In the Blood by Nancy A. Collins

Palmer fought the urge to grab the snot-nosed little skatepunk by his rat-tail. "What'd you mean by that?"
    Sonja waved Palmer silent. "I'll explain later. After I get through with business.
    Wait for me at the bar."
    "But-"
    "I said wait at the bar." Her voice was as hard and cold as steel, and as unyielding.
    She waited until Palmer left before sliding into the booth.
    "Quite a change from the last time, Mai." Six months ago Malfeis had worn the body of a young black male wreathed in coils of gold chain.
    The demon shrugged, smiling slyly. "I like to keep up to date. I've always been something of a fashion plate. So, what brings you back into my clutches, sweet thing?"
    "I think you know that already."
    "Do I?"
    "Don't play cute with me, Mai. I don't have the time or the patience right now. I need to know what Pangloss has up his sleeve." She pulled the letter Palmer had delivered to her out of her jacket, sliding it across the table.
    Mai tapped the folded paper with an overly long fingernail and grunted. "Easy

    Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( http://www.novapdf.com ) enough. What's in it for me?"
    Sonja produced a black ceramic vessel the size of an unguent jar from her pocket and held it up so the demon could get a good look.
    "Got it in from Katmandu just last week. The powdered skull of a man who killed six Tibetan holy men, then murdered and raped three missionaries. It's good shit, man, as pure as you'll find it."
    Mai's catlike eyes filled with a strange fire. His fingers drummed nervously against the tabletop. "Gimme a taste."
    Sonja carefully unscrewed the lid and dispensed a pinch of a fine, chalky yellow powder into Mai's outstretched palm. The demon daubed a forefinger in the pulverized skull and popped it his mouth.
    "So? What's the verdict?"
    Mai nodded, appreciatively. "Yow! Mama, buy me some of that!"
    "Deal?"
    "Done."
    Sonja pushed the jar over to Malfeis's side of the table. The demon brought out a gold-plated razor blade and a flat piece of volcanic glass, quickly arranging himself a generous line of powdered skull. Oblivious to his surroundings, Malfeis lowered his head to the table and inhaled the line with both nostrils, snuffling like a bloodhound. He jerked his head up when he was finished, blowing out his cheeks and shaking himself like a winded stallion. His eyes were too big and the pupils slitted unnaturally, but otherwise he still looked human.
    "Cold-blooded! True righteous shit!" He grinned, showing a mouthful of shark teeth.
    "Glad it meets your approval. Now, about Pangloss..."
    "No problem!" Mai picked up the letter and tapped one edge between his eyebrows.
    His eyes rolled up in their sockets, exposing green-tinged whites. A strange, basso profundo gargle rumbled from deep inside his narrow, hairless chest, but no one in the bar seemed to notice. After a second or two Mai reconnected, his eyes dropping back down like the symbols on a slot machine.
    "There's not much available information concerning Pangloss, outside of his recent attempts to make contact with you. That much seems up front. There does seem to be a bit of a buzz concerning Morgan, though."
    "Really? Were you able to find out what?"
    "Sorry, that requires First Hierarchy clearance. I don't have the necessary power to access that information for you, at least not in detail. I can tell that whatever it is Morgan is doing, it's generating a great deal of speculation among the First and Second Hierarchies. Whether that means they approve of what he's doing is impossible to say."
    "Don't you have some connections? I thought your uncle was a Second Hierarch."

"Uncle Oeillet? Yeah, but he's not exactly what you'd call a big wheel. I mean, he's in charge of tempting people to break their vows of poverty, for crying out loud! His star's been on the decline since the Reformation. In fact, most of the Second Hierarchs are pretty redundant, since they were originally conscripted to tempt holy men