed my chair back enough to give me some reaction time if she decided to launch across the desk after me for some reason.

“Is that your first question?”

“Ha, ha.” It was surprisingly difficult to figure out what my first question should be. After all, I wasn’t really sure what I was fishing for. “What is your relationship with Tommy Brewster?” I asked, going for something vague and broad. Maybe she’d spill more than she meant to in answering that question. Hey, a girl can hope.

Shae gave me her shark smile. “What is your relationship with Adam White?”

That seemed like an almost innocuous question. I figured that meant I was going to get an answer as vague as my own question in return, but I might as well make an effort to play her game.

“Adam’s my friend,” I said, though I couldn’t speak those words without squirming. Adam was many things to me, but “friend” wasn’t one of them.

Shae arched a shapely brow. “I thought the point of this exchange of information was to get to the truth. If we’re going to deal in falsehoods, then I’ll say that Tommy Brewster is my long-lost cousin. Will that do either of us any good?”

I hate talking to people as sarcastic as I am, though of course she had a point. I squirmed a little more. This was not a question I could answer with any degree of specificity, not without bringing Lugh into the picture, which I wasn’t about to do. “All right,” I said, “I guess he’s not really a friend. It’s a little hard to stick a neat label on him. I guess I’d call him an ally.”

I had the sense Shae made more of that than I’d hoped, but it was too late to take it back. She nodded in satisfaction.

“Tommy Brewster is a business associate. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Ask a vague question, get a vague answer. Score one for Shae. “What kind of business arrangement do you have?”

“Why does an exorcist need a demon ally?”

Yeah, I could definitely see how things could go very, very wrong if I didn’t think carefully before I answered. I wasn’t entirely sure what Shae could do with any information I gave her, but I was entirely sure I didn’t want to find out.

I figured my best strategy was to give her stuff she already knew. “I’ve made a lot of enemies in my line of work, and most of them are demons. I need to have a demon on my side if I want to live to a ripe old age.”

It was the truth, though hardly the whole truth. Shae regarded me with an expression that bordered on contempt. “You get what you pay for. Are you sure you want to stick with that answer?”

I met her eyes, trying to project the image of a woman with nothing to hide. “I answered your question, and I told you the truth. What more do you want?”

Shae snorted. “Fine. My arrangement with Tommy is that he gives me money, and I keep my mouth shut.” When I glared at her, she said, “I answered your question, and I told you the truth. What more do you want?”

Yeah, I was definitely in over my head. I sure could use Brian’s lawyer skills right about now. If I had him here feeding me the answers, I bet I’d be able to answer all kinds of questions in great detail without giving away anything. I briefly considered giving up and asking Adam to interrogate Shae, but I knew without being told that that would never work. Shae cooperated with Adam at times because she had no choice, and Adam cooperated with Shae because he needed her help to catch certain illegal demons. That didn’t mean they would ever cooperate with one another when not forced, and there was no missing the deepseated animosity between the two.

“I suppose asking you to tell the whole truth would be overly optimistic of me, huh?” I said, stalling a bit to give myself more time to think.

“Do I need to remind you again that this is a trade? You give me the whole truth, I give you the whole truth. You give me the tip of the iceberg, and. .”

It made sense, but I wasn’t in a position to give her the whole truth. “Why do you want to know this stuff anyway?” I was still stalling. She probably knew that, but she didn’t call me on it. I didn’t expect her to answer, but she surprised me.

“I’ve managed to stay on the Mortal Plain for more than eighty years,” she said, which of course made me wonder how many hosts she’d gone through in that time. Certainly her current host wasn’t eighty years old. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that information is the most valuable currency anywhere in the world. And the funny thing is, you never know exactly what information is going to come in handy in the future. Obviously, I know you have enemies in high places. Knowing the full story behind it may turn out to be absolutely useless to me.” Her eyes glittered. “Or maybe it won’t.”

It was the latter possibility that made me hesitate. What did I dare tell her? How badly did I need to know whatever it was she could tell me? Lugh shot me a brief stab of pain through the eye, but it was hard to determine what he was trying to communicate. Maybe I’d been better off when I could hear his voice in my head, after all.

I concentrated as hard as I could on a question for Lugh. Should I take some chances in what I reveal in order to maybe learn more about Tommy? Give me one stab for yes, two for no.

I guess he heard my question. Not being a masochist, I was glad his answer was yes. Let me know if you think I’m about to say something I shouldn’t.

I took a deep breath and then forced myself to meet Shae’s eyes. “All right,” I said. “I’ll tell you the whole truth. But the information you have on Tommy had better be worth it.”

“Fair enough.” She leaned forward in her chair, and I’d swear the look on her face was almost lust. “So tell me, what is your relationship with Adam White?”

“Like I said, we’re allies. He’s one of Lugh’s lieutenants, and I would very much rather see Lugh on the throne than Dougal.”

Shae was better at masking her expression than I was, but she couldn’t entirely hide her surprise. I would have thought she’d known that I was somehow involved in the war of succession after Dougal’s minions had paid her to hold Brian hostage. I had to remind myself once more that she was a mercenary. A mercenary who could be persuaded not to ask “why” if the price was high enough.

“You look surprised,” I told her, hoping to press my advantage. “Do you expect me to believe you knew nothing about any of this?”

She recovered her composure much more quickly than I’d have liked. The smile was back, sharp and cold as ever. “That sounds almost like another question.”

I scowled at her. “Just tell me what your deal is with Tommy Brewster. It’s late, I’m tired, and I want to go home.”